Tag: news

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‘My eye-opening day at overrun A&E department’ – who’s culpable for what BBC Wales found in Swansea?

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Should we borrow from Labour’s rhetoric in Scotland: ‘NHS staff do an incredible job in caring for us but they are let down by Labour time and time again’;  an ‘out of touch and hopeless Labour government presiding over a crisis in the Welsh NHS’;  “… Labour’s record on the NHS in Wales is one of abject failure”? By stewartb BBC Wales is reporting what its journalist found on a visit to an NHS Wales hospital in Swansea: ‘My eye-opening day at overrun A&E department’ (BBC News website January 23, 2025). The article reveals the poor state of a hospital … Continue reading ‘My eye-opening day at overrun A&E department’ – who’s culpable for what BBC Wales found in Swansea?

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Radioactive tritium emissions which ‘slam into’ your DNA, DOUBLE around Clyde nuclear sub base

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By Professor John Robertson, OBA Yesterday, I saw the above report and read further on the topic in The Engineer, that: Fusion power plants will rely on hydrogen isotopes deuterium (which can be extracted from seawater), and tritium (which is rare on Earth) to produce energy. To address this scarcity, tritium must be produced (or ‘bred’) in a lithium-containing blanket that surrounds the fusion reaction. The LIBRTI programme aims to demonstrate controlled tritium breeding, which will be a critical step for future fusion power plants. Tritium jumped up into my mind again as it had done three weeks ago as I … Continue reading Radioactive tritium emissions which ‘slam into’ your DNA, DOUBLE around Clyde nuclear sub base

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Labour’s decision to keep the cracked Torness nuclear reactor going is ‘an experiment and hoping nothing will go wrong’

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Many thanks again to Alan Gordon for alerting me to this. In December 2021, spreading cracks were found in the aging nuclear power station at Torness in East Lothian and its operator EDF decided to shut it down two years early, in 2028. Then in December 2024, the new Labour government’s energy minister, Ed Miliband, in pursuit of their carbon reduction strategy decided it should stay open. Why is this a concern? In 2023, prior to the above decision, Dr Ian Fairlie, an independent consultant on radioactivity in the environment, gave evidence in a briefing … Continue reading Labour’s decision to keep the cracked Torness nuclear reactor going is ‘an experiment and hoping nothing will go wrong’

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Starmer’s pledge of named police officers for every neighbourhood in England & Wales becomes laughable as staffing falls to lowest since 2022 and far below the level in Scotland

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Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this. In the Guardian today: Police officer numbers in England and Wales at lowest level for two years, figures show The number of police officers in England and Wales has slipped to its lowest level in two years, PA Media reports. PA says: The headcount of officers employed by 43 forces stood at 148,886 at the end of September 2024. This is down 883 from a peak of 149,769 at the end of March and the lowest total since the end of September 2022 (144,346), according to Home Office data published today. Last month, Keir … Continue reading Starmer’s pledge of named police officers for every neighbourhood in England & Wales becomes laughable as staffing falls to lowest since 2022 and far below the level in Scotland

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Comparison of educational performance across UK at odds with Labour Party spokesperson’s claim of ‘failure’ in Scotland.

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By stewartb A report from the Centre for Cities provides striking comparative analysis of levels of educational qualifications across 65 of the UK’s cities and large towns. Source: Centre for Cities (January 2025) Cities Outlook 2025 (https://www.centreforcities.org/publication/cities-outlook-2025/ ) The Centre’s research is summarised in two tables (reproduced below). In Table 10, the remarkable finding is that all four areas in Scotland within the scope of the Centre’s study of UK urban locations appear in the top ten in terms of the percentage of the working age population with high-level qualifications. (The report explains ‘high-level qualifications’: equivalent to Regulated Qualifications Framework … Continue reading Comparison of educational performance across UK at odds with Labour Party spokesperson’s claim of ‘failure’ in Scotland.

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Factcheck – Scotland a richer employment environment for 16 to 24 year-olds

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Labour Market Statistics for 16 to 24 year olds: Scotland and the United Kingdom – October 2023 to September 2024, published today: Compared with the United Kingdom as a whole: Data are sourced from the Annual Population Survey (APS), first released on 11 December 2024 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/labour-market-statistics-for-16-to-24-year-olds-scotland-and-the-united-kingdom-october-2023-to-september-2024/ Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/ The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116 About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save … Continue reading Factcheck – Scotland a richer employment environment for 16 to 24 year-olds

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Canadian local authority issues free potassium iodide (KI) tablets to all living within 6 miles of nuclear plants but Labour extend life of aging 46-crack Torness in Scotland

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By Professor John Robertson OBA A map of the nuclear power plants in Eastern Canada. The city of Toronto (2.79 million) is contiguous with Pickering. Yesterday, from the local Durham Region Health Department: “Ensuring that our community is prepared for any emergency is our top priority,” says Anthony DiPietro, Director, Health Protection with Durham Region Health Department. “Having a supply of KI tablets on hand is a simple yet effective measure to protect your health in the highly unlikely event of a nuclear accident. We encourage all residents within the designated area to take advantage of this free resource.” https://www.durham.ca/en/news/ki-tablets-jan-21-2025.aspx Meanwhile in … Continue reading Canadian local authority issues free potassium iodide (KI) tablets to all living within 6 miles of nuclear plants but Labour extend life of aging 46-crack Torness in Scotland

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News you won’t hear – massive reduction in road fatalities and serious injuries in last 10 years and lowest in the UK

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Road traffic accident statistics: FOI release, published today, we see a 24% fall in road fatalities, from 203 in 2014 to 155 in 2023 and, for serious injuries, a 32% fall from 2 901 in 2014 to 1 944 in 2023. Most of these FoIs are requested by the likes of Alex Cole-Hamilton of the Lib Dumbs, so it will be interesting to see if and how they try to spin this. Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400443200/ The longer-term trend: From Transport Scotland May 30th 2024 , but not making it to any front pages or to BBC Scotland: One hundred … Continue reading News you won’t hear – massive reduction in road fatalities and serious injuries in last 10 years and lowest in the UK

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News you won’t hear – treatment orders for drug-dependent offenders imposed since 2019 plummet by half and success rates soar

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By Professor John Robertson OBA The emphasis of a DTTO is on drugs treatment as the primary means of reducing offending behaviour rather than the specific offence focused approach of a probation order. Specifically the objectives of a DTTO are to: • Reduce or eliminate an offender’s dependency or propensity to misuse drugs; • Achieve positive changes in the scale and frequency of drug related offending The Order introduces unique aspects e.g. drug testing and regular court reviews as features of a community disposal. The DTTO is a high tariff, highly invasive community disposal involving social work supervision. The order requires regular … Continue reading News you won’t hear – treatment orders for drug-dependent offenders imposed since 2019 plummet by half and success rates soar

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News you won’t hear – Injury road collisions plummet by up to a third since 2019

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Transport Scotland – Road accidents in Scotland data: FOI release, published today, we can see that all road collisions with an injury, at all speed limits, have fallen dramatically since 2019, ignoring the Pandemic-caused dips in 2020 and 2021 when road traffic was significantly reduced. Of particular interest, the injury collisions in the 30mph limit have fallen by 34%. Similarly, collisions involving HGVs have fallen across all speed limits> Critics may spot, if they read on, that injury road collisions where speed contributed to the collision have increased slightly since 2019, from 165 to 173 but … Continue reading News you won’t hear – Injury road collisions plummet by up to a third since 2019