Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
9 Comments

The least lawless part of the UK has the most police yet BBC Scotland headline a handful of Edinburgh shopkeepers to tell you otherwise when crimes of dishonesty there have fallen 25%

johnrobertson834

about a growing number of high value thefts….it’s become lawless…not enough police presence.. BBC Scotland today and all day, headlining a story based on a few Edinburgh shopkeepers who have approached, or have been approached by BBC Scotland, for comment. One of them: Galab Singh Gold, who owns dozens of shops on and around the Royal Mile, told BBC News he had lost £15,000 worth of stock to theft in the last three months. Is that a huge, increased, amount from ‘dozens’ of shops or just the usual costs of shoplifting? The Gold Brothers family are worth a wee Google … Continue reading The least lawless part of the UK has the most police yet BBC Scotland headline a handful of Edinburgh shopkeepers to tell you otherwise when crimes of dishonesty there have fallen 25%

6 Comments

‘Gangland violence spilling over to Scotland from south of the Border’, ‘More than 100 children charged with supplying drugs’ and ‘Gangs flooding Scots city with ‘foot-soldiers’ – Why middle-class professionals are being shielded from the truth and are easily duped

johnrobertson834

This month alone, the tabloids, with readers predominantly from less well-off communities, the Scottish Daily Express, the Scottish Daily Mail and the Scottish Sun, have headlined the plague of extreme violence, drug abuse, drug deaths, child abuse, the ‘cuckooing’ of the vulnerable, people trafficking and prostitution, surging across small-town and rural Scotland, as County Lines drug gangs from English Cities have spread into every corner. Despite their open, often rabid, hostility toward the SNP, these newspapers have been unable to resist the morbid and scary appeal of these stories for their readers, risking, to my mind, support for the Union. … Continue reading ‘Gangland violence spilling over to Scotland from south of the Border’, ‘More than 100 children charged with supplying drugs’ and ‘Gangs flooding Scots city with ‘foot-soldiers’ – Why middle-class professionals are being shielded from the truth and are easily duped

6 Comments

Despite more crime, bizarre duties, already fewer officers and lower starting salaries, England’s police forces face ‘eye watering cuts’ under Labour according to Chief

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson OBA in The Guardian today: Police service in London faces ‘eye-watering cuts’, says Met chief Mark Rowley Surely this is not possible in a country already stricken by high levels of crime with inadequate staffing levels and poor starting pay levels which inhibit recruitment. The details, you won’t see in Scottish media: The true facts are, from open, transparent, official, checkable statistics, in Police officer quarterly strength statistics: 30 September 2024, published today is: Police officer numbers increased by 220 FTE officers (+1.4%) in the last quarter from 30 June 2024 This is an increase of 193 FTE police officers (+1.2%) from the … Continue reading Despite more crime, bizarre duties, already fewer officers and lower starting salaries, England’s police forces face ‘eye watering cuts’ under Labour according to Chief

5 Comments

SNP aim to make Labour Lords bill what it should be if Sir Keir hadn’t sabotaged it

johnrobertson834

The National, two days ago, had this strange headline: SNP plot to sabotage Labour’s House of Lords bill It’s as if the writer imagines them muttering darkly in the bowels of Westminster, like G Fawkes and his team in 1605. When you read on, you do see: SNP deputy leader Pete Wishart will lodge an amendment to see the Lords abolished entirely, but he will also lodge a further amendment to force peers to pay income tax on their parliamentary pay. The tax-free pay — currently worth up to £361 per day — is payable to members of the House of Lords for … Continue reading SNP aim to make Labour Lords bill what it should be if Sir Keir hadn’t sabotaged it

4 Comments

Staggering contrast in average mental wellbeing scores after 17 years of SNP rule in Scotland and 14 of Tory rule in England

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson, OBA From The Scottish Health Survey 2023 – volume 1: main report, published today, the above graph reveals a steady maintenance of levels of self-reported well-being in Scotland, despite 14 years of Tory austerity policies only partly moderated by the limited powers of the SNP in government but including, crucially for this measure, free prescriptions, bus passes, more GPs, nurses, beds and no NHS strikes.1 In can find no earlier comparable data for Labour-run Scotland before 2008 but we were drinking far more then. I can also not find directly comparable data for England for 2022 or 2023. They … Continue reading Staggering contrast in average mental wellbeing scores after 17 years of SNP rule in Scotland and 14 of Tory rule in England

2 Comments

Massive fall in children’s exposure to deadly second-hand smoke in their own home since 2012 as a range of SNP policies begin to bite

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson, OBA From The Scottish Health Survey 2023 – volume 1: main report, published today, the above graph reveals a marked fall in the percentage of children exposed to second-hand smoke in their own homes.1 In 2016,  the SNP Government, made it illegal to smoke in a vehicle carrying anyone under 18.2 In 2022, the SNP Government made it an offence to smoke with in 15 meters of an NHS hospital building.3 In 2022, only 15% of Scots smoked compare to 28% in 2003.4 The above and other initiatives over the last 17 years will have contributed to this … Continue reading Massive fall in children’s exposure to deadly second-hand smoke in their own home since 2012 as a range of SNP policies begin to bite

4 Comments

Latest – Alcohol consumption plummets in last 17 years

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson OBA From The Scottish Health Survey 2023 – volume 1: main report, published today, the above, graph showing a steady but limited fall in average alcohol consumption in the early years of the devolved Scottish Government (Labour/Lib Dem) then a sharper fall under the SNP from 2008.1 The Minimum Unit Pricing legislation came into effect from May 2018. Research by Newcastle University published in May 2021 found that alcohol sales dropped by 7.7% in Scotland following the introduction of a minimum price, when compared to north-east England. A study published in 2021 found reductions in overall purchases of alcohol, largely … Continue reading Latest – Alcohol consumption plummets in last 17 years

5 Comments

As the Guardian highlights long ambulance wait deaths, how Scotland’s ambulances were FOUR times faster in early 2024 before BBC pulled the site where I got the facts

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson, OBA In the Guardian today, the above, and: A lot of people, like Dave, have had to wait for an ambulance. One patient in Wales waited 46 hours and 46 minutes after a fall. Ambulance response times vary across the UK. In England they rose sharply in September, and emergency care performance is also down, as the NHS heads into a difficult winter. A Guardian investigation found that, in 2022, the year Dave Strachan spent nine hours and 52 minutes waiting for an ambulance, more than 500 patients in England died after a delayed ambulance response. This included people who had been in accidents, … Continue reading As the Guardian highlights long ambulance wait deaths, how Scotland’s ambulances were FOUR times faster in early 2024 before BBC pulled the site where I got the facts

10 Comments

Language, identity and autonomy in Eastern Ukraine

johnrobertson834

As a pro-independence Scot, I’ve been interested in the breakaway movement in eastern Ukraine, for some time, since well before Putin’s brutal exploitative invasion, just as I have for those in Quebec, Catalonia and the Basque Country. As I understand it, opinion polls in that febrile world are not too reliable. However, this survey from the Center for Insights in Survey Research, a US Republican Party-owned agency, seems objective, professionally done and offers an interesting perspective on the identification, based on languages spoken, of those living in the Donetsk and Luhansk ‘oblasts’ and the cities within. Support for or against … Continue reading Language, identity and autonomy in Eastern Ukraine

1 Comment

NHS hospitals, staffing and strike avoidance lead to 1 600 fewer deaths, last year

johnrobertson834

By Professor John Robertson, OBA From Public Health Scotland today: Unadjusted hospital mortality remained relatively stable at between 2.6% and 3.3% over the majority of the five-year period from July 2019 to June 2024. The relatively small variation shows clear seasonal patterns with increases in mortality during the winter months. However, larger increases occurred during the COVID-19 epidemic in Scotland, with unadjusted hospital mortality reaching 5.4% during the first wave, 4.4% during the second wave. Since the quarter April to June 2021, the crude mortality rate has been between 3.2% to 4.0%, showing seasonal variation.1 NHS England chooses not to publish … Continue reading NHS hospitals, staffing and strike avoidance lead to 1 600 fewer deaths, last year