By Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today: Grenfell campaigners have called on Tony Blair to apologise and take responsibility for decisions made by his government that contributed to the fire that killed 72 people. The former prime minister said on Thursday that tragedies such as the west London fire, which came after years of missed opportunities to regulate combustible cladding, were a result of unavoidable mistakes. The final report of the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire was published this week and included several criticisms of decisions made under Blair’s premiership. Stephen Mackenzie, a fire security consultant, said of Blair’s remarks: “It’s … Continue reading How a Scottish Labour government’s end in 2007 let the SNP put an end to the risk of a Grenfell in Scotland

Under this image of a relatively small Liverpool windfarm, 348MW compared to Moray East at 950MW, there’s not a word of Scotland. Why might it have? Scotland powers nearly half of UK’s wind energy milestone. Scotland’s wind farms are generating 48% of the UK’s 30GW wind power capacity, with new projects pushing this total higher. https://www.energylivenews.com/2024/08/30/scotland-powers-nearly-half-of-uks-wind-energy-milestone/ Net electricity transfers from Scotland to England [in 2023] increased 15 per cent to 6.0 TWh year-on-year, with transfers from Scotland to England increasing by 14 per cent to 6.1 TWh while transfers from England to Scotland decreased to 0.1 TWh. Net transfers from … Continue reading Guardian colludes to hide Scotland producing half of the UK’s renewables electricity with only only a twelfth of the population

To read in full: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=prison Continue reading As England plans earlier release of killers and rapists to ease overcrowding, the facts on Scotland they won’t be telling you on BBC Scotland or STV

By Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Iain AF Fleming @LegalWeasel for alerting me to this. In June 1999, a fire spread up external cladding in the above block of flats in Irvine. There was one death. Scottish media often use this case to suggest that towering infernos of the kind we saw in Grenfell London in 2017 can happen here: With 72 deaths and the complete burning of the building, the links to the Irvine case are a bit stretched, even for our media. In Scotland, action followed quickly: The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 require that buildings be designed and … Continue reading How Scotland learned to avert another Grenfell

From CBS today: B.C. Ferries has cancelled 35 sailings on its busy Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route through Sunday due to mechanical issues. The operator says there is a mechanical difficulty with the main engine’s propulsion system on the 60-year-old Queen of New Westminster, which was pulled from service Tuesday. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/b-c-ferries-cancels-35-145834678.html CalMac’s oldest comparable large ferry, though with bow doors to prevent flooding of the car deck, is the 41 year-old MV Isle of Arran. Continue reading 60 year-old Canadian ferry pulled after 35 cancellations

If all of the available data is pulled together and the conclusions drawn, the historical and contemporary evidence strongly suggests that the appropriate response to austerity is to increase universal provision and so stimulate economic activity, equalise damaging wealth disparity and improve both government and wider economic efficiency By Professor John Robertson OBA Today, the Scotsman’s comment editor, Ian Johnston, has: The case for ending universal benefits is strong even for those on the left Typically, under-researched and ill-informed. The facts, from the Jimmy Reid Foundation: In 2012, I read and was much impressed by their The Case for Universalism An … Continue reading Research proves the Scotsman is wrong on universalism

By Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this. From the Guardian today: Although the overall number of GPs working in the NHS rose, after taking changes in working hours into account those working the equivalent of full-time fell from 27,948 to 27,321.1 With one tenth of the population, all things being equal, Scotland might be expected to have 2 732 GPs FTE but had 3 478 FTE2, 27.3% more. Sources: The OBA – https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116 Continue reading Scotland has 27% more GPs per head of population

By Professor John Robertson OBA In just Volume 1 of the 7 volume Grenfell inquiry report released today, there are 36 references to the cavity barriers designed and provided by Siderise – Integrity in all we do (!) to prevent a ‘chimney effect‘ allowing fire to surge up the space between new cladding and the original wall, revealing a regular failure to fit them or to fit them wrongly. Despite that it seems: Following an initial assessment by a local authority building control surveyor and a second stage review by a group of experts, it issued certificates verifying the compliance of … Continue reading Cavity barriers of the kind repeatedly preventing ‘towering infernos’ in Scotland mentioned 36 times in one volume of Grenfell inquiry report to reveal deliberate cost-cutting neglect in England

Alex Cole-Hamilton is in the Guardian today to comment on Environmental Standards Scotland’s report on sewage overflows. ESS are ‘independent’ with no apparent funding declared. What will look bad at first sight for some, is a classic example of misleading reporting. Scotland has 18 743 km of coastline compared to England’s 8 982, only one-tenth of the population and, crucially far fewer areas requiring monitoring. Dr Simon Boxall of Southampton University, a leading expert on water quality, explained this in the National, in August 2022: An overview of the most obvious data on bathing water quality superficially appears to show … Continue reading As Scotland’s smallest political party gets in the Guardian to misrepresent Scotland’s water quality, facts from an English academic