Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, there is, at least some attempt to expose the scale of child poverty in England with the term ‘tens of thousands’ but it is still concealing the awful truth.1 According to the Guardian in March 2025: The poverty figures showed that in Scotland 23% of children were in poverty, compared with 31% in England and Wales.2 From the 2021 Census, 12.6 million dependent children lived in households.3 So, 31% of 12 600 000 is 3 900 000! Had England been run by a party like the SNP, 8% of those 12.6 million, 1 … Continue reading More than 1 MILLION children would have been lifted out of poverty in England if they had been led by a party with the values and the policies of the SNP

stewartb ‘The blatant hypocrisy of lecturing the Scottish FM’. Has hypocrisy become endemic within much of the political opposition in Holyrood? In any event, it looks as if British Labour Party leaders in Scotland are STILL not being listened to by their comrades in government in Wales. The latter it seems STILL have not implemented the solutions to long waits in NHS A&E departments that the former have readily available, the solutions being shunned by the Scottish Government! From the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) on May 22: ‘RCEM: Welsh government must prioritise dangerous ED waits in Wales – lives depend on it’. The … Continue reading Thousands at risk as Royal College reveals A&E waiting times in Labour-run NHS Wales more than THREE times longer than in NHS Scotland

Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to cuckooshoe for alerting me to this: From ITN on 1 May 2025: ITN Productions’ new 1 x 90’ documentary for 5, looks at the rise in murder convictions for 12-17-year-olds in the UK, from those affected by these harrowing crimes and experts offering insight and analysis. Stuart Stephens [pictured], father of Olly Stephens who was killed in 2021 aged 13, shares heart-wrenching memories of his son, whose attack was planned on social media. Stuart subsequently started to campaign for tougher online safety measures. Rohan Shand’s son, Rohan Shand jr who was known as Fred, … Continue reading Important facts for Scotland’s media and opposition leaders – As murder by minors increases four fold in England and Wales but it plummets to a quarter in Scotland after 18 years of SNP administration

I’ve been really please to see the recent upsurge here of extensive and well-written comments under my often quite short posts. There is a danger that these get less attention than they deserve due to the fact that only a few hundred of the thousands following and sharing TuS across X, FB and BlueSky actually come to the full post in the blog. So, I do not hesitate to repost them and have renamed the blog accordingly. However, there’s only me here and for that reason, I see no alternative to a dictatorial form of editing where I just decide … Continue reading The Talking-up Scotland (Collective) – how to cope within it

Professor John Robertson OBA You’ve seen the media reports of Scottish doctors and nurses fleeing Scotland for New Zealand and Australia (both of the above, one from Mull). It’s being going on for a few years now with no significant statistics suggesting an ‘exodus’ but, I’m still wondering now how good are the health services down under? How about A&E? According to The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) in January 2025, 31% are waiting more than 8 hours.1 and only 55% were treated within 4 hours.2 In New Zealand, the use a 6 hour wait as the target and … Continue reading Despite a supposed ‘exodus’ of Scottish doctors to Australia and New Zealand we still have have far better (20%) Emergency departments than them or, of course, England and Wales