Here are TWELVE reasons why Glasgow is really getting better and is already better than most English cities but it’s being hidden from you by Labour-supporting media

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going 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 Readers may know, I’m a Bairn, so entirely impartial when Michael Kelly pops up to slag Glasgow. Some dog-walkers I know, with dogs called ‘Kenny’ and ‘Lubo’, are more forthright on his abilities, along the lines of the Celtic Blog in 2022: Just when you thought the gallery of goons was complete, along comes a figure so discredited and ridiculous and dripping in scandal that he makes Boris Johnson look like a paragon of virtue. I refer of course to our former director Michael … Continue reading Here are TWELVE reasons why Glasgow is really getting better and is already better than most English cities but it’s being hidden from you by Labour-supporting media

Crashed ‘unseaworthy’ CalMac ferry is yet another built in England for some shady reason

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going 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 The entirely ‘unworthy’ Herald has another of it’s ‘hatchet jobs’ on CalMac today, above, about its 40 year-old , MV Isle of Loch Linnhe, built with its 4 sister ships in 1986, at Richard Dunston’s Hessle yard on the Humber. European Commission rules apprently meant they had to go out to open tender and the contract was won by the English yard in the constituency of right-wing Tory MP, Sir Patrick Wall. Wall had supported white minority rile in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. No doubt … Continue reading Crashed ‘unseaworthy’ CalMac ferry is yet another built in England for some shady reason

Scotland’s health board restructuring is not unusual and wee local groups cannot be trusted with complex medical issues

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going 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 Lesley Riddoch in the National yesterday, with the above and: Leaving aside her invitation to ‘islanders’ to make me ‘walk the ferry gang plank’ after I questioned their awareness of just how much the SNP Government has done for them, I still trust Lesley Riddoch as an honest and constructive, not to mention, very articulate, critical friend of the SNP. I have my own concerns on the SNP leadership, especially on foreign affairs, but if you work to destroy them you will regret it … Continue reading Scotland’s health board restructuring is not unusual and wee local groups cannot be trusted with complex medical issues

No other major hospital in the UK is sited so close to a raw sewage processing plant that emits bioaerosols containing bacteria, fungi and viruses

More than one friend of Talking-up Scotland has joined in to feed me useful info on the at-first-sight disturbing and surprising location of the new QEUH approved by Labour-led Glasgow council in 2008. Some are posting as Anon, in email with names and sometimes telling not to mention those.. I’m mixed up so apologies if I don’t credit you but thanks all round. From Anon today: What Allan Bennett’s testimony [specialist scientific advisor on airborne infection risks and ventilation/biosafety matters] omits is that there are two sewage plants surrounding the QEUH / RHCG. The plant actually bordering the west boundary of the … Continue reading No other major hospital in the UK is sited so close to a raw sewage processing plant that emits bioaerosols containing bacteria, fungi and viruses

In the time wealthy Washington State waits for just one new ferry, Scotland builds TEN despite having only one third of the economy

Washington State Ferries operating in an island archipelago around Seattle, Washington State USA, has not received a new ferry since 2015, 11 years ago. Today, according to Kiro Seattle: After years of ferry delays and an aging fleet, Washington is taking a major step toward restoring service. Governor Bob Ferguson announced construction is underway on the state’s first new ferry in 11 years, stating a third hybrid-electric vessel has now been added to the order. And the new ferries can’t come soon enough for Washington. The state lost four ferries between 2015 and 2025, shrinking its fleet from 25 ferries … Continue reading In the time wealthy Washington State waits for just one new ferry, Scotland builds TEN despite having only one third of the economy

As 2 700 die in heatwave in England & Wales, Scottish Government actions ‘ahead of game’ despite lower temperatures here

Thanks to Dottie, once more for alerting me to this: In the Guardian today: England risks constructing a new generation of “death trap” buildings that can fatally overheat unless the government tightens standards and prioritises climate safeguards, planning experts have said. Fears are growing about the plight of vulnerable people in heatwaves, with research this week suggesting that 2,700 people had died in the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales. Yet only about half of local plans being drawn up by councils and local authorities require new buildings to have a cooling or ventilation strategy to prevent overheating, according to … Continue reading As 2 700 die in heatwave in England & Wales, Scottish Government actions ‘ahead of game’ despite lower temperatures here

Shetland business woman tell complete lie about how Scottish Government funds, ‘extremely highly’ overfunds, their service

So, a representative of some Shetland Islands business group gets to tell the Westminster Scottish Affairs committee that ferry transport is underfunded in Scotland. Watch now a Labour member of that committee invite the PM to damn the SNP Government with that claim. is the claim true? How do the relative subsidies for ferry transport in Scotland, Norway, British Columbia, Washington State, UK Channel Islands and Isle of Wight compare in light of this claim – https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/news/lyall-tells-mps-isles-are-in-a-race-against-time-to-resolv-437901/ Scottish island ferries (especially CalMac/CHFS and Shetland inter-island services) receive among the highest per-passenger operating subsidies of the listed regions, with very low … Continue reading Shetland business woman tell complete lie about how Scottish Government funds, ‘extremely highly’ overfunds, their service

Soaring Covid infections – the real campervan from England worry in Scotland in 2021

In late 2020, Peter Murrell bought a campervan from a dealer in Staffordshire before apparently leaving it sitting two years on his mother’s drive in Dunfermline. If only that had been a typical use of campervans from England into Scotland in the following year. On the 20th June, the Sunday Post, reported: Scotland faces an influx of 6.4 million visitors this summer as UK staycationers head here in record numbers, according to industry data. Tracking research commissioned by GB national tourist boards, including VisitScotland, is used to measure UK residents’ holiday intentions, with the latest Scotland report, up to the … Continue reading Soaring Covid infections – the real campervan from England worry in Scotland in 2021

The Islay Whisky Festival 2025 was the ‘most successful’ to date contrary to ferry ‘fiasco’ fake news then so it must be even more successful this time?

The Islay Whisky Festival 2026 started in Friday. I’ve seen no media talk of a ferry fiasco though the 7am next Tuesday sailing has been cancelled. Surely that will cause terrible disruption for travellers going home? In June 2025, stewartb surprised us all when he found out this: The Islay Whisky Festival 2025 is the ‘most successful’ to date contrary to ferry ‘fiasco’ fake news You may recall from TuS on May 22, 2025 this headline: ‘Stricken!! The Herald and local haulier conspire to hide the deep satisfaction of Islay folk with their ferry service.’ The blog post included this extract from … Continue reading The Islay Whisky Festival 2025 was the ‘most successful’ to date contrary to ferry ‘fiasco’ fake news then so it must be even more successful this time?

The Great Scottish Ferry Inconvenience Media War

Lesley Riddoch in her early April 2026 podcast said on the ferries crisis (literally) I’ve got to say personally, I’m sick of hearing people on the mainland ‘attack islanders’ for simply expecting that they can be connected. Just to remind you we all live on an island, and it would be a bit like saying Scotland’s a bit too expensive to include in UK national systems so let’s just charge them more. We wouldnae, would we?’ Who are those ‘people’ attacking islanders then? Turns out it’s me! ‘I’m probably gonna lose some friends on this because I am absolutely sick … Continue reading The Great Scottish Ferry Inconvenience Media War