Urgent advice needed
Image Licence Enquiry for Press Association Images (case reference number: OKA2UL) I’ve received two emails recently, of this type. They’re looking for £1 200 for just two images. Naively, I may have used more in the past. Does anyone have any advice for me? Press Association <fairlicensing@pamediagroup.com> 10:40 AM (40 minutes ago) to me To whom it may concern, We are contacting you regarding the use of our imagery on your website thoughtcontrolscotland.com. We don’t have any record of our content being licensed for this use. This email outlines the situation and the steps you need to take to resolve the matter. Use of … Continue reading Urgent advice needed
There will be no race riots in Scotland this summer
Professor John Robertson OBA The UK media, above, are clear in their uncritical acceptance of the PM and the Deputy PM’s worries that riots will spread across the ‘UK’ again this summer. There were none in Scotland last year and the evidence remains to suggest there will be none again this year, no matter how hard the ‘Scottish’ media try to find something similar. What really happened and why did it not happen in Scotland? From BBC Scotland on 9 August 2024, in what must be an unauthorised ‘Scotland is the best‘ report by a junior reporter not yet ‘inducted‘: Police Scotland … Continue reading There will be no race riots in Scotland this summer
SNP minister writes to correct UK Labour minister’s lies on water quality but is completely ignored by BBC Scotland and STV, despite them having reported the lies unchecked in the first place
Professor John Robertson OBA Having lied bare-faced on the Channel 4 News, last night, to claim that water pollution levels in Scotland are worse than they are in England, UK Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s words were reported unchecked across Scottish media. Today, SNP Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, Gillian Martin, corrected him at some length in a letter, posted on the Scottish Government website this morning. Her letter has been largely ignored, other than in the Independent, above, and in the National. It begins: I am writing following the publication of the final report from the Independent Water … Continue reading SNP minister writes to correct UK Labour minister’s lies on water quality but is completely ignored by BBC Scotland and STV, despite them having reported the lies unchecked in the first place
If Nigel Farage is wrong on ‘UK’ crime, he’s even more wrong on crime in Scotland
Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian yesterday, the above and evidence that Farage is a bit off in his use of statistics on ‘UK’ crime. Will they survive a collision with the evidence here? From May 2025: Crime confirmed as really continuing to fall, based on three sources, to remain at roughly 1 in 10 experiencing crime directly from 1 in 5 under Labour From Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: May 2025, published today: Police recorded crime is down 1% since year ending December 2023, and remains below the position immediately prior to the pandemic. The total number … Continue reading If Nigel Farage is wrong on ‘UK’ crime, he’s even more wrong on crime in Scotland
As resident (junior) doctor strikes loom in NHS England, SNP settlement praised by BMA means NHS Scotland set to avoid thousands of excess deaths again
Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above and: In a letter to the NHS chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, the BMA council chair, Dr Tom Dolphin, and the deputy council chair, Dr Emma Runswick, said: “Your decision to instruct hospitals to run non-urgent planned care stretches safe staffing far too thinly, and risks not only patient safety in urgent and emergency situations, but in planned care, too. “Consultants cannot safely provide elective care and cover for residents at the same time. We therefore strongly urge you to reconsider your instructions to hospitals, which should be preparing now … Continue reading As resident (junior) doctor strikes loom in NHS England, SNP settlement praised by BMA means NHS Scotland set to avoid thousands of excess deaths again
English expert says – “I would say Scotland does a better job [of monitoring water quality] than England does.”
Professor John Robertson OBA What will look bad at first sight, above and in much media coverage a the time, for some, is a classic example of misleading reporting of percentages. Scotland has 18 743 km of coastline compared to England’s 8 982, only one-tenth of the population and, crucially far fewer areas requiring monitoring. Dr Simon Boxall of Southampton University, a leading expert on water quality, explained this in the National, in August 2022: An overview of the most obvious data on bathing water quality superficially appears to show Scotland actually has poorer-quality bathing spots than England. But this … Continue reading English expert says – “I would say Scotland does a better job [of monitoring water quality] than England does.”
Impartial intelligence-based research confirms Scotland has more investment, nearly FOUR times as many clean rivers, fewer sewage spills and only a quarter of the number failing tests
Professor John Robertson OBA Using the Grok AI software, owned by Elon Musk, no friend of the SNP, I asked: Are Scotland’s rivers cleaner than England’s? The answer was quite clear: Scotland’s rivers are generally cleaner than England’s based on available data. According to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), 57.2% of Scotland’s river stretches were classified as being in good or better overall condition in 2022. In contrast, only 15% of England’s river stretches meet good ecological health standards, and none are in good chemical health due to persistent toxic pollutants. Key factors contributing to this difference include: Continue reading Impartial intelligence-based research confirms Scotland has more investment, nearly FOUR times as many clean rivers, fewer sewage spills and only a quarter of the number failing tests
NHS England paid out staggering 45 times as much, per head, for just maternity-related complaints as NHS Scotland did for all complaints
Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above and: Analysis of NHS figures shows the potential bill for maternity negligence in England since 2019 has reached £27.4bn – far more than the health service’s roughly £18bn budget for newborns in that time. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/20/nhs-facing-absolutely-shocking-27bn-bill-for-maternity-failings-in-england With a tenth of the population, you might expect NHS Scotland to have paid out around £2.7 billion. I can find no data for just maternity related cases but for all complaints and for a period, one year longer: Health boards in Scotland have paid out more than £60 million in legal claims since 2018, … Continue reading NHS England paid out staggering 45 times as much, per head, for just maternity-related complaints as NHS Scotland did for all complaints
After 18 years maternal death rate in UK climbs to 33% higher than in Scotland
Professor John Robertson OBA What is ‘maternal death?’ Death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of the pregnancy (includes giving birth, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or termination of pregnancy) from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes http://www.who.int/healthinfo/statistics/indmaternalmortality/en/ In the Guardian today, the above and that in the most recent figures, for 2023, the maternal death rate was 12.67 per 100 000 births: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/20/maternal-deaths-rising-in-uk-despite-fewer-births-official-figures-show The most recent Scottish figure is 9 per 100 000: https://www.sad.scot.nhs.uk/bereavement/maternal-death/ The UK rate appears to be around 33% … Continue reading After 18 years maternal death rate in UK climbs to 33% higher than in Scotland
Scotland’s measles risk does not come from its own tiny ethnic minority groups but from ‘imported cases’
Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland, only, has an investigation today into the lower vaccine uptake among ethnic minority groups. The report has percentage and vulgar fraction descriptions of the shortfall but no actual figures so we cannot see just how many children are unvaccinated so we cannot really see the scale of the problem. The BBC Scotland report opens with: Last year data on childhood vaccines was broken down by ethnicity for the first time. It showed a wide variation in uptake across ethnic minority groups and Public Health Scotland called for more work to understand what is going … Continue reading Scotland’s measles risk does not come from its own tiny ethnic minority groups but from ‘imported cases’
Talking-up Scotland 