8 000 hospitality workers in Scotland lose jobs since Labour National Insurance hikes but to a background of media silence here

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA BBC UK has the above shocking news of the effect that the Labour government’s policies on National Insurance have had. The Scottish job loss figure would be around 8 000. How has this happened? In the Telegraph today: Hospitality is particularly vulnerable to Ms Reeves’s changes to National Insurance contributions (NICs) because the increase in the tax rate from 13.8pc to 15pc was accompanied by a cut to the annual earnings threshold at which it applies. By cutting the point at which the levy … Continue reading 8 000 hospitality workers in Scotland lose jobs since Labour National Insurance hikes but to a background of media silence here

US deaths on the A9 had nothing to do with lack of dualing but BBC Scotland never miss the opportunity to mislead on the safest roads in the UK

says there should be driving restrictions on foreign visitors. Chris Strong from Chicago lost his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law after their car made a wrong turn was hit by a lorry near Newtonmore in 2022. Initial work to make the A9 safer by dualing it was due to be finished this year but has been hit by delays and rising costs. Ministers say…. Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA There is no meaningful connection with the type of road and deaths resulting from as mistaken right turn into … Continue reading US deaths on the A9 had nothing to do with lack of dualing but BBC Scotland never miss the opportunity to mislead on the safest roads in the UK

UK Government researchers say 25% of England’s drug deaths not counted to cast serious doubt on Scotland having the highest level

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA In the last few days, several media, including the Daily Record have used reports from the Festival of Politics at Holyrood chaired by SNP MSP Audrey Nicoll, which was primarily concerned with the debate over safe injections rooms and legalisation, to trot out the ‘Scotland has worst drug deaths in UK and/or Europe.‘ Readers will know that international comparisons of health, education, crime and other statistics can be highly problematic but, for some reason, Scotland’s drug death comparisons are taken at face … Continue reading UK Government researchers say 25% of England’s drug deaths not counted to cast serious doubt on Scotland having the highest level

Labour to copy another SNP policy, after 16 years of failure to get crime down to Scottish levels

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA In the Times in 2009: and: Scots Labour criticised the new sentencing provisions as a criminals’ charter that would undermine confidence in the justice system. Richard Baker, the party’s justice spokesman, said: “Communities expect those who break the law to be punished properly and this soft-touch approach will do nothing to deter lawbreakers. As a package, these plans are unsupportable and look unlikely to receive the necessary parliamentary backing.” https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/scotland-travel/snp-scraps-short-term-prison-sentences-rlqlz7mltcl?msockid=040f0c0f8f6f69bb36d418948ed46872 Still in 2024, Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar was against early release or … Continue reading Labour to copy another SNP policy, after 16 years of failure to get crime down to Scottish levels

Sneaked out on Friday afternoon by UK Labour Government to successfully avoid ‘Scottish’ media coverage, 60 000 disabled Scots many on below national average wage, to be stripped of winter fuel payment by tax clawback

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA Only in the Sunday Telegraph, as far as I can see, the above exposure of the plans to claw back the winter fuel allowance from 0.6 million disabled people earning £35 000, through the tax system. Per head, this means around 60 000 disabled Scots, many earning below the UK average annual wage of £38 000pa, will have the winter fuel allowance, in the coldest parts of the UK, stripped away, for government savings tiny compared with that which a proper wealth … Continue reading Sneaked out on Friday afternoon by UK Labour Government to successfully avoid ‘Scottish’ media coverage, 60 000 disabled Scots many on below national average wage, to be stripped of winter fuel payment by tax clawback

Scotland pays same share of revenue as England to confirm viability as an independent nation

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA Here is how the IFS presented the data in a report titled Scotland relies increasingly on fiscal transfers – like other regions outside South East England, published two days ago: Revenues per person as a share of UK revenues per person Last week, the Scottish Government published its latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) report for 2024–25. It estimates total government revenue raised in Scotland, total public spending benefiting Scotland (including a per-capita share of UK-wide spending on things such as debt interest, … Continue reading Scotland pays same share of revenue as England to confirm viability as an independent nation

Academic cowardice and BBC bias denial at the highest level in the Yes campaign in the run up to the 2014 Scottish Independence public debate

What I didn’t notice at first, I didn’t notice because the BBC had complained about me and I noticed that negative attention, I didn’t notice that none of my peer group were supporting me. None of them, whether they agreed with my research or not, they should have supported my freedom to write this and not to be bullied by the BBC. No single professor of media, politics, or economics or any relevant discipline. Not one broke ranks to say that they disagreed with the BBC. Is this because these people are within a sort of career bubble, and which … Continue reading Academic cowardice and BBC bias denial at the highest level in the Yes campaign in the run up to the 2014 Scottish Independence public debate

The Times tells us there ARE fewer landlords in Scotland but hides the fact that there are nevertheless MORE places to rent

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA The Times yesterday had the above and: Gosh, will that make it harder to find private rented accommodation, then? That’s clearly what they’re trying to say but, wait a minute, does that necessarily mean there is now less accommodation? Why doesn’t the Times give us the data on the reducing availability of accommodation? Well, that’s because there is more! See: From Housing statistics: Scottish Landlord Register data published today, we can see that the number of registered landlords in Scotland has fallen slightly, by 1.1% or … Continue reading The Times tells us there ARE fewer landlords in Scotland but hides the fact that there are nevertheless MORE places to rent

‘Huge pools of mystery sludge, leaking silos’ and shocking complacency only a few miles from Stranraer and the highest cancer level in Europe – Does Scottish Labour need a ‘cancer panic’ to wake it up to the horrific risks of pursuing even more nuclear projects?

Professor John Robertson OBA In the Daily Mail today: Atomic bomb waste discovered beneath six homes in St Louis has sparked panic and renewed concern in other US cities still haunted by Manhattan Project contamination. St Louis is far from the only city still dealing with Manhattan Project fallout. Across the country, sites such as Hanford in Washington, Oak Ridge in Tennessee, and Los Alamos in New Mexico remain dangerously contaminated. A 2003 study surveyed 801 individuals who lived downwind of the Hanford plutonium production facility, finding greater-than-expected numbers of central nervous system tumors and cancers of the female reproductive system. High incidences … Continue reading ‘Huge pools of mystery sludge, leaking silos’ and shocking complacency only a few miles from Stranraer and the highest cancer level in Europe – Does Scottish Labour need a ‘cancer panic’ to wake it up to the horrific risks of pursuing even more nuclear projects?

NHS Scotland treats 40% more head and neck cancer patients within the target time – more than 100 per year who would not have been treated on time had they lived in England

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald today has the above. As always it’s context free so that you cannot know how good or bad it is, relatively. In NHS Scotland, based on Public Health Scotland figures for 1 January to 31 March 2025, 70.6% of head and neck cancer patients were treated within the 62 day standard from receipt of an urgent referral.1 In England, the most recent comparable data, from November 2024, suggest only 50% of head and neck cancer patients were treated within the … Continue reading NHS Scotland treats 40% more head and neck cancer patients within the target time – more than 100 per year who would not have been treated on time had they lived in England