By Professor John Robertson OBA The above from Huffington Post but BBC avoids being so direct. Has Scottish Labour leader and ‘Party Spokesperson on Brexit’, Anas Sarwar responded? Nope. Has BBC Scotland asked him? Nope. Why should they? This: Continue reading Bank of England Governor says Brexit has damaged the economy yet Scottish Labour is allowed to hide
about a growing number of high value thefts….it’s become lawless…not enough police presence.. BBC Scotland today and all day, headlining a story based on a few Edinburgh shopkeepers who have approached, or have been approached by BBC Scotland, for comment. One of them: Galab Singh Gold, who owns dozens of shops on and around the Royal Mile, told BBC News he had lost £15,000 worth of stock to theft in the last three months. Is that a huge, increased, amount from ‘dozens’ of shops or just the usual costs of shoplifting? The Gold Brothers family are worth a wee Google … Continue reading The least lawless part of the UK has the most police yet BBC Scotland headline a handful of Edinburgh shopkeepers to tell you otherwise when crimes of dishonesty there have fallen 25%
By Professor John Robertson The Guardian today has: Numbers studying nursing down sharply in all parts of England, RCN says North-east the worst-affected region, recording 40% drop in acceptances on to pre-registration courses, union finds but for some reason never actually tells us how many have been accepted for places into English universities to do Nursing degrees. It’s: 13,870 students were accepted into nursing courses in England in 2024, down from 14,010 in 2023.1 And in Scotland? The figures show that the number of applicants for nursing courses in Scotland is down 8.3% compared to the same point last year. By … Continue reading Shock as Scotland trains 3 to 4 times as many nurses!
From The Express & Star, yesterday: Members of ‘complex’ County Lines gang who sent children to ‘trap houses’ to deal drugs are jailed. A drugs gang who recruited children to sell crack and heroin have been jailed for 30 years. After cornering the Wolverhampton and Stafford drugs market the gang opened up new drug lines in Corby, Northamptonshire and as far as Scotland. Brian Asante, 23, from Canberra Drive, Stafford, would threaten and bribe vulnerable children to sell drugs for him in “trap houses” [cuckooing] in towns, leaving them vulnerable to attack from rival drug dealers.1 How do these children … Continue reading West Midlands ‘complex county lines’ gang using children to sell drugs from ‘trap houses’ into and across Scotland
By Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland, cramming as much industrial dispute as they can into the 4 minutes BBC Breakfast give them, return excitedly to Glasgow. Here’s what they never tell you: First: Second: From 2017 to 2023, the number of pupils in Scotland’s state schools has increased from 688 959 to 705 528, by 2.4%. In the same period, the number of teachers has increased from 51 513 to 54 033, by 4.9%. In the same period, the ratio of pupils to teachers has fallen (improved) from 13.6 to 13.2.2 This is the lowest (best) in the UK, compared with PTRs of 18 in … Continue reading ‘Controversial’ teacher job cuts put into perspective
In his otherwise useful piece Racist riots are nothing new – they’re part of the fabric of British society, Professor Kehinde Andrews, a bit ironically given his surname, offers these views: Some of our readers have commented in the past week that we’ve been calling these riots across the UK, when in fact they are a uniquely English thing, a uniquely English nationalism, not taking place in Scotland or Wales. What would you say to that? But, honestly, I would push back a bit. I think the Scottish are just as racist as the English, same goes for the Northern … Continue reading UK’s first professor of Black Studies seems just as happy to malign Scots, evidence-free, as any ancient Oxbridge English History don
By Professor John Robertson I’ll start with the numbers. In BBC Scotland, Andrew Kerr’s grudging/riot-hopeful – Why Scotland may have avoided far-right unrest, today: Sir John says population plays a part too, with the proportion of people identifying as Muslim in Scotland much smaller than in England. The latest Scottish census shows 7% of the population is from an ethnic minority, compared to 18% overall in the UK. That would only make sense if the ethnic minority/Muslim population was spread evenly across Scotland and rest of the UK. It’s not. Ethnic minorities have clustered for decades in urban areas of … Continue reading Why Scotland HAS avoided far-right unrest – Sir Prof Curtice fails to understand who Scotland’s Muslims are and even misunderstands his own percentages
By Legerwood What the Scottish Government has achieved with the Scottish NHS is more than mere mitigation. Just look at the number of new hospitals that have been built the length and breadth of Scotland and the upgrades to existing hospitals. For example, new Community hospitals in Kirkwall, Aviemore, Broadford, Haddington to name but a few. They provide a better work environment and often increased facilities which mean better outcomes for patients. The new community hospital in Kirkwall won a silver medal in an international competition. Haddington Community Hospital which has only been open for a few years won a … Continue reading What the Scottish Government has achieved with the Scottish NHS is more than mere mitigation
By Professor John Robertson The Herald today has a scare story about Glasgow Royal but with, of course, little informative value. First, from the Westminster (UK Parliament) Health Committee, in January 2022: The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), introduced by the SNP Scottish Government in 2007, has been praised by a leading European expert on patient safety. In Westminster’s Health Committee, Dr Pelle Gustafson, CMO at Swedish Patient Insurer, responded with “Scotland”, when he was asked which country he would hold at the very top pillar with regards to patient safety. Dr Gustfason said: “If you take all preventative work in regard … Continue reading Patient safety – NHS Scotland has ‘top pillar’ safety programme and all of our hospitals are safe unlike in some other places
No pictures of old folk required here By Professor John Robertson From the Guardian today: More than 150,000 patients had to wait a day in A&E before getting a hospital bed last year, according to new data. Freedom of information data compiled by the Liberal Democrats from 73 hospital trusts – about half the total – found that the number of patients forced to wait more than 24 hours in A&E before a bed could be found for them has increased by tenfold since 2019. The majority of those forced to wait were elderly or frail, with two-thirds of the … Continue reading Elderly and frail TWICE as likely to wait more than 24 hours in A&E in England than in Scotland
