By cuckooshoe At PMQT yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer answered several questions about the Scottish government from Labour MPs from Scotland. In one response he made a reference to 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation in Scotland. It is telling that not one single Labour/Tory/Lib-Dem/Reform MP raised this homeless statistic for England. It was published at the end of April 2025. https://cih.org/news/cih-responds-to-englands-latest-homelessness-statistics-april-2025/ “As of New Year’s Eve, 2024, the statistics show that 127,890 households, including 165,510 children, were living in temporary accommodation (TA), unsure of when they would have a safe, secure, and permanent home. This represents a 13.6 per cent … Continue reading Scottish Labour MP inadvertently reveals that 65% more children are in temporary accommodation in England than in Scotland

Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald’s report, above, three days ago, on the Europe’s Best Cities survey, notably forgets to tell us that Edinburgh and Glasgow feature above all other comparably sized, ‘smaller’ cities in the UK, other than the monstrous, incomparable London. ‘Best Cities’ is an almost pointless notion given the complexity of the characteristics that might make a city ‘Best’. In this resonance/Ipsos survey, the first 17 are mostly very large capital cities with the horribly fragmented, ugly and polluted London, in first place. Interestingly, crime rates are not used. Edinburgh comes in at 18th, above any other … Continue reading Edinburgh and Glasgow rated as best small cities in UK

Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to AR for alerting me to this. In Summer 2024, GCSE students in the United Kingdom (sic) had a pass rate (achieving a grade of C/4 or higher) of 67.6 percent.1 GCSE is, of course, only undertaken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by pupils around 16 years of age. In Scotland: Scottish National 5 certificates grade A to C are equivalent to GCSEs grade grade 4 to 9 . 2 How did Scottish pupils do in this assessment also typically taken by pupils at the end of 4th Year, at around 16 years of age? … Continue reading Attainment by 16 year-olds – Scotland’s schools performing far better than those in other parts of UK and an extra 30 000 pupils benefit each year

Professor John Robertson OBA From Hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland, 2023-24, published today, we can see that hate crimes in Scotland, in 2023/2024, were at the lowest level since 2014/2015, down from 7 029 to 6 227.1 The equivalent figure for England and Wales was 140 561.2 With 11 times the population, England & Wales might have been expected to have around 70 000 but in fact had twice as many. What might explain this? See the claim in the National above. Any objections? Well, the Scotsman 5 days ago: ‘Scottish exceptionalism’? Why Scotland really does have … Continue reading Latest – Hate crime in Scotland falls and is TWICE as common in England and Wales

Professor John Robertson OBA In the midst of clear dissatisfaction with the UK Labour Government’s new austerity policies, collapsing support for Labour and Cons, the pollster Survation manage to somehow still pluck a predicted majority for No in a referendum on Scottish independence. How do they do it when Find Out Now and Norstat keep finding Yes majorities, sometimes large ones? They adjust their survey sample: So, they initially gather responses randomly, which have 426 favouring Yes to 321 favouring No then reduce the former to 334 and increase the latter to 413, creating a sample which looks like, has … Continue reading Survation repeat their regular sample ‘adjustment’ to pluck another No vote to influence rather than inform