Tag: news

4 Comments

The Scottish values that Reform UK cannot align with, but which produce an ‘impenetrable wall’ of support for the SNP?

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 This was first published in Scots Independent in July 2025. A recent survey by pollster More in Common for GB News, has cast doubt on Reform UK’s prospects in Scotland and suggests an ‘impenetrable wall’ of support for the SNP. On 19 July 2025, GB News reported: Reform UK’s hopes of generating a tartan tidal wave have been handed a damning verdict as a pollster has told GB News that the party’s values do not fully resonate with Scottish voters. According to a … Continue reading The Scottish values that Reform UK cannot align with, but which produce an ‘impenetrable wall’ of support for the SNP?

1 Comment

Scottish taxpayers to pay another £100 million every year to keep an English steelworks in business as Scotland no longer produces any crude steel, just recycles old stuff, only weeks after hearing we must also contribute around £100m every year to save an English oil refinery so that it can replace a Scottish oil refinery to refine oil almost entirely from Scottish waters

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 Thanks to Dottie once more for alerting me to this. In the Guardian yesterday, the above, and: Ministers have lined up special managers to run Liberty Steel’s South Yorkshire operations if they are put into administration, according to a revelation at the high court in London. The development shows that the government is ready to step in immediately to secure the continued operations of the Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), which employs 1,450 people at the group’s operations in Rotherham and in Stocksbridge. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/20/ministers-line-up-plan-to-run-liberty-steel-south-yorkshire-plants-in-administration There’s … Continue reading Scottish taxpayers to pay another £100 million every year to keep an English steelworks in business as Scotland no longer produces any crude steel, just recycles old stuff, only weeks after hearing we must also contribute around £100m every year to save an English oil refinery so that it can replace a Scottish oil refinery to refine oil almost entirely from Scottish waters

3 Comments

Major study by respected Nuffield Foundation finds higher educational achievement across the board in Scotland

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, for nearly 40 years a schoolteacher, a teacher education lecturer, Associate Dean for Quality Assurance, research methods lecturer, PhD supervisor and Faculty Research Ethics Chair From Comparing inequality and outcomes across post-16 education in the UK, published in the last few days: Since the formal introduction of devolution in the late 1990s, post-16 education and training (E&T)has looked increasingly different across the four nations of the UK, particularly as policyapproaches have diverged. With such differences in post-16 E&T across the UK, there are clearopportunities … Continue reading Major study by respected Nuffield Foundation finds higher educational achievement across the board in Scotland

2 Comments

As British Labour Party politicians persist in gaslighting Scotland, is Labour’s disturbing legacy of 26 years of devolved government in Wales fair game for examination?

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 By stewartb “To put it bluntly, educational outcomes are a source of major concern in Wales” (Education Policy Institute, July 2025). When the BBC News website published an article headlined ‘Pass rates up for Scottish pupils in latest exam results’ on August 5, it reported (but did not headline) that there had been a reduction in the attainment gap: ‘The SQA said the attainment gap – between the level of qualifications achieved by children from the most affluent and the least affluent areas – … Continue reading As British Labour Party politicians persist in gaslighting Scotland, is Labour’s disturbing legacy of 26 years of devolved government in Wales fair game for examination?

1 Comment

Risk of dying from cancer falls by 11% in Scotland and performance leads that in England so Express headline story to claim we’re ‘lagging behind England’ today is a disgusting piece of lying propaganda and fake news to undermine SNP

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 The Daily Express today has a front page of awesome dishonesty, of an order that a Nazi propagandist might have baulked at: SCOTLAND LAGS ‘SERIOUSLY’ FOR CANCER TREATMENT I’ve no idea who said ‘SERIOUSLY’ but I doubt their reliability. As the Express leads, low IQ-style, with the total number increase, Here are the facts about that: First, the RISK of dying from cancer in Scotland fell by 11% From the Public Health Scotland report which the Express has based its distortions … Continue reading Risk of dying from cancer falls by 11% in Scotland and performance leads that in England so Express headline story to claim we’re ‘lagging behind England’ today is a disgusting piece of lying propaganda and fake news to undermine SNP

3 Comments

Contrast in treatment by politicians and media of 2024-25 examination results in Scotland and in the rest of the UK was stark

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 By stewartb The contrast in treatment by politicians and the mainstream media of the 2024-25 examination results in Scotland and in the rest of the UK was stark. I listened to extensive news coverage by the BBC of the results for England, NI and Wales. Journalists, politicians and various ‘stakeholders’ commented on the nature, persistence and intractability of the attainment gap in England. Candidly, the coverage was informative: contributions were made in a ‘grown-up’ kind of way. Partisan politicking was at most minor. Meanwhile … Continue reading Contrast in treatment by politicians and media of 2024-25 examination results in Scotland and in the rest of the UK was stark

6 Comments

BBC Verify team obviously gives a very very wide berth to BBC Scotland

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 By Liz S Sorry , he accused you of bringing the BBC into disrepute ? I assume his anger was because they, the BBC, want to be the only ones who do that themselves , via the low quality and clearly partisan output that they broadcast as news in Scotland, where they have an obvious mission to damage the SNP as a party while simultanously also protecting other parties in Scotland….. (Has Anas Sarwar been asked about Brian Leishman’s suspension from the Labour party yet by the BBC … Continue reading BBC Verify team obviously gives a very very wide berth to BBC Scotland

5 Comments

Never done a real job Lib Dem thinks he can criticise SNP achievements in Education

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, for nearly 40 years a schoolteacher, a teacher education lecturer, Associate Dean for Quality Assurance, research methods lecturer, PhD supervisor and Faculty Research Ethics Chair Thanks to rtpscott for alerting me to this. Willie Rennie is in the P&J today to claim ‘SNP’s attainment gap promise lying in ruins’. This allows me to repeat a response which I know only a few hundred of the thousands following TuS across social media have actually looked at. I include my experience above merely to suggest I … Continue reading Never done a real job Lib Dem thinks he can criticise SNP achievements in Education

7 Comments

Only 0.01% of voters actually think gender reform is the key issue but the media will say it is for the SNP in 2026 – How the media try to influence election outcomes by deciding WHAT you think is important

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 The Trans issue has been central to media coverage in Scotland for years now and that coverage has uniformly sought to present it as controversial and to locate entirely within the affairs of the SNP, disregarding cross-party support, so as to protect, especially, Anas Sarwar. You see above, that the Times has decided that ‘trans’ is to be the ‘key issue for the SNP‘ at election, May 2026. What is that claim based on? In December 2022, in a poll of 1 … Continue reading Only 0.01% of voters actually think gender reform is the key issue but the media will say it is for the SNP in 2026 – How the media try to influence election outcomes by deciding WHAT you think is important

3 Comments

No supporters resorted to the more ‘divisive’, the more extreme and inflammatory rhetoric to try to convince voters to stay in the UK

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 By stewartb “Lots of us were persuadable, but if the knee jerk response to common sense questions is ‘you’re a unionist traitor, a scaremonger and no true Scot’, don’t be surprised if the questioner becomes sceptical about the inclusive, egalitarian, welcoming utopia independence activists swore we’d be living in once they were in charge” At one level I’m bored by the likes of this from Ms Rowling and want to move on. But this wishing to occupy some sort of moral high ground grinds … Continue reading No supporters resorted to the more ‘divisive’, the more extreme and inflammatory rhetoric to try to convince voters to stay in the UK