Early learning and childcare workers minimum pay now higher in Scotland than than in England
Professor John Robertson OBA From the Scottish Government today: From 1 April 2025, the minimum rate of pay for childcare workers delivering funded early learning and childcare (ELC) in Scotland is £12.60 per hour. This is in line with pay rates for adult social care workers and children’s social care workers. https://www.gov.scot/publications/early-learning-and-childcare-minimum-pay/ There is no lower rate in Scotland for younger workers. In England, there is no equivalent, only the National Living Wage of £12.21, which ‘most’ adult childcare workers, 21 and over, receive. 18-20 year-olds receive only £10.5. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/minimum-wage-rates-for-2025 So Scottish adult childcare workers receive 3.2% more and under 21 year-olds receive … Continue reading Early learning and childcare workers minimum pay now higher in Scotland than than in England
Scottish Government’s Funded Early Learning and Childcare project – 97% engagement, 72% increase in reported good health and greater benefits for those in deprived areas
Professor John Robertson OBA The Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare: Phase 6 report, published today is a very sober, careful, modest piece of work giving no quick sign of success or failure. I’ve had to read in carefully to extract the good news. What is it all about? This report outlines findings from the 6th phase of the Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare (SSELC), focusing on 3-year-olds who were accessing up to 1140 hours of funded ELC. The SSELC forms a major part of the strategy for the evaluation of the expansion of funded ELC in … Continue reading Scottish Government’s Funded Early Learning and Childcare project – 97% engagement, 72% increase in reported good health and greater benefits for those in deprived areas
As Trump suggests Ukrainian territory loss to Russia is he all wrong?
Professor John Robertson OBA As a pro-independence Scot, I’ve been interested in the breakaway movement in eastern Ukraine, for some time, since well before Putin’s brutal exploitative invasion, just as I have for those in Quebec, Catalonia and the Basque Country. I generally avoid comment on trans, the Rangers and Ukraine. I get enough personal abuse on the ferries. However, I like a survey, so hopefully to add some light. As I understand it, opinion polls in that febrile world are not too reliable. However, this 2020 survey [n1 666] from the Center for Insights in Survey Research, a US … Continue reading As Trump suggests Ukrainian territory loss to Russia is he all wrong?
Increased taser use by Police Scotland officers justified by significantly declining rate of injuries resulting from assaults, 20% in only 3 years!
Professor John Robertson OBA There has been a clear increase in the use of tasers by police officers as reported somewhat hysterically by the Daily Record, above, but at the same time we see a significant decline in the number of assaults on officers resulting in injuries. As taser use began to climb, from 500 in 2020/2021, to 2 084 in 2023/2024 (latest confirmed data) assaults on officers resulting in injury, in the same period, have fallen from 2 100 to 1670, a very significant 20% reduction in only 3 years. While there may have been other factors at play, … Continue reading Increased taser use by Police Scotland officers justified by significantly declining rate of injuries resulting from assaults, 20% in only 3 years!
Trafficked child refugees in the ‘UK’ – researchers seem unaware of more humane and caring approach with guardians in Scotland
Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today: More than 2,000 children who have been trafficked or who arrived in the UK alone to claim asylum disappeared from social services’ care last year, according to freedom of information data shared with the Guardian. The authors of a report, Until Harm Ends, submitted FoI requests to children’s services departments in councils across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland asking for information about trafficked children and those who arrived alone in the UK and claimed asylum, who then went missing after being taken into care. Data from 135 local authorities revealed that out of 2,335 … Continue reading Trafficked child refugees in the ‘UK’ – researchers seem unaware of more humane and caring approach with guardians in Scotland
In Scotland each GP is responsible for 1 680 patients while in England and Wales it’s between 2 241 and 2440, around 500 more, nearly one third more. That can’t be healthy, can it?
Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this. In the Guardian yesterday, the above and: GPs can no longer guarantee safe care for millions of patients because of a dangerous shortage of medics, Britain’s top family doctor has said. Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said surgeries were desperate to hire more doctors to meet soaring demand for care but could not afford to do so because of a lack of core funding. Exhausted family doctors have been working “completely unsafe hours” because their surgeries did not have the cash … Continue reading In Scotland each GP is responsible for 1 680 patients while in England and Wales it’s between 2 241 and 2440, around 500 more, nearly one third more. That can’t be healthy, can it?
Large blue police tent to be move from Ayr Conservatives corruption investigation to Orkney investigation of missing taxpayer money – £850 000 – misplaced by Lib Dem council
Professor John Robertson OBA Readers will remember the scale of the police investigation into £600 000 given to the SNP by its own members for a campaign, and which they then, according to one complaint from a member of Sperm of the Gall, spent on something else. A blue tent had to be put on Nicola’s lawn, on advice from intelligence, just in case there was a body too. More recently a massive fraud case in Ayr required a big blue tent on the Low Green but, on advice from intelligence, local police decided not to proceed so the big … Continue reading Large blue police tent to be move from Ayr Conservatives corruption investigation to Orkney investigation of missing taxpayer money – £850 000 – misplaced by Lib Dem council
As Labour Junior Minister accuses NHS Scotland of ‘airbrushing’ performance figures his own performance figures were defended by Jackie Baillie
Professor John Robertson OBA Michael Shanks MP, now a junior minister for energy has been caught accusing NHS Scotland of presenting statistics in the same way as Labour Wales and Now Labour England do. I doubt he’ll ever feel obliged to apologise. It reminded me of his Rutherglen election campaign in July 2024 where Jackie Baillie accused me of unethical campaigning against him when I dug up attainment statistics which seemed to suggest a downturn for his school’s Modern Studies department during his time there, working hard, to become the Labour candidate, including, famously, running along every street in Glasgow. … Continue reading As Labour Junior Minister accuses NHS Scotland of ‘airbrushing’ performance figures his own performance figures were defended by Jackie Baillie
‘Navy’s secret nuclear pollution hush-up’ of tritium that ‘smashes into your DNA’, which Scientific American says causes cancer, in a country (Scotland) where it’s surging in the under-50s, but it’s backed by Scottish Labour
Professor John Robertson OBA To add to the detail in the above National/Ferret report on the shocking attempt at a cover-up, the awful scale of WHAT they were trying to cover up. From the Daily Montanan, and covered widely across US media, in September 2025: From the CND, in September 2024: Radioactive air emissions have been increasing year-on-year at Coulport one of Britain’s nuclear submarine bases in Scotland. This development is of some concern as it would lead to increased health risks wherever the emissions were inhaled. Investigations by The Ferret and The National newspaper found that emissions of radioactive tritiated water vapour had doubled at the Royal … Continue reading ‘Navy’s secret nuclear pollution hush-up’ of tritium that ‘smashes into your DNA’, which Scientific American says causes cancer, in a country (Scotland) where it’s surging in the under-50s, but it’s backed by Scottish Labour
Falling trend in Scotland with 40% fewer women killed by men in last five ‘less violent years’, to level 13% below that in England, suggests a still shocking number but no national emergency
Professor John Robertson OBA According to Homicide in Scotland 2024-25 and its 4 predecessor reports, there were 67 female victims of murder in the last 5 yrs, 40% down on the previous five up to 2019/2020.1 41% (27) were killed by partners or ex-partners, with the remainder primarily by other male relatives or acquaintances. I see no sign of the 39, above. The trend in the last 5 years has been flat – 10, 16, 13, 13, 15 suggesting a disappointing bottoming that may not reduce further but not in any way a ‘National Emergency.’ In the last 5 years … Continue reading Falling trend in Scotland with 40% fewer women killed by men in last five ‘less violent years’, to level 13% below that in England, suggests a still shocking number but no national emergency
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 