‘Second class citizens, Jamie?’ Islanders have actually been treated far better than the rest of us by this government
Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald at the weekend had two stories on a supposedly high number of sailings cancelled by ‘technical faults.’1, 2 They claimed that ‘more than 16 000 (16 039) such cancellations from 1 January 2023 to October 2025, based on a Freedom of Information request by the Lib Dem’s Jamie Greene meant islanders were being treated as ‘second class citizens.’ CalMac makes around 160 000 to 170 00 sailings per year3 so for that strange period chosen, 2 years and 10 months, they made around 450 000. 16 000 is only 3.6% of the total sailings … Continue reading ‘Second class citizens, Jamie?’ Islanders have actually been treated far better than the rest of us by this government
Never mind the media trivia scramble for a few police officers leaving or failing a training course, here’s what matters to you – 25% more officers in Scotland yet violent crime almost three times as common in England & Wales
Professor John Robertson OBA The Daily Record, the Herald and the Scotsman are now fully dedicated to platforming Scottish Labour’s stash of manipulated Freedom of Information data on any aspect of public service that might look bad for the SNP Government. Recently, it’s been police officers giving up on the job or failing training courses. I could try to dig into these and find the usual lack of any methodology and sneaky fiddling with the figures, I’ve found several times in the past, but it’s wasted effort because none of that matters. This does: First, see graph above, Scotland has … Continue reading Never mind the media trivia scramble for a few police officers leaving or failing a training course, here’s what matters to you – 25% more officers in Scotland yet violent crime almost three times as common in England & Wales
Confused Sunday Mail misses how Scotland’s massive energy over-production could make billions after independence easily feeding and watering the ‘gobbling’ AI data centres
Professor John Robertson OBA From the Sunday Mail yesterday the above back-to-front headline and: Massive new data centres planned in Scotland to power the AI revolution would use up to three quarters of the country’s total electricity demand [sic], a new study has claimed. Research firm Foxglove, which campaigns for fair tech, found the “staggering” amount of power as well as water required by data centres “carries serious environmental risk” for Scotland. Its study this month found 11 “hyperscale” data centres currently in the planning system could use up an astonishing 3000 megawatts of electricity supply once all operational. “And they produce a huge amount … Continue reading Confused Sunday Mail misses how Scotland’s massive energy over-production could make billions after independence easily feeding and watering the ‘gobbling’ AI data centres
Serious mortuary incidents such as cremating wrong body almost non-existent in Scotland but more common in NHS England
Professor John Robertson OBA Still in the headlines for BBC Scotland: Scotland’s largest hospital has apologised after a bereaved family was given the wrong body for a cremation ceremony. Morgue staff at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow passed an incorrectly labelled corpse to undertakers. The mistake was only realised after the funeral service and cremation. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde blamed human error and said that the staff involved had been suspended. First reported by the Scottish Sun, external, the family who thought they were cremating their loved one are said to be inconsolable. The mistake also denied another … Continue reading Serious mortuary incidents such as cremating wrong body almost non-existent in Scotland but more common in NHS England
Cost of rail nationalisation in Scotland – Herald’s uncritical reliance on notorious Taxpayers Alliance’s known biases is very poor quality journalism
Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald’s Martin Williams today has – ScotRail costs double under nationalisation as services fall – based entirely on a report by the Taxpayer’s Alliance a group known for hiding its sources of funding (above) and for highly selective analyses always predisposed to finding evidence in favour of privatisation. I really doubt the value of spending time looking in detail at the report. The group’s long history of cheating and lying on behalf of the rich and powerful makes them instantly unworthy of our time and Martin Williams knows that. What he is, in fact, arguing … Continue reading Cost of rail nationalisation in Scotland – Herald’s uncritical reliance on notorious Taxpayers Alliance’s known biases is very poor quality journalism
More than 300 years of London’s economic management of Scotland yet still the most impoverished and most ‘milked’ part of the UK
Professor John Robertson OBA Scotland, above, the most impoverished part of the UK, and yet: Continue reading More than 300 years of London’s economic management of Scotland yet still the most impoverished and most ‘milked’ part of the UK
BBC Scotland considers that voters in Scotland don’t need to know of Labour’s actual track record in government in Cardiff and Westminster
stewartb You may have noticed this rare occurrence: a positively-framed headline about NHS Scotland was published (December 23) on the Scotland page of the BBC News website: ‘A&E waiting times improve ahead of busy festive period’. On long waits, the BBC reported that during a week in mid-December: ’14% of patients waited over eight hours, compared to 16.9% the week before, and 6.9% had waits of more than 12 hours, down from 8.6% previously.’ The headline’s positivity was soon countered in the article by the BBC sharing with us the views of opposition politicians. Displaying the usual BBC blind spot over notions … Continue reading BBC Scotland considers that voters in Scotland don’t need to know of Labour’s actual track record in government in Cardiff and Westminster
Westminster blasted over 139 years of delays to projects, TWICE that of SNP Government
Professor John Robertson OBA Based entirely on a tragic feed from Scottish Labour as they fall to fourth in the latest opinion poll for the May election, the Record and the Scotsman have a headline that will have some of their readers scratching – ’67 year o’ delays? A thote they SNP had been in less than that, ken!’ So, just to be able to respond, we’ll use the same method for UK Government capital project delays. Here they are. Note that almost all had a plus sign after the number, so this is conservative and by no means comprehensive: Continue reading Westminster blasted over 139 years of delays to projects, TWICE that of SNP Government
Foreign medics NOT shunning NHS Scotland because of anti-migrant rhetoric from London parties
Professor John Robertson OBA The Guardian above has another of its ‘UK’ pieces with not a word on Scotland in it. There is, of course, no peer-reviewed research on this topic but, the MSM often tell us that they just report what is happening out there. So, comparing media reporting on this issue in Scotland and England’s media will give us a reasonable comparison. Given the background independence factor we can be very sure that if the Scottish media had any accounts of health workers leaving Scotland because of an anti-migrant rhetoric here, we’d know all about it. So: In … Continue reading Foreign medics NOT shunning NHS Scotland because of anti-migrant rhetoric from London parties
Flu cases decline steeply in Scotland more than two weeks ahead of England after Swinney had launched vaccine programme more than two weeks earlier
Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC Scotland on 24 December 2025: The number of laboratory-confirmed flu cases in Scotland has dropped by more than a third, new figures show. Public Health Scotland (PHS) data, external shows there were 1,297 confirmed cases in the week to 21 December – down from 1,994 in the previous week. Provisional figures also suggest there were 679 flu-related hospital admissions across the country, down from 950 in the previous week. PHS said the latest figures were encouraging but warned there could be more than one wave of flu in a season and urged people to take steps … Continue reading Flu cases decline steeply in Scotland more than two weeks ahead of England after Swinney had launched vaccine programme more than two weeks earlier
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 