Tag: scotland

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Golf-based therapy for veterans is latest addition to Scotland’s greater care for them through directness and universal benefits

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON From Help for veterans and families published yesterday: A scheme to help wounded or sick veterans recover their confidence through golf is among 30 projects to receive backing from the Scottish Veterans Fund. Veterans Minister Graeme Dey announced successful applicants to the £600,000 Scottish Veterans Fund on a visit to the On Course Foundation at Drumoig Golf Hotel in Fife. The fund, which the Scottish Government had committed to maintaining for the rest of the parliament was in … Continue reading Golf-based therapy for veterans is latest addition to Scotland’s greater care for them through directness and universal benefits

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As the deal is done to buy Ardrossan harbour, how these Tory ministers sold it to enable shareholders to milk rather than to maintain it, how Labour then did nothing and now the SNP Government is blamed for not buying it back and repairing it quick enough?

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From STV in February 2026: Negotiations to bring Ardrossan Harbour into public ownership have been completed, the Transport Secretary has said.The facility is currently owned by Peel Ports, but has been sought by the Scottish Government’s ferry procurement arm Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) since it became clear two new ferries serving the route between the mainland and the Isle of Arran would not be able to dock there. The Glen Sannox entered service last year with its sister ship, the Glen Rosa, due to be handed over at the end of 2026. As a result with the issues at … Continue reading As the deal is done to buy Ardrossan harbour, how these Tory ministers sold it to enable shareholders to milk rather than to maintain it, how Labour then did nothing and now the SNP Government is blamed for not buying it back and repairing it quick enough?

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UK unemployment to worsen from 40% higher than in Scotland but Scotland’s far lower unemployment level still a secret as election looms

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON The Guardian today, has: Unemployment set to hit 5.3% this year amid ‘worrying’ rise in young jobless. OBR raises forecast from 4.9% and downgrades UK’s growth prospects for 2026 – while also warning of war uncertainty There’s no mention of Scotland and ‘Scotland’s media is offering no such detail. Here’s why: The unemployment rate in Scotland at the end of 2025, was 3.7%, down from 3.8% in 2024.  In crude terms 5.1 is 1.4 greater than 3.7 but … Continue reading UK unemployment to worsen from 40% higher than in Scotland but Scotland’s far lower unemployment level still a secret as election looms

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Disappointment in BBC News as Scotland not even half way to being ‘rape capital’ of the UK

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON BBC Reporting Scotland flying solo again to hit you with a dose of early morning anxiety, headlining with a story mysteriously and entirely absent, from their website: Why would they pull this one out for the early morning short reports where they feel they have an excuse having no context, as below? See this: Would a bit of context have been useful for readers? This kind of thing? On 25 June 2025, I wrote: The media in Scotland are … Continue reading Disappointment in BBC News as Scotland not even half way to being ‘rape capital’ of the UK

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How can there be an affordable housing ‘crisis’ in Scotland when we beat the building target that Labour just gave up on in England?

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON As the Herald, today, frontpages the Scottish Conservatives, soon to face a near-extinction event and become only the 5th party in Scotland, to ‘blast’ the SNP Government and suggest once more an affordable homes crisis, there’s no space, it seems for these: For 2025, the SNP Government has funded 5 313 new affordable home starts to a level down from a peak of 11 158 in 2021 but above the level before 2014 and still almost twice that … Continue reading How can there be an affordable housing ‘crisis’ in Scotland when we beat the building target that Labour just gave up on in England?

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Only 20 years after ‘Scotland was one of the most unsafe countries to live in’, polls reveal Scots worry less about crime than in any other part of Europe

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON Today, pollster Ipsos are reporting that across Europe, people worry more about crime and violence than anything else, climbing above other concerns from early 2025. Here’s the trend. It may be that for some of the above 30 countries crime and violence is not the number one concern but I can see no data to explore, for that. In Ipsos Scotland‘s most recent poll, December 2025, Crime and anti-social behaviour/law and order was eighth, at 20% and had … Continue reading Only 20 years after ‘Scotland was one of the most unsafe countries to live in’, polls reveal Scots worry less about crime than in any other part of Europe

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A9 – the one way road to Inverness from a city that must not be named in a country that must not be named

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON BBC Scotland: Highlands Islands, today, has the above and : A man and a woman have been arrested and charged in connection with drug offences after £100,000 worth of cocaine was discovered during a stop-and-search. Police Scotland halted the vehicle on the A9 near Crubenmore in the Highlands at about 12:55 on Friday. They said a quantity of the class A substance and a three-figure sum of cash had been recovered by officers. A 43-year-old man and a … Continue reading A9 – the one way road to Inverness from a city that must not be named in a country that must not be named

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Is there already research evidence on the effectiveness of ‘Walk-in GP centres’? Has the SNP policy even been designed to take advantage of those findings?

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON As you might expect, Dr John Tobias who, on his cv, claims that during COP26 in Glasgow he was chosen to be a personal physician to Heads of State, did not hesitate to rule on the new SNP walk-in GP centres as failures before they can even begin. You can just hear him – ‘I don’t need researchers to tell me what to think! I know…..’ There is, however, research, lots of it, and I feel the need … Continue reading Is there already research evidence on the effectiveness of ‘Walk-in GP centres’? Has the SNP policy even been designed to take advantage of those findings?

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Clear up rate for all recorded crimes goes up and remains far higher than in England & Wales

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON From: the Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: February 2026, published today: Increase in crime clear up rate. The clear up rate for all recorded crimes was 56.0% in 2024-25, up from 54.1% in 2023-24. Crimes against society (93.8%), non-sexual crimes of violence (68.4%) and sexual crimes (56.9%) continued to have higher clear up rates in 2024-25 than crimes of dishonesty (35.1%) and damage and reckless behaviour (31.0%). https://www.gov.scot/publications/safer-communities-and-justice-statistics-monthly-data-report-february-2026/pages/statistics-on-crime-in-general/ The clear-up rates in England and Wales, for the … Continue reading Clear up rate for all recorded crimes goes up and remains far higher than in England & Wales

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BBC Debate Night host shamefully tries to suggest Scottish Child Payment is ‘just sticking plaster’ when it is ‘turning Scotland into a European pioneer in reducing child deprivation’

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON In a Debate Night session in Ayr, after a deeply ill-informed debate on GP access, totally unaware of Scotland’s far better ratio with patients, the far better funding of GPs and lower workload of GPs in Scotland, we witnessed an even more infuriating discussion of poverty where charity reps once more seem prepared to shoot themselves in the foot by failing to recognise and applaud the SNP Government’s achievements. I was very close to chucking something at the … Continue reading BBC Debate Night host shamefully tries to suggest Scottish Child Payment is ‘just sticking plaster’ when it is ‘turning Scotland into a European pioneer in reducing child deprivation’