Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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FM launches additional £36.9 million fund to reduce drug and alcohol deaths as SNP initiatives already reduce them but in relative media vacuum 

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From the Scottish Government yesterday but, of the MSM, only reported in the Herald, this major announcement: First Minister John Swinney will today call for a new collective approach to reduce deaths and harms from drugs and alcohol, as he addresses a summit on drugs deaths in Edinburgh. It comes as a new Alcohol and Drugs Fund, which will provide £36.9 million to frontline services and organisations working with people affected by alcohol and drugs, is launched.  The summit, organised by Public Health Scotland, will bring together health board chief executives, local authority leaders, justice representatives and third-sector partners alongside people with … Continue reading FM launches additional £36.9 million fund to reduce drug and alcohol deaths as SNP initiatives already reduce them but in relative media vacuum 

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‘Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated’ and ‘Burnham putting Scotland back in its box’

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By Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197 While the band strikes up Hail to the Chief in Makerfield and the Prime Minister spends a nervous weekend contemplating his future at Chequers, sections of the Scottish press are once again falling over themselves to predict the death of the Scottish independence movement. The instrument of execution this time? Andy Burnham. According to Herald columnist and occasional prophet Neil Mackay, Burnham represents the SNP’s nightmare: a popular Labour leader who restores faith in Westminster and pulls the political rug from beneath the feet of the Scottish National Party and its supporters. It is an … Continue reading ‘Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated’ and ‘Burnham putting Scotland back in its box’

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As effectiveness of the new UK Labour government plan to protect victims from released prisoners is revealed to be failing, a former Scottish MP and former senior police officer explained the more effective Scottish system more than two years ago

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From the Western Mail 12 May 2026, the above image and: A MAN punched his fists through the kit­chen win­dow of his former part­ner’s house and threatened to murder her before tak­ing her by the throat and squeez­ing, a court has heard. Alex Thomas had only been out of prison for a mat­ter of days when he attacked the woman in her own home. Source: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/western-mail/20260512/281754160949044?srsltid=AfmBOoqFwQYiCXNV8WvWaCzWS66IFxf79j9_SJdB7fRphldnxLtOEm8t In August 2025, the UK Labour Government set out plants to prevent this kind of thing> Today’s latest ‘back-of-a-cigarette-packet‘ plan by the UK Labour Government to protect victims from released violent offenders has been … Continue reading As effectiveness of the new UK Labour government plan to protect victims from released prisoners is revealed to be failing, a former Scottish MP and former senior police officer explained the more effective Scottish system more than two years ago

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Murrell Effect debunked as SNP significantly increase vote share in by-election

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We all know the voters in Aberdeen South were set firm to punish both Labour and the SNP and they did. They humiliated Labour by pushing them down into 4th place! It was a single-issue protest vote of the kind we often see in by-elections and which means nothing for the wider and longer-term prospects of the winners. Lumsden should save as much as he can as he’ll be out again in 2 to 3 years. If there was to be a Peter Murrell, SNP corruption effect, we’d have seen it in Arbroath and Broughty ferry but the SNP share … Continue reading Murrell Effect debunked as SNP significantly increase vote share in by-election

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In Scotland, twice as many ‘probation officers’ and so only a tiny fraction of the re-offending level

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In the Guardian today: The public is “at direct risk” from unsupervised ex-offenders because probation officers in England and Wales are being asked to cope with excessive workloads, a union has said. As ministers prepare to release and monitor tens of thousands more prisoners this autumn, Napo’s executive has declared for the first time that it has no confidence in managers at the probation service. In a worrying development for the government, the union is threatening to launch industrial action in three months’ time unless members receive increased support and pay. James Timpson, the prisons minister, told MPs last week that the … Continue reading In Scotland, twice as many ‘probation officers’ and so only a tiny fraction of the re-offending level

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UK Energy Minister, Michael Shanks, should be warned about Rural Scots trapped in a ‘quiet crisis’

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The Scotsman today has a report on the Poverty Alliance apparently warning the SNP on the costs of energy in rural parts, unconnected to the gas grid and where home heating oil has to be bought in bulk in the absence of any price protection. The absence of price protection for heating oil, the regulatory framework for energy markets, and the overall approach to supporting off-grid households are reserved matters.1 Scotland has a higher proportion of homes off the mains gas grid than most of the UK. These households (roughly 142,000 using oil) rely on heating oil (kerosene), LPG, or … Continue reading UK Energy Minister, Michael Shanks, should be warned about Rural Scots trapped in a ‘quiet crisis’

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Why Swinney is correct to reject call for AI data centre pause in Scotland

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I knows this one is divisive. More than a few Talking-up Scotland readers disagree with us on it but here is the case, again, that Scotland is one of the few places with the resources – water and energy – to make a lot of money out of data centres, once independent of course. From the Sunday Mail 28 December 2025, the above back-to-front headline and: Massive new data centres planned in Scotland to power the AI revolution would use up to three quarters of the country’s total electricity demand [sic], a new study has claimed. Research firm Foxglove, which campaigns for fair tech, … Continue reading Why Swinney is correct to reject call for AI data centre pause in Scotland

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Why does BBC UK report an English drug gang terrorising Aberdeen but BBC Scotland hide it?

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From the Scottish Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service yesterday: Victor Kihu, 24, recruited men from deprived areas in England to sell and supply Class A drugs from several properties in a cross-border county lines illicit practice known as cuckooing.  Prosecutors from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) gathered evidence which showed Kihu exercised control over multiple addresses to oversee the drug-trafficking scheme.  He directed others to purchase and sell cocaine and heroin while using the homes of susceptible individuals as a base for his criminal conduct.  He was a member of an organised crime group known as Harlem which operated between Aberdeen, Glasgow and Inverness.   and: “Victor Kihu deliberately targeted people … Continue reading Why does BBC UK report an English drug gang terrorising Aberdeen but BBC Scotland hide it?

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The real drug gangs plague in Scotland – Media still keeping quiet on drug gang origins in England

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Images – Police Scotland Forget the Daniels and Lyons Scottish drug gangsters so beloved of the media operating in Scotland. They’re at a global level. They’re not dealing to your kids. This lot are, in a hundred locations from Thurso to Dumfries. From BBC Scotland: NE, Orkney & Shetland, yesterday: Eight men have been arrested and charged after police in Aberdeen seized drugs with a street value of more than £1.37m.Officers targeted 11 addresses across the city on Monday and Tuesday and discovered eight cannabis cultivations. The men, aged between 24 and 54, were due to appear before Aberdeen Sheriff … Continue reading The real drug gangs plague in Scotland – Media still keeping quiet on drug gang origins in England

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Unemployment in England 19% higher than in Scotland after nearly 20 years of not being governed by a social democratic party like the SNP

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In the Guardian today and from the ONS, above, but getting no BBC coverage: Unemployment fell and wages increased in April, official figures showed, putting pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates despite a peace deal in the Middle East. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed [UK] unemployment slipped to 4.9% in the three months to April from 5% in the three months to March. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/18/uk-unemployment-rate-falls-wages-interest-rates-iran-war Looking just at England and Scotland, it’s, in crude terms, 0.8% higher in the former. BBC Reporting Scotland will probably describe that as ‘similar’ but as a … Continue reading Unemployment in England 19% higher than in Scotland after nearly 20 years of not being governed by a social democratic party like the SNP