Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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Even before the Scottish Child Payment increase is felt, 90 places in England & Wales have worse child poverty than any part of Scotland

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Thanks to Gordon MacDonald MSP (or his researcher?) for alerting me to this. From End Child Poverty in June 2024, the above table based on 2022/2023 data, and: Every year the End Child Poverty Coalition, together with the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, publishes data on the number of children living in poverty, in each Westminster Constituency and Local Authority across the UK. This year (June 2024) we have calculated child poverty rates for the old Parliamentary Constiucny, and the Constituencies that will be used in the 2024 General Election. https://endchildpoverty.org.uk/child-poverty-2024/ Note that the Scottish Child … Continue reading Even before the Scottish Child Payment increase is felt, 90 places in England & Wales have worse child poverty than any part of Scotland

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Scotland’s A&E: is the BBC omitting positives and condoning Labour hypocrisy?

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By stewartb There is a pattern here: there are longstanding, persistent efforts designed to ensure voters in Scotland won’t know this basic fact: NHS Scotland has long delivered by far the best A&E waiting times performance in the four nations, notwithstanding its acknowledged shortcomings during a seriously challenging period for the NHS across the UK. Leaders of the British Labour Party are unrelenting in their negativity about NHS Scotland: presumably they consider this will deliver electoral advantages. Fair enough you may argue: the party is in opposition in Scotland after all.  However, it’s the vitriol exhibited in Labour’s politicisation of … Continue reading Scotland’s A&E: is the BBC omitting positives and condoning Labour hypocrisy?

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Opposition MSP defies facts to suggest child rape gangs might operate in Scotland

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Around 50 such gangs have been identified across England: One gang of 7 or 8 men based in Glasgow raped 4 children and were found guilty in 2023. This does not represent the same phenomenon found across England, with hundreds of mostly Pakistani men and the mass rape of more than 1 000 children, trafficked from badly-run care homes to multiple locations across the region. Nevertheless in the Herald, today, the above claim by Pam Gosal, and: A Scottish Conservative MSP has said she “echoes calls” made by the UK Conservative leader for a national inquiry into tackling child sexual … Continue reading Opposition MSP defies facts to suggest child rape gangs might operate in Scotland

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Child abuse – Labour and Conservative history of neglect, even sickening collusion, and how the SNP’s Named Person Scheme could have saved thousands

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By Professor John Robertson, former Primary School Teacher, Lecturer in Education and Associate Dean (Quality Assurance) From Sky News, 11 years ago: The former head of a paedophile group said Harriet Harman “didn’t even try” to stop his organisation’s involvement with the civil liberties council she worked for. Tom O’Carroll, who was chairman of the now defunct Paedophile Information Exchange, said neither Ms Harman or her Labour colleagues wanted to “rock the boat” for fear it might damage their careers.1 Many younger readers will wonder what on earth can this be. The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was a British pro-paedophile activist group, founded … Continue reading Child abuse – Labour and Conservative history of neglect, even sickening collusion, and how the SNP’s Named Person Scheme could have saved thousands

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‘Free speech’ – Why ditching of Facebook factcheckers and Musk X ideology are good for the Scottish independence movement

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I know, not the kind of guys you’d invite or who’d want to come round I suppose, but sometimes you can’t choose your friends. Musk and now Zuckerberg look like implementing full ‘free speech’ including the abandonment of factchecking. All right-thinking folk are up in arms, or are they? Last night a friend and long-time SNP member told me his wife, not a member, had cancelled her Facebook account after hearing of the changes at Facebook. Looking at these billionaires, I get it but I can’t regret it. For years but increasingly so in recent months, Facebook has been removing … Continue reading ‘Free speech’ – Why ditching of Facebook factcheckers and Musk X ideology are good for the Scottish independence movement

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A&E attendance at lowest for a year and roughly the same winter level for years

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The Herald today, has: Flu-hit A&E units running at four times over capacity Clear in the above graph, overall pressure on A&E services, at the end of December was relatively low and, on average, little different from previous years. After Health Secretary, Neil Gray, praised staff for ‘coping’ with the above surge in flu cases, the Express wrote: ‘Shameless’ Neil Gray’s pats himself on the back over NHS despite record lows and crisis-hit service Kind of makes you wonder if professional journalism should be banned. Source: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/healthcare-system/urgent-and-unscheduled-care/accident-and-emergency/interactive-charts/how-long-people-spend-in-ae/ Continue reading A&E attendance at lowest for a year and roughly the same winter level for years

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Shock figures show ambulance crews are assaulted more than FOUR TIMES as frequently in Labour’s ‘lawless England’

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Thanks to one of our Anonymouses for this: From the ‘Scottish’ Daily Express yesterday: Shock figures show ambulance crews are assaulted EVERY DAY in the SNP’s lawless Scotland. Ambulance staff in Scotland were verbally or physically assaulted almost every day on average last year, with the abuse against the nation’s mercy crews up by 11%. The Scottish Ambulance Service recorded 346 shocking incidents in 2023/24 including cases of spitting, punching and threatening staff with bottles or other weapons. 1 All things being equal, with 12 times the population, the UK might be expect to be having around 12 cases per day? From Sky News, … Continue reading Shock figures show ambulance crews are assaulted more than FOUR TIMES as frequently in Labour’s ‘lawless England’

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Fifth sub-poll, not distorted by sample weighting to match 2014 vote, reinforces notion that SNP is well ahead and Reform is eating the Cons and Labour

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Today, from Deltapoll, based on data collected from 1 532, on 30th December 2024 to 3rd January, we see: The Scottish subset of 133 has: A sub poll of only 133 has clear limitations in terms of reliability but this is the latest of 5 [c800 subjects in total] all telling the same story, of Cons, Lab and Reform all doing less well in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK and way behind the SNP. Source: https://deltapoll.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Deltapoll-MoS_250106.pdf On December 23rd 2024, from Opinium, based on data collected from 1 537, on 18-12 December 2024, we see: The Scottish subset of 110 has: … Continue reading Fifth sub-poll, not distorted by sample weighting to match 2014 vote, reinforces notion that SNP is well ahead and Reform is eating the Cons and Labour

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Sky News try to push the child grooming scandal north of the border with one Scot* out of thousands of victims

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Amazingly, Sky News and, I hear, Channel 4 News find a woman in Glasgow to talk about her experience of being groomed and raped. *That this took place in Glasgow, ten years ago or so, is not confirmed. It’s an amazing find. Until the recent (2002) abuse of 4 children of primary school age in Glasgow by 7 men, there is no report of anything like a ‘grooming’ gang with multiple victims in Scotland. Channel 4’s FACTCHECK in August 2014, makes no mention of Scotland or Glasgow, only: By date of conviction, we have evidence of such exploitation taking place … Continue reading Sky News try to push the child grooming scandal north of the border with one Scot* out of thousands of victims

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Recent Oxford University research PROVES Labour’s privatised health strategy WILL lead to ‘worse patient care’

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By Professor John Robertson OBA An expansion of private healthcare is now a central strategy to cut waiting lists in England, from a party where many of its leaders, have received large donations from private healthcare firms, yet less than a year earlier Oxford University’s PROVED research UK Labour’s privatised health strategy WILL lead to ‘worse patient care.’ From Oxford University researchers reported in The Lancet, on 29 February 2024: A new review has concluded that hospitals that are privatised typically deliver worse quality care after converting from public ownership. The study, led by University of Oxford researchers, has been published in The Lancet Public … Continue reading Recent Oxford University research PROVES Labour’s privatised health strategy WILL lead to ‘worse patient care’