By Professor John Robertson OBA Don’t be deceived. Reporting today’s 2% fall in suspected drug deaths, the Scottish media will tell you: This is insignificant, the reduction has stalled’ or recent figures are higher than they were in 2022 or 2023. Those interpretations are either stupid or deliberately misleading. A one year variation when looking at data such as these is not important but a trend over 4 or 5 years is. The trend is down and down significantly by around 20% in 4 years. The dramatic dip in the annual variation from the end of 2020 until the second half … Continue reading Scotland’s drug deaths – the trend is the news, the news that matters, and it’s DOWN, by 20% in only 3 years

Kinbrace in Scotland in August 2024 -1.2 °C, Manston in Kent – 16.6 °C By Professor John Robertson OBA Skwawkbox today: The Labour party’s cut to the Winter Fuel Allowance will kill around 4,000 pensioners this winter – according to the party’s own research. Labour’s analysis, published during the 2017 general election campaign, warned that the Tories’ plans under then-PM Theresa May to cut the allowance for millions of pensioners would be deadly, leading directly to the deaths of around 4,000 people. Called ‘the single biggest attack on pensioners in a generation’, it combined with the Tories’ ‘dementia tax’ plans and Corbyn-led Labour’s … Continue reading Factcheck 2 on useless Scottish Labour MPs – Labour’s own research proves their winter fuel allowance cut will kill many more in Scotland

Anonymous Some people against independence know full well what is really going on. However some are either too afraid, too lazy or too selfish to want to see anything happen (Change) that they think will change things for them personally. (But yes some are indeed also either too stupid or/and way too complacent to then be content to remain ignorant of what’s (really) what in respect to Scotland and also the UK ). They, as doubters who live in Scotland are collectively either: a) Convinced that things will be worse with Scottish independence (but with many of them having the absolute minimum , if any, knowledge to confirm this as … Continue reading Never argue with stupid people?

Anonymous Knife crime is now greatly reduced because of an initiative in Scotland to treat it as a health issue. Surely , as a successful initiative, this is worthy of England emulating as they have a serious problem with deaths from Knife crimes. Well England will now , via Keir Starmer and Idris Elba, launch a new anti Knife crime coalition. “The coalition will work with experts to develop an understanding of what causes young people to be dragged into knife crime” The Daily Mail promotes that it is to “tackle a nationwide stabbing epidemic” Elba said “We need to tackle the root causes of knife crime, not just the symptoms,” He … Continue reading “I wonder, has some other country solved its knife crime problem? I seem to remember Anas mentioning something about Glasgow but…..SNP……

BBC Scotland’s Ian Hamilton and Daniel Bennett, today: Fishermen are being warned they are putting themselves at risk of preventable illness and even death by delaying seeking medical advice. Amanda Nithavrianakis, whose skipper husband John died of cancer at the age of 52, [2018] believes his attitude of self-reliance and toughness contributed to the delay in his diagnosis and treatment. The above is then connected with this: The number of active fishermen in Scotland has declined to about 3,800, according to a 2023 report by the Scottish government. Not mentioned of course: Most recent figures show that in 2023, Scottish-registered … Continue reading One fisherman’s cancer death six years ago was not because of a decline in the number going to sea

How the Guardian saw yesterday’s events in Glasgow and how most us felt about Scotland’s demonstrable strength against fascism, in sharp contrast to the power of the extreme right in parts of England, Wales and Norther Ireland, but for BBC Scotland, it was this shameful attempt to tell us ‘You’re no different!’: Such was the scale of the fascist presence, there were only two arrests. See, also, how BBC Scotland frame the events, from the right, the extreme right to distort the balance: Note how few police officers. Note which way they face. These people are not just ‘rivals’ equivalent … Continue reading Classic case of the BBC Scotland cringe as ‘Phenomenal show’ of solidarity in city’s George Square is presented as ‘angry scenes’ between ‘rivals’

By stewartbNew research to determine the costs/benefits to UK nations and regions of Brexit isfeatured in the latest newsletter of UK in a Changing Europe, a think tank based at King’sCollege London and funded by UK Research and Innovation. The study finds that: ‘Brexit has contributed to the equalisation of regional inequality– not by levelling up poorer regions but hitting richer regions more severely. Thisform of levelling up is rather destructive since it implies levelling up only in relativeterms, all while (sic) making the whole of the UK poorer.’ (A summary of research findings can be found here: https://ukandeu.ac.uk/levelling-up-by-levelling-down-the-economic-and-political-costs-of-brexit/?mc_cid=d20add413a&mc_eid=724ea8d3d6 . … Continue reading Scotland’s economy harmed the most by Brexit-induced levelling down UK-wide research reveals