As effectiveness of new UK Labour government plan to protect victims from released prisoners is questioned, a Scottish MP and former senior police officer explained the better Scottish system more than a year ago
Professor John Robertson OBA Today’s latest ‘back-of-a-cigarette-packet‘ plan by the UK Labour Government to protect victims from released violent offenders has been criticised by probation officers for lack of consultation and for certain failure as England’s tiny number of probation officers is swamped by new workload. In February 2024, Allan Dorans MP, the Scottish National Party’s then spokesperson on policing at Westminster and a former Detective Inspector with the Metropolitan Police, reported how a disclosure scheme in Scotland had been much more successful, as had wider efforts to reduce violent crime north of the border. Writing in Policing Insight, Dorans … Continue reading As effectiveness of new UK Labour government plan to protect victims from released prisoners is questioned, a Scottish MP and former senior police officer explained the better Scottish system more than a year ago
Not another one
By Liz S Last year in October there was an article on the BBC website. “Scottish government avoids defeat over housing emergency ‘failure’” “Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar put forward the motion which was debated by MSPs at Holyrood. It was defeated by 60 votes to 54 with eight abstentions”. “Instead, a motion amended by the government which removed the claim it had failed in responding to the emergency passed by 59 votes to 55 with eight abstentions”. “Sarwar stated homelessness on the rise” and he also said “Every number a human being in need of help and every missed … Continue reading Not another one
Audit Scotland’s shockingly ageist report implies a link but offers no evidence of absent older workers and offensively ignores value of proven reliability and experience in older council workers and teachers
Professor John Robertson OBA (74) ‘Our’ media this morning are full of negative reporting based on increasing absence rates among council workers including teachers, who are older on average than the general population. They are much-helped by Audit Scotland‘s framing of their report as Strain clear across Scotland’s local government workforce and its saturation-level ageism which can find no advantages in having a workforce in these complex areas – schools, housing, care, engineering and so on. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://audit.scot/uploads/2025-07/bv_250807_workforce_thematic.pdf Once more it’s propaganda from Audit Scotland of a kind the national auditors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland see no need for. … Continue reading Audit Scotland’s shockingly ageist report implies a link but offers no evidence of absent older workers and offensively ignores value of proven reliability and experience in older council workers and teachers
How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it
Professor John Robertson OBA I’m grateful to one of our Anons and to Arty Hetty for alerting me to this, in the wake of Jackie Baillie’s scurrilous misuse of statistics to suggest Scotland’s hospitals were ‘death traps‘ for old folk falling. People should be reminded that when JB was in government Scottish hospitals were death traps due to hospital acquired infections, which were affecting 10% of patients when Labour left office. The rate has now been halved and Scotland’s rate is lower than that in England and lower than the OECD average. I had a friend who worked at major … Continue reading How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it
How the poverty-related attainment gap is not politicised in England & Wales
By stewartb I asked ChatGPT this question: ‘Is the poverty-related attainment gap as politicised by opposition political parties and the news media in England and Wales as in Scotland? And why? This is its response summary: ‘Scotland has experienced intense political and media scrutiny because poverty-related attainment gap metrics are explicitly tied to government pledges. Successes and failures are amplified and often politicized. ‘In England and Wales, the attainment gap is treated more as a persistent structural problem, less as a political litmus test. Media and opposition criticism focus on general educational standards, funding, and recovery programmes, rather than direct failure … Continue reading How the poverty-related attainment gap is not politicised in England & Wales
School qualification achievement by deprived students surges by up to THREE times in SNP era
Professor John Robertson OBA, for nearly 40 years a schoolteacher, a teacher education lecturer, Associate Dean for Quality Assurance, research methods lecturer, PhD supervisor and Faculty Research Ethics Chair From Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 7: 2025 edition published in February 2025 (most recent figures), we can see that between academic years 2009/20120 and 2023/2024: Nearly three times as many pupils from the most disadvantaged 20% of the population and nearly twice as many from the next most deprived 20%, achieved 1 or more Advanced Highers (SCQF Level 7). At Level 6 or better, for Highers and above, there was … Continue reading School qualification achievement by deprived students surges by up to THREE times in SNP era
Jackie Baillie’s lies about so-called hospital ‘death traps’ exposed, based on dishonest use of freedom of information statistics, as hospital falls plummet from 2022 peak
Professor John Robertson OBA You’ve all seen the claims about increasing hospital falls figures from a Freedom of Information request by Scottish Labour, in an attempt to provide Jackie Baillie with ammunition to attack the SNP, as in this from the Record: Hospitals have been branded as “death traps for the frail” after over 250,000 falls were recorded. Nine out of fourteen health boards have seen an increase in fall as the SNP Government were urged to make the health service safer. The full data above tell a different story. After peaking in 2022, the total number in 2024 is significantly down, not … Continue reading Jackie Baillie’s lies about so-called hospital ‘death traps’ exposed, based on dishonest use of freedom of information statistics, as hospital falls plummet from 2022 peak
Improvement in attainment WITHIN the disadvantaged group matters and the SNP have doubled it in only 10 years but narrowing the ‘gap’ BETWEEN groups is both far less important and largely beyond all of us
Professor John Robertson OBA, for nearly 40 years a schoolteacher, a teacher education lecturer, Associate Dean for Quality Assurance, research methods lecturer, PhD supervisor and Faculty Research Ethics Chair The ‘Scottish’ media are frothing today about the SNP failing to narrow the attainment gap between those students from the most and the least deprived areas. In my 50 years researching and thinking, talking with colleagues across school and higher education, I’ve never met anyone who thinks we should be worrying about or trying to do anything about narrowing the class-based gap. Only in Albania and Maoist China were the gaps … Continue reading Improvement in attainment WITHIN the disadvantaged group matters and the SNP have doubled it in only 10 years but narrowing the ‘gap’ BETWEEN groups is both far less important and largely beyond all of us
I could teach a 10 year-old to explain why overall cancer waiting times increase when demand increases, when patients and medics call off in winter, and why the 94% with a positive diagnosis treated in 31 days is crucial, but BBC Scotland?
Professor John Robertson OBA Today, BBC Scotland use a Scottish Government announcement of new tests to speed up cancer treatment as an excuse to say they ‘come after waiting times are worst on record.’ On June 24th, the ‘Scottish’ media were positively frothing with delight at the above one-quarter dip in the the number of patients treated for cancer within 62 days. What’s wrong with the reporting? First, they ignored the 94.1% treated within 31 days after a positive diagnosis, which is crucial. Second, they are, of course, not mentioning the bits in bold below reporting increased demand: There were 4,373 eligible referrals for … Continue reading I could teach a 10 year-old to explain why overall cancer waiting times increase when demand increases, when patients and medics call off in winter, and why the 94% with a positive diagnosis treated in 31 days is crucial, but BBC Scotland?
The Scottish values that Reform UK cannot align with, but which produce an ‘impenetrable wall’ of support for the SNP?
Professor John Robertson OBA My column in this month’s Scots Independent: A recent survey by pollster More in Common for GB News, has cast doubt on Reform UK’s prospects in Scotland and suggests an ‘impenetrable wall’ of support for the SNP. On 19 July 2025, GB News reported: Reform UK’s hopes of generating a tartan tidal wave have been handed a damning verdict as a pollster has told GB News that the party’s values do not fully resonate with Scottish voters. According to a recent MRP poll by think tank More in Common, the SNP is set to make a major comeback in … Continue reading The Scottish values that Reform UK cannot align with, but which produce an ‘impenetrable wall’ of support for the SNP?
Talking-up Scotland 