Tag: politics

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SNP Cop numbers more than under Labour, crime halved and murder less than in Denmark, as Express puts mental health of hundreds at risk

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Express today with Cop cuts putting public at risk? Rubbish. Cop cuts? From Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: August 2025, published today: There were 16,427 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 30 June 2025. This was 193 (+1.2%) more officers compared to the position on 31 March 2007, and 220 (+1.4%) more than on 30 June 2024. https://www.gov.scot/publications/safer-communities-and-justice-statistics-monthly-data-report-august-2025/pages/statistics-on-community-safely/ Police officer staffing has been maintained despite the crime level in Scotland falling from 385 509 in 2007/2008 when the SNP took over, to 299 111 last year, a 22% fall. Public at risk? Rubbish, crime … Continue reading SNP Cop numbers more than under Labour, crime halved and murder less than in Denmark, as Express puts mental health of hundreds at risk

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As threat of resident (junior) doctor strikes in NHS England loom again, how the SNP settlement last year was praised by the BMA and means NHS Scotland is set to avoid thousands of excess deaths again

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on strike over what they say is a lack of future training places. Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Breakfast is headlining the above report with the following detail on their website: Newly-qualified doctors in their first year of practice in England have voted in favour of strike action in a row over a shortage of jobs. The British Medical Association (BMA) union says thousands of resident doctors are ending up without speciality training places when they finish year two of training. This year there were 10,000 jobs available for 30,000 candidates, although some of those will be doctors from abroad. … Continue reading As threat of resident (junior) doctor strikes in NHS England loom again, how the SNP settlement last year was praised by the BMA and means NHS Scotland is set to avoid thousands of excess deaths again

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Only couples earning £76 000 or more would be better off under Labour according to Anas Sarwar

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Daily Record yesterday: Anas Sarwar has insisted many households are £5000 better off since Labour came to power and demanded Keir Starmer “tell that positive story”. “So if you are a full time working couple on the average income with a mortgage you could be £5000 better off under a Labour government.” So, you need a mortgage to deserve help from Labour? That’s around 29% only with a mortgage, 63% whose parents already own their home.1 In the old days, the other 27% were core Labour voters. Average income in Scotland? The median is £38k2, £76k … Continue reading Only couples earning £76 000 or more would be better off under Labour according to Anas Sarwar

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A full year of steady decline means Scottish Labour are not coming back any time soon and certainly not by next May

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Professor John Robertson OBA Lucy Dunn in the Spectator yesterday has: Scottish Labour may be down but they’re not out. The polls have not been moving in their favour over the last few months and on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool a Norstat survey for the Sunday Times brought more bad news: never mind losing out on first place at the 2026 Holyrood election, Scottish Labour could crash into third next year thanks to a surge in support for Nigel Farage’s leaderless tartan outfit. It would be a pretty humiliating state of affairs.  Yet despite all this, the mood in … Continue reading A full year of steady decline means Scottish Labour are not coming back any time soon and certainly not by next May

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Infected blood scandal – The mob who supposedly ‘report’ political news within Scotland are not exactly the same calibre of the Washington Post’s Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward

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By Liz S People in Scotland need to realise that these UK political parties, whenever they achieve any power, they then have a tendency to hold the ‘purse strings very very tightly’ ……….to such an extent that they rarely want to open that public purse to provide , not just any compensation, but appropriate compensation to those negatively impacted …… As in impacted not through their own actions but through either a negligence of the UK State, or via an action taken by a part of the establishment that represents the UK State or a bad decision directly taken by the UK State. Newsnight on BBC2 once had , as guests, the “victims and campaigners seeking … Continue reading Infected blood scandal – The mob who supposedly ‘report’ political news within Scotland are not exactly the same calibre of the Washington Post’s Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward

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As BBC Scotland revisit the scandal the still untold story of how Labour failed to protect Scots from infected blood!

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland is broadcasting tragic stories today of those infected by blood transfusions: Between 1970 and the early 1990s, more than 30,000 NHS patients were given blood transfusions, or treatments made using blood products, which were contaminated with hep C or HIV. Some of the blood was from abroad, but in Scotland, the majority came from Scottish donors which included prisoners and drug users. Nowhere in the extended reporting is it made clear which political parties were in Government, thus responsible for the tragedy. Here is the necessary clarification: On May 17th, the head of the Scottish … Continue reading As BBC Scotland revisit the scandal the still untold story of how Labour failed to protect Scots from infected blood!

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Child poverty in ‘UK’ soars to almost 50% higher than in Scotland with gap only likely to widen and a resulting increase of dying young

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this: Published in Nursing Practice of 29 September 2025, One-third of UK children grow up in poverty with higher risk of dying young: In 2023/24, nearly a third [31%] of children in the UK (4.5 million) were living in relative poverty after housing costs, with one million of these children based in the North of England. In some constituencies, such as Birmingham Ladywood, the figures are higher, with 62 per cent of children living in poverty [32%in Glasgow] . This report highlights how the situation is worsening, with researchers … Continue reading Child poverty in ‘UK’ soars to almost 50% higher than in Scotland with gap only likely to widen and a resulting increase of dying young

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How Jim Murphy has made millions in Starmer era from his ‘lobbying behemoth’

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By Liz S Long comment but really crucial as something that really exposes the sheer hypocrisy and blatant double standards applied by the Labour party…and also those individuals still connected to them. You know most people in Scotland, and elsewhere, may not realise that one of the biggest political losers in Scottish politics and also a very unpopular Labour leader in Scotland , Jim Murphy , has apparently now been ‘winning’ since ‘losing’ Labour a majority of their Labour MP’s in the 2015 UK GE………where he lost Labour 40 MP’s in Scotland out of total of 41….which included him losing in his own constituency. Yesterday , The Times newspaper did a piece on him … Continue reading How Jim Murphy has made millions in Starmer era from his ‘lobbying behemoth’

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Ferret factchecker’s toxic dialogue suggests dramatically ebbing tide of racially-aggravated hate crime in Scotland threatening to just about disappear here, along with their far-right groups

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Bob Lamont for alerting us to this. The Ferret is in the National today with the above and: At least 20 incidents linked to anti-migrant protests, racism and the far right in the last two months have exposed rising political tensions across Scotland. They included attacks on mosques and asylum hotels, alleged assaults – and the jailing of a neo-Nazi for slashing a student in the face with a knife. The Ferret found there were at least 17 arrests linked to anti-migrant protests, and police are investigating a number of alleged hate crimes. Anti-racism … Continue reading Ferret factchecker’s toxic dialogue suggests dramatically ebbing tide of racially-aggravated hate crime in Scotland threatening to just about disappear here, along with their far-right groups

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‘Gangs of sinister, feral young men’ from England fuelling Scotland’s drug deaths, targeting vulnerable women and causing small town violence surges

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Scotsman last week had: Gangs of sinister, feral young men show why Police Scotland needs extra £140 million – Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell has sounded an alarm that politicians must heed Just who these young men are where they come from is left out so that readers might think they’re Scots but they’re not. As far back as 2018, the Liverpool Echo began a run of reports telling exactly where they’re from, with: How Liverpool’s drug criminals are fuelling Scotland’s gang wars In 2022: Liverpool drug gangs target Scots towns and cities as … Continue reading ‘Gangs of sinister, feral young men’ from England fuelling Scotland’s drug deaths, targeting vulnerable women and causing small town violence surges