Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to rtpscott for alerting me to this: In the Press & Journal, rarely sympathetic to the independence cause, yesterday: How much is transmitted? How much more than we produce, do we need? Continue reading UK Labour Government plans for changes to electricity transmission costs would ‘cost Scots £1.6bn’
stewartb Scotland in Union means Poverty in Union? The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has this on its web site: ‘Poverty: facts and figures’. It notes: ‘Poverty risk also varies across UK nations and regions, with the highest rates in the West Midlands, inner London and North West England, and considerably lower rates in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eastern England.’ On May 21, responding to the UK Work and Pensions Secretary’s speech that day, the Chief Executive of CPAG said: ‘The elephant in the room today was the two-child limit which is pushing child poverty to a new high on this government’s watch and leaving … Continue reading Scotland in Union means Poverty in Union?
Liz S BBC Scotland and BBC2 are broadcasting a two part documentary on Michelle Mone that was made by Rogan Scotland production. The first part is on Monday 26 May and the second part is on Wednesday 28 May. These programmes are being shown on two separate channels , the 1st on Channel Scotland (channel 9) and the second is being broadcast on BBC2. The programme is called “The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone”. Looking at the online written preview of this programme on the BBC’s Media Centre it states: “This two-part documentary series tells the extraordinary story of … Continue reading Baronesses Mone and Harding – the Tory PPE ‘fast and loose lane’ scandal
Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, there is, at least some attempt to expose the scale of child poverty in England with the term ‘tens of thousands’ but it is still concealing the awful truth.1 According to the Guardian in March 2025: The poverty figures showed that in Scotland 23% of children were in poverty, compared with 31% in England and Wales.2 From the 2021 Census, 12.6 million dependent children lived in households.3 So, 31% of 12 600 000 is 3 900 000! Had England been run by a party like the SNP, 8% of those 12.6 million, 1 … Continue reading More than 1 MILLION children would have been lifted out of poverty in England if they had been led by a party with the values and the policies of the SNP
stewartb ‘The blatant hypocrisy of lecturing the Scottish FM’. Has hypocrisy become endemic within much of the political opposition in Holyrood? In any event, it looks as if British Labour Party leaders in Scotland are STILL not being listened to by their comrades in government in Wales. The latter it seems STILL have not implemented the solutions to long waits in NHS A&E departments that the former have readily available, the solutions being shunned by the Scottish Government! From the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) on May 22: ‘RCEM: Welsh government must prioritise dangerous ED waits in Wales – lives depend on it’. The … Continue reading Thousands at risk as Royal College reveals A&E waiting times in Labour-run NHS Wales more than THREE times longer than in NHS Scotland
Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to cuckooshoe for alerting me to this: From ITN on 1 May 2025: ITN Productions’ new 1 x 90’ documentary for 5, looks at the rise in murder convictions for 12-17-year-olds in the UK, from those affected by these harrowing crimes and experts offering insight and analysis. Stuart Stephens [pictured], father of Olly Stephens who was killed in 2021 aged 13, shares heart-wrenching memories of his son, whose attack was planned on social media. Stuart subsequently started to campaign for tougher online safety measures. Rohan Shand’s son, Rohan Shand jr who was known as Fred, … Continue reading Important facts for Scotland’s media and opposition leaders – As murder by minors increases four fold in England and Wales but it plummets to a quarter in Scotland after 18 years of SNP administration
I’ve been really please to see the recent upsurge here of extensive and well-written comments under my often quite short posts. There is a danger that these get less attention than they deserve due to the fact that only a few hundred of the thousands following and sharing TuS across X, FB and BlueSky actually come to the full post in the blog. So, I do not hesitate to repost them and have renamed the blog accordingly. However, there’s only me here and for that reason, I see no alternative to a dictatorial form of editing where I just decide … Continue reading The Talking-up Scotland (Collective) – how to cope within it
Liz S I saw online today that in last night’s BBC QT that a Labour MP and Minister ,Nick Thomas-Symonds , said in response to a Q on the Labour PM’s partial and not full U-Turn on WFP: “I don’t think anyone thinks it is a good use of public money to be paying the winter fuel payment to millionaires”. Really ? Though surely then it is also correct to surmise that most ‘ordinary’ people would also think that with Labour, as a UK party, receiving substantial amounts as political financial donations from millionaires , that is then seen as something that is grossly unfair , distasteful … Continue reading Does the public not see it as unfair that Labour are punishing the weak and vulnerable in order to protect the financial interests of many millionaires?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/mapped-knife-crime-is-rising-how-many-attacks-in-your-area-and-why-is-it-increasing/ar-AA1EX0cG?ocid=BingNewsSerp Liz S Today’s Daily Record: “How many more kids have to die” Teenage Knife crime epidemic“ This is now apparently something the Daily Record (Paul Hutcheon) have taken up and they say that “John Swinney has pledged to act on youth violence in response to the Daily Record’s plea“. So basically someone, checks notes, Paul Hutcheon has ambushed the FM, after FMQ’s, and asked him what he is going to do about this and obviously he has responded in a positive manner. The Daily Record now see this as a political weapon to help Sarwar next year and so it is … Continue reading The blatant hypocrisy of lecturing the Scottish FM on serious assaults in Scotland while serious assaults and knife crime have tragically led to far far more young people’s deaths in England
Professor John Robertson OBA You’ve seen the media reports of Scottish doctors and nurses fleeing Scotland for New Zealand and Australia (both of the above, one from Mull). It’s being going on for a few years now with no significant statistics suggesting an ‘exodus’ but, I’m still wondering now how good are the health services down under? How about A&E? According to The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) in January 2025, 31% are waiting more than 8 hours.1 and only 55% were treated within 4 hours.2 In New Zealand, the use a 6 hour wait as the target and … Continue reading Despite a supposed ‘exodus’ of Scottish doctors to Australia and New Zealand we still have have far better (20%) Emergency departments than them or, of course, England and Wales
