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NHS Scotland caring for 8% of the population but with not one of the five major maternity crises and a system that is ‘equitable’

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Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC Health today: Health Secretary Wes Streeting, has said “we must act now” as he announced a national investigation into maternity care in England. The announcement comes after a series of critical reports into maternity care over the past decade. Dr Clea Harmer, chief executive of the baby loss charity Sands, said the national investigation was “much-needed and long-overdue”. The ‘Scottish’ media are quiet. If they had something, they’d be all over it like nappy rash. I searched for ‘Scotland maternity inspections substandard‘ – only English ‘hits’. I searched the Healthcare Improvement Scotland site – … Continue reading NHS Scotland caring for 8% of the population but with not one of the five major maternity crises and a system that is ‘equitable’

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Families in England even more worried over lack of speech therapists and lagging behind Scotland, as the waiting list there is 17% longer than in Scotland

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Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC Scotland today, the above case study and: Families [well two] worried over lack of specialist speech therapists – A new report seen by BBC Scotland News shows that demand for speech and language therapists (SLT) is increasing in Scotland but that the numbers of therapists is falling behind the rest of the UK. The report, by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), says Scotland needs to increase its full-time equivalent SLT therapists by 370, from a current total of 530. It also says that Scotland is lagging behind England in terms … Continue reading Families in England even more worried over lack of speech therapists and lagging behind Scotland, as the waiting list there is 17% longer than in Scotland

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Corruption and incompetence in Scottish Higher Education beginning at least 10 years ago but unresolved today it seems

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Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair UWS Recent headlines casting doubt on the competence and probity of senior staff across Scotland’s universities, and notably the current UWS principal reminds me sadly of my own attempt, nearly ten years ago, to publicly expose malpractice there, which no public body, no local MP, no government minister and no media oultet would touch. Here it is. Read and weep: Public Interest Disclosure Policy & Procedure (Whistleblowing) To: Chair of Court Discloser: Professor John Robertson, School of Media, Culture and Society Date: 18th November 2015 Key aspects of complaint: Academic or … Continue reading Corruption and incompetence in Scottish Higher Education beginning at least 10 years ago but unresolved today it seems

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What’s the legacy of the British Labour Party after 27 continuous years governing in Cardiff? Think about it before voting Labour in Scotland in 2026!

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By stewartb – a long read British Labour Party MSPs and MPs are ramping up the negative rhetoric about Scotland in advance of the 2026 Holyrood election. And the mainstream media for the most part are playing their part in communicating Labour’s campaign messages – with little challenge, without context, without perspective, and without cross-UK comparative analysis. Moreover, British Labour Party MPs, elected to represent Scottish constituencies, have been standing up every week at PMQs to put a ‘question’ designed ONLY to denigrate the Scottish Government and Scotland’s (devolved) public services. All to entertain their colleagues from English constituencies and … Continue reading What’s the legacy of the British Labour Party after 27 continuous years governing in Cardiff? Think about it before voting Labour in Scotland in 2026!

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NHS Wales slipping into crisis after 27 years of Labour mis-rule

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By stewartb Another question for Dame Jackie Baillie and her ilk! How can this (below) be happening in a nation that has been governed by the British Labour Party for 26 or 27 years? From the Wales page of the BBC News website today (June 19): ‘Treatment wait times up despite extra NHS funding’. This is what we learn about NHS Wales today: The health think tank, the Nuffield Trust now offers users of its website access to an AI powered search facility. It invites them to pose their own questions. To the question ‘What is the state of NHS Wales?’, this is … Continue reading NHS Wales slipping into crisis after 27 years of Labour mis-rule

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18 years after SNP come to power, the 60 areas with the lowest life satisfaction are in England or Wales and the 61st, lowest in Scotland, is Jackie Baillie’s!

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Professor John Robertson OBA From The 2025 UK Wellbeing Report published today, we can see on pages 29 to 39, that the the 60 local authorities with the lowest life satisfaction are all in England or Wales, from an average score of 6.46 out of 10, with West Dunbartonshire, in Jackie Baillie’s constituency, coming in at 61 with an average score of 7.25. It’s bound to have an effect after all that time seeing and hearing her. We get to 77 before East Ayrshire appears and another 15 before a cluster of Scottish local authorities appear. Notably the East Dunbartonshire … Continue reading 18 years after SNP come to power, the 60 areas with the lowest life satisfaction are in England or Wales and the 61st, lowest in Scotland, is Jackie Baillie’s!

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Scotland’s independence drive before 2014 did not reduce inward investment

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stewartb With reference to the graph above, what happened to Scotland’s FDI performance pre-2015, in the years of uncertainty over what Scotland’s people would opt for in a late 2014 referendum. Would they choose that most awful of outcomes, independence? Surely that would have given foreign investors cause to pause – no longer in a UK, out of the EU – fears a plenty? So what happened? From Business Insider (May 27, 2015): ‘Survey: Slight fall in inward investment to Scotland in 2014 – Latest attractiveness survey from accountants EY suggests Scotland attracted 80 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects last year, down from 82 … Continue reading Scotland’s independence drive before 2014 did not reduce inward investment

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Politicising education in Scotland in a way that’s very rare in England or Wales despite the real crisis there

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By stewartb The BBC Scotland Education Correspondent’s article (June 18) on the BBC News website headlined: ‘Will new school rules help cut violence in the classroom?’ has a number of additional characteristics typical of BBC Scotland’s output. It politicised a topic in ways not replicated in BBC articles on the same topic concerning England and Wales. It was devoid of context, devoid of perspective and of course, without comparative analysis. It devoted more space to critics, most notably a Tory Party MSP, than it did to informing readers on the actual content of the new guidance and importantly, how – informed … Continue reading Politicising education in Scotland in a way that’s very rare in England or Wales despite the real crisis there

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Not so much driven out of the classroom by bad behaviour as seeing a lucrative business opportunity seven years ago?

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stewartb June 18, 2025 at 3:59 pm Edit The BBC Scotland’s Education Correspondent today (June 18) has an article on the BBC News website headlined: ‘Will new school rules help cut violence in the classroom?’ The context is publication of new guidance from the Scottish Government on how schools should deal with violent and aggressive behaviour from pupils. The BBC Scotland piece claims that pupil behaviour is causing teachers to leave the profession. Of course some teachers do opt to leave and no doubt the stresses and strains of dealing with unacceptable classroom behaviour will be the trigger for some. Of course this … Continue reading Not so much driven out of the classroom by bad behaviour as seeing a lucrative business opportunity seven years ago?

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When they stop trying to replicate 2014 even YouGov can get the SNP above 40% in a poll

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Professor John Robertson OBA We’ve seen here, repeatedly, in Scotland-only polls, the pollster YouGov‘s unerring ability to minimise support for the SNP, to maximise that for Labour and to produce double figure leads for the No vote in a future referendum. Today, in a UK-wide poll with the sample adjusted in the light of the EU referendum in 2016 and the 2024 General Election, the Scottish sub-sample has this: The Labour figure seems wildly out given their performance in government and media coverage of that, suggesting it should be much lower, Reform UK should be in second place in the … Continue reading When they stop trying to replicate 2014 even YouGov can get the SNP above 40% in a poll