Professor John Robertson OBA In a classic primary school method (failed), the Herald writer gets the Scottish Water figures for sewage spill clear-ups, spots the falling trend, shrieks, then just ignores that and adds them all up to get a big number and still pretend it’s bad news. The costs were: 2021 – £397 745 2022 – £539 717 2023 – £344 303 2024 – £136 268 Couldn’t be clearer, a sharply falling trend, down to less than a third in the last two years – rejoice? No? I wonder, what have the costs in England been? Later. Continue reading Cost of sewage spill clear-ups plummets for second year in a row but the Herald ignores it’s own figures to get a big headline number

Professor John Robertson OBA From Closing Statement of behalf of Public Health Scotland (PHS) in the UK COVID-19 Inquiry relative to the Module 4 hearing, published today: PHS would highlight two parts of the evidence in this regard. Firstly, the inquiry heard that data from the Traveller Movement was not included in the NHS [England] “data dictionary”. The point made was that inadequate data capture led to services not being commissioned for this group, which did not form part of local planning. Yvonne McNamara, Chief Executive Officer of the Traveller Movement spoke about this as did the experts, Dr Ben … Continue reading Traveller movement was included in Covid data systems for vaccination but only in Scotland

..to tackle the exploitation of vulnerable people by drug dealers. Officers went to more than 40 addresses where dealers were believed to have taken over vulnerable people’s homes. Police say they’ve helped more than 100 people and seized hundreds of cannabis plants worth more than a quarters of a million Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland’s insert in BBC Breakfast this morning had the above short report on what is widely known as ‘cuckooing‘. There’s no mention of there these gangs come from but the words of Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston in the Daily Mail are suggestive of the … Continue reading 100 vulnerable Scots exploited by violent drug gangs from somewhere but that’s not in the public interest

Professor John Robertson OBA Summers does not, of course, answer her own question truthfully. She dare not. Here’s why: Continue reading Lisa Summers asks ‘How does Starmer’s NHS plan compare to Scotland?’ before completely ignoring the facts

The Inverness Courier yesterday, above. BBC Scotland’s people in Inverness, above, have no time for the story. Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Dorothy, once more, for alerting me to this. From the Inverness Courier: A 26-year-old Liverpool man who supplied heroin and cocaine across England and Scotland, including Inverness, Aviemore and Nairn, will be sentenced next week. Jack Horgan, of Boundary Farm Road, who is currently serving a jail sentence, appeared by video link at Inverness Sheriff Court represented by his solicitor David Patterson, who confirmed his client would be admitting two offences of being concerned in the supply of the … Continue reading BBC in Inverness trying to hide the murderous plague of Liverpool drug gangs in Inverness from the folk in Inverness for what purpose we wonder?

Professor John Robertson OBA In the often Anglocentric Policing Insight, two days ago, the above and: More needs to be done to bolster the use by frontline officers of potentially life-saving overdose reversal medication naloxone, with calls for a “top-down, bottom-up” approach of greater proactive support from representative bodies, and the implementation of ‘naloxone champions’ and lived experience helping to overcome fears around its use and ultimately build trust between police and communities. https://policinginsight.com/feature/wider-police-use-of-naloxone-could-save-lives-and-build-stronger-trust-with-drug-users-says-report/ From a Scottish perspective, this is not only shocking but, regrettably too familiar. From the Scottish Government in 2023: Police Scotland recently completed a force-wide rollout … Continue reading Three years later and the Home Office is still working on the adoption of the opioid overdose reversal medication by police officers in England that has been saving lives and reducing hospital admissions in Scotland since the SNP’s world-first initiative in 2018

Professor John Robertson OBA From Open Democracy on 25 June 2025, the above, and: An exclusive investigation by Open Democracy has found that 377,000 children in England and Wales have been identified by local authorities as being at risk of domestic abuse in the past five years. Perhaps even more shockingly, 396 of these children have died in the same period. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/child-victims-domestic-abuse-national-crisis-family-courts-england-wales/ From March 2025: The Scottish Government has today (26 March 2025) published the latest official annual Children’s Social Work Statistics for Scotland regarding child protection. This uses data collected from all 32 local authorities in Scotland on child … Continue reading Shock as 4 times as many children in England & Wales face domestic abuse compared to Scotland