Tag: news

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Researchers prove that Scotland’s drug death surge was the simple and tragic consequence of the UK Conservative Government’s brutal austerity strategy from 2012 to 2019

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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 Drug deaths have always been more prevalent in poorer communities. In Scotland, half of all drug deaths are from among the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods.1 According to research recently published by David Walsh and Gerry McCartney2, of Glasgow University, drug deaths amongst the most deprived communities in Scotland had begun to climb from around 2003 to 2009, under New Labour and then again, but far more dramatically, from around 2012 … Continue reading Researchers prove that Scotland’s drug death surge was the simple and tragic consequence of the UK Conservative Government’s brutal austerity strategy from 2012 to 2019

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Scotland has ring-fenced convicted sex offenders from emergency early release

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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, the above and: More sexual predators in England and Wales could be freed instead of jailed because of the pressure on courts and prisons, police sources have told the Guardian. The warning comes after the Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley, on Thursday condemned the release on bail of a man after he admitted taking pictures of children and women, and then using AI to sexualise them. Zafer Dogan was bailed to his flat overlooking a children’s playground, from which he committed some of the offences … Continue reading Scotland has ring-fenced convicted sex offenders from emergency early release

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

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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

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Fire and rehire is typically driven by the pressing need to address equal pay and equality issues

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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 It is frankly remarkable that in its multiple lengthy articles on the BBC News website in recent days, BBC Scotland’s journalists have avoided providing any reference to the origin story regarding Glasgow City Council’s predicament over changing staff terms and conditions. Whatever the rights and wrongs of ‘fire and rehire’ as a process, its proposed abolition in Westminster legislation for the whole UK prompted warnings last year from the Local Government Association in England: ‘Councils issue warning over removal of ‘fire and rehire’ without replacement mechanism for … Continue reading Fire and rehire is typically driven by the pressing need to address equal pay and equality issues

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Labour now holders of the Brass Neck Champions of the World Award 2026

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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 It get’s worse. The Glasgow Labour Group at Glasgow City Council posted this on the 20 August 2026: “Glasgow Labour is clear: Equal Pay must be delivered, but it must be delivered fairly and with Glasgow’s workforce, not imposed upon them. Today we’re setting out the action we believe is needed to protect workers and secure a fair deal. Here’s our position”. ” We will fight any attempt to use Fire and Rehire against Glasgow Council workers” “Equal pay should deliver justice for workers, not come … Continue reading Labour now holders of the Brass Neck Champions of the World Award 2026

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Play to point spotlight at Liverpool drug gangs running Dundee?

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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?

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

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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’

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Decades ago Scottish Labour planted the seeds of Glasgow’s ongoing equal pay troubles

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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 Michael Marra posted this on ‘X’ “It beggars belief that the SNP council is threatening to railroad through fire and rehire before it is made illegal in this country by the UK Labour government. It may not break the letter of the law but it certainly breaks the spirit of it. It’s a despicable way to treat working people. It’s straight out the Tory playbook. All parties need to get round the table and hammer out a deal,and working people should never be threatened like this … Continue reading Decades ago Scottish Labour planted the seeds of Glasgow’s ongoing equal pay troubles

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DRUG DEATHS – SIMPLE LANGUAGE. NOT SIMPLISTIC SOLUTIONS.

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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 Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197 Scotland is regularly described as having the highest drug-death rate in Europe. Although there is an argument to be made that this comparison is based on a false equivalence, today has been no different. And as a quick-fix, Reform UK MSPs are scapegoating and supporting calls for the abolition of the Scottish Parliament. But what exactly would abolishing Holyrood achieve? Scotland’s drug problem did not begin with devolution. It began decades before it. During the 1980s and 1990s, Scotland developed a particularly large population … Continue reading DRUG DEATHS – SIMPLE LANGUAGE. NOT SIMPLISTIC SOLUTIONS.

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Corridor care is much less common in Scotland to save thousands

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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