Tag: scotland

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Two leading academics cast doubt on England’s supposedly better Pisa scores as their sample is revealed to be skewed toward high achievers by schools gaming the system again

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To put it plainly, based on the reading of two prominent academics in England, the sample from English schools is light on the percentage of pupils with special needs. This echoes the problems of representativeness in the English sample in 2022 (more below) when the results were ‘asterisked’ with a serious warning after almost being fully excluded. There is no history of such gaming or bias in the other 3 UK nations. 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 above from the Times Education Supplement‘s analysis of the Pisa test … Continue reading Two leading academics cast doubt on England’s supposedly better Pisa scores as their sample is revealed to be skewed toward high achievers by schools gaming the system again

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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

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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 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

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Does Jackie Baillie realise that any QEUH corporate homicide investigation would be into the Glasgow Council that decided, uniquely in the world, to put a hospital right next to raw sewage tanks?

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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 In the Herald today, the above and: Source: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26526174.swinney-told-protect-qeuh-evidence-nhs-overhaul/ Baillie has not been keeping up. The Glasgow health board running the QEUH these last near 20 years will not be responsible for anything to do with bacterial infections linked to patient deaths but individuals in the Labour party may. Why? ‘The Labour Glasgow Council chose the site in 2004. The hospital completion was signed off in 2015, by a health board stuffed with Labour councillors, no SNP members and under a Labour city administration … Continue reading Does Jackie Baillie realise that any QEUH corporate homicide investigation would be into the Glasgow Council that decided, uniquely in the world, to put a hospital right next to raw sewage tanks?

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Bus fares £2 cap – SNP acts in your interests, ‘ah but’….’some’…….

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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 BBC website top story on their Scotland page this morning 7 September 2026: “Swinney’s £2 cap on bus fares kicks in – but some call it ‘half a solution’”. So yet again the same old BBC. So whenever the Scottish government intend to do something to try to help people, then instead of the BBC just writing a positive piece upon this, well what do we get instead ? We get the BBC including the now all too familiar addition of the words … Continue reading Bus fares £2 cap – SNP acts in your interests, ‘ah but’….’some’…….

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Anas ‘No shame’ Sarwar is a perfect fit for the Lords and the ugliest building in the ugliest style in the world, in Glasgow

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Did the new Baron of Maxwell Park, Anas Sarwar, like the look of this pile? Scottish Baronial is one of Scotland’s most embarrassing contributions to the world. It’s by miles the ugliest architectural style in the world and that above Burgh Hall in Maxwell Park is the bloody ugliest example of it I’ve ever seen. Appropriate for the c…………..ountry gentleman? 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 New peer Anas ‘no shame’ Sarwar will soon be doing the media circuit in him appearing as a guest on various … Continue reading Anas ‘No shame’ Sarwar is a perfect fit for the Lords and the ugliest building in the ugliest style in the world, in Glasgow

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Will George Foulkes mentor Anas in the Lords?

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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 In August 2021, Sarwar seemed more concerned then about ‘jobs for the boys.’ Now he joins this lot: In July 2023, we saw the kind of work Labour Lords like Anas Sarwar and the above sign up for: Commenting on the remarks by Baroness Neville-Rolfe in the House of Lords today – in response to George Foulkes – that the UK government is considering sanctioning the Scottish Government for work in relation to independence and reserved areas, SNP cabinet spokesperson, Kirsty Blackman MP said: … Continue reading Will George Foulkes mentor Anas in the Lords?

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

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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 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

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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