Tag: politics

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California researchers find auto-immune disorders FOUR times as high near a place like Dounreay

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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 From Debrief two days ago: A new study published in Risk Analysis found that residents living within five miles of the former Santa Susana Field Laboratory reported autoimmune disorders at more than four times the rate of those living 11 to 15 miles away. Located in the Simi Hills northwest of Los Angeles, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory hosted rocket engine testing from 1949 to 2006 and nuclear reactor operations from 1953 to 1980. In 1959, a partial meltdown occurred at the site, which later became associated with radioactive and chemical contamination in … Continue reading California researchers find auto-immune disorders FOUR times as high near a place like Dounreay

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Do you ever get fed up with us reporting how after 19 years without LabCons just about every public service in Scotland has been protected by the SNP? Now it’s our well-regulated RAAC ‘which can easily last 50 years, and should be able to carry on for several decades after that’

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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 BBC Reporting Scotland Down today are back in Aberdeen, meeting folk who should really be suing the engineers who did the report upon which a mortgage lender lent them money to buy their RAAC council house, at a knock-down price thanks to the Tories and Labour back in the 20th C., before the SNP put an end to the taxpayer rip-off scheme in 2016. They interview a young man who has clearly played poker before and likes it there, he says. ‘Make me an … Continue reading Do you ever get fed up with us reporting how after 19 years without LabCons just about every public service in Scotland has been protected by the SNP? Now it’s our well-regulated RAAC ‘which can easily last 50 years, and should be able to carry on for several decades after that’

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Oil, Renewables and Data Centres

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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 By Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197 There is something very revealing about the way Scotland’s resources are discussed and pumped into our living rooms via our television screens. During the 2014 independence referendum, North Sea oil was presented as nothing but a risk to everyone living in Scotland. We were warned about falling production, volatile prices and the dangers of over-relying on oil revenues. Alistair Darling described relying on oil as “gambling with our children’s future.” On Sky News, June 2014, Gordon Brown ‘England’s Lord … Continue reading Oil, Renewables and Data Centres

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Minimum wage shame list reveals Scottish firms significantly more likely to pay staff minimum wage than in other parts of UK

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Top story at BBC Scotland Business and front page on the BBC Scotland News site but barely mentioned across other BBC sites, ‘Minimum wage shame list reveals Scottish firms that failed to pay staff.’ 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 From BBC Scotland today: Fifty firms in Scotland have been revealed on a UK government list naming and shaming employers that failed to pay staff minimum wage. Three of the companies topping the list in Scotland – including North East bakers Murdoch Allan & Son – each owed more than … Continue reading Minimum wage shame list reveals Scottish firms significantly more likely to pay staff minimum wage than in other parts of UK

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Child grooming gangs like those in Rochdale and Rotherham in Scotland – sometimes the [complete] absence of evidence can mean the evidence of absence

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the extent of child abuse carried out by grooming gangs in Scotland, according to a review. 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 For some reason, but not unusually for Reporting Scotland, this story is not reported more fully on their website. The National review of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation and child criminal exploitation Last updated: 3 September 2026 has not found evidence of any large-scale grooming gang activity comparable to that found across the ‘north’ of England in places like Rotherham and Rochdale, where more than a thousand … Continue reading Child grooming gangs like those in Rochdale and Rotherham in Scotland – sometimes the [complete] absence of evidence can mean the evidence of absence

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Jackie Baillie’s hypocrisy as Keir Starmer spends £60 130 of taxpayer money on a private jet trip to watch the Leopardesses 

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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 By Liz S Jackie Baillie posted this on X on 20 August (based on a BBC article that had a headline “John Swinney defends £45,000 business-class flights to World Cup”). “Such luxury in a cost-of-living crisis is not the lived experience of most Scots. Perhaps the FM should have considered the expectations of taxpayers before spending our money. It’s not the first time the SNP have been cavalier with the company card”. Meanwhile I am sure that the same Jackie Baillie was not so ‘concerned’ at these stories: “Sir … Continue reading Jackie Baillie’s hypocrisy as Keir Starmer spends £60 130 of taxpayer money on a private jet trip to watch the Leopardesses 

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Lucy Whyte didn’t appear to know that freezing the cost of supermarket staples was a Scottish Labour manifesto pledge

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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 By Liz S As Jackie Baillie was interviewed by the BBC radio in Scotland in a softly softly interview that was mostly, as per, an opportunity for her to have yet another public platform to scream #SNPBAD via the BBC in Scotland. Yet here is what I found online in the ‘Scottish’ Labour manifesto for the 2026 Scottish elections. 30 April 2026 “100 Days of Change” This was on the ‘Scottish’ Labour website: “If international instability continues, deliver £100 million of emergency support including … Continue reading Lucy Whyte didn’t appear to know that freezing the cost of supermarket staples was a Scottish Labour manifesto pledge

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Violence against women – does the Guardian’s Scottish Correspondent ever read anything first?

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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 Guardian’s Scotland Correspondent, Libby Brooks, is often ill-informed and this show little sign of doing any better. The image is, of course, from a march in London. Good morning. Violence against women and girls, in all its myriad forms – physical and mental, blatant and insidious – is a global challenge. It reaches back through millennia and, lately, it has been turbo-charged by technology, which offers abusers new ways to shame, harass and monitor victims. What would it take to eradicate it? Scotland’s first … Continue reading Violence against women – does the Guardian’s Scottish Correspondent ever read anything first?

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Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Scotland hit 90% or more target for 8th time in a row with NHS England lagging badly at only 65%*

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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 From Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times Quarter ending June 2026 Published01 September 2026 (Latest release), the above and: 90.9% of people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is a decrease from 91.2% for the previous quarter and a decrease from 91.8% for the same quarter ending June 2025. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of children and young people should start treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS. The chart below shows performance in relation to this … Continue reading Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Scotland hit 90% or more target for 8th time in a row with NHS England lagging badly at only 65%*

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That’s SEVEN US (Cleary Act) requests for data on campus safety that could not be provided by Police Scotland despite on every English university campus you are significantly more likely to be a victim of violent crime than on any Scottish one

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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 From Reference: 26-2051-Clery Act Request (USA University​) Date and time of release: August 31, 2026 14:29, I know, any excuse to repeat this and once more email the interested party. In June 2026 Police Scotland, posted these two FoI responses: These are the 5th and 6th such responses I’ve seen from Police Scotland, not able to provide the information. Previously, I have shared what follows below with hotels but with no response. What is the Clery Act (USA)? The Clery Act (officially the Jeanne Clery Campus … Continue reading That’s SEVEN US (Cleary Act) requests for data on campus safety that could not be provided by Police Scotland despite on every English university campus you are significantly more likely to be a victim of violent crime than on any Scottish one