Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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English County Lines drug gangs make it to Shetland but Scottish Government pays for detection dogs

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From the Shetland Times today: A second one-off payment of £30,000 has been made to vital charity Dogs Against Drugs by the Scottish government. This will help the cash-strapped charity to detect illegal substances which are brought to the isles as well as continue its important educational classes to Shetland schools. Who is bringing these illegal substances to the Shetlands? From the same source: “I think that if we didn’t have Dogs Against Drugs, then we could be really vulnerable to exploitation from our county lines gangs,” Mr Sewell told this newspaper recently. If you look at Inverness, anyone who’s … Continue reading English County Lines drug gangs make it to Shetland but Scottish Government pays for detection dogs

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Scottish Government delivers on pledge to increase dentistry student numbers and further widen gap with other parts of UK

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From Scottish dentistry student numbers increase, published 22 January 2026 11:35 The number of Scottish students starting Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) courses has increased by 7% – the highest increase in a decade. The boost in student numbers fulfils a Scottish Government pledge to deliver an expanded pipeline of new dentists joining the workforce from 2029. The increase, which came in 2025-26, will be further supported by the Draft Budget for 2026-27 which outlines record funding of over £526.5 million for the sector. The number of Scottish students starting BDS courses has risen by 10 places, up from 135 … Continue reading Scottish Government delivers on pledge to increase dentistry student numbers and further widen gap with other parts of UK

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Major Scottish Government investments in eradicating child poverty that you’ll struggle to hear about

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From Investing in Scotland’s children, published 22 January 2026 09:20, covered by STV but nowhere else I can see: Children and families across Scotland will benefit from the Scottish Government’s sustained investment in Education and Skills as part of the national mission to eradicate child poverty. The proposed Scottish Budget for 2026-27 commits up to £200 million to the Scottish Attainment Challenge, which has already delivered sustained progress in closing the poverty-related attainment gap. This includes Pupil Equity Funding that aims to empower headteachers to tailor support to meet the specific needs of pupils and families in their communities. An … Continue reading Major Scottish Government investments in eradicating child poverty that you’ll struggle to hear about

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Research by Royal College finds TWICE as many over 60s, per head of population, waiting more than 12 hours in NHS England’s A&E departments as in NHS Scotland – a political responsibility that can no longer be ignored there

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Support Talking-up Scotland -In this election year in Scotland, the 90% pro-Union media and their sponsors in the opposition parties will do everything they can to undermine the pro-independence parties. Thought vastly outnumbered, we will do our very best to counter their lies and get you, every day, the true stories and the sources of evidence to prove them. Help us if you can at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-get-the-facts-for-you When I saw the above from MSM Monitor yesterday, you can imagine what I was thinking but there are no directly comparable figures for Scotland. However, there are two reports from the usually very … Continue reading Research by Royal College finds TWICE as many over 60s, per head of population, waiting more than 12 hours in NHS England’s A&E departments as in NHS Scotland – a political responsibility that can no longer be ignored there

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Far more police officers and far less crime – what today’s Reporting Scotland team will never tell you in this election year

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In BBC Reporting Scotland’s, BBC Breakfast, inserts and all today today, you’ll be hearing this meaningless fact – ‘but officer numbers have fallen 5% over five years.‘ BBC Scotland, the Daily Record, the Herald and the Scotsman are now fully dedicated to platforming Scottish Labour’s stash of manipulated Freedom of Information data on any aspect of public service that might look bad for the SNP Government. Recently, it’s been police officers giving up on the job or failing training courses. I could try to dig into these and find the usual lack of any methodology and sneaky fiddling with the figures, I’ve found several times … Continue reading Far more police officers and far less crime – what today’s Reporting Scotland team will never tell you in this election year

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12 YouGov sub-polls in three months with 6 of last 8 at 39/40% suggest SNP is further ahead than other polls, skewed by use of 2014 data to weight sampling

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YouGov is no friend of the SNP nor of Scottish Independence. They have an unerring ability to pluck out a NO lead in a stream of YES leads found by other pollsters and lower SNP figures than others. See below: They do this over and over by adjusting the sample so that, even after 11 or 12 years, it has a 55 to 45 ratio of No and Yes voters in 2014, in full Scotland only polls. In their most recent, above, see how, even though they already had a 510 to 433 bias in favour of No, they then adjusted … Continue reading 12 YouGov sub-polls in three months with 6 of last 8 at 39/40% suggest SNP is further ahead than other polls, skewed by use of 2014 data to weight sampling

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After 8 years of English drug gang terror in the North of Scotland, BBC Scotland will still not mention this stain on their Union

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From STV and in the Aberdeen-based Press & Journal today, the above headline, carefully avoiding the origins of the dealer, in England:: A county lines drug dealer from Liverpool will serve almost six years for using a stolen BMW to supply class A narcotics in Scotland. James Stephen, 31, was arrested on June 17 last year after police in Aberdeen tracked down a white car that had been stolen from a home in the city the previous month. https://news.stv.tv/north/drug-dealer-caught-using-stolen-bmw-to-take-heroin-and-cocaine-into-scotland The report tells us little of what County lines gangs do and the effects they have. Assistant Chief Constable Andy Freeburn … Continue reading After 8 years of English drug gang terror in the North of Scotland, BBC Scotland will still not mention this stain on their Union

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Glasgow hospital infection inquiry – How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it reducing the level to an eighth of the level in England and a third of the level in Europe.

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In the midst of the frenzy of ill-informed reporting on the Glasgow hospital infections inquiry, important facts you’ll never hear. From the Journal of Hospital Infections in November 2012: The prevalence of HAI was 4.9%, 2.5%, 6.1% and 1.2% in acute, non-acute, paediatric and independent hospitals respectively [in Scotland in 2006].  https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(12)00277-0/abstract From the Scottish Public Health Observatory, in 2024: The most recent comprehensive data on hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in Scotland comes from a 2021 study led by Glasgow Caledonian University, commissioned by the Scottish Government. This study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, found that approximately 1% of hospital patients … Continue reading Glasgow hospital infection inquiry – How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it reducing the level to an eighth of the level in England and a third of the level in Europe.

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‘Brian Wilson’s anti-SNP vitriol is a clear and present danger to Celtic’

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In The Celtic Blog yesterday, the above image of Brian ‘Bad Vibrations’ Wilson, Celtic chairman (bottom left) and: He has been in post since the transfer window opened, which makes it roughly twenty days. In that time, he has made a public call for unity, which he has not followed through on, despite the Collective issuing an open invitation to dialogue. He has presided over what we all know has been a dreadful first two thirds of the transfer window. But right now I want to talk about something else. Because he has gone back to doing what he does … Continue reading ‘Brian Wilson’s anti-SNP vitriol is a clear and present danger to Celtic’