Call for disastrous privatised Danish ferry contract to be made public to Jersey islanders as fiascos come in armadas

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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Brenda Robb for alerting me to this. From the Jersey Evening Post, two days ago: THE contract between the government and ferry provider DFDS ought to be released in the interest of transparency amid growing public concern about the service being provided, a senior scrutineer has said. DFDS has come under fire after a series of complaints about freight charges, passenger delays and its winter timetable which axed … Continue reading Call for disastrous privatised Danish ferry contract to be made public to Jersey islanders as fiascos come in armadas

Will Anas Sarwar back his home city Glasgow against Sir Keir Starmer and the Home Office as their failures force a refugee homelessness crisis onto it a whole year after they were warned by the SNP Council?

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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald today has the above and: Sir Keir Starmer has refused to intervene in Glasgow’s escalating refugee homelessness crisis, despite warnings the city faces a £109 million bill. The Prime Minister’s unwillingness to get involved comes ahead of a planned cut in the move-on period for refugees, from 56 days to 28 — a change officials believe could be “disastrous” for Scotland’s largest city. This is a crisis made in London and dumped … Continue reading Will Anas Sarwar back his home city Glasgow against Sir Keir Starmer and the Home Office as their failures force a refugee homelessness crisis onto it a whole year after they were warned by the SNP Council?

Drug deaths in Scotland, England, Wales and in the EU – SEVEN simple facts showing our days as the drug death ‘capital’ are numbered

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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA I’ve been thinking over all the recent posts here on drug deaths and this short summary may be useful. If you have further insights into this, please comment below. Continue reading Drug deaths in Scotland, England, Wales and in the EU – SEVEN simple facts showing our days as the drug death ‘capital’ are numbered

Scottish Labour and Jackie Baillie to purge party of Sarwar and selected ‘unpopular’ minorities in move to outflank Tories and merge with Reform UK

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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA, Scottish Extremism Correspondent Talking-up Scotland can today reveal shocking rumours, emerging for the Scottish Labour HQ hut, in Royston Vasey, that the latest poll putting Reform UK only one point behind Labour in Scotland and the very real prospect of a Reform UK government in 2029, that Jackie Baillie is mounting a campaign to unseat Anas Sarwar, a well-known Muslim, and lead the party into a merger with Reform UK. … Continue reading Scottish Labour and Jackie Baillie to purge party of Sarwar and selected ‘unpopular’ minorities in move to outflank Tories and merge with Reform UK

The longest gap in reporting ever since the series began in 2017! – Lack of financial transparency from UK government continues under Labour

‘In the absence of timely Block Grant Transparency releases, Barnett consequentials are hard to reproduce’ – Scottish Fiscal Commission in evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee (January 2025) By stewartb What’s happening to ‘transparency’ after c.14 months of this British Labour Party government in Westminster? Any ‘change’, any ‘new direction’? None to date it seems in terms of transparency over how the Barnett formula is applied. The Scottish Affairs Committee of the House of Commons has recently (July 16) published a report entitled ‘The financing of the Scottish Government’. (See https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/48818/documents/256455/default/ ) The issue of transparency over how Westminster’s so … Continue reading The longest gap in reporting ever since the series began in 2017! – Lack of financial transparency from UK government continues under Labour

As Audit Scotland and BBC Scotland find bad news on Glasgow have they ever told you how crime in Glasgow fell far below level in English cities?

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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 By Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland is headlining the above trivia in a trail of negativity about Glasgow, going back years, in the hope of connecting it with the SNP council. Here’s one of the tales they will never tell you. Glasgow Live, 12 July 2025: On June 24, the Scottish Government released its annual Recorded Crime in Scotland report, and it was revealed Glasgow had the highest crime rate, with 829 crimes … Continue reading As Audit Scotland and BBC Scotland find bad news on Glasgow have they ever told you how crime in Glasgow fell far below level in English cities?

There might be one elsewhere in the UK but there is no healthcare postcode lottery of any kind in Scotland

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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA The above 100 000 refers of course to the whole of the UK and not just Scotland. I don’t have time to fully investigate another scare story like this, but quickly: First, overall, there is no postcode lottery in Scotland’s hospitals and Glasgow’s super hospital is actually safer than average From Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios April 2024 to March 2025 published today, the above graph reveals that all of Scotland’s hospitals … Continue reading There might be one elsewhere in the UK but there is no healthcare postcode lottery of any kind in Scotland

BBC Scotland reporter David Wallace Lockhart mis-reports Sir Prof John Curtice to protect Labour

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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA In August 2025, BBC Scotland‘s Phil Sim in Does Reform pose an existential threat to the Scottish Conservatives?, wrote: Polling guru Prof Sir John Curtice has said the party “poses a significant threat to the Conservatives and Labour’s prospects at Holyrood too“. It feels a bit like the way Labour was pulled apart in the aftermath of the 2014 independence referendum, losing support at both ends of the spectrum.That could … Continue reading BBC Scotland reporter David Wallace Lockhart mis-reports Sir Prof John Curtice to protect Labour

Yorkshire academics fail to read anything about Scotland or to discover that Scotland delivered 20 times as many affordable homes as Yorkshire in 2024 despite an almost identical population size

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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA Shelter (Scotland) on BBC Scotland yesterday with the supposed research finding that Scotland needs 15 693 affordable homes per year compared with the 8 188 funded by the Scottish Government in 2024 is based on: Research carried out by academics at the University of Liverpool, and Sheffield Hallam University, jointly commissioned by SFHA, Shelter Scotland and the Chartered Institute for Housing So, two English universities commissioned by Shelter, HQ in London, … Continue reading Yorkshire academics fail to read anything about Scotland or to discover that Scotland delivered 20 times as many affordable homes as Yorkshire in 2024 despite an almost identical population size

Scotland’s drug deaths fall again to 25% below peak in 2020 and lowest since 2016 to reveal last year’s increase was the blip and to reveal the agenda of James Cook

‘Milk blood to keep from running out’ – James Cook pushes Scotland’s FALLING drug deaths on us day-after-day to try to keep us thinking if we can’t even stop this how can we run a country? 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 or by direct bank transfer method – Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421 Professor John Robertson OBA Yesterday and on through this morning, James Cook has been the top story. They’ve just updated: Yesterday, we had: Figures to be published on Tuesday are expected to show that Scotland remains the drugs … Continue reading Scotland’s drug deaths fall again to 25% below peak in 2020 and lowest since 2016 to reveal last year’s increase was the blip and to reveal the agenda of James Cook