Tag: lifestyle

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These Tory ministers sold profitable harbours like Ardrossan to enable shareholders to milk rather than to maintain them, Labour then did nothing and now the SNP Government is blamed for not buying it back quick enough?

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Professor John Robertson OBA For more than a year now Scotland’s media have been blaming the Scottish Government for problems at Ardrossan harbour and it’s Arran ferry service. Little media coverage has targeted the owners, a Manchester billionaire. How did we get here? I asked AI, carefully. Today, known as Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind and The Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market, these men above, were successively secretaries of State for Scotland, at the time, driven by PM John Major’s ongoing Thatcherite sell-offs, who managed the privatisation the Clyde Port Authority which included Ardrossan. Was the authority state-owned? It was was … Continue reading These Tory ministers sold profitable harbours like Ardrossan to enable shareholders to milk rather than to maintain them, Labour then did nothing and now the SNP Government is blamed for not buying it back quick enough?

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Do you ever get fed up with me reporting how after 18 years without LabCons just about every public service in Scotland has been protected by the SNP? Now it’s our well-regulated RAAC ‘which can easily last 50 years, and should be able to carry on for several decades after that’

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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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA BBC England on 9 September 2025, has: A hospital which has its ceilings held up by thousands of props has been rated the worst performing in the country. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, came bottom of the league table of 134 acute hospital trusts in England. As a hospital which has crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), QEH has been prioritised for a rebuild by the national New … Continue reading Do you ever get fed up with me reporting how after 18 years without LabCons just about every public service in Scotland has been protected by the SNP? Now it’s our well-regulated RAAC ‘which can easily last 50 years, and should be able to carry on for several decades after that’

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Herald writer’s latest ferry fiasco fake news is blown out of the water by the evidence

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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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Today, the Herald has the above, and: A coalition of islands has lodged a formal objection over a Scottish Government ferry fiasco compensation fund which they have condemned as “unlawful, unjust and divisive”. Six Hebridean islands has come together to lodge a formal protest to the Scottish Government about the £4.4 million scheme that was intended to support islanders after years of CalMac ferry disruption. Nowhere is there any detail on just who the members of this great coalition … Continue reading Herald writer’s latest ferry fiasco fake news is blown out of the water by the evidence

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News you won’t hear – Record numbers of hip and knee operations performed last year in Scotland

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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/detailsor, if you prefer, a bank transfer, at sort code 089300 account 1421 7339 Professor John Robertson OBA I didn’t see this at the time of publication, 7 days ago, for the obvious reason the Scottish media didn’t report it. Today, the media across the UK do have the story of knee implants that are faulty and have been know to be faulty for ten years and recently the Herald, your supposedly trusted information source had a story about a Glasgow hospital praised for incredible … Continue reading News you won’t hear – Record numbers of hip and knee operations performed last year in Scotland

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Eight months later BBC Scotland tries to undermine zonal pricing for Scotland with evidence and threats reminiscent of 2014 from companies based in England and Spain

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in July 2024 in the National: THE boss of an energy company has said Scotland could have “the cheapest electricity in Europe” if the UK Government introduces regional pricing. Eight months later BBC Scotland feel ready to acknowledge but to undermine the idea, with: Could Scotland have Europe’s lowest electricity bills? The boss of one of the UK’s biggest energy providers says people living in Scotland could have the cheapest electricity in Europe. Greg Jackson, who founded Octopus Energy, wants the electricity market to be reformed to introduce zonal pricing. He argues that if prices were based on local generation, the high … Continue reading Eight months later BBC Scotland tries to undermine zonal pricing for Scotland with evidence and threats reminiscent of 2014 from companies based in England and Spain

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Update on More Herald lies – Generously subsidised and massively oversized Oban to Barra ferry is not sailing today because of adverse weather and it’s a completely different ferry getting extra rust treatment

johnrobertson834

The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily, finishing in 8 days, to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland – a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS, Global Ferry Correspondent of the Year and Honest Man Update – Jamie Whiteford – Still Indy – They cannot even get their lies right. The vessel that normally plies this … Continue reading Update on More Herald lies – Generously subsidised and massively oversized Oban to Barra ferry is not sailing today because of adverse weather and it’s a completely different ferry getting extra rust treatment

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The nearly 2 000 saved from Covid death in Scotland that BBC will not tell you about

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The above table from the UK Covid Inquiry report, posted today by https://x.com/ammacj makes clear that Scotland had a 14% lower Covid death rate than UK and a 36% lower excess death rate than UK. The second table, above, make clear the scale of loss not at first apparent in percentages. Had Scotland’s pandemic response strategy been managed by the UK Tory government, 14%, 1 867, more might have died, but BBC Scotland’s view: As the UK Covid inquiry turns its attention to Scotland, what do the statistics tell us about how many people died in different countries? Our best … Continue reading The nearly 2 000 saved from Covid death in Scotland that BBC will not tell you about

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US ferry firm used toxic paper coating on tickets with risks to children including behaviour problems, cancer and disrupting hormone levels in fetuses

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From our regular ‘Imagine CalMac did this in Scotland’ series Yesterday in the Kitsap Sun of Seattle, Washington State, USA, GDP twice that per head of Scotland: Ferry riders may want to wash their hands after being handed a receipt for a car-and-driver fare, made with a paper that’s now in the process of being phased out. After a state worker flagged a potential safety hazard, this month Washington State Ferries will be the first state agency to phase out “thermal receipts” which contain the potentially harmful substance bisphenol [BPA].  https://eu.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2024/11/19/washington-state-ferries-ditches-chemical-laden-receipts/76342951007/ Yes, yes, they’re phasing them out but imagine the … Continue reading US ferry firm used toxic paper coating on tickets with risks to children including behaviour problems, cancer and disrupting hormone levels in fetuses

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More than 50 English hospitals still have worse mortality outcomes than QEUH in Glasgow

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In November 2023, we could write for the period July 2022 to June 2023 : More than 50 English hospitals have worse mortality outcomes than QEUH in Glasgow Today, we can repeat a similar tale for the period October 2022 to September 2023. The funnel plot below, and previous examples reported here, comparing predicted deaths with actual deaths, shows two things in particular: The funnel plot below for NHS England shows two things in particular. Continue reading More than 50 English hospitals still have worse mortality outcomes than QEUH in Glasgow

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Non-Scottish Ferries Operating Without Seaworthiness Certificates 

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Our international ferry performance research has been criticised for its narrow focus on more developed countries. Personally, I think our coverage of Washington State Ferries ticks the third-world box. Anyhow, see this from Uganda today: Despite the increased accidents on Ugandan water bodies, many ferries continue to operate in dangerous mechanical conditions, a special audit has revealed.   The Auditor General (AG) in his report for the year ending June 2023, noted that “in some instances, ferries operated without seaworthiness certificates, insurance, adequately qualified staff, rescue boats, or accessibility for persons with disabilities.” “These safety and accessibility gaps could result in … Continue reading Non-Scottish Ferries Operating Without Seaworthiness Certificates