Researchers find UK Government’s austerity policies ‘murders’ 335 000 across the UK and inadvertently reveal SNP mitigation saved more than 8 000 lives

With only 7 days left, 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 – John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA I’ve already recommended the excellent, highly researched, ‘Social Murder? Austerity and Life Expectancy in the UK’ by David Walsh and Gerry McCartney (U of Glasgow), Policy Press. In the opening pages, they justify the term ‘social murder‘ for the fatal consequences of economic violence against the disabled and the poor. They estimate the level of social murder by comparing the observed mortality rates in the … Continue reading Researchers find UK Government’s austerity policies ‘murders’ 335 000 across the UK and inadvertently reveal SNP mitigation saved more than 8 000 lives

Yet another maternity unit in NHS England exposes women and babies to “significant risk, while in NHS Scotland after 18 years, the service is better-staffed, safer and more equitable

With only 7 days left, 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 – John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA From BBC West Yorkshire today, the above and: An NHS trust at the centre of concerns over its poor maternity services has had to repay almost £5m after wrongly claiming it provided safe care to mothers and their babies. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was paid the money after saying its services met safe standards of care and staffing. But a subsequent investigation … Continue reading Yet another maternity unit in NHS England exposes women and babies to “significant risk, while in NHS Scotland after 18 years, the service is better-staffed, safer and more equitable

A&E long waits – Candidly, the mainstream media is complicit in enabling Gulhane and Baillie’s hypocrisy

With only 7 days left, 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 – John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 By stewartb There is so much more that could be written about the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s (RCEM) statement on long waits in NHS Scotland’s emergency departments and their impact, and on the mainstream media’s coverage of this. And then there is the MSM’s amplification – without any critical appraisal – of quotes from the Tory Sandesh Gulhane and Labour’s Jackie Baillie. From the … Continue reading A&E long waits – Candidly, the mainstream media is complicit in enabling Gulhane and Baillie’s hypocrisy

The scale of the drift to privatisation – Nearly 100% of GPs in Scotland work in the NHS but only 66% do so in England

With only 7 days left, 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 – John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian last week, the above and: One in three GPs in England do not work in the NHS, with increasing numbers seeking to move abroad or becoming a private contractor, deepening patients’ difficulties in getting appointments. The proportion of family doctors who, although qualified, do not provide care through the NHS has risen from 27% in 2015 to 34% last year, according to a study … Continue reading The scale of the drift to privatisation – Nearly 100% of GPs in Scotland work in the NHS but only 66% do so in England

How can there be ‘an A&E crisis’ of deaths ‘associated’ with long waits only in Scotland when they are actually falling here and nearly FOUR times as common in NHS England?

With only 7 days left, 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 – John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA This morning, the Scotsman and the Metro are feeding BBC Scotland with the idea based on the emergency doctors’ trade union report, the RCEM, that long A&E waits are ‘associated with’, ‘costing‘ and the ‘toll‘ from stays of 12 hours and more. Only BBC Scotland has this headlined. As always there’s a basic flaw in their argument – the number waiting 12 hours … Continue reading How can there be ‘an A&E crisis’ of deaths ‘associated’ with long waits only in Scotland when they are actually falling here and nearly FOUR times as common in NHS England?

Inverness is already ‘terrorised’ by UK Government drug enforcement failures – 309 young men with nothing to do all day is just asking for it

Professor John Robertson OBA In yesterday’s Sunday Mail, former Sun ‘Environment journalist‘ Dan Vevers makes a determined effort to have the County Lines drug gang business model adopted by at least one Scottish city, to share the blame for the current plague in Inverness, with: Now a leading officer has warned that teens as young as 16 are being sent north from cities like Glasgow, Liverpool and London by drug gangs to claim turf and terrorise locals. I’ve been monitoring media reports of county lines-style behaviour by individuals arrested in Scottish towns and everyone has been English. The above claim is a first. … Continue reading Inverness is already ‘terrorised’ by UK Government drug enforcement failures – 309 young men with nothing to do all day is just asking for it

Now a second research report casts doubt on actual level of drug deaths in England but still they surge toward Scotland’s steadily falling level

With only 7 days left, 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 – John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA Summary: FIRST, in September 2025, King’s College Researchers found that opioid deaths in England & Wales were 50% higher than recorded by the ONS. SECOND, two years earlier UK Government researchers found massive (25%) undercounting of drugs deaths in England & Wales. THIRD, though Scotland’s drug death rate may still be higher despite these, the rate is falling fast to meet … Continue reading Now a second research report casts doubt on actual level of drug deaths in England but still they surge toward Scotland’s steadily falling level

As US scientists call for a national cancer study near US reactors to be conducted before any new expansion of nuclear power, why Scottish Labour should be paying attention to research before another generation of women suffers excess breast cancer mortality in the future

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 In the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, two days ago: The last and only national study of the health risks posed by existing US nuclear reactors was conducted in the late 1980s. But by then, many of the 62 nuclear plants had only been operating for a relatively small number of years, not enough time for the effects of radiogenic exposure to appear in workers and the nearby population. An attempt … Continue reading As US scientists call for a national cancer study near US reactors to be conducted before any new expansion of nuclear power, why Scottish Labour should be paying attention to research before another generation of women suffers excess breast cancer mortality in the future

It’s not just Emma Caldwell – Still deeply misogynist Scottish Labour should hope the truth about how they failed to scrutinise police complacency over 300 rapes and assaults in 2005 never comes out

Professor John Robertson OBA In September 2025, Emma Caldwell’s mother thought the prosecutors hope she dies before the truth of her daughter’s tragic death comes out. I’d say Scottish Labour has more to fear. The Daily Record today does not spend any time on the wider picture of misogyny and callous neglect, going back for a century, so deep within Scottish Labour. Here’s what they won’t tell you, in case it should hurt Anas: From BBC Scotland, in June 2024: Nearly 300 rapes and sexual assaults reported by sex workers during the Emma Caldwell murder investigation were not dealt with by police at the … Continue reading It’s not just Emma Caldwell – Still deeply misogynist Scottish Labour should hope the truth about how they failed to scrutinise police complacency over 300 rapes and assaults in 2005 never comes out

Labour’s favourite union and funder, the GMB, where bullying, misogyny, cronyism, and sexism is rife but BBC Scotland don’t want you to hear of it

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 By Liz S If they, the BBC, want to join in what should really be a “media feeding frenzy” then they should also report on, via their BBC website, the news that SKY News have been reporting upon……after what they, Sky News, say has been a “two year investigation”. On what ? On the Labour supporting Trade Union GMB. For what ? “Allegations of bullying and harassment inside one of the UK’s biggest … Continue reading Labour’s favourite union and funder, the GMB, where bullying, misogyny, cronyism, and sexism is rife but BBC Scotland don’t want you to hear of it