Professor John Robertson OBA In the Telegraph today, the above and: A wave of violence The flames have been there for all to see. Over six weeks in March and April, there were more than a dozen arson attacks in the two cities, with cars, homes, garages and businesses set alight. In other incidents, shots have been fired and two people, a pensioner and a 12-year-old boy, seriously assaulted by men wearing masks. I’m not for a minute doubting the trauma for those affected but these events are relatively local and minor compared with this: From the Daily Mail on February 3rd … Continue reading The unreported English gangs really tearing Scotland apart

Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Legerwood for alerting me to this: In the Telegraph today, the above and: With a deck the size of three football pitches, HMS Queen Elizabeth is Britain’s flagship aircraft carrier – a 65,000-ton floating airport designed to wage war anywhere on the planet. On its maiden world tour in 2021, when it cruised the Middle East and prowled the South China Sea, Whitehall hailed it as a new symbol of “Global Britain”. Yet for all its pomp and splendour, “Big Lizzie”, as it is known, has an embarrassing personal hygiene problem. For the past six months, … Continue reading Facilities fiasco as £3.5bn aircraft crew cannot get a hot shower – perhaps one of the older CalMac ferries could be spared to escort her and provide facilities?

Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland’s 12 top stories today with no mention of this: I feel sure BBC Scotland’s Health Correspondent, Lisa Summers, gets the Nursing Times so why is this not in the public interest? In April, the offer was reported but only enable this grudging comment: It could also mean Holyrood ministers having to find the extra funding from elsewhere in their budget. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9e28kj9meo This is a deliberate editorial decision to deny BBC Scotland’s audience anything that might make them feel better about Scotland, the Scottish Government or, of course the SNP. Continue reading Why is BBC Scotland not reporting thousands of NHS staff accepting a pay rise to maintain Scotland unique strike-free health care over several years?

Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above further evidence of UK Labour’s real intentions for the NHS – allow it to fail then sell it off. Meanwhile in Scotland, to zero media coverage: From Public Health Scotland on 24 November 2024, the above graph showing a reducing number waiting for diagnostic tests for the last three quarters, a steady fall since the peak in early 2022, and this for the quarter ending 30 September 2024 [most recent data]: When compared to the previous quarter-end, six of the eight key diagnostic tests saw a decrease in the number of ongoing waits reported. … Continue reading 9 months in and UK Labour oversees massive private sector out-sourcing of x-rays while NHS Scotland cuts waiting times for third time

Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above has no mention of Scotland but it’s clearly just a third reason why Scots should be glad to have avoided Conservative or Labour control for so long. The other two reasons are fire and flood. Fire – click on the heading below for full report 2. Flood – click on the heading below for full report Continue reading 18 years of protection from fire, flood and now higher energy bills due to poor building standards

Professor John Robertson OBA From the Royal College of Nursing, yesterday: An ‘explosion’ in nurse lecturer redundancies and severances shows the higher education financial crisis is spreading through nursing courses in England and posing a risk to domestic workforce plans, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warns today [15 May]. Ahead of the release of a new report into the nurse educator workforce in England, the College says the crisis is a real threat to the domestic supply of nurses into the workforce – just days after the government announced immigration plans which could lead to an exodus of international … Continue reading Will Scottish Labour propose similar NHS England cuts to nurse training in Scotland where we still train TWICE as many, per head as they do?

Professor John Robertson OBA From the BBC Wales and BBC Scotland inserts in BBC Breakfast today, two very different editorial judgements of what folk need to know as they rise to face the new day. In Scotland, they hear of: A ‘Housing crisis’ report where the Scottish Government is twice associated with that crisis and one mum is interviewed to tell her own tragic tale. Scottish water customers are told to use water ‘sparingly’ and have ‘shorter showers.’ There are shortages of midwives in one Scottish hospital with delays in the triage system there. Three negative reports on public services … Continue reading BBC Wales and Scotland today – two very different worlds to wake to

Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this. In the Guardian today: The NHS’s total liabilities for medical negligence have hit an “astounding” £58.2bn amid ministers’ failure to improve patient safety, an influential group of MPs have warned. The PAC urged ministers to take urgent steps to reduce “tragic incidences of patient harm” and to also end a situation where lawyers take an “astronomical” 19% of the compensation awarded to those who are successful in suing the NHS. That amounted to £536m of the £2.8bn that the health service in England paid out in damages in … Continue reading NHS England paying out nearly FIVE TIMES as much for medical negligence as NHS Scotland because of this