New research report – The Politicisation of BBC Reporting in the 100 days before the Scottish Election 2026 – Comparing BBC Wales and BBC Scotland

April 20, 2026 johnrobertson834

On Friday 17th April 2026, only three weeks before the Scottish Parliament election on May 7th, 2026, a research team at Talking-up Scotland completed a 100-day survey of the BBC Wales and BBC Scotland’s inserts in BBC Breakfast, Monday to Friday 6 to 9am. Despite both operating within a dramatic political context with pro-independence parties, Plaid Cymru (PC) and SNP, for the first time likely to win in both countries, the coverage differed markedly in terms of the politicisation of reports and in the overall level of negativity know to influence voter behaviour. A 2023 study published by Talking-up Scotland, … Continue reading New research report – The Politicisation of BBC Reporting in the 100 days before the Scottish Election 2026 – Comparing BBC Wales and BBC Scotland

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Washington State Ferries – ancient vessels, antiquated booking system crashes yet is not replaced and a scramble for tickets

April 16, 2026 johnrobertson834

Washington State Ferries operate out of the affluent city of Seattle in the USA and serve 20 ports with 21 vessels. 9 of these large ferries, above, aged between 45 and 59 years are older than the just retired CalMac boat, MV Isle of Arran, aged 42. WSF have a long history of poor service beyond that which CalMac users can imagine, of unreliability, soaring prices, violence on the ramps and flooding car decks and some of the oldest vessels in the developed world, above. More recently, last summer, from Fox 13 Seattle: Summer ferry reservations are highly sought after, … Continue reading Washington State Ferries – ancient vessels, antiquated booking system crashes yet is not replaced and a scramble for tickets

Water company customers in England to pay another £40m on top of already the highest prices and the worst quality in the UK but in Scotland…..?

April 14, 2026April 15, 2026 johnrobertson834

Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this: From the Financial Times today: Five of Britain’s water companies spent £32.4mn on an appeal to the competition regulator that resulted in the utilities being able to raise customer bills even higher. Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Wessex Water argued that regulator Ofwat’s decision to allow them to increase consumer bills by an average of 24 per cent before inflation by 2030 was insufficient to cover their costs and attract investors to the industry. The appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority cost Anglian Water £9mn; South East Water £9mn; … Continue reading Water company customers in England to pay another £40m on top of already the highest prices and the worst quality in the UK but in Scotland…..?

Always choosing the darkness for you – BBC Scotland give you one rape and hide both that it’s TWICE as common in the rest of the UK and that resident doctors are NOT on strike here

April 7, 2026 johnrobertson834

Above BBC Scotland, below BBC UK: In more than 1 000 words, BBC Scotland’s report on a rape case, above, offers no context of the kind student journalists must have or they fail, eg, ‘Is this offence more common in Scotland than elsewhere as drug deaths apparently are?‘ 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 headlining the increase in recorded cases of rape and attempted rape in Scotland. Though the increase may in part be a consequence of a greater confidence by victims … Continue reading Always choosing the darkness for you – BBC Scotland give you one rape and hide both that it’s TWICE as common in the rest of the UK and that resident doctors are NOT on strike here

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BBC Scotland still acting as if it is an opposition party to the SNP in Scotland

April 2, 2026April 2, 2026 johnrobertson834

By Liz S BBC Scotland website yesterday : Headline – “Labour drops election candidate after fraud charge” At 14.57pm that article , which was only added yesterday onto their site, was the 4th article on the Scotland main page, by 4pm above, gone and the 2nd article on the Scottish politics page. The top article yesterday on both the Scotland main page and politics page was this: “SNP candidate ditched over handling of Linden complaints” (Note that according to the BBC website headlines, the Labour candidate was “dropped” but the SNP candidate was “Ditched”). This morning it is still the top article on the Scottish politics page and now the 7th article … Continue reading BBC Scotland still acting as if it is an opposition party to the SNP in Scotland

As gangs of youths run riot in Clapham for second night will Scotland’s plummeting anti-social behaviour figures cause a problem for media operating in ‘SNP soft touch on crime’ Scotland?

April 1, 2026 johnrobertson834

In the Telegraph and other media today, the above story and: Another day, another mini-riot, as gangs of marauding youths run amok – this time in Clapham, south London. A few days ago social media was full of footage of what seemed to be teenagers (they were all in hoodies so one can’t be sure how old they were) causing chaos in Wolverhampton, throwing eggs at anyone they could find. Video then emerged of hundreds of young men and women rushing a streetwear pop-up shop in Soho in central London. The footage was notable only for being not remotely notable; … Continue reading As gangs of youths run riot in Clapham for second night will Scotland’s plummeting anti-social behaviour figures cause a problem for media operating in ‘SNP soft touch on crime’ Scotland?

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The script that the MSM operating in Scotland prefer is one of unchecked propaganda

March 30, 2026 johnrobertson834

By Liz S The script that the MSM operating in Scotland prefer is the one where opposition parties accuse the SNP of having “destroyed the Scottish NHS”. Of course that is a script that is minus all of the data and stats that would verify this , so then would substantiate their accusation. They, the opposition and the BBC in Scotland, could also make comparisons between Scotland’s NHS performance with that of other nations within the UK , to then they would have an opportunity to further prove that Scotland was in fact being destroyed by the SNP, and so indeed were … Continue reading The script that the MSM operating in Scotland prefer is one of unchecked propaganda

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How Scotland’s schools have played the major role in keeping thousands of pupils safe and making sure County Lines gangs membership is an England-only phenomenon

March 22, 2026 johnrobertson834

In the Sunday Times today, the above video, and: The UK’s county lines networks have evolved into a sophisticated business model that thrives on the exploitation of the young. David Collins, Northern Editor of The Sunday Times, and David Woode, Crime Editor of The Times, go inside a police disruption unit in North Yorkshire to witness high-stakes raids targeting the “line holders” who pull the strings from a single mobile phone. Beyond the arrests, they uncover a disturbing tactical shift where gangs use the Modern Slavery Act as a legal shield for their recruits. It is a portrait of a … Continue reading How Scotland’s schools have played the major role in keeping thousands of pupils safe and making sure County Lines gangs membership is an England-only phenomenon

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As the QEUH witch-hunt continues, two experts say 100% mould-free large hospitals ‘not realistic’ only months after two die and four almost die in Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital

March 14, 2026 johnrobertson834

In the Herald yesterday: Mould growth has been found in a cancer ward at a flagship hospital which was partially closed due to mould and dirty water ingress, the Health Secretary has confirmed. Neil Gray said he was made aware on Thursday morning that mould growth was found in one of the rooms on the bone marrow transplant ward at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow. Is it possible for any large hospital to be 100% free of any mould growth, at all, in at least one of its hundreds of wards? Experts and industry sources consistently state … Continue reading As the QEUH witch-hunt continues, two experts say 100% mould-free large hospitals ‘not realistic’ only months after two die and four almost die in Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital

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England’s Pisa scores are based only on a tiny selective sample of higher achieving schools making Paul O’Kane’s sad desperate attempt to claim they are better than Scotland just another under-educated failure from Scottish Labour

March 9, 2026 johnrobertson834

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 Paul O’Kane Labour MSP and former head boy, seems delighted to be suggesting that Scotland’s schools education system is worse than England’s, with the above, from those other head boys at the IFS. Paul and the lads at the IFS are clearly out of their depth here. There’s something important in the actual figures from the OECD, in this table: See the wee asterisk there? What does it mean? Notes: Values that are statistically significant are marked in … Continue reading England’s Pisa scores are based only on a tiny selective sample of higher achieving schools making Paul O’Kane’s sad desperate attempt to claim they are better than Scotland just another under-educated failure from Scottish Labour

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Tag: writing