Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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As Tory Lord Ashcroft’s Holyrood mag platforms Anas Sarwar to lie about children’s mental health treatment, nearly 30% better performing in Scotland, the facts

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Holyrood mag owned now by Tory Lord Ashcroft, yesterday: Scottish Labour leader @AnasSarwar says the SNP are “fiddling” the CAMHS figures, with some health boards “counting an initial assessment as treatment” and removing children with autism and ADHD. I can’t comment on the latter part of the claim but, from From Public Health Scotland on 4th March 2025, the above graph and: 90.6% of children and young people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 89.1% for the previous quarter and from 83.8% for the same quarter ending December 2023. The Scottish … Continue reading As Tory Lord Ashcroft’s Holyrood mag platforms Anas Sarwar to lie about children’s mental health treatment, nearly 30% better performing in Scotland, the facts

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Dodgy British ‘think tank’ with links to British Labour, British Tories, Russia, and support the Nuclear Energy industry fabricates dodgy Scottish poll

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By JB Dodgy British ‘think tank’ with links to British Labour, British Tories, Russia, and support the Nuclear Energy industry fabricates dodgy Scottish poll. Who are they? Britain Remade, the name itself says it all.  Their plan is to ‘get Britain building again’. They want to ‘make Britain energy secure by 2030’ They back ‘Great British Nuclear’ From their ‘plan’ ‘Britain’s nuclear delivery body Great British Nuclear must be given full backing to buy sites and de-risk development for new fleets of SMRs. Government can play a crucial active role in shaping the market for nuclear energy. Targeted earlystage investment, … Continue reading Dodgy British ‘think tank’ with links to British Labour, British Tories, Russia, and support the Nuclear Energy industry fabricates dodgy Scottish poll

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Boris Johnson’s former aide owns a company with no previous polling experience to claim SNP supporters support nuclear energy and a Yorkshire-based ‘Scotsman’ reports it for you – I’d really like to see the full report – I smell something

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Ed: I’d really like to see their data and methods but can’t see them anywhere. If you can find anything let me know. By Liz S The Scotsman published a story yesterday that stated “Majority of SNP’s voters believe nuclear power should be part of Scotland’s mix of clean energy generation” this has now been declared nowt more than a PR stunt . The Scotsman , which as a newspaper has kept it’s quaint name, I say quaint as a name , as clearly it supports anyone but a person of Scottish origin, and surely in it still retaining the name “The … Continue reading Boris Johnson’s former aide owns a company with no previous polling experience to claim SNP supporters support nuclear energy and a Yorkshire-based ‘Scotsman’ reports it for you – I’d really like to see the full report – I smell something

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Yes support and SNP lead in latest poll may be larger as dated 2014 weighting of the sample is still being used

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Professor John Robertson OBA A quick response to the latest Survation poll today giving the SNP a healthy 14% lead over Labour but still a No lead at 46% to 44% at a time when other polls have shown Yes leads, often big ones: https://diffleypartnership.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/April-2025-Voter-Intention-Poll-Diffley-Partnership-FOR-WEB-2.xlsb Why might the SNP lead be greater and the No lead false? This: The sample used in this 2025 poll has been adjusted to mirror the 2014 referendum result with Yes voters cut from 426 to 334 and No voters increased from 321 to 413. I’m no expert on polling so I may not fully … Continue reading Yes support and SNP lead in latest poll may be larger as dated 2014 weighting of the sample is still being used

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There is no evidence that ‘mothers and babies came to harm in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’ but Reporting Scotland want you to think so despite NHS Scotland’s lower maternity death rate and better staffing

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland this morning claimed that mothers and babies came to harm in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary due to a toxic culture there, as they reported on an independent review. The review as reported by BBC Scotland on their website today, does not mention that claim at all: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj3x6vy3lkeo The claim comes from a December 2024 internal review by Lothian Health board which BBC Scotland reported as only having this evidence: But staff say they fear the risks to patients remain. “We are afraid we can’t provide safe patient care and that women and babies are being … Continue reading There is no evidence that ‘mothers and babies came to harm in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’ but Reporting Scotland want you to think so despite NHS Scotland’s lower maternity death rate and better staffing

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Grangemouth oil refinery – to have “failed” to make a profit at a time of such high oil prices is unimaginable

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By George Caldow In what little coverage (I have given up on expecting proper analysis in Scottish or UK MSM) I have seen or read, it has been about points scoring by Politicians. The truth is not so easily constrained within a soundbite. Ineos’s management is poor. To have “failed” to make a profit at a time of such high oil prices is unimaginable however they state they have. We have had statements of intent regarding introducing new technologies yet they have failed to complete many of the projects announced to much fanfare. They received money from the Scottish Government … Continue reading Grangemouth oil refinery – to have “failed” to make a profit at a time of such high oil prices is unimaginable

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As Sellafield staff proudly empty unknown radioactive material from places ‘designed never to be emptied’ Scots wonder where on earth they are going to put it now

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Frances McKie for alerting me to this. In a remarkable piece in the Cumberland News & Star, tow days ago we read: The Electrolux vacuum cleaner was found in Sellafield’s Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, which has been a locked vault since the 1970s. The household hoover is thought to have been used to clean up radioactive dust in the facility during the 1950s and 1960s. After decades of work to figure out how to take waste from a building designed never to be emptied, retrieval teams at Sellafield are now doing exactly that. So … Continue reading As Sellafield staff proudly empty unknown radioactive material from places ‘designed never to be emptied’ Scots wonder where on earth they are going to put it now

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Anas Sarwar’s shameless opportunism exposed at STUC Conference

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By Liz S  A delegate at the STUC Conference tells Anas Sarwar and Labour a few home truths on Grangemouth. The Morning Star also noted this in their headline: “Scottish Labour leader’s ‘shameless opportunism’ slammed” The delegate stated this: “As I stand here, workers at Grangemouth — my friends and my colleagues — will walk out for the last time as over a century of oil refining comes to an end,” ‘”It’s a private business, there’s nothing we can do, it’s a commercial decision’ — that’s what they’ve been telling us, and yet everything we called for has happened, just not at Grangemouth” (He, … Continue reading Anas Sarwar’s shameless opportunism exposed at STUC Conference

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Optimism as alcohol deaths level-off for third year in a row after minimum unit pricing enters fourth year but media try to scare us with out-of-date figures before a fall anticipated this year

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Professor John Robertson OBA Specially plucked out by the Reporting Scotland team and other MSM, not on their website, the above carefully selected statistic – an increase of jut ONE and not the trend they hope to imply. Looking at the other media reports we see they’re based on the 2023 data reported by the National Records of Scotland published in September 2024.1 We won’t have the 2024 data until September 2025. Here’s the trend: There were 1,277 alcohol-specific deaths registered in Scotland in 2023, an increase of one death from 2022. This is the highest number of alcohol-specific deaths … Continue reading Optimism as alcohol deaths level-off for third year in a row after minimum unit pricing enters fourth year but media try to scare us with out-of-date figures before a fall anticipated this year

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Labour’s pledge to hire 6,500 extra teachers in England will be a ‘challenge’ will only add 1.4% to the total and still not affect their nearly 40%, per head, higher teaching load than in Scotland

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above and: A key government pledge to appoint 6,500 extra teachers in England by the end of this parliament will be difficult to achieve and is likely to fall short of demand, the UK’s public spending watchdog has warned. The education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s promise to recruit thousands of extra teachers in state schools, which has been funded by adding VAT to private school fees, forms one of the cornerstones of the government’s education policy. However, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO), published on Wednesday, warned that a projected increase in … Continue reading Labour’s pledge to hire 6,500 extra teachers in England will be a ‘challenge’ will only add 1.4% to the total and still not affect their nearly 40%, per head, higher teaching load than in Scotland