Tag: scotland

1 Comment

Very little evidence of young children taking knives into schools in Scotland

johnrobertson834

Professor John Robertson OBA There’s not one reference to Scotland in this 1 500 word report yet the broadcast on BBC Breakfast this morning explicitly includes it in the problem and the call for ‘knife arches’ to be installed in every school: Incidents of very young children taking knives into primary schools have been revealed by a BBC investigation. Police in Kent recorded an assault involving a four-year-old pupil, while officers in the West Midlands reported that a six-year-old had taken a flick knife into class. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c77d06vde4po I am not aware of directly comparable figures for Scotland and neither are BBC UK‘s … Continue reading Very little evidence of young children taking knives into schools in Scotland

2 Comments

News you won’t hear – Support for struggling households from SNP Government

johnrobertson834

Professor John Robertson OBA From Scottish Government News today with only the Daily Record covering it: A record £99 million will be invested in Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) this financial year to help thousands of households struggling to afford housing costs in Scotland. During Challenge Poverty Week, Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan highlighted the payments as a ‘lifeline’ for thousands of families and individuals. Funded by the Scottish Government and paid out by local authorities, the DHP scheme is designed to provide financial support to low-income households, delivering vital action to reduce poverty, safeguard tenancies and prevent homelessness. The Scottish Government has budgeted … Continue reading News you won’t hear – Support for struggling households from SNP Government

5 Comments

Homeless deaths in Scotland fall as they climb in other parts due to lack of national leadership

johnrobertson834

Professor John Robertson OBA Once again, I’m grateful to Brenda Robb for finding this and researching it for us. From BBC UK today but ignored by BBC Scotland, the above and: The figures show that 1,142 deaths were in England, an increase of 16% on the year before. London had the highest total number of deaths, but the largest increases were in Nottingham, where the number of deaths doubled to 22, and in Exeter, where they more than doubled from eight to 21. In Northern Ireland, deaths increased by more than a third between 2023 and 2024, to 211. Wales saw a … Continue reading Homeless deaths in Scotland fall as they climb in other parts due to lack of national leadership

1 Comment

More funding to tackle child poverty but that doesn’t fit the media narrative does it?

johnrobertson834

Professor John Robertson OBA The small-circulation Scottish Housing News has the report but it’s nowhere in the MSM despite their gleeful responses to the flawed Joseph Rowntree Foundation claim that nothing has changed. That claim is based on the level of child poverty being static and ignoring the achievement of keeping it so against the background of new Labour austerity policies which have caused it to surge across the rest of the UK. Every professional journalist in Scotland got this by email yesterday and has chosen, chosen, to ignore it: Projects aimed at tackling child poverty across the country will receive increased, … Continue reading More funding to tackle child poverty but that doesn’t fit the media narrative does it?

4 Comments

I repeat, how can a half-empty ferry be a ‘lifeline’ to a mainland town when there’s a road that’s more than one hour quicker than the ferry?

johnrobertson834

to Campbelltown next summer. Local businesses had hoped the company would be able to restore the seasonal service next year. The route was suspended because of the problems the company was facing maintaining lifeline services. Local businesses [only one really in the online report] and councillors [none quoted in the report below] want Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government to intervene Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland today merely repeats the 30 July 2025 story in The Express which had merely repeated the February 26th 2025 news of the cancellation of the Campbelltown to Ardrossan ferry. This is still not … Continue reading I repeat, how can a half-empty ferry be a ‘lifeline’ to a mainland town when there’s a road that’s more than one hour quicker than the ferry?

1 Comment

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

johnrobertson834

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

2 Comments

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

johnrobertson834

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!

4 Comments

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

johnrobertson834

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

9 Comments

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

johnrobertson834

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

2 Comments

A tale of BBC Scotland’s response to Scottish Government press releases – how widespread, how blatant is bias by omission becoming?

johnrobertson834

By stewartb Each and every working day at 1600 hours, the Scottish Government sends out an e-mail headed ‘Daily news update’. This collates all press releases issued that day, presumably in part as an aid to journalists. You will often find one or more of the day’s topics referred to here on TuS. But by BBC Scotland or the wider mainstream media in Scotland? Not so much!  Is amplifying positive news from the present Scottish Government too much of a threat to Unionist politicians? Whilst the nature of BBC journalism in Scotland is well known to readers of this blog, … Continue reading A tale of BBC Scotland’s response to Scottish Government press releases – how widespread, how blatant is bias by omission becoming?