Scottish cereal harvest achieves a ten-year high! Enough to feed 7.5 million before we get to the salmon and whisky to wash it down

December 12, 2025 johnrobertson834

Professor John Robertson OBA From Cereal and oilseed rape harvest: final estimates – 2025 published yesterday: Cereal production is up nearly 10% on the last days of Labour (Table 2 in Supporting Documents). How many people could survive for a year on a harvest of 3.14 million tonnes of cereal including 1 million tonnes of wheat, 363 thousand tonnes of winter barley, 1 556 tonnes of spring barley and 185 thousand tonnes of oats? This harvest (≈1.55 million tonnes of cereal, of which 1 million tonnes is wheat) could keep roughly 7.4 to 7.5 million people alive for one full … Continue reading Scottish cereal harvest achieves a ten-year high! Enough to feed 7.5 million before we get to the salmon and whisky to wash it down

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The Emma Caldwell Public Inquiry must ask if the Scottish Labour Government of 20 years ago took its eye of the ball

December 9, 2025 johnrobertson834

From Emma Caldwell Public Inquiry begins work, published yesterday: The independent Public Inquiry into the investigation of Emma Caldwell’s murder in April 2005 has been formally set-up and begins its work today (9 Dec). Justice Secretary Angela Constance informed Parliament on the formal setting-up date and on the Inquiry’s terms of reference through a Government Initiated Question today. The statutory inquiry will examine what went wrong in the investigation carried out by Strathclyde Police into the murder of Emma Caldwell, including the direction given by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. It will examine what steps which could reasonably … Continue reading The Emma Caldwell Public Inquiry must ask if the Scottish Labour Government of 20 years ago took its eye of the ball

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Ingrained cultural bias in Scottish media that disadvantages the independence movement

December 9, 2025December 9, 2025 johnrobertson834

Professor John Robertson OBA In my previous post, Grok AI, correctly I feel, suggested that the above reporting was not a hit job and agreed that it was mostly cultural within Scotland’s media. So, I asekd: I agree it’s not a ‘hit job’ but could it be an example of a culture of bias against the case for Scottish independence where that bias has become normalised and where reporters habitually report in ways that will please their supervisors, get things published and enhance their career prospects without being told by supervisors how to report? The answer: Exploring Normalized Bias in … Continue reading Ingrained cultural bias in Scottish media that disadvantages the independence movement

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Our kids now hardly ever kill each other but BBC Scotland is killing our spirits with these distortions of reality

December 8, 2025December 8, 2025 johnrobertson834

BBC Scotland, careful to put the above as a quote but still hitting readers with the same message and one that does not inform us about the reality of our world. They know the scared and the anxious don’t vote for change. The family of a 16-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in Glasgow say police should be given more powers to search young people for knives. Kory McCrimmon’s family were speaking after BBC research showed that Police Scotland’s use of stop-and-search on under 18s increased by 38% last year. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0x4k2xyw2o Before I go any further, isn’t that sequence … Continue reading Our kids now hardly ever kill each other but BBC Scotland is killing our spirits with these distortions of reality

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Why do Scotland’s deprived areas NOT have the most troubled hospitals?

December 4, 2025 johnrobertson834

Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian yesterday, the above and: Blackpool report: why do England’s deprived areas have the most troubled hospitals? The findings of the report into Blackpool Victoria hospital are as shocking as they are damning: a culture of bullying, racial discrimination and harassment that has contributed to a staff exodus with a direct impact on patients. The treatment of chronic disease, including Parkinson’s, were just some of the areas blighted by what appears to be a toxic culture. But the Royal College of Physicians report, leaked to the Guardian, exposes much broader challenges for the NHS – and … Continue reading Why do Scotland’s deprived areas NOT have the most troubled hospitals?

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Any Scottish stand-up – “Honestly, at this rate the only thing Great British Energy is powering is my material for the next five years.”

December 4, 2025 johnrobertson834

I’m using AI increasingly. I trust it more than most journalists or thinktanks to tell me the truth. Grok AI time after time reveals no agenda on Scottish independence. Professor John Robertson OBA Only BBC Scotland is going with this ridiculous line: Great British Energy (GBE) says its investments aim to support at least 10,000 jobs over the next five years, with a focus on areas historically dependent on oil and gas. See that ‘support’? I seem to remember the word ‘creation’ was in their aims only a few months ago. Let’s ask AI: Yes, job creation was explicitly one … Continue reading Any Scottish stand-up – “Honestly, at this rate the only thing Great British Energy is powering is my material for the next five years.”

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Memories of famous conservationist, Peter Scott, confirm heart-breaking abandonment and deliberate sacrifice of 51st Highlanders in 1940 to buy time for ‘Dunkirk Miracle’

November 30, 2025 johnrobertson834

I’ve been getting more feedback than usual on my song and reporting on the the capture of and brutal treatment of the 51st Highland division in 1940. Some has been angry and disputatious. Reader Legerwood has written of three uncles: I have often wondered how many young men from the village, who had joined the TA, ended up being killed or captured at Dunkirk and, like my uncles, spending the rest of the war in a POW camp. As a result of those years in a camp in Poland and the forced march back to Germany ahead of the advancing … Continue reading Memories of famous conservationist, Peter Scott, confirm heart-breaking abandonment and deliberate sacrifice of 51st Highlanders in 1940 to buy time for ‘Dunkirk Miracle’

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The sacrifice of the 51st Highlanders – where I got the evidence for my lyrics

November 30, 2025November 30, 2025 johnrobertson834

Quickly, should the word ‘sacrifice’ seem to be prejudging what follows, I did not use the word in my questions of the AI. It did, five times in answers including: ‘The decision to leave the 51st (Highland) Division behind as a rearguard — effectively sacrificing it so the rest of the British Expeditionary Force could escape at Dunkirk.’ John Robertson, father in the KOSBs, all before that coalminers who stayed at ‘home’ in the pits I’ve had a bit of stick for: It was the winter of nineteen thirty-nine When we arrived at France’s Maginot Line We were more than … Continue reading The sacrifice of the 51st Highlanders – where I got the evidence for my lyrics

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From the Maginot Line we came late to Saint Valery

November 29, 2025 johnrobertson834

John Robertson (not a prof of music) For those of you who refuse to xtwitter, fly bluesky or even facebook, click here: https://suno.com/s/NNGdtEiMzMfIpp7A From the Maginot Line we came late to Saint Valery It was the winter of nineteen thirty-nine When we arrived at France’s Maginot Line We were more than fifteen thousand strong Ready to stand our ground against the hun From the Maginot Line we came late to Saint Valery The panzers dashing to the coast were soon upon us We paid a bloody price on Winston Churchill’s say Marched ten thousand strong to years behind the wire … Continue reading From the Maginot Line we came late to Saint Valery

Talking-up Scotland

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/talking-up-scotland

Tag: history