Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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Find a new future for Fort George? Aye, as recycled stone

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No doubt, some other members of the Robertson clan, like my late dad but unlike me, take pride in their part in the history of the Black Watch and its many battle honours. I’ve since read too much about the regiment’s dark history ‘policing’ the English Empire, from India to Ireland. Their base, Fort George, is to be sold by the MoD in 2031 and some locals want to find a new role for it. BBC Scotland today has: A fortress originally built to supress Highland clans and enforce rules preventing clansmen from wearing tartan could become a hub for … Continue reading Find a new future for Fort George? Aye, as recycled stone

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New £34m SNP Gov-funded multi-disciplinary GP and health centre opening in Glasgow, ignored by BBC Scotland and credited by STV to Conservative pressure on SNP council yet they have only 2 out of 85 councillors

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Image LDRS From STV yesterday: A huge GP surgery and health centre, which will combine services located at nine different sites, is due to open within weeks in Glasgow’s East End. There will be three GP practices based at the new building in Duke Street – Forge Medical Practice, Drs McKenzie and Burns and Meadowpark Surgery – as well as other services. The health and social care building is one of the largest of its kind in the UK, and it is hoped that patients will be able to access treatment by the end of January. When open, the Hub … Continue reading New £34m SNP Gov-funded multi-disciplinary GP and health centre opening in Glasgow, ignored by BBC Scotland and credited by STV to Conservative pressure on SNP council yet they have only 2 out of 85 councillors

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The use of imagined cancer deaths to attack SNP health secretaries

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Two days ago, I noticed this research report from the USA casting doubt on the effectiveness of cancer treatment to avert a spike in deaths: At the peak of the shortage, about 15% of patients probably had trouble accessing a platinum chemotherapy drug, the study found. But there was good news, too: Despite the shortages, the study team could find no difference in death rates for patients with solid tumor cancers in 2023 versus the year before. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-12-24/last-years-platinum-based-drugs-shortage-didnt-raise-cancer-deaths-study-found#:~:text=At%20the%20peak%20of%20the,2023%20versus%20the%20year%20before. I was then reminded of two previous times when opposition parties and their pals in the ‘Scottish’ media had used … Continue reading The use of imagined cancer deaths to attack SNP health secretaries

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Will this Labour MP praise her local hospitals as they treat 99% of drug and alcohol patients well within the target time?

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By Professor John Robertson OBA As we try to settle our stomachs after the recent Jackie Baillie/ Herald/ BBC Scotland attack on a Clydebank hospital, it occurred to me that my new local MP is very quiet. Her office is largely ignoring constituent enquiries so the above hope is no doubt in vain. In October 2024, Jackie Baillie, in the Scotsman, ‘accused [SNP] ministers of failing to get a grip on the crisis‘ on drug deaths. Would 99% of drug abuse patients being seen in the target time of 3 weeks do for a grip? Would the MP for Ayr, Carrick and … Continue reading Will this Labour MP praise her local hospitals as they treat 99% of drug and alcohol patients well within the target time?

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Leading European expert says Scotland is ‘at the very top pillar with regards to patient safety’ since 2007, but on Boxing Day, BBC Scotland tries to compare us unfavourably with England

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By By Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC Scotland, this morning, after their ignorant and tasteless Christmas Eve attack, with the Scottish Cons and Labour’s Jackie Baillie, on the reputation of the staff at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, they’re back at it again today with more inaccurate reporting, this time on patient safety, with: A recruitment drive for Scotland’s first ever Patient Safety Commissioner has failed for a second time. MSPs passed a law creating the new independent public advocate for NHS patients in September last year. The first round of interviews for the £89,685-a-year role in April failed to produce … Continue reading Leading European expert says Scotland is ‘at the very top pillar with regards to patient safety’ since 2007, but on Boxing Day, BBC Scotland tries to compare us unfavourably with England

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Christmas Factcheck – Jackie Baillie’s local hospital cancels fewer operations than most yet she betrays the staff for cheap ill-informed point-scoring

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By Professor John Robertson OBA I know, get a life, but I’ve had a drink and rest of the family are watching Gavin an Stacey. I can’t concentrate, still furious and nauseated by the Jackie Baillie / Herald, Christmas Eve attack on the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank. Using their own data, ‘modelled’ in some way, they suggest that this hospital is doing less operations and that SNP failures lie behind that. So, at 01.10am, I access the actual, raw not ‘modelled’, data and, lo and behold, the Golden Jubilee, month after month for the last six (ringed in purple below) has … Continue reading Christmas Factcheck – Jackie Baillie’s local hospital cancels fewer operations than most yet she betrays the staff for cheap ill-informed point-scoring

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Part-time ‘Doctors’, full-time chancers and posers, Sandesh Gulhane and Iain Kennedy – do they think we’re bleeding idiots?

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Con MSP Sandesh Gulhane in Parliament doing political work, on a regular basis, wearing an NHS Scotland lanyard. Update – Dr Philippa Whitford says it look like an NHS England lanyard! On his Conservative Party website, a GP in scrubs and with an out-of-date but sexy (?) stethoscope, trying to look like he works in A&E – I’m sick. Get me a doctor! No, not him. A real one. Twitter-pal of Gulhane, part-time GP, full-time activist for the Union, Dr Iain Findlay, posing so hard, I nearly fell of my seat and now have that winter-vomiting thing. Here he is … Continue reading Part-time ‘Doctors’, full-time chancers and posers, Sandesh Gulhane and Iain Kennedy – do they think we’re bleeding idiots?

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Wonderful [I should know] local hospital staff in Clydebank, quick to correct their ungrateful, petty, ill-informed, neighbouring Dumbarton MSP and local rag

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From the Herald’s notoriously thick/mendacious health correspondent, early on the 19th December 2024, the above and this: The number of operations being carried out at Scotland’s largest dedicated elective hub has fallen in recent months despite Scottish Government targets to drive down waiting list backlogs. Analysis by the Herald of publicly available data shows that 6,240 surgeries were completed at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank in the three months from August to October this year, compared to 7,229 in the same period in 2023 – a decline of 14%. Within seconds, Labour MSP for neighbouring and dependent Dumbarton, Jackie … Continue reading Wonderful [I should know] local hospital staff in Clydebank, quick to correct their ungrateful, petty, ill-informed, neighbouring Dumbarton MSP and local rag

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Poll – Only modest support for Nicola Sturgeon to lead independence movement among Yes supporters

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Not a proper scientific sample I know, but a reasonably large response from an X account with nearly 11 000 followers 90 plus percent, for Yes, the above suggests quite limited support for the idea being widely touted, that former FM, Nicola Sturgeon, should now lead the wider independence campaign. I’m agnostic on this. Some were less so: Read the rest at: https://x.com/ProfJWR/status/1871186993788723242 Footnote – I have no absolute proof that I have not been lobotomised and do, at times, wonder. Continue reading Poll – Only modest support for Nicola Sturgeon to lead independence movement among Yes supporters

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A gift for Scotland only – Christmas Eve, A&E death lies, BBC Scotland and Sandesh Gulhane

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By Professor John Robertson OBA NOTE: I’m so sickeningly angry, I’ve put this rebuttal together very quickly so please forgive any errors. BBC Reporting Scotland and Good Mourning Scotland only, not on the BBC Scotland website or any oter BBC site, a disgusting piece of heartless propaganda repeating the trash media reports, today: The above claims are based on Conservative and Labour ‘modelling‘, saved up for the ‘Scottish’ media to release today, Christmas Eve, and underpinned by Royal College of Emergency Medicine (UK) analysis. BBC UK, England and Wales do not have this story. They tried this foul-smelling Xmas game, three years … Continue reading A gift for Scotland only – Christmas Eve, A&E death lies, BBC Scotland and Sandesh Gulhane