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Ferret factchecker’s toxic dialogue suggests dramatically ebbing tide of racially-aggravated hate crime in Scotland threatening to just about disappear here, along with their far-right groups

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Bob Lamont for alerting us to this. The Ferret is in the National today with the above and: At least 20 incidents linked to anti-migrant protests, racism and the far right in the last two months have exposed rising political tensions across Scotland. They included attacks on mosques and asylum hotels, alleged assaults – and the jailing of a neo-Nazi for slashing a student in the face with a knife. The Ferret found there were at least 17 arrests linked to anti-migrant protests, and police are investigating a number of alleged hate crimes. Anti-racism … Continue reading Ferret factchecker’s toxic dialogue suggests dramatically ebbing tide of racially-aggravated hate crime in Scotland threatening to just about disappear here, along with their far-right groups

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‘Gangs of sinister, feral young men’ from England fuelling Scotland’s drug deaths, targeting vulnerable women and causing small town violence surges

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Scotsman last week had: Gangs of sinister, feral young men show why Police Scotland needs extra £140 million – Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell has sounded an alarm that politicians must heed Just who these young men are where they come from is left out so that readers might think they’re Scots but they’re not. As far back as 2018, the Liverpool Echo began a run of reports telling exactly where they’re from, with: How Liverpool’s drug criminals are fuelling Scotland’s gang wars In 2022: Liverpool drug gangs target Scots towns and cities as … Continue reading ‘Gangs of sinister, feral young men’ from England fuelling Scotland’s drug deaths, targeting vulnerable women and causing small town violence surges

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SNP and Swinney more favourably viewed than anything else in Scot’s political world

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Professor John Robertson OBA From the Ipsos Scotland Political Pulse survey, taken between 21st and 26th February 2025, these little-reported facts, at the time, in response to the question – To what extent, if at all, do you have a favourable or unfavourable opinion of the following politicians and political parties? Adding Very and Fairly Favourable scores: Source – https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/public-critical-scottish-governments-record-arent-convinced-labour-would-do-better-job#:~:text=A%20new%20Ipsos%20Scotland%20Political%20Pulse%20survey%2C%20taken,it%20has%20done%20a%20good%20job%20of%20this. This was some time ago but does anyone image any major improvements for any of the above apart from the SNP and Reform UK? Look at the recent polls: Talking-up Scotland’s special crowd funder has closed but you can support … Continue reading SNP and Swinney more favourably viewed than anything else in Scot’s political world

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Sexual attacks on hospital wards likely to be reducing since post-pandemic spike

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Sun today has the above, based on research by the Women’s Rights Network – HOW SAFE ARE OUR SCOTTISH HOSPITALS? THE CONCERNING EXTENT OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS AND RAPES IN SCOTTISH HOSPITALS 2019-2024 which carefully does not reveal what the trend is. From Grok AI: While, of course, not wishing to understate the appalling nature of such crime, it remains important to know what the trend is so that we may best consider how to tackle it. Source: https://www.womensrights.network/post/how-safe-are-our-scottish-hospitals#:~:text=Between%202019%20and%202024%2C%20288%20sexual%20assaults%20including,Boards%E2%80%99%20lack%20of%20systematic%20and%20coherent%20data%20gathering. Talking-up Scotland’s special crowd funder has closed but you can support at any time at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or … Continue reading Sexual attacks on hospital wards likely to be reducing since post-pandemic spike

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There may or may not have been a 1% cut in the mental health budget

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald is headlining today under yet another tasteless, clickbait image of someone holding their head in a darkened room: Exclusive: Charities question £16m gap in Scottish mental health budget Further down, they give us the background for scale of the alleged cut. 1.07%. Even further down we see: The Herald piece is an awesome attempt to confuse with Byzantine accounting procedures. I have no idea what they’re on about much of the time but I think it’s just about the level of detail being provided, as in this: I feel sure there is a TuS … Continue reading There may or may not have been a 1% cut in the mental health budget

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PM Starmer still confuses references to the place over which he governs

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stewartb Labour List published the transcript of Keir Starmer’s speech at the recent British Labour Party conference. (see https://labourlist.org/2025/09/labour-conference-2025-keir-starmer-speech-in-full/ ) Despite the best efforts (?) of his speech writers, PM Starmer still confuses references to the place over which he governs. Here are some extracts from the speech, with my comments. ‘It is a great country… It will always be a great country… ………… That’s the Britain I’m fighting for, conference… A nation of resolve… A land of respect… A Britain built for all.’ – we start here with ‘Britain’ being a single country AND a single nation. ‘That’s the most important aspect of … Continue reading PM Starmer still confuses references to the place over which he governs

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Poll suggesting to a gammon that majority of Scots support mass detention and deportation has same sampling flaw as those suggesting a No majority in a referendum on independence

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Professor John Robertson OBA Not for the first time, one time half-decent journo, now full-time Tory Gammon, Ian Macwhirter, cannot conceal his glee when he thinks he’s found evidence that Scots are just as nasty as Essex Tories. He bases his latest on the Sunday Times/Norstat poll on 22-25 September 2025, revealing that 60% of the sample (1 010) support mass detention sand deportation of those who arrive in the UK, without permission, for example on small boats? There’s a problem. The sample of 1 010 has been adjusted, ‘weighted‘, to match the vote in the 2014 referendum, 11 years … Continue reading Poll suggesting to a gammon that majority of Scots support mass detention and deportation has same sampling flaw as those suggesting a No majority in a referendum on independence

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‘Proud’ Englishman’s attempt to patronise Scots is embarrassing afterthought

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By Liz S On the BBC website Scottish Politics page. Starmer expresses pride in saltire as he vows UK ‘renewal’ Well actually the content of this article specifies that he , in his conference speech, stated “”I’m not just proud of the union jack and the cross of St George, I’m also proud of the saltire, proud of the red dragon, proud of our union.” So not just noting “pride” in the Saltire then….and also what Union is it that he is referring to ? Also if he is so “proud” of the Saltire then why is it that he only produces a video every year on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) on St George’s day and declares what he thinks it means … Continue reading ‘Proud’ Englishman’s attempt to patronise Scots is embarrassing afterthought

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As the Guardian reports cancer treatment failures in NHS England how Scotland hits 95% target and outperforms it to save thousands but ‘your’ media keep quiet

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above. Looking at the most recent statistics: NHS Scotland In Q2 2025 (April-June), 95.3% of 7 461 patients started treatment within 31 days from decision to treat, beating the 95% target, and 69.9% of patients started treatment within 62 days from urgent suspicion of cancer. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-april-to-30-june-2025/ NHS England In July 2025, 92.4% of patients started treatment within 31 days and 69.2% of patients started treatment within 62 days. https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/09/24/cancer-waiting-times-latest-updates-and-analysis/ So, NHS Scotland performing significantly better and remember that around 3% difference means around 250 more patients treated on time in Scotland, in one quarter, and around 2 500 more … Continue reading As the Guardian reports cancer treatment failures in NHS England how Scotland hits 95% target and outperforms it to save thousands but ‘your’ media keep quiet

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A tale of BBC Scotland’s response to Scottish Government press releases – how widespread, how blatant is bias by omission becoming?

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By stewartb Each and every working day at 1600 hours, the Scottish Government sends out an e-mail headed ‘Daily news update’. This collates all press releases issued that day, presumably in part as an aid to journalists. You will often find one or more of the day’s topics referred to here on TuS. But by BBC Scotland or the wider mainstream media in Scotland? Not so much!  Is amplifying positive news from the present Scottish Government too much of a threat to Unionist politicians? Whilst the nature of BBC journalism in Scotland is well known to readers of this blog, … Continue reading A tale of BBC Scotland’s response to Scottish Government press releases – how widespread, how blatant is bias by omission becoming?