In the Guardian today, the above and: The government is piling mountains of debt and higher tax rates on young people heading to university, according to analysis into the “ticking timebomb” of costs faced by future students. Hundreds of thousands of sixth formers will receive their A-level results on Thursday, with many expecting to continue on to higher education courses. But Toby Whelton, author of the analysis for the Intergenerational Foundation, a thinktank, says those in England will face more extreme financial penalties than previous graduates. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/aug/10/government-piling-debt-on-to-future-graduates-in-england-analysis-finds Now Richard there, above, is ‘Education editor!’ I bet he’ll be thinking ‘Must compare … Continue reading Scottish students not facing ‘ticking timebomb’ of debt

Thanks again now to several readers for this link. I see little media coverage of the shocking evidence that emerges in this. Glasgow City Council approved the location for the new QEUH on 16 January 2008, with a 45 to 22 majority over the SNP, 9 years before the SNP became the administration in 2017. Labour had run the city council, uninterrupted, since 1996 and the Glasgow District Council since 1975 Allan Bennett is a massively published specialist scientific advisor on airborne infection risks and ventilation/biosafety matters, who wrote the above. His publications cv is at: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3T9W4bwAAAAJ&hl=en He begins with: … Continue reading Not one of seven major new hospitals in England has been built in an industrial setting next to a major sewage works but Scottish Labour thought that was good enough for its loyal voters

What’s the basis for the above warning? This: Are fewer arrests in one year good evidence of why trust in the police might be falling? Might there be another reason for falling arrests, such as reducing crime? See this: From Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26 https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2025-26/documents/ The table from which I’ve extracted the above is huge. I’ll be accused of selective bias but I feel sure my selection, leaving in increases in sexual assaults and rape, concentrates on the offences that most disturb us, including serious violence. One-year variations, though loved by journalists and, sometimes by senior police officers, naturally … Continue reading When crime is falling, is declining trust in police force due just to fewer arrests or ‘treating Nicola Sturgeon like Fred West’