Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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Scottish cereal harvest achieves a ten-year high! Enough to feed 7.5 million before we get to the salmon and whisky to wash it down

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Professor John Robertson OBA From Cereal and oilseed rape harvest: final estimates – 2025 published yesterday: The Scottish cereal harvest achieves a ten-year high in 2025. Total production from the 2025 cereal harvest is around 3.14 million tonnes. A great result for overall production tonnage and a 5% increase compared to 2024. Favourable weather conditions in autumn 2024 supported winter crops. Results from the June Agricultural Census show that the total area used to grow winter crops increased 3.6% compared with the five-year average (2020 to 2024). Spring crops experienced more challenging conditions during the sunniest spring and hottest summer on record. … Continue reading Scottish cereal harvest achieves a ten-year high! Enough to feed 7.5 million before we get to the salmon and whisky to wash it down

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The Scotsman’s ‘top academic’ wheeled in to savage Scottish schools again is mere ‘bean counter’ with no experience of teaching in schools, teacher ‘training’, leadership or research into anything other than assessment data

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Professor John Robertson OBA, retired Research Professor, Faculty Research Ethics Chair, Associate Dean for Quality Assurance in Education, Head of Department of Curriculum Studies (30 staff), Senior Lecturer in Educational Technology, Lecturer in Education, School Teacher (Primary), PhD, Master of Education Professor Lindsay Paterson is in the Scotsman again, as he often is, to cast doubt on the competence of Scottish teachers to assess their own pupils continuously as opposed to his preferred snapshot exam method. Once more he returns to the Pisa scores he loves to use to mark us down. He is, to my knowledge, the only serious … Continue reading The Scotsman’s ‘top academic’ wheeled in to savage Scottish schools again is mere ‘bean counter’ with no experience of teaching in schools, teacher ‘training’, leadership or research into anything other than assessment data

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Massive reduction in the prosecution of those soliciting prostitution since 2008/2009

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Professor John Robertson OBA From Statistical data on arrests and convictions: FOI release published yesterday: Under the Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland) Act 2007 Section 1, in 2008/2009 there were 90 prosecutions of those soliciting prostitution in Scotland and in the last three years of reporting, there have only been 7, 8 and 8. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202500485945/ This legislation reflects Scotland’s approach to managing prostitution, focusing on the actions of those seeking services rather than criminalizing the individuals providing them. It is clearly working. In England & Wales criminalising the prostitutes, often the victims of violence and addiction, rather than soliciting, remains the practice. Continue reading Massive reduction in the prosecution of those soliciting prostitution since 2008/2009

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Scotland has more graduates, more patents and more business investment than other parts of the UK

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Professor John Robertson OBA From Business investment rises to 20-year high in Scotland published yesterday: A new report has shown that business investment in Scotland has risen to a 20-year high – in contrast to a fall across the UK. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes today helped to launch the annual CBI–Addleshaw Goddard Scottish Productivity Index, showing a rise in business investment to more than 10% of GDP for the first time in 20 years. The Index confirms Scotland leads the UK in higher-level qualifications with 53.7% of the working-age population educated to this level. It also highlights key progress … Continue reading Scotland has more graduates, more patents and more business investment than other parts of the UK

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Badenoch forgets that hospital mask-wearing saves lives

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Professor John Robertson OBA I’m sure BBC Scotland would have only one reaction to the above attack on face mask wearing in hospitals. They’d find a way with their newspaper pals to suggest Nicola Sturgeon had overdone similar requests back in 2022. She was, of course, correct. In October 2021, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine had been monitoring behaviour changes in terms of facemask wearing and social mixing. Notably, for the week-ending 29 September 2021, with rates falling slightly or flat across the UK, they noted in their data: Self-reported facemask wearing for those who have at … Continue reading Badenoch forgets that hospital mask-wearing saves lives

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Is Malcolm Offord now Reform UK’s spokesperson in Scotland?

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By Liz S “Storm Brann” you say. Well tomorrow there may be another kind of storm……one created by one of our many many UK nemeses , BBC QT and UK politicians (as in all of those ones whom we see as being sympathetic to and supportive of English Nationalism while opposing Scottish Independence and the SNP). Tomorrow BBC QT is in Paisley……..the last show before Xmas………of course it is. To no doubt try to leave a bad taste in the mouths of the SNP as a party and also those of us who support them and vote for them. (and also all within Scotland who support and so want Scottish independence). How … Continue reading Is Malcolm Offord now Reform UK’s spokesperson in Scotland?

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Daily Record manages to miss easily accessed figures proving that the SNP has closed the attainment gap in Scottish schools, increased attainment of the most disadvantaged and widened it with England

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Somebody post this here – https://www.reddit.com/r/Scotland/ – I’m banned Professor John Robertson OBA In the Record today, the above and: Even with Covid in mind, Record View says closing the poverty-related attainment gap in schools is yet another key SNP promise the party has failed to deliver. They have just not bothered or deliberately avoided the evidence easily accessed in the public domain From the Scottish Government’s Literacy and numeracy standards reach record high report in December 2024: The proportion of pupils achieving the expected level in literacy and numeracy across primary and secondary schools has reached a new high, officials figures … Continue reading Daily Record manages to miss easily accessed figures proving that the SNP has closed the attainment gap in Scottish schools, increased attainment of the most disadvantaged and widened it with England

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Storm Brann fails to breach even one of Scotland’s flood defences after 18 years of SNP Government but 8 500 fail in England

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Professor John Robertson OBA Yesterday, Sepa forecast widespread and intensive flood risk across the most populous parts of Scotland. Today BBC England had Thousands of flood defences meant to protect multiple homes or businesses in England were below the required condition when winter began, a new analysis has found. The 6,498 “high consequence” defences were among about 8,500 that were not fully working as intended due to erosion, damage or being overgrown. BBC Scotland and all of Scotland’s newspapers have nothing at all on flooding. In 2022, BBC Scotland reporters were all over the North-east interviewing the flooded and letting … Continue reading Storm Brann fails to breach even one of Scotland’s flood defences after 18 years of SNP Government but 8 500 fail in England

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Corridor care least common in Scotland and most common in Wales and Northern Ireland suggests shoddy trainee emergency doctors survey

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The Guardian today has: Corridor care ‘endemic’ in UK, doctors say as study reveals scale of problem The report is based on Understanding corridor and escalation area care in 165 UK emergency departments: a multicentre cross-sectional snapshot study by the Trainee Emergency Research Network TERN in the BMJ, yesterday. The above map has England broken up into regions but it’s clear that put together and averaged, England would have a darker shade than Scotland. The only mention of Scotland in the report: Hospital level surveys with variable methodology from 21 hospitals in Scotland and 15 hospitals in Wales suggest escalation … Continue reading Corridor care least common in Scotland and most common in Wales and Northern Ireland suggests shoddy trainee emergency doctors survey

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There is a marked overall decline in youth violence in Scotland but a surge from 2012 in England as Tory austerity kicked in

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Professor John Robertson OBA Today’s reporting of apparent surges in youth violence across parts of England bears no resemblance to Scotland other than in the bonfire riots in 2023 and before. What is the long-term youth violence trend in Scotland? Overview of Youth Violence in ScotlandYouth violence in Scotland typically refers to violent incidents (e.g., assaults, robberies, or homicides) involving individuals under 18 as victims, perpetrators, or both. Data comes from sources like the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS, a victimization survey), Recorded Crime in Scotland (police data), and cohort studies such as the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions … Continue reading There is a marked overall decline in youth violence in Scotland but a surge from 2012 in England as Tory austerity kicked in