Unionist Socialist Workers Party member tells Bella Caledonia readers that Scottish firefighters ‘cannot take any more cuts’ but forgets to mention fires down by 35% yet staffing down by only 18%

Call that a wildfire crisis? See this: Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Bella Caledonia is great, nearly all the time. They have a lot of high quality writing, often putting our more prosaic percentages and line-graphs stuff in the shade but, every so often, show considerable political naïveté or lack of concern, platforming attacks on the Scottish Government which can only damage the wider movement – if you can’t run a…how can you run a country? Two days ago they had the above from an SWP member on behalf … Continue reading Unionist Socialist Workers Party member tells Bella Caledonia readers that Scottish firefighters ‘cannot take any more cuts’ but forgets to mention fires down by 35% yet staffing down by only 18%

Explosion risk in almost empty Arran ferry gas escape was essentially zero

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 BBC Scotland yesterday: A faulty valve on a CalMac ferry led to a sudden and uncontrolled release of highly flammable methane gas last summer, BBC Scotland News has learned.The operator’s investigation found that 700kg of the gas – enough to fill a four-bedroomed house – was vented from the side of MV Glen Sannox over the space of 12 minutes while it was carrying 82 passengers from Arran to the mainland. So much methane was released that some of it was sucked into a … Continue reading Explosion risk in almost empty Arran ferry gas escape was essentially zero

When will BBC Scotland hire an education correspondent that can read published peer-review research revealing how Pisa reduces creative work and can weaken later learning

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Quick as you don’t like, BBC Scotland‘s ‘Education Correspondent’, with barely a thought it seems, is taking the latest Pisa data on reading all-too-dimly. Who is she? Lucy Adams at the University of Glasgow -She studied for an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow between 2006 and 2008. This is an interesting part of her background because creative writing can strengthen narrative skill, precision of language and the ability to bring lived experience vividly onto the page. She also completed a … Continue reading When will BBC Scotland hire an education correspondent that can read published peer-review research revealing how Pisa reduces creative work and can weaken later learning

Wha’s like us? Damn few and they’re a’ deid! Ssshhh!!! Don’t mention the wars!

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Is there more published evidence for this claim in the Telegraph yesterday? A Carnegie UK / Ipsos MORI poll in 2018 is the closest thing to a dedicated “kindness” study. Representative samples in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland found Scotland highest on giving and receiving kindness. About 94% in Scotland said people in their area are generally kind; 86% said they had helped someone locally in the past year (72% in England). Strong agreement was also higher in Scotland (e.g. 64% strongly … Continue reading Wha’s like us? Damn few and they’re a’ deid! Ssshhh!!! Don’t mention the wars!

The Power of Nightmares Episode 147 – ‘A [one] mother whose son was murdered in a knife attack’

the First Minister today. Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 BBC Scotland’s Reporting Scotland team’s wee insert in BBC Breakfast, several times today, returns to Scotland’s supposed knife murder crisis, exploiting another traumatised parent shamelessly to misrepresent this country. This is yet another of those reports, we’ve grouped together under the term ‘The Power of Nightmares.’ The most recent example was their ‘Welcome to Glasgow’ report. For our analysis, see: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/08/24/the-power-of-nightmares-the-real-reasons-why-the-bbc-made-that-glasgow-documentary/ Is there a fuller report at the website? When a story headlines Reporting Scotland but does not appear on … Continue reading The Power of Nightmares Episode 147 – ‘A [one] mother whose son was murdered in a knife attack’

Crashed ‘unseaworthy’ CalMac ferry is yet another built in England for some shady reason

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 The entirely ‘unworthy’ Herald has another of it’s ‘hatchet jobs’ on CalMac today, above, about its 40 year-old , MV Isle of Loch Linnhe, built with its 4 sister ships in 1986, at Richard Dunston’s Hessle yard on the Humber. European Commission rules apprently meant they had to go out to open tender and the contract was won by the English yard in the constituency of right-wing Tory MP, Sir Patrick Wall. Wall had supported white minority rile in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. No doubt … Continue reading Crashed ‘unseaworthy’ CalMac ferry is yet another built in England for some shady reason

Scotland’s health board restructuring is not unusual and wee local groups cannot be trusted with complex medical issues

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Lesley Riddoch in the National yesterday, with the above and: Leaving aside her invitation to ‘islanders’ to make me ‘walk the ferry gang plank’ after I questioned their awareness of just how much the SNP Government has done for them, I still trust Lesley Riddoch as an honest and constructive, not to mention, very articulate, critical friend of the SNP. I have my own concerns on the SNP leadership, especially on foreign affairs, but if you work to destroy them you will regret it … Continue reading Scotland’s health board restructuring is not unusual and wee local groups cannot be trusted with complex medical issues

Approach with caution – Mark Smith’s ‘new’ made-up crime stats

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 I haven’t bothered with the The Herald’s Mark Smith for years now. In 2022, I wrote ‘Herald’s Mark Smith does a Ross Kemp and gets out of Holyrood before a few elderly feminists ‘kick off’ and thrust their merkins at him,’ but have not looked for fear of upsetting myself. It’s at: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/12/26/heralds-mark-smith-does-a-ross-kemp-and-gets-out-of-holyrood-before-a-few-elderly-feminists-kick-off-and-thrust-their-merkins-at-him/ Approach with caution. Today, we have another of his biographical proud diversions in an attempt to seem clever: It is a constant disappointment to my parents that, despite the fact I … Continue reading Approach with caution – Mark Smith’s ‘new’ made-up crime stats

New Chinese deal at Ardersier more likely to go ahead but create few jobs

___________________________________________________________ Help Talking-up Scotland keep going. Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 ___________________________________________________________ Thanks to rtpscott for alerting us to this: In the P&J yesterday, the above and: The owner of Ardersier Port has struck a new deal with a Chinese company as the fallout from the UK Government blocking a £1.5 billion wind farm factory continues. Port owner and developer Haventus has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese offshore wind manufacturer Dajin. The partnership will see them explore opportunities across both the UK and European markets. It will look at combining Dajin’s … Continue reading New Chinese deal at Ardersier more likely to go ahead but create few jobs

How BBC Scotland’s regime loyalists should have seen this betrayal coming

____________________________________________________________________________ Help Talking-up Scotland keep going. Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: MR JW ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 _____________________________________________________________________________ Above, how many of us have thought for some time of BBC Scotland News and its key role in suppressing the voices of those in the wider Yes campaign for Scottish independence. Here are those who have been rewarded for their part, with well-paid, secure employment, in lies about, amongst other topics, Scotland’s ferries, hospitals, schools and crime rates: Today, they face, for them, an unexpected shock: Should they have known this might come? AI – Do those employees who lie on … Continue reading How BBC Scotland’s regime loyalists should have seen this betrayal coming