Professor John Robertson OBA I have the above, not from reading scriptures of any religion, though the notion is in more than one, I remember it, I think, from the film ‘Schindler’s List.’ It came into my head after asking the question, in the light of the current and historical attacks on Nicola Sturgeon over her school closedowns and strict face mask-wearing edicts: How many children of school age died of Covid in Scotland England Wales between 2020 and 2022 The answer was: England – 23 Wales – 1 Scotland – 1 I’m a little ashamed to say, I thought, … Continue reading ‘Whoever saves a single soul, saves an entire world’ Scotland’s stricter pandemic measures in schools

Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC Business today: Rail fares in England next year are to be frozen for the first time in 30 years, the government has announced. The freeze until March 2027 will apply to regulated fares, which includes season tickets and off-peak returns. Scotland only gets a mention to remind us that the freeze only applies in England but there’s no mention that the Scottish Government scrapped peak rail fares in September 2025. Travellers will save 30-40% on peak-time travel only in Scotland. For example, London to Manchester (163 miles) peak return will still cost £150 to … Continue reading Labour’s price freeze being trumpeted merely keeps rail travellers paying far more in England than in Scotland

stewartb No less an authority(!) than the UK government on November 13 published this: ‘Reporting year 2025: Education and training statistics for the UK.’ Among the statistics given for the four constituent nations are pupil:teacher ratios for publicly-funded primary and secondary schools.  See https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2025 The ‘Headline facts and figures – 2025’ section has this on overall ratios for publicly-funded/maintained schools: ‘Pupil to teacher ratios were lowest in Scotland (13.3), and similar in Northern Ireland (17.1), England (18.0), and Wales (18.9).‘ Specifically for primary schools, the latest statistics on pupil-teacher ratios in for example Labour-run Wales and in Scotland are: Wales = 18.9 and Scotland = 16.1. Time … Continue reading Scottish teachers have enjoyed by far the best pupil/teacher ratio and consequent workload in the UK for at least 15 years now

Professor John Robertson OBA Watching BBC ‘s ‘Have I Got News for You’, last night, there was panel unanimity that, as Ian Hislop put it – ‘AI is strawndnry unreliable.‘ Readers will know that I’ve begun to use it more as a short-cut to finding evidence but that I do worry about the absence of media studies in the core curriculum in schools, to prepare younger, less-experienced, less sceptical minds, to understand the commonly market-oriented, pro-USA, pro-NATO and times pro-Christian ideological underpinning in the algorithms directing answers, to ask good questions and to push for better answers at times. Earlier … Continue reading As with Google and now AI, did Victorians suspect that encyclopaedias would lead to fake news and affect children?

Professor John Robertson OBA Today the Scottish Government announces: Almost £1 million is being allocated to help reduce pressures on A&E departments and improve patient flow over the winter months. The Scottish Ambulance Service will receive £995,000 to increase staffing for a clinical hub model, which uses GPs to triage patients as calls come in to prevent unnecessary ambulance dispatches and ensure everyone gets the treatment they need. The system was trialled successfully over a weekend in September this year and it is estimated that it could save 12,000 ambulance journeys over winter as well as safely preventing an additional … Continue reading Scottish Government launches major initiative to improve winter care and only STV with a few online-only agencies report

Professor John Robertson OBA In the National 24 January 2025: Mark Drakeford: Tories’ ‘suspicion of the Scots’ hindered UK in Covid THERE was an “inherent suspicion” in the way the UK government dealt with its devolved counterparts during the Covid pandemic because they were “worried about the Scots,” the former first minister of Wales has said. The above table is summarised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on page 101 of UK Poverty 2023 published on 26 January 2023, as: Scotland has the lowest mortality rate per 100,000 people for every degree of deprivation across the UK [p100] https://www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2023-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk That the above variation was due … Continue reading The evidence that UK Government ‘suspicion of the Scots’ led to inferior Covid-19 pandemic measures and the unnecessary deaths of thousands in England and Wales