Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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Daily Record desperately predicts fireworks violence again despite ‘no reports of any injuries to officers or other emergency services personnel’ last year and calls down 37%

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Notably, unlike in October 2025 (below), BBC Scotland is not attempting to scare us with a similar damp squib but the Record is. Here’s why: On 6 November 2025: Police say there was a “notable” reduction in Bonfire Night disorder with the number of calls received down by 37% across Scotland. Between 31 October and 5 November, 833 calls needed a local or specialist response, almost 500 fewer than last year. A major police operation took place at known Bonfire Night trouble-spots across the country in an attempt to avoid a repeat of disorder seen in previous years. Police said … Continue reading Daily Record desperately predicts fireworks violence again despite ‘no reports of any injuries to officers or other emergency services personnel’ last year and calls down 37%

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NHS Scotland treating 20% more in 12 weeks than NHS England as think-tank predicts a crisis there by the next election

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Typically dishonest, gutter-level journalism from the Herald today. Moving the formal maximum target from an unmet 12 weeks to a 26-week aim by 2031 is a relaxation of ambition relative to the old legal standard, but it does not mean the plan is to increase waits to twice what people experience today. For a large number of current long-waiters it would still represent an improvement if achieved. Like many health service targets, our aging, less active yet more expectant population, living in a world of de-regulated food production and made addicts to hyper-processed non-food by global corporations, cannot be met. … Continue reading NHS Scotland treating 20% more in 12 weeks than NHS England as think-tank predicts a crisis there by the next election

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Scotland has twice as many ‘probation officers’

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After several decades in journalism, the daughter of a history prof, remains fully Anglocentric, writing once more to conflate England’s woes with Scotland today. She only once reveals that this is all about England & Wales (poor things) in the very last paragraph. Her main concern, highlighted in the headline, is: Today it’s the probation officers, whose conference in Newcastle is launching a ballot for industrial action. Their caseloads overflowed long ago, but now thousands of prisoners released early – 2,000 this month – have been thrust upon them. The responsibility is overwhelming, with officers blamed for crimes their clients … Continue reading Scotland has twice as many ‘probation officers’

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Time for Scotland to wake up to the double standards, hypocrisy, propaganda and spin that we as a nation are subjected to

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By Liz S “Scotland’s drug deaths crisis IS a human rights scandal but it is also a fundamental consequence of our subjection still within a dying, dysfunctional but still dominant and brutal empire”. Indeed and as “consequences” it is yet another terrible legacy that the SNP have inherited but now they , the SNP, are getting all of the blame for what ? In them , the SNP to be seen as creating this crisis as a situation and so then being solely ineffective in solving it ? However talking of a “scandal” and those who seek to try to … Continue reading Time for Scotland to wake up to the double standards, hypocrisy, propaganda and spin that we as a nation are subjected to

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‘I believe that the UK (sic) is decades behind other countries’: Unlike in Scotland, UK Government quietly dropped plan to prepare England for wildfires

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Typically the above expert on BBC Breakfast this morning knows nothing of Scotland. Scotland already has a published Strategic Action Plan for Wildfires (5 March 2026), produced with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), land managers and the Scottish Wildfire Forum. More below. Above, a lightly-clad firefighter working in Dunwich heat next to a nuclear power station. In the Guardian today: The government quietly scrapped plans to prepare the countryside in England for wildfires, it has been revealed. This was despite new data showing fire crews do not have the proper protective gear to tackle them. This summer has … Continue reading ‘I believe that the UK (sic) is decades behind other countries’: Unlike in Scotland, UK Government quietly dropped plan to prepare England for wildfires

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YouGov’s naked bias still using the thousands who have passed since 2014 to make you think No could still win

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The pollster YouGov above today still trying to tell us we don’t want independence. Below, telling with unerring regularity the same story in the face of a powerful trend telling us the opposite. It’s not just the last four or five YouGov polls, going back years they almost never get a Yes lead. YouGov is of course, Tory-owned. So how might they be doing this. Have a look at the way they have adjusted their initial sample to make a No result more likely. Typically, in June 2026: They have reduced the size of the declared SNP voters from 659 … Continue reading YouGov’s naked bias still using the thousands who have passed since 2014 to make you think No could still win

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Too few people are ready yet to really go for it

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Lesley Riddoch above telling viewers that the SNP leadership is too comfortable in their jobs and that ‘to too many people, they look like they’re behind an ivory tower.’ I know, there are those in the SNP leadership a bit too comfortable but I remain convinced that the party heads inevitably toward independence and I see little evidence for Riddoch’s claims. There is evidence from polls that voters think the SNP is out of touch but that is rarely on the push for independence. YouGov and Survation in early 2026, had Cost-of-Living (48%) and NHS (39%), Housing, Education and Crime, … Continue reading Too few people are ready yet to really go for it

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Reform UK candidates will be vetted

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By Liz S Calling Malcolm Offord & Thomas Kerr to ask them if they watched last night’s ITV news report on the racist & sexist comments made by Reform UK Councillors and Candidates in England (is it only there though ?). Reminds me of when the BBC reported on Reform UK on their BBC website in March 2026 via this headline “Reform UK suspends Scotland candidate over financial allegations” . That also, as an article , included other Reform candidates suspect opinions in one of them “spreading rumours about asylum seekers moving into a former school in Perthshire” and also … Continue reading Reform UK candidates will be vetted

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Why UK Labour’s risky nuclear changes are just like Trump’s ‘pro-cancer’ agenda working on behalf of polluters and chemical makers to expose us all to more carcinogens

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In the Scotsman, yesterday, in a sequence of anti-SNP pieces recently, the above from the woman below: Melanie Ward has worked for several charities, including Christian Aid, and ActionAid UK. For a time she chaired The Circle, which is a charity that Annie Lennox founded to empower women. By December 2015, Ward was the associate director of policy and advocacy for International Rescue Committee UK (IRC). She was still working for IRC in September 2021. In September 2022, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) announced that it had appointed Ward to become its new CEO. She took up her position in … Continue reading Why UK Labour’s risky nuclear changes are just like Trump’s ‘pro-cancer’ agenda working on behalf of polluters and chemical makers to expose us all to more carcinogens

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Scotland’s drug deaths crisis IS a human rights scandal but it is also a fundamental consequence of our subjection still within a dying, dysfunctional but still dominant and brutal empire

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From Third Force yesterday, the above, and: The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) chair has challenged ministers over their response to the continuing drugs’ death toll, insisting the loss of life is neither acceptable nor inevitable. Professor Angela O’Hagan’s intervention follows figures showing 1,133 people died from drugs in Scotland during 2025 – an increase of 116 on the previous year and the sixth-highest annual total on record. The figures expose a devastating divide between Scotland’s richest and poorest communities, with people living in the most deprived areas 15 times more likely to die from drugs than those in the … Continue reading Scotland’s drug deaths crisis IS a human rights scandal but it is also a fundamental consequence of our subjection still within a dying, dysfunctional but still dominant and brutal empire