Professor John Robertson OBA On 21 March 2021 (census day), the resident population of Jersey was 103,267. On 13 March 2025, BBC UK announced: Ferry travellers will soon be unable to get a ferry from Portsmouth to Jersey on Sundays after Danish operator DFDS took over. Jersey’s government chose DFDS to run the island’s ferries in December, with the first sailing on 28 March. The firm has contacted people who have bookings to offer alternative sailings and said the changes came after talks with tourism leaders and freight companies. Customers on social media have called it “shockingly bad” and “disappointing”, with DFDS … Continue reading Island with more than 100 000 population to lose its privatised Sunday ferry service

By Liz S Anas Sarwar tweeted this yesterday : “So much for Stronger for Scotland…. More like SNP – Stronger for Poland. This is a huge blow to Scottish shipbuilding. Once again, jobs and investment going abroad on the SNP’s watch” This was in relation to the news that “Ferguson ship yard misses out on new CaLMac Ferry order” as headlined on the BBC website, of course it was. Yet I saw on WGD a commentator, Legerwood, add a comment and a link onto that site that stated this: “Yet when Labour were in power, along with the LibDems, in … Continue reading How Labour betrayed Clyde shipbuilders and preferred corrupt Polish yards in 2005

Professor John Robertson OBA From Estimated Prevalence of Opioid Dependence in Scotland 2014/15 to 2022/23, published today by Public Health Scotland, the above table shows opioid dependency among males falling from 10 700 to 5 900 and among females falling from 6 400 to only 3 000. This is a most newsworthy and significant trend but you won’t see it in Scotland’s MSM because they don’t do good in case some of their viewers and readers think the SNP are responsible in the way they would be if the trend went the other way. Among 50 to 64 year-olds opioid … Continue reading Why is this not headline news? Opioid dependency plummets to around half the level in only 9 years

Professor John Robertson OBA From Public Health Scotland today, for the quarter ending 31 December 2024, we can see that 67% of the 278 805 patients attending were treated within the 18 weeks target. This is a 1.5% improvement on the figures for the same period in 2023.1 NHS England does not published quarterly data but for December 2024, the figure was only 58.9% treated within 18 weeks.2 NHS Scotland is thus treating 13.75% more within the target of 18 weeks. Remember that small percentage figure refers to more than 38 000 seen on time in NHS Scotland who might … Continue reading NHS Scotland increases number treated within 18 weeks to lead NHS England by 14%

Professor John Robertson OBA Yesterday from chekNEWS: BC Ferries has a major vessel back in its operational fleet as the Queen of New Westminster ferry returned to service Friday, just in time for the spring peak travel season. The vessel, which serves BC Ferries’ busiest route between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay, had been out of service for nearly 200 days due to extensive repairs and scheduled maintenance. The 60-year-old vessel was pulled from service in September after experiencing a significant failure in its propulsion system, where structural fatigue caused the propeller shaft to detach. https://cheknews.ca/queen-of-new-westminster-ferry-back-in-operation-after-lengthy-repairs-1244124/ Meanwhile, in Scotland, in stormier more … Continue reading BC Ferries in Canada has to patch-up 60 year-old ferry for busiest route as replacements not yet ordered despite it being 19 years older than Scotland’s oldest comparable ferry