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SNP’s impressive record on crime as general clear-up rate improves – homicide clear-up rate is 107%

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By Professor John Robertson The ‘Scottish’ Daily Mail today, front page, has SNP’s pitiful record on crime exposed, based on clear-up rates supposedly ‘plummeting‘. Mystifying. From the Scottish Government in January 2024 (24/25 rates not out yet, obviously), the above trend graph and: In 2023-24 the clear up rate was 54.1%, up from 53.3% in 2022-23 and back to a similar level seen in 2021-22. The large decrease seen between 2020-21 and 2021-22 likely reflected the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the types of crime recorded, with the volume of those crimes that have relatively lower clear up rates falling more sharply … Continue reading SNP’s impressive record on crime as general clear-up rate improves – homicide clear-up rate is 107%

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A tragic rail death in Wales is not linked to the Welsh or UK Government but 4 years ago in Stonehaven, BBC Scotland’s James Cook had other plans

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By Professor John Robertson There’s not a mention of the Welsh Transport Secretary nor of the UK Transport minister in this BBC Wales account of a tragic death on the railways, they share responsibility for. But on BBC Scotland, in August 2020: On BBC Scotland’s The Nine last night, James Cook, repeatedly interrupted the Scottish Transport Secretary, Michael Matheson to say: Well, exactly! Well, that’s rather the point! Isn’t it. We hear that are these problems. In 2014, a report specifically mentioned this exact area being greatly affected by earthslips. A report last month warned that there had been over six times more … Continue reading A tragic rail death in Wales is not linked to the Welsh or UK Government but 4 years ago in Stonehaven, BBC Scotland’s James Cook had other plans

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Not climate change this time – Brechin’s flood misery in 2023 and the next time can be blamed on private landowners burning grouse moors upstream

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By Professor John Robertson BBC Reporting Scotland this morning and all day today are back on the October 2023 Storm Babet and the flood damage to Brechin, with locals complaining of a ‘ghost town‘ and an implied accusation of the Scottish Government not having done enough to prevent the floods in the first place or to help locals in the subsequent year. There is only a simple acceptance here of climate change and the need for more flood defences, to stay in the same place. There is no mention of research suggesting another, more scientific and forensic explanation and an identifying … Continue reading Not climate change this time – Brechin’s flood misery in 2023 and the next time can be blamed on private landowners burning grouse moors upstream

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SNP critic in the Times hides the fact that she is on the Scottish Labour executive committee to mislead on pay settlements

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In the Times today: Health workers ‘driven out by SNP’s financial incompetence’ – The Scottish government has left the NHS under severe strain by budgeting for unrealistically low pay settlements, says Louise Gilmour of the GMB union Not revealed, this: What has the SNP Scottish Government settled on? The Scottish Government’s pay settlement for NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts for 2024-25 is a 5.5% pay increase, effective from April 1, 2024. What has the Labour UK Government settled on? The Labour government has agreed to a 5.5% pay increase for NHS staff in England, effective from April 1, 2024. Sources: … Continue reading SNP critic in the Times hides the fact that she is on the Scottish Labour executive committee to mislead on pay settlements

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Aberfan – a warning from history of how the Labour betrayal of working communities in 1966 will be repeated by Starmer before 2026 when you can be sure to never vote for them

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By Professor John Robertson Today, on the 58th anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster when 144 died in a mining tip landslide, Richie Venton of the Scottish Socialist Party has written: Starmer last week declared to the assembled profiteers at his Investment Conference that the Labour government will “rip up red tape” to “unleash growth”. As I’ve written elsewhere, so-called ‘red tape’ is better than red bandages. But in the South Wales pit village of ABERFAN, the man-made disaster didn’t mean injuries, but mass death. In writing the above, Venton directs us to his 2016 extensive account of the disaster which includes … Continue reading Aberfan – a warning from history of how the Labour betrayal of working communities in 1966 will be repeated by Starmer before 2026 when you can be sure to never vote for them

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£1.3 million in police funding to fight drug gangs frittered away on investigating SNP’s vired finances

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From millsjames1949 today: Just a thought , but perhaps some of the many , many hours devoted to the SNP Financegate investigation could have been better spent on serious criminal activity. Just so. As of February 2024, Police Scotland had spent over an estimated £1.3 million on the investigation into SNP finances, according to a Freedom of Information release.1 Police Scotland serves a population of 5.4 million. The Met in London serves 9 million and has just invested £9 million to tackle the plague of County Lines drug gangs.2 So, pro rata, Police Scotland might need to spend around £5 million to … Continue reading £1.3 million in police funding to fight drug gangs frittered away on investigating SNP’s vired finances

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Research report – ‘One child having a gun held to their head – gangs, coming up from England and introducing new types of violence and intimidation tactics that have not been seen in Scotland previously’

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By Professor John Robertson Man thanks to cuckooshoe for alerting me to this important report which I and, of course, BBC Scotland missed: From Understanding Child Criminal Exploitation in Scotland: A Scoping Review, commissioned by CYCJ, Action for Scotland and the Scottish Government and published in May 2023, these dramatic facts were totally ignored by Scottish media: When focusing on Scotland, the NCLCC has noted county lines running from the primary originating areas (i.e. West Midlands, Merseyside and London) into Scotland for which joint operations have been conducted with Police Scotland. Criminal exploitation through drug activity has also been identified as … Continue reading Research report – ‘One child having a gun held to their head – gangs, coming up from England and introducing new types of violence and intimidation tactics that have not been seen in Scotland previously’

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FT asks ‘What can England learn from Scotland’s community land buyouts?’ Increased by nearly 800% after SNP boost but were stalled in Tory England?

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By Professor John Robertson Behind a paywall for me but already answered here, I hope, and by the Guardian in January 2024: In the Guardian today: Local communities, often in deprived neighbourhoods, are buying up derelict and unused property for village shops, play parks, community centres and, in one case, a film set for war movies, using buyout powers introduced by the Scottish parliament since its foundation in 1999. The land reform debate is often overshadowed by the buyouts of islands or totemic Highland estates. Yet those sales have ground to halt, partly due to competition from private buyers pursuing speculative investments using woodland … Continue reading FT asks ‘What can England learn from Scotland’s community land buyouts?’ Increased by nearly 800% after SNP boost but were stalled in Tory England?

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Yet another ‘trial by media’ attempt against the SNP

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By Anonymous Omission being just as important as misinformation in the ‘News where you are”. However BBC Scotland are not alone in bad reporting. I noted online, via Twitter, a headline in yesterday’s ‘Sunday Post’ “Investigation into SNP finances drags on as experts say the Police need 1000 more officers” and under this headline they also state “just 30 specialists available to tackle £20 billion crimewave“. You would be forgiven in thinking that all of the above in that headline and also what was written underneath it was all pertaining to the Police investigation into the SNP finances. However if you read the content of the story underneath you will see the ‘extra’ officers and the “£20 … Continue reading Yet another ‘trial by media’ attempt against the SNP

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Latest – paracetamol deaths twice as high in Scotland, suicide, alcohol deaths, cancer deaths, shorter lives – clues that colonial subservience is killing us?

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By Professor John Robertson This shocking fact popped up in my alerts this morning, from research published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology: The Scottish paracetamol-related death rate was twice as high as in England and Wales.1 TWICE as high? That’s astonishing. This is despite more GPs, faster ambulance and A&E times in Scotland. Overdosing with other drugs, is even worse. In Scotland they are 2.7 times as high as the 2022 rates for England and Northern Ireland, and 2.1 times as high as the 2022 rate in Wales.2 This is, again, despite better emergency services, 95% drug treatment within … Continue reading Latest – paracetamol deaths twice as high in Scotland, suicide, alcohol deaths, cancer deaths, shorter lives – clues that colonial subservience is killing us?