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Scottish Government’s earlier start to vaccination has averted extreme rate of increase overwhelming hospitals

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Professor John Robertson OBA From AI: The UK’s flu vaccination programme is devolved, with Scotland managing its own through Public Health Scotland and NHS Scotland, while England follows NHS England and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) guidelines. Based on official guidance: This earlier September rollout in Scotland allowed for broader access about a month ahead of England’s main phase, potentially aiding higher uptake in vulnerable groups before the early flu surge (e.g., H3N2 strain cases rose 24% to 2,331 by early December 2025).No widespread reports of delivery delays emerged in either nation, though private pharmacy stocks ran low in Scotland … Continue reading Scottish Government’s earlier start to vaccination has averted extreme rate of increase overwhelming hospitals

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Scotland flu vaccine jagging far faster than NHS England can jab

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Dorothy for alerting me to this. According to Dr Chris Streather, who’s Medical Director for the NHS in London, on Channel 4 News last night, NHS England has vaccinated more than 1.8 million for the flu virus1. That answer was in response to a question about vaccine denial. Both Dorothy and I thought the same – is that all? Why? We’ve been here before comparing stats from NHS Scotland and NHS England where the latter should be 10 times greater on anything to just be at the same level per head of population. 1.8 … Continue reading Scotland flu vaccine jagging far faster than NHS England can jab

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NHS England asking hospitals to make patients wait longer and reduce the numbers they treat until the end of the financial year! Imagine that was in Scotland?

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Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC Health today, the above and: Access to hospital treatments is being restricted in many areas of England as the NHS struggles to balance its books, the BBC has learnt. Regional health boards have ordered some hospitals to cut back on the number of patients they are seeing, meaning hundreds of thousands of patients could have to wait longer for treatment. NHS managers said they were between a “rock and a hard place” trying to juggle balancing the books with tackling the hospital backlog, which currently stands at 7.4 million. Reducing waits for things like … Continue reading NHS England asking hospitals to make patients wait longer and reduce the numbers they treat until the end of the financial year! Imagine that was in Scotland?

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Reddit cares about free speech? Tell that to this ‘f*****g lunatic’ and ‘known nutjob’ who writes ‘doctored articles’

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Professor John Robertson OBA Reddit has attacked the Australian Government on a major political issue – free speech. Do the spotty wee lads at Reddit Scotland know? Three days ago, I posted: Browsing Reddit Scotland, a place where you can say what you like about people’s sanity, I was banned, two years ago for those satirical spoof things I often do. This kind of thing: They said ‘FAKE NEWS!’ He’s trying to fool us! I thought they’d get it. Satire, you know. They didn’t. Today someone posted my piece on school attainment in Scotland and England. Very soon, I was … Continue reading Reddit cares about free speech? Tell that to this ‘f*****g lunatic’ and ‘known nutjob’ who writes ‘doctored articles’

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A nuclear power station is ‘on the front line of an election battle?’ Says who? Just one Labour councillor? Thought control in a democracy exemplified

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Professor John Robertson OBA Headlining the BBC Scotland website this morning, the above and: The future of nuclear power in Scotland is shaping up to be a battleground at next year’s Holyrood election – and Torness, on the banks of the Forth, is on the frontline. The Labour government at Westminster has declared its intention to usher in a new “golden age” of nuclear. But the SNP government at Holyrood opposes new nuclear power stations and can use planning laws to prevent them being built – even though energy policy is reserved to the UK Parliament. No one seems to … Continue reading A nuclear power station is ‘on the front line of an election battle?’ Says who? Just one Labour councillor? Thought control in a democracy exemplified

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Why is Fife trans row nurse media feeding frenzy now 50 times as big as the Darlington one? ‘News doesn’t just happen it’s  constructed’

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Professor John Robertson OBA There are million stories out there, from the flu pandemic to youth employment or the ten year high in cereal harvests, but six of the newspapers available in Scotland are still going on about Nurse Peggie. She’s so high profile, school kids will have a playground game about her. My 5 year-old grandson says they have Donald Trump game. I’ll spare you the details. An AI survey today reveals up to 50 Peggie reports in December alone and only 1 Darlington report (Telegraph) in the same period. Why are they obsessing over her? From US researchers: … Continue reading Why is Fife trans row nurse media feeding frenzy now 50 times as big as the Darlington one? ‘News doesn’t just happen it’s  constructed’

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Contrary to Jackie Baillie’s claims ‘SNP’ HAS been ‘ready for winter’ as flu-related hospital emissions begin to plateau and are contained within resources while NHS England’s still surge toward ‘worst case scenario’ in their less resilient system

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From NHS England yesterday: Flu hospitalisations have surged by more than half in just one week, plunging the NHS into a “worst case scenario” situation for December, new figures reveal today.  An average of 2,660 patients per day were in a hospital bed with flu last week – the highest ever for this time of year and up 55% up on last week.1 From Public Health Scotland, also yesterday: Influenza activity in Scotland increased at a more moderate pace in week 49, although the high activity threshold has now been reached, earlier than previous seasons. Case numbers increased by 24% … Continue reading Contrary to Jackie Baillie’s claims ‘SNP’ HAS been ‘ready for winter’ as flu-related hospital emissions begin to plateau and are contained within resources while NHS England’s still surge toward ‘worst case scenario’ in their less resilient system

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Britain [sic] slipping down global league table for youth employment, says accountancy firm yet UK youth unemployment is 40% higher than in Scotland which has one of the lowest rates in Western Europe

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian yesterday: Britain slipping down global league table for youth employment, says report – Britain is slipping down the global league table for youth employment amid a dramatic rise in worklessness that is putting a generation’s future at risk, research has warned. Sounding the alarm over a worsening youth jobs crisis, the report from the accountancy firm PwC said Britain’s economy was missing out on £26bn a year because of sharp regional divisions in youth joblessness. In its annual youth employment index, it said the UK was falling behind other advanced economies amid a deterioration … Continue reading Britain [sic] slipping down global league table for youth employment, says accountancy firm yet UK youth unemployment is 40% higher than in Scotland which has one of the lowest rates in Western Europe

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If Scotland’s minimum unit pricing for alcohol went up from 50p to 65p per unit, the UK Treasury gets all of the increased revenue or nearly £20 million per year

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Professor John Robertson OBA From Minimum alcohol pricing (MUP) revenue: FOI release published on 10 December 2025: With regards to your question about diverting additional revenues resulting from MUP in Scotland to invest in public services. The Scottish Government does not raise any revenue directly from minimum unit pricing of alcohol. Any increased revenue that retailers accrue as a result of the increase to the MUP would be subject to existing UK reserved taxes. Alcohol sales are subject to Value Added Tax (VAT), whilst any profits made by retailers selling alcohol are already subject to Corporation Tax. Alcohol Duty and VAT are reserved to the … Continue reading If Scotland’s minimum unit pricing for alcohol went up from 50p to 65p per unit, the UK Treasury gets all of the increased revenue or nearly £20 million per year

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Scottish cereal harvest achieves a ten-year high! Enough to feed 7.5 million before we get to the salmon and whisky to wash it down

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Professor John Robertson OBA From Cereal and oilseed rape harvest: final estimates – 2025 published yesterday: Cereal production is up nearly 10% on the last days of Labour (Table 2 in Supporting Documents). How many people could survive for a year on a harvest of 3.14 million tonnes of cereal including 1 million tonnes of wheat, 363 thousand tonnes of winter barley, 1 556 tonnes of spring barley and 185 thousand tonnes of oats? This harvest (≈1.55 million tonnes of cereal, of which 1 million tonnes is wheat) could keep roughly 7.4 to 7.5 million people alive for one full … Continue reading Scottish cereal harvest achieves a ten-year high! Enough to feed 7.5 million before we get to the salmon and whisky to wash it down