Tag: books

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BBC Scotland say 660 organised crime gang members from just two Scottish gangs? Won’t most of them be from the 55 English county lines gangs operating in Scotland from Thurso to Dumfries and 53 places in between?

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Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland are telling us today: Scotland’s prison population stood at 8,251 on Monday. About 660 of those inmates are thought to have “strong SOCG associations” and many others are linked to lower level, local gangs. In recent years, Police Scotland and prosecutors at the Crown Office have secured dozens of gangland convictions. These have included those of top level figures like Jamie “Iceman” Stevenson and James “The Don” White, who were both involved in international drug smuggling. But tension has ramped up this year, … Continue reading BBC Scotland say 660 organised crime gang members from just two Scottish gangs? Won’t most of them be from the 55 English county lines gangs operating in Scotland from Thurso to Dumfries and 53 places in between?

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By 2012, two years before, Ms Rowling had already made up her mind!

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By stewartb “ I came to the question of independence with an open mind” Question to ChatGPT: ‘Please summarise the public statements in the press and online made by the famous author JK Rowling in 2014 and in prior years concerning the campaign for and referendum on Scotland’s independence. Please include her first public comment on the matter.’ ChatGPT said: in part: ‘J.K. Rowling’s comments on Scotland’s independence were a topic of much attention, especially during the campaign leading up to the 2014 referendum. Here’s a summary of her key public statements made in 2014 and the years leading up to the … Continue reading By 2012, two years before, Ms Rowling had already made up her mind!

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Academic’s research confirms that County Lines gangs plaguing Scottish towns and villages, fuelling drug deaths, is an exclusively English phenomenon

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Law Society of Scotland Journal in July 2025: Criminologist Ross Deuchar presents insights from his research into Scottish gang culture, and makes the case for the courts to apply supportive, problem-solving approaches to the teenagers and young adults affected. While in England young people are sent out from their own towns with drugs to be sold in provincial markets (known as ‘County Lines’ dealing; see Harding, 2020), the young men I interviewed tended to suggest that drugs are most commonly collected from afar before being brought back to Scotland and sold within or around … Continue reading Academic’s research confirms that County Lines gangs plaguing Scottish towns and villages, fuelling drug deaths, is an exclusively English phenomenon

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For those who still maintain it was a voluntary union – the suffocation of Scotland’s independence movement in 1746

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Professor John Robertson OBA The suffocating, intense domination of Scotland’s communities by British Army forces after Culloden is often understated by historians but it’s hard to see the above as other than a brutal and thorough suppression of any surviving independence movement. Further, the myth developed after 1746 and perpetuated for the purposes of indoctrination as late as my own historical education in the 1960s, that the ‘Jacobite’ rebellions were entirely Monarchist and Catholic rebellions rather than a wider pro-independence struggle has been fully debunked by, for example, Murray Pittock of Glasgow University: The Myth of the Jacobite Clans was … Continue reading For those who still maintain it was a voluntary union – the suffocation of Scotland’s independence movement in 1746

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New US law to compensate radiation emission victims needs to be introduced by UK Government for Essex breast cancer and Scottish child cancer cases

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From Spectrum News yesterday: A Detroit-area woman is among those hailing a new law that expands a federal trust fund that makes payments to those who may have been sickened by nuclear contamination. Kim Visintine, a local ER nurse practitioner, was raised in the St. Louis area with a career in the automotive industry that ultimately brought her to Michigan. In 2000, her son was born in St. Louis with a rare brain cancer, underwent neurosurgeries at just days old and later went on chemotherapy. He died in 2006. In the years that followed, Visintine learned of others who grew … Continue reading New US law to compensate radiation emission victims needs to be introduced by UK Government for Essex breast cancer and Scottish child cancer cases

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You’ll think I must be making this stuff up but English schools permanently excluded ONE THOUSAND times as many children, per head, as in Scotland but we’ll pay some of the price for that as they’re used as drug mules by the English County lines drug gangs plaguing Scotland

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Dottie once again for alerting me to this: In the Guardian today: More than 10,000 children were permanently excluded from England’s state schools last year, alongside record numbers of suspensions involving pupils aged six or younger or with special needs, as teachers struggled to cope with worsening behaviour. The figures for the 2023-24 academic year revealed that the number of permanent exclusions leapt up by 16% compared with the year before, while the total number of suspension days rose by 21% to 955,000. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/10/rise-in-school-exclusions-in-england-including-among-children-under-six There were 11 676 temporary and 1 permanent exclusion from Scotland’s schools in 2022/2023, … Continue reading You’ll think I must be making this stuff up but English schools permanently excluded ONE THOUSAND times as many children, per head, as in Scotland but we’ll pay some of the price for that as they’re used as drug mules by the English County lines drug gangs plaguing Scotland

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A closed breastfeeding support service and failed hospital disinfectants research but no mention that Scotland has the lowest stillbirth rate and the cleanest hospitals in the UK

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By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS BBC Scotland today, headlining: A breastfeeding support service which has helped mums of newborn babies for a decade has closed down after funding was withdrawn. Breastfeeding Buddies was run by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) charity in five hospitals in Greater Glasgow and Lothian, offering peer support to mothers who wanted to breastfeed. The Scottish government had previously funded the scheme directly but this year it said it had allowed the health boards to decide how to meet local need. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian will no longer fund … Continue reading A closed breastfeeding support service and failed hospital disinfectants research but no mention that Scotland has the lowest stillbirth rate and the cleanest hospitals in the UK

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Would police investigating “heart deaths” at a Scottish Hospital not then become a political matter.

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Liz S BBC has this story on their website in relation to the NHS in England….It is on the main UK page , when you click on the story it then takes you onto the Health page, it is not on the UK Politics page: “Police investigate heart deaths at NHS hospital” “Police have launched an investigation into the deaths of patients following heart operations at an NHS hospital, the BBC has learned”. “Documents seen by us (BBC) suggest patients suffered avoidable harm – and that in some cases their death certificates failed to disclose that the procedure contributed to their deaths”. “One woman’s operation at Castle Hill Hospital near … Continue reading Would police investigating “heart deaths” at a Scottish Hospital not then become a political matter.

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Reporting Scotland Darkly – how research reveals only BBC Scotland’s editors select the nightmares to make you so anxious you fear big changes such as independence

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland’s short inserts in BBC Breakfast would have you not leave the house today. In a quickfire, punchy sequence, the editor had chosen for you – a surge of uncontrolled paedophilia on social media; cuts in social care; the restraining and seclusion of pupils with additional needs and the Scottish Government supposedly failing to manage the NHS [the best in the UK] to tackle long waiting lists. Then quickly, before the weather might cheer you up, a funeral. BBC Wales, always shorter with fewer stories, only had worries over low credit scores; a group evicted … Continue reading Reporting Scotland Darkly – how research reveals only BBC Scotland’s editors select the nightmares to make you so anxious you fear big changes such as independence

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The Netflix hit Adolescence is not a warning for Scotland and the Glasgow Lib Dems are irresponsibly wrong to suggest otherwise

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the National today: AN increase in petty violence among Glasgow’s teenagers could lead to a rise in serious violent crime in the coming years if attitudes go unchecked, an expert has warned. The topic of youth violence has been in the headlines after the success of Netflix hit Adolescence, with creators Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne shining a light on the views and influences that can lead to serious violence. Research conducted by Glasgow LibDems revealed that 2790 violent incidents have taken place in schools within Glasgow in this academic year so far. Neither the film … Continue reading The Netflix hit Adolescence is not a warning for Scotland and the Glasgow Lib Dems are irresponsibly wrong to suggest otherwise