Tag: nature

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BBC Scotland wildfires report ignores the role of the big private grouse estates to blame you, me and the SNP

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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 In a BBC Scotland report yesterday: Scotland facing escalating threat from wildfires – report https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx28wez183eo There’s not a word criticising the big grouse estates or their practice of muirburn and its role in wildfires. There is also, a complete failure to report the steps the Scottish Government is taking to manage that: From the Scottish Government in October 2025: Link – https://www.gov.scot/news/muirbuirn-licence-scheme/ This diplomatic account conceals, I feel sure, a determined policy by the SNP to reign in grouse moor owners … Continue reading BBC Scotland wildfires report ignores the role of the big private grouse estates to blame you, me and the SNP

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Why shops on Scotland’s islands will not have to charge more like those on the Channel Islands – no harbour dues passed on and fares up to 5 times lower thanks to massive Scottish Government subsidies

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From the Jersey Evening Post on 5 January 2025: THE firm that runs M&S stores in Jersey says that its prices on the shelves will have to go up next month when DFDS starts to add harbour dues levied by Ports of Jersey on to its bills. No actual figures are as yet available but imagine that was on a Scottish island served by CalMac. Imagine the media coverage, the opposition partys’ faux fury. Why will this not happen here? Shops on Scottish islands do not specifically have to charge more because of harbour dues or levies charged by port … Continue reading Why shops on Scotland’s islands will not have to charge more like those on the Channel Islands – no harbour dues passed on and fares up to 5 times lower thanks to massive Scottish Government subsidies

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UK water scientists do not look next door at a country with 5.5 million litres of drinkable water per person, 40 times that where they are in London and nearly 4 000 times that globally

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Guardian today has the above and: Vast swathes of Europe’s water reserves are drying up, a new analysis using two decades of satellite data reveals, with freshwater storage shrinking across southern and central Europe, from Spain and Italy to Poland and parts of the UK. Scientists at University College London (UCL), working with Watershed Investigations and the Guardian, analysed 2002–24 data from satellites, which track changes in Earth’s gravitational field. As per usual, UCL scientists, despite often vacationing, here did not think to look at Scotland’s water supplies. Before comparing with the world, how much more fresh … Continue reading UK water scientists do not look next door at a country with 5.5 million litres of drinkable water per person, 40 times that where they are in London and nearly 4 000 times that globally

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A ferry service funded by all of us to run even at only 20% capacity, cannot stand a 7% reduction in service without risking its ‘lifeline’ status? Bollards!

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Professor John Robertson OBA, Island Cycling Correspondent of the Year In the Herald today: Residents of Cumbrae have reacted to plans by state-owned operator CalMac which they say will “further damage fragile island communities”. The Cumbrae Ferry Committee, which represents residents in Millport – the only town on Cumbrae – say CalMac’s proposal to introduce scheduled maintenance windows during normal working hours of the Cumbrae ferry — either six hours each week or a full 24-hour period each month – would reduce vital lifeline services that the island depends on. CalMac‘s Largs to Cumbrae (pop 1 500) and back service, 52 crossings, peak, and 33 off peak, … Continue reading A ferry service funded by all of us to run even at only 20% capacity, cannot stand a 7% reduction in service without risking its ‘lifeline’ status? Bollards!

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New SNP legislation to control irresponsible grouse moor management responsible for wildfires and flood damage

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Professor John Robertson OBA From the Scottish Government today: Link – https://www.gov.scot/news/muirbuirn-licence-scheme/ This diplomatic account conceals, I feel sure, a determined policy by the SNP to reign in grouse moor owners and managers, even if delayed by one year, who are responsible for turning Scotland’s uplands into deserts amenable only to the interests of small affluent elites and responsible for events such as the Brechin Floods of 2023 wrongly attributed to Storm Babet and to Scottish Government ‘failures.’ How so? BBC Reporting Scotland 22 October 2024 were back on the October 2023 Storm Babet and the flood damage to Brechin, … Continue reading New SNP legislation to control irresponsible grouse moor management responsible for wildfires and flood damage

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I repeat, how can a half-empty ferry be a ‘lifeline’ to a mainland town when there’s a road that’s more than one hour quicker than the ferry?

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to Campbelltown next summer. Local businesses had hoped the company would be able to restore the seasonal service next year. The route was suspended because of the problems the company was facing maintaining lifeline services. Local businesses [only one really in the online report] and councillors [none quoted in the report below] want Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government to intervene Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland today merely repeats the 30 July 2025 story in The Express which had merely repeated the February 26th 2025 news of the cancellation of the Campbelltown to Ardrossan ferry. This is still not … Continue reading I repeat, how can a half-empty ferry be a ‘lifeline’ to a mainland town when there’s a road that’s more than one hour quicker than the ferry?

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The new Wolf of Badenoch plans to plunder all our oil and gas

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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 Today in BBC Politics: Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said her party will remove all net zero requirements on oil and gas companies drilling in the North Sea if elected. Badenoch is to formally announce the plan to focus solely on “maximising extraction” and to get “all our [sic] oil and gas out of the North Sea” in a speech in Aberdeen on Tuesday. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp890n51684o I’ve often wondered if Badenoch knows of her ancestor through marriage, the Wolf of Badenoch (above), a … Continue reading The new Wolf of Badenoch plans to plunder all our oil and gas

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200 000 barrels of radioactive waste dumped in the Bay of Biscay approved by the UK on our behalf is not too far away to add to our burden of waste and disease

johnrobertson834

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 From WION on 29 August 2025 (Indian English language news channel) European nations dumped 200,000 barrels of radioactive waste in the ocean, and humans might soon pay the price – A team of scientists has found 3,355 barrels of radioactive waste at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery was made at a depth of 13,000 feet, and hundreds of miles offshore from France. This is only a tiny part of the actual number of barrels filled with nuclear waste scattered … Continue reading 200 000 barrels of radioactive waste dumped in the Bay of Biscay approved by the UK on our behalf is not too far away to add to our burden of waste and disease

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Why Scotland’s older ‘folded’ geology makes Farage’s ‘back of a cigarette packet’ fracking policy, stupid and dangerous

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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 OBAThe above BBC article, based on Reform UK comments, makes no mention of the older folded geology which Scotland is made up of almost entirely. I seemed to remember reading something suggesting that it would make fracking more difficult and, inevitably, more dangerous. Unable to find it by Googling, I asked my old pal Grok AI: Does Scotland’s older more folded geology make fracking more difficult? The answer: See the above reference to problems in fracking in the Scottish Midlands Valley? Here’s the … Continue reading Why Scotland’s older ‘folded’ geology makes Farage’s ‘back of a cigarette packet’ fracking policy, stupid and dangerous

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Water shortages – Scotland lazily added to the picture as England faces the ‘jaws of death’

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Professor John Robertson OBA 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 Maybe I/we should just ignore this kind of thing as once more a nice, young, liberal, educated Guardian writer, yesterday, revealed the underlying Anglocentrism of their mindset. There’s not a mention of Scotland despite its inclusion as also dry and cracking in the illustration. Even I know that with only a word or two your AI illustrator could have made the map just England if you have no intention of mentioning the other three parts of the Union. Why might she have … Continue reading Water shortages – Scotland lazily added to the picture as England faces the ‘jaws of death’