‘Thousands of opioid deaths missed off official figures’ in England & Wales thanks to errors ‘not present in Scotland’

With only 3 days left, support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: 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 Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON By Liz S Anas Sarwar now knows his election campaign in Scotland is crumbling , mainly because it was all built on a foundation of lies, that as a strategy , is one that was not sustainable as an ongoing plan that would generate support for him to … Continue reading ‘Thousands of opioid deaths missed off official figures’ in England & Wales thanks to errors ‘not present in Scotland’

Labour still trying to get away with hoping that the public have very poor memories and have forgotten how Labour treat workers in Scotland

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 By Liz S More brass neck from Labour and this time from the Labour MP Brian Leishman . Leishman who in the past, together with Anas Sarwar, campaigned in 2024 in the UK GE when he and Sarwar were both promising (in what turned out to be an empty promise) that “a Labour government would step in, keep Grangemouth working, and invest hundreds of millions into the site’s transition”. Labour won the 2024 UK GE. Grangemouth Oil Refinery was not saved and so over 400 workers lost their jobs. … Continue reading Labour still trying to get away with hoping that the public have very poor memories and have forgotten how Labour treat workers in Scotland

Play to point spotlight at Liverpool drug gangs running Dundee?

In the Scotsman yesterday, the above, and: A new play exploring the impact of “county lines” drug operations in Scotland – where city-based gangs use dedicated mobile phone lines to expand drug distribution into smaller towns and exploit vulnerable people – is to tour next year. Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 ‘City-based’ you say? I ‘m gonna guess ‘Liverpool!’ James Cook hasn’t gone for that? He’s gonna try to suggest a Scottish city? Why did I choose Liverpool? Stone-cold certainty mate. There is long-documented evidence of Liverpool/Merseyside-based organised crime groups supplying drugs into Dundee … Continue reading Play to point spotlight at Liverpool drug gangs running Dundee?

‘The SNP have been useful advocates of pragmatic drug reform…often stymied by legal constraints imposed from Westminster’

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 By stewartb “Reform UK MSPs are scapegoating and supporting calls for the abolition of the Scottish Parliament” – and so place drugs policy solely under the responsibility of the Westminster government and specifically the Home Office? That’s their plan? Nobody would deny Scotland has a serious drugs problem but if this is the proposition then it seems reasonable to ask Reform this: when will the UK government act to replicate in England and Wales the downward trend in drug deaths being seen in Scotland? The last release of statistics … Continue reading ‘The SNP have been useful advocates of pragmatic drug reform…often stymied by legal constraints imposed from Westminster’

Corridor care is much less common in Scotland to save thousands

The above report seems based on a controversial method, one favoured by the Royal College of Emergency medicine, but if true further dramatizes the consequences of Scotland’s far less frequent corridor care level revealed by ITV News in March this year. See below: Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 In March 2026, ITV News made it very clear, above, just how rare corridor care in Scotland was, in comparison with other parts of the UK – 4 times as common in Wales, nearly 4 times in Northern Ireland, and nearly 3 times as common across … Continue reading Corridor care is much less common in Scotland to save thousands

As BBC UK report a real breast cancer scandal, a reminder of how Lisa Summers made one up all by herself to unfairly demonise oncology staff in Dundee

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 This is a story on BBC Breakfast this morning based on a BMJ study, of: Twenty women had mastectomies unnecessarily while being treated for breast cancer at County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust, it has emerged. In a briefing paper presented to the board, the trust stated that 32 women received excessive surgery when a wide local excision would have been appropriate. Of these, 20 had a mastectomy without clinical need, the trust confirmed. Delayed diagnosis of breast cancer was also identified in 20 women during a review of … Continue reading As BBC UK report a real breast cancer scandal, a reminder of how Lisa Summers made one up all by herself to unfairly demonise oncology staff in Dundee

As Maggie’s ‘broken children’, drug users from the teenage wasteland of the 1980s, fall off the graph, Scotland’s drug deaths will fall below those of England in ten years or less

Channel 4 News tonight reminded me of something important, positive, about Scotland’s drug deaths – age. Look at this – Age-specific mortality rates of drug use deaths by broad age group, registered in 2000 to 2025: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2025/ There were 21.4 drug use deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, after adjusting for age. However, when you have a think about the rate in each of the 5 age groups, you should be able to see signs of a tipping point coming when overal drug deaths plummet. This drama all started more than 40 years ago, in the years after Margaret Thatcher … Continue reading As Maggie’s ‘broken children’, drug users from the teenage wasteland of the 1980s, fall off the graph, Scotland’s drug deaths will fall below those of England in ten years or less

NHS Scotland’s gentler touch keeps ‘ghost patients’ safe from harm

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From the Guardian today: ‘Ghost patient’ policy wrongly removing at-risk people from GP lists, doctors say – An NHS policy to remove “ghost patients” from GP lists is inadvertently leaving some of the poorest people in England without vital healthcare, analysis has found. Under previous NHS rules, inactive patients at risk of being removed from their GP practice were given six months to respond to outreach. But under NHS England’s accelerated list validation timeline, introduced last October, patients now have only three months to reply. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/sep/23/nhs-england-ghost-patient-policy-wrongly-removing-vulnerable-people What are the … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s gentler touch keeps ‘ghost patients’ safe from harm

Drug deaths – one-year increase does not change overall trend which is down 15%

Last year, the NRS graph, after a one year fall, showed also the trend in a dotted line with a shaded bandwidth of confidence and a fall from the peak of 1 339 to 1 017, 24%. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2024/ For some reason, time maybe, this year’s graph does not show the trend. Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Today, to a gleeful media feeding frenzy, we see they’ve gone up again, ‘by 11%’ to 1 133, so the fall from 2020 is now 15% but the trend, sorry MSM, is still down. They had a nice … Continue reading Drug deaths – one-year increase does not change overall trend which is down 15%

New Scottish food promotion rules ignored by media as they wait instead drooling for more drug deaths

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From Food promotion rules in Scotland from 1 October 2026 – Changes to support healthier choices, published this morning, the above reaction from the media operating in Scotland. Watch them move when they get a sniff of the drug deaths on Wednesday. The main points they could quickly copy and use as the basis for a quick call to a local supermarket owned in London: From 1 October 2026, regulations will change how food and drinks high in fat, sugar or salt can be promoted and displayed in shops … Continue reading New Scottish food promotion rules ignored by media as they wait instead drooling for more drug deaths