Tag: travel

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Research – school achievement higher and attainment gaps far smaller in Scotland than in rest of UK

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By Professor John Robertson OBA: From UK Poverty 2025 The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, today: There are differences between the statistics on attainment in schools in the four UK nations which limit comparisons but the size of the gap between the most and least deprived at the ages of 11 and 16 can be usefully compared. First, 11 year-olds, percentage of most deprived and of least deprived achieving literacy and numeracy and size of gap: So, far more of both the least and the most deprived in Scotland achieve target literacy and numeracy levels … Continue reading Research – school achievement higher and attainment gaps far smaller in Scotland than in rest of UK

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‘Alarming’: ‘Scots’ newspaper tries to suggest Scots nationalised railway provider is to blame for pay-outs for service disruption caused by UK Government-owned Network Rail

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Headlining in the Herald today, the above, and: The publicly-funded owner of Scotland’s railways has had to pay out £220m in compensation over five years to train operators including ScotRail because of disruption to services, The Herald can reveal. The huge bill is £106m higher than what was allowed for in Network Rail’s delivery plan which outlines the activities, expenditure and proposals for the maintenance, renewal, and operation of the nation’s mainline railway infrastructure. You’d be forgiven for thinking this has something to do with the Scottish government but in reality it’s all to do with failures by Network Rail, … Continue reading ‘Alarming’: ‘Scots’ newspaper tries to suggest Scots nationalised railway provider is to blame for pay-outs for service disruption caused by UK Government-owned Network Rail

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Why are Scotland’s MSM not reporting Highland police ‘success’ tackling County Lines drug gangs from Liverpool behind 2023 violence?

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser 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 In the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald, today but nowhere in Scotland’s MSM, not even on BBC Scotland’s Highlands & Islands latest news website: Highland police ‘success’ tackling County Lines drug gangs from Liverpool behind 2023 violence after working with Merseyside … Continue reading Why are Scotland’s MSM not reporting Highland police ‘success’ tackling County Lines drug gangs from Liverpool behind 2023 violence?

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FIVE TIMES as many wait more than 12 hours in two English A&E departments than in Glasgow as 57% of NHS England hospitals fail to declare critical incidents despite ‘out-of-control waiting times

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By Professor John Robertson, OBA Thanks to AR for alerting me to this: In the Independent today: Dozens of hospitals are failing to declare critical incidents despite having out-of-control waiting times at A&E. New figures handed to The Independent have revealed that more than half of NHS trusts have longer A&E waiting times than those which have already been forced to take emergency measures to deal with overwhelming demand. More than a dozen hospitals announced incidents at the start of January, but the health secretary later revealed the true figure was 24. At Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and Countess of Chester Hospital Trusts, 27.5 per cent … Continue reading FIVE TIMES as many wait more than 12 hours in two English A&E departments than in Glasgow as 57% of NHS England hospitals fail to declare critical incidents despite ‘out-of-control waiting times

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The evidence that UK Government ‘suspicion of the Scots’ led to inferior Covid-19 pandemic measures and the unnecessary deaths of thousands in England and Wales

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By Professor John Robertson, OBA In the National today: Mark Drakeford: Tories’ ‘suspicion of the Scots’ hindered UK in Covid THERE was an “inherent suspicion” in the way the UK government dealt with its devolved counterparts during the Covid pandemic because they were “worried about the Scots,” the former first minister of Wales has said. The above table is summarised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on page 100 of UK Poverty 2023 published on 26 January 2023, as: Scotland has the lowest mortality rate per 100,000 people for every degree of deprivation across the UK [p100] https://www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2023-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk That the above variation … Continue reading The evidence that UK Government ‘suspicion of the Scots’ led to inferior Covid-19 pandemic measures and the unnecessary deaths of thousands in England and Wales

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Starmer’s pledge of named police officers for every neighbourhood in England & Wales becomes laughable as staffing falls to lowest since 2022 and far below the level in Scotland

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Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this. In the Guardian today: Police officer numbers in England and Wales at lowest level for two years, figures show The number of police officers in England and Wales has slipped to its lowest level in two years, PA Media reports. PA says: The headcount of officers employed by 43 forces stood at 148,886 at the end of September 2024. This is down 883 from a peak of 149,769 at the end of March and the lowest total since the end of September 2022 (144,346), according to Home Office data published today. Last month, Keir … Continue reading Starmer’s pledge of named police officers for every neighbourhood in England & Wales becomes laughable as staffing falls to lowest since 2022 and far below the level in Scotland

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Factcheck – Scotland a richer employment environment for 16 to 24 year-olds

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Labour Market Statistics for 16 to 24 year olds: Scotland and the United Kingdom – October 2023 to September 2024, published today: Compared with the United Kingdom as a whole: Data are sourced from the Annual Population Survey (APS), first released on 11 December 2024 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/labour-market-statistics-for-16-to-24-year-olds-scotland-and-the-united-kingdom-october-2023-to-september-2024/ Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/ The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116 About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save … Continue reading Factcheck – Scotland a richer employment environment for 16 to 24 year-olds

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News you won’t hear – massive reduction in road fatalities and serious injuries in last 10 years and lowest in the UK

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Road traffic accident statistics: FOI release, published today, we see a 24% fall in road fatalities, from 203 in 2014 to 155 in 2023 and, for serious injuries, a 32% fall from 2 901 in 2014 to 1 944 in 2023. Most of these FoIs are requested by the likes of Alex Cole-Hamilton of the Lib Dumbs, so it will be interesting to see if and how they try to spin this. Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400443200/ The longer-term trend: From Transport Scotland May 30th 2024 , but not making it to any front pages or to BBC Scotland: One hundred … Continue reading News you won’t hear – massive reduction in road fatalities and serious injuries in last 10 years and lowest in the UK

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4 tower block fires but no towering infernos in Scotland confirm higher building standards and more frequent safety inspections in Scotland

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By Professor John Robertson OBA I’m four-sevenths of an architect. From 1970 to 1974, I passed 4 years of the part-time Certificate course in Architecture at Glasgow School of Art before getting sacked for (guess). I could calculate how much reinforcing steel you’d need in a concrete beam, but it’s all gone now, except one thing. Everyone moaned about the local authority building control officers telling us our airy dreams were unsafe. Looking back, thank goodness they did. Anecdotally, I’ve often heard about stricter building control regulations in Scotland, going back for decades but maintained by the SNP these 18 years, as … Continue reading 4 tower block fires but no towering infernos in Scotland confirm higher building standards and more frequent safety inspections in Scotland

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Will Starmer now launch an investigation into why Scotland’s ferry service does much better than that ‘serving’ the Isle of Wight?

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From the Island Echo yesterday: Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said in the House of Commons this lunchtime (Wednesday) that ferry services to and from the Isle of Wight have ‘not been good enough’, and promises that the Maritime Minister will hold further meetings with Wightlink, Red Funnel and Hovertravel. Joe Robertson, MP for Isle of Wight East, stood up during today’s Prime Minister’s Questions to ask whether or not the Government agrees that the anomaly surrounding Isle of Wight cross-Solent travel must come to an end. In his address, Mr Robertson said: “My constituents on the Isle of Wight … Continue reading Will Starmer now launch an investigation into why Scotland’s ferry service does much better than that ‘serving’ the Isle of Wight?