Tag: scottish-politics

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Kevin McKenna – ‘I spent an afternoon on the stump of Burnbank with the most impressive Conservative I’ve ever encountered’ This man? Kev? You alright?

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Help Talking-up Scotland keep goin 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 I think McKenna’s real gripe is simply that he absolutely hates the SNP and so he is determined to convince others to also hate them as well. However he is choosing to express that hate by stooping very low. Remember when McKenna spent time with the then Tory Councillor Thomas Kerr (who has now defected to Reform UK). He was also “walking the streets” back then too. He called Kerr “the most impressive Conservative I’ve ever encountered”. Honestly if the people … Continue reading Kevin McKenna – ‘I spent an afternoon on the stump of Burnbank with the most impressive Conservative I’ve ever encountered’ This man? Kev? You alright?

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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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Makes their flesh creep? Trump’s comments only a taste of what Scots have felt for a hundred years hearing of a place ‘that is forever England’ yet was full of their war dead

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We’ve never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines. The words of the US President yesterday shock with their under-educated insensitivity. The Black Watch, the Argylls, the Borderers, the Highland Fusiliers and others fought on the frontline in Afghanistan. 39 Scots died, a disproportionate share, even today, relative to population, because of their mainly infantry roles. This offense may be new to many today and in other parts of the UK but it’s familiar … Continue reading Makes their flesh creep? Trump’s comments only a taste of what Scots have felt for a hundred years hearing of a place ‘that is forever England’ yet was full of their war dead

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Flood of ‘British’ austerity refugees into Scotland in the SNP era THREE TIMES the current flow of asylum seekers from war zones and may even surpass the level of Irish famine refugee migration in 1845/1851

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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 June 2023 Snapshot: As of June 2023, 4,660 individuals [asylum seekers] were receiving Section 95 support, 109 were on Section 98 support, and 554 were on Section 4 support in Scotland. https://www.gov.scot/publications/extending-right-work-asylum-seekers-scotland-evaluation-analysis-policy-options/pages/4/ 4-5 000 a year – is that large number of refugees? From The Irish Famine in a Scottish Perspective 1845-1851 by Géraldine VAUGHAN, in 2015, it is estimated that there were roughly 115,000 Irish incomers to Scotland for those six years.1 … Continue reading Flood of ‘British’ austerity refugees into Scotland in the SNP era THREE TIMES the current flow of asylum seekers from war zones and may even surpass the level of Irish famine refugee migration in 1845/1851

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

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‘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

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The Galloway National Park No Campaign and their friends in high places

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Professor John Robertson OBA I knew the Galloway Hills well, oh so well, but sadly as I age, not at all anymore. I’ve been on top of every hill and some of them, multiple times. Solitude, I get it. Despite that, I’m not so well informed on the debate over the merits or otherwise of national parks. I’ve seen the media reports of human waste, litter, overcrowding, congested roads. I’ve been to the Lake District to see the extremes of that but I’ve also seen there, ordinary folk enjoying themselves responsibly and local businesses thriving. I’ve also read the reports … Continue reading The Galloway National Park No Campaign and their friends in high places

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BBC Scotland and Prof Paterson shamefully misinterpret statistics to cast another cohort of Scottish students and staff as failures when they are not

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser closing on Friday, primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland – a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS  From BBC Scotland today: The attainment gap between Scotland’s richest and poorest school pupils increased last year, according to new figures. The Scottish government has said since 2015 that … Continue reading BBC Scotland and Prof Paterson shamefully misinterpret statistics to cast another cohort of Scottish students and staff as failures when they are not

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Contrary to the SNP, Reform UK gets its money from wealthy people or firms linked to tax havens and they will want something in return

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Professor John Robertson OBA Reform UK, contrary to what we thought only a few months ago, has traction in Scotland and is now moving into second place and replacing the other Unionist parties as the main challenger to the SNP. Reform UK has managed to persuade many working-class voters that it is no their side when the evidence is clear that it will serve, first and foremost, the interests of the rich and powerful even more than the Cons and Labour. From The Daily Mirror in September 2024: Nearly three quarters of registered donations to Reform UK come from wealthy people or companies linked … Continue reading Contrary to the SNP, Reform UK gets its money from wealthy people or firms linked to tax havens and they will want something in return

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Feeling safe in Scottish schools – How BBC and Reform Scotland’s research director cannot read OECD research on that showing 90% do

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Professor John Robertson OBA, former Associate Dean (Quality Assurance) Faculty of Education, UWS See all that stuff up there? That’s real that is, not like that fake Reverend Stu Campbell or, or Doctor Feelgood…..or, Professor Longhair…. So, trust me, I can read research. I know you can too but the Research Director at Jack McConnell’s education ‘thinktank’ and the folk at BBC Scotland, clearly can’t or won’t. Who is she? This woman: Why? They had a woman on this morning to say her wean did not go to school because she ‘doesn’t feel safe’ there. I’m sure that’s true but is that enough data to … Continue reading Feeling safe in Scottish schools – How BBC and Reform Scotland’s research director cannot read OECD research on that showing 90% do

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UK gender pay gap is more than THREE times greater than in Scotland – Herald ignores true facts of Scotland’s tiny and plummeting gender pay gap and headlines an unreliable non-transparent trade union figure

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Annual survey of hours and earnings: 2024, published only 6 days ago by the Scottish Government statisticians: The gender pay gap in Scotland has been narrower than in the UK since 2003. In 2024, the gender pay gap for full-time employees in Scotland widened from 1.4 per cent in 2023 to 2.2 per cent in 2024. This is due to men’s hourly earnings (excluding overtime) increasing at a faster rate than women’s hourly earnings (excluding overtime). In 2024, the gender pay gap for full-time employees in Scotland was 2.2 per cent and in the UK was 7.0 … Continue reading UK gender pay gap is more than THREE times greater than in Scotland – Herald ignores true facts of Scotland’s tiny and plummeting gender pay gap and headlines an unreliable non-transparent trade union figure