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Not in Education Employment or Training is far less common in Scotland with youth employment amongst lowest in Europe and mental health support 90% target smashed for sixth time

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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 Scotland today is making much of Scotland’s NEET [Not in Education, Employment, or Training] statistics not allowing comparison with the rest of the UK and the supposed lack of support for those with mental health problems in seeking employment, based on a single case: Neala Sheils spent two years applying for jobs with little success before finally securing work in a hotel last month. Before she got a job, the 20-year-old from Glasgow was one of growing number of young people classed as … Continue reading Not in Education Employment or Training is far less common in Scotland with youth employment amongst lowest in Europe and mental health support 90% target smashed for sixth time

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12 years after Erin Brockovich, Labour councillors approved massive nearby waste incinerator with a chimney barely taller and a plume containing deadly chromium hexavalent, lead and arsenic which the prevailing winds will send to the windows of wards of immunocompromised patients, WHILE QEUH was already being built

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Thanks to reader Joe Murray for alerting us to this. As the media operating in Scotland desperately struggle to blame the SNP for a problem in the QEUH water supply and drainage, signed off by a Labour dominated health board in a Labour-led authority, in 2015, two years before the SNP victory, another problem for them emerges. Surely, they’d seen Erin Brockovich (2 000) and would have known about the deadly chromium hexavalent, if they did some reading? In 2012, Glasgow City Council granted planning permission for the South Clyde Energy Centre (an energy-from-waste/incinerator facility) at Bogmoor Road, North Cardonald … Continue reading 12 years after Erin Brockovich, Labour councillors approved massive nearby waste incinerator with a chimney barely taller and a plume containing deadly chromium hexavalent, lead and arsenic which the prevailing winds will send to the windows of wards of immunocompromised patients, WHILE QEUH was already being built

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Amended ‘Irresponsible BBQ users’ are not always to blame for wildfires

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A reader has correctly pointed out a basic error in the first draft of this. Media coverage of wildfires tends almost uniformly to blame supposedly irresponsible BBQ-users. The current Cairngorm wildfire is similarly explained despite taking place on fairly uninteresting moorland: In this case, as the fire started on RSPB territory popular with walkers, the above explanations are more likely. However many wildfires cannot be so easily attributed. A significant percentage, often those which start on grouse-shooting estates are caused by the estate practice of muirburn. Muirburn? What is muirburn? Also called heather burning or controlled burning, muirburn is a … Continue reading Amended ‘Irresponsible BBQ users’ are not always to blame for wildfires

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Toronto replaces iodide tablets to protect those living near nuclear power stations. Responsible Conservative and Labour UK governments have never bothered

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From Toronto University’s On the Record 10 April 2026: As of February 2026, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) began the process of sending out replacement potassium iodide pills to people living within 10 kilometres of the two major nuclear generating stations located within the Durham Region, the Pickering and Darlington stations.  While living near these stations can raise concerns for some residents, municipal governments and provincial agencies maintain emergency preparedness measures aimed at protecting communities, including replacing the expired set of pills they sent out in 2015. This seems to have come as a surprise to some residents because awareness of these public safety programs and … Continue reading Toronto replaces iodide tablets to protect those living near nuclear power stations. Responsible Conservative and Labour UK governments have never bothered

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Scotland has world’s greatest wind capacity per head of population in the World but uses it to benefit England

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The above table is not clearly linked to its source. I’ve asked and will update when I get it. As you are aware, the above is doing nothing for our energy bills, the highest in the UK and in Europe so what’s happening to the electricity it’s producing? Here’s the story: The UK Energy Minister, above, appeared to claim credit for the approval of the massive 300 plus turbine, 4.1GW, windfarm off the Scottish coast near Fife and East Lothian: Even the Scotsman knew who had actually approved it: One of world’s biggest wind farms with 307 turbines approved near Edinburgh by … Continue reading Scotland has world’s greatest wind capacity per head of population in the World but uses it to benefit England

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Labour minister promoting new nuclear energy to enable nuclear medicine that brings significant cancer risks to workers emerging as new opportunity for Scottish Labour in 2026

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Professor John Robertson OBA From the United Kingdom Nuclear Laboratory on 16 December 2025: Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said:  Cancer is a disease that affects millions worldwide, and tears too many families apart. Breakthroughs in medical science are giving more cancer patients and their loved ones hope, and this unique partnership could help take that work even further. Turning nuclear material into cutting-edge cancer treatments sounds like science fiction – but thanks to the brilliance of scientists, researchers and doctors, it could be a life-saving reality. Work like this shows exactly why we’re determined to support our life sciences innovators to make groundbreaking new treatments possible.”  Given the … Continue reading Labour minister promoting new nuclear energy to enable nuclear medicine that brings significant cancer risks to workers emerging as new opportunity for Scottish Labour in 2026

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US research finds cancer mortality rate over 40% higher than the national rate and life expectancy almost a decade less than national average near nuclear facility comparable to Sellafield only miles from Scotland

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Professor John Robertson OBA In TCD (Ohio USA) yesterday: Residents of US town near nuclear facility face alarming crisis: ‘So many people are suffering’ “Our community shouldn’t be put at an increased risk.” https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/piketon-nuclear-plant-ohio-radiation-exposure/ Their report relies heavily on these comments in a UK Guardian piece on 23 September 2025: Reports have emerged that 10 tons of uranium were released from a now-closed uranium enrichment facility almost nightly into the air between 1955 to 1993, an activity known by people who worked there at the time as ‘midnight rockets’. “This plant has a vast signature of contamination, mostly from an airborne … Continue reading US research finds cancer mortality rate over 40% higher than the national rate and life expectancy almost a decade less than national average near nuclear facility comparable to Sellafield only miles from Scotland

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As the authorities approve supposed reduced risk how many childhood cancers were caused by refuelling at this Ayrshire nuclear power station?

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As the authorities approve [15 September 2025] the progress in reducing hazard at the Hunterston B nuclear site in North Ayrshire, I’m deeply suspicious and reminded of the harm that was done over 45 years. By Professor John Robertson, OBA Thanks to JB for researching this. Hunterston B Nuclear power station, in North Ayrshire, Scotland, was in operation for nearly 45 years, from February 1976 until November 2021.1 In that time, there will have been around 30 re-fuelling instances2 and up to 300 inspections.3 During these events, there are spikes of radioactive emissions. Researchers in Germany, published this in 2011: According to the International … Continue reading As the authorities approve supposed reduced risk how many childhood cancers were caused by refuelling at this Ayrshire nuclear power station?

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Why Scotland’s older ‘folded’ geology makes Farage’s ‘back of a cigarette packet’ fracking policy, stupid and dangerous

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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 OBAThe above BBC article, based on Reform UK comments, makes no mention of the older folded geology which Scotland is made up of almost entirely. I seemed to remember reading something suggesting that it would make fracking more difficult and, inevitably, more dangerous. Unable to find it by Googling, I asked my old pal Grok AI: Does Scotland’s older more folded geology make fracking more difficult? The answer: See the above reference to problems in fracking in the Scottish Midlands Valley? Here’s the … Continue reading Why Scotland’s older ‘folded’ geology makes Farage’s ‘back of a cigarette packet’ fracking policy, stupid and dangerous

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‘Huge pools of mystery sludge, leaking silos’ and shocking complacency only a few miles from Stranraer and the highest cancer level in Europe – Does Scottish Labour need a ‘cancer panic’ to wake it up to the horrific risks of pursuing even more nuclear projects?

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Professor John Robertson OBA In the Daily Mail today: Atomic bomb waste discovered beneath six homes in St Louis has sparked panic and renewed concern in other US cities still haunted by Manhattan Project contamination. St Louis is far from the only city still dealing with Manhattan Project fallout. Across the country, sites such as Hanford in Washington, Oak Ridge in Tennessee, and Los Alamos in New Mexico remain dangerously contaminated. A 2003 study surveyed 801 individuals who lived downwind of the Hanford plutonium production facility, finding greater-than-expected numbers of central nervous system tumors and cancers of the female reproductive system. High incidences … Continue reading ‘Huge pools of mystery sludge, leaking silos’ and shocking complacency only a few miles from Stranraer and the highest cancer level in Europe – Does Scottish Labour need a ‘cancer panic’ to wake it up to the horrific risks of pursuing even more nuclear projects?