Tag: writing

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Scotland’s drug deaths would be worse without The Thistle but no it has not been at the cost of the safety of the locals

johnrobertson834

Opposition dreams of life near the Thistle safe drug consumption facility in Glasgow Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 In the National yesterday: I’m not sure about the strategy of mentioning it again but let’s just take it on. Haven’t the opposition repeatedly suggested that his argument ignores the feelings of locals and the damage the Thistle safe drug consumption facility in Glasgow has done to life in the surrounding area? They have but as always it was unreliable. Here are the facts: In June 2025, I wrote: A source with a flat in a … Continue reading Scotland’s drug deaths would be worse without The Thistle but no it has not been at the cost of the safety of the locals

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Violent crime in England & Wales is 8 times more common than in Scotland…per square mile

johnrobertson834

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 When rtpscott replied in https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/09/25/drug-deaths-simple-language-not-simplistic-solutions/: The population of England in 2026 is estimated to be approximately 58.8 million people, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Scotland’s population was estimated at 5,545,500 as of mid-2025 by the National Records of Scotland (NRS), marking a slow growth of less than 0.1% from the previous year Maybe I am being stupid but using these two figures how is it that Scotland has more recorded drug deaths than England I doubt that MSM will look into that,anything to do down … Continue reading Violent crime in England & Wales is 8 times more common than in Scotland…per square mile

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Decades ago Scottish Labour planted the seeds of Glasgow’s ongoing equal pay troubles

johnrobertson834

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 By Liz S Michael Marra posted this on ‘X’ “It beggars belief that the SNP council is threatening to railroad through fire and rehire before it is made illegal in this country by the UK Labour government. It may not break the letter of the law but it certainly breaks the spirit of it. It’s a despicable way to treat working people. It’s straight out the Tory playbook. All parties need to get round the table and hammer out a deal,and working people should never be threatened like this … Continue reading Decades ago Scottish Labour planted the seeds of Glasgow’s ongoing equal pay troubles

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Baillie silent as Scotland has no pharmacy loss since 2017 and pharmacists in crisis in England lose 1 500 and still ‘look to Scotland’s contract

johnrobertson834

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Dramatic news from BBC Breakfast this morning. Scotland? No mention but a big story on a murder…….in LA. Scotland has not seen a large net loss of pharmacies since 2017. Numbers have stayed broadly stable, in contrast to England. There were 1 253 on the register in December 20171 and 1 283 in 20262. Scotland’s contract and funding model has been cited as offering more protection than England’s. BBC Health made this explicit. BBC Scotland looked the other way. Pharmacists in England look to Scotland, where a scheme called … Continue reading Baillie silent as Scotland has no pharmacy loss since 2017 and pharmacists in crisis in England lose 1 500 and still ‘look to Scotland’s contract

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How long do ‘Vietnamese’ trafficking gangs have to live and work in England until they become ‘English’ before 16 years later they spread into Scotland?

johnrobertson834

BBC Scotland today reporting ‘Vietnamese’ people trafficking gangs operating in Scotland, leaving viewers to think they came directly from and are managed from, say, Hanoi. Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Readers will know that County Lines gangs terrorising Scotland from Dumfries to Wick, arriving here as ‘heavies’ from Liverpool, Birmingham, Bradford or London are never referred to in Scottish media, as Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali, Irish, Jamaican or, heaven forfend, ‘English’ though the communities they come from are described as such in England. So, why is BBC Scotland so comfortable with ‘Vietnamese’ when refugees from … Continue reading How long do ‘Vietnamese’ trafficking gangs have to live and work in England until they become ‘English’ before 16 years later they spread into Scotland?

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As Maggie’s ‘broken children’, drug users from the teenage wasteland of the 1980s, fall off the graph, Scotland’s drug deaths will fall below those of England in ten years or less

johnrobertson834

Channel 4 News tonight reminded me of something important, positive, about Scotland’s drug deaths – age. Look at this – Age-specific mortality rates of drug use deaths by broad age group, registered in 2000 to 2025: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2025/ There were 21.4 drug use deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, after adjusting for age. However, when you have a think about the rate in each of the 5 age groups, you should be able to see signs of a tipping point coming when overal drug deaths plummet. This drama all started more than 40 years ago, in the years after Margaret Thatcher … Continue reading As Maggie’s ‘broken children’, drug users from the teenage wasteland of the 1980s, fall off the graph, Scotland’s drug deaths will fall below those of England in ten years or less

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Much as he’d like to James Cook does NOT know that Scotland’s drug death figures ‘remain worst in Europe’ – Nobody with half a brain thinks they do

johnrobertson834

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 With the help of Aimee Stanton, data journalist, James Cook has produced an extended piece with the above headline but little evidence for it. It’s utterly untenable. More on that below. I suppose I’m disappointed more with Aimee who has even had the Royal Statistical Society’s Award for Statistical Excellence in Journalism 2020. James, ‘a British journalist and broadcaster’, unless he’s modestly hiding stuff, is described only as ‘Educated at Forfar Academy, Cook began his career at Radio Tay in Dundee where he first read the news at the age … Continue reading Much as he’d like to James Cook does NOT know that Scotland’s drug death figures ‘remain worst in Europe’ – Nobody with half a brain thinks they do

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Drug deaths – one-year increase does not change overall trend which is down 15%

johnrobertson834

Last year, the NRS graph, after a one year fall, showed also the trend in a dotted line with a shaded bandwidth of confidence and a fall from the peak of 1 339 to 1 017, 24%. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2024/ For some reason, time maybe, this year’s graph does not show the trend. Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Today, to a gleeful media feeding frenzy, we see they’ve gone up again, ‘by 11%’ to 1 133, so the fall from 2020 is now 15% but the trend, sorry MSM, is still down. They had a nice … Continue reading Drug deaths – one-year increase does not change overall trend which is down 15%

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Agricultural support payments – 81% paid in Scotland and ‘extreme cashflow difficulties’ in England

johnrobertson834

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From the Scottish Government today at 10.30am but getting no coverage even on the BBC Business site. More than £296 million in agricultural support has been paid out to Scottish farmers and crofters since the start of September. As of 11 September, Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Greening funding has been paid to 81% of anticipated eligible businesses, with the payment window closing in July next year. The Scottish Government’s BPS supplements agriculture income, while Greening payments encourage agricultural practices that benefit the environment and climate. and notably this … Continue reading Agricultural support payments – 81% paid in Scotland and ‘extreme cashflow difficulties’ in England

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Massive improvement in rape conviction rate in Scotland and rape offences up to three times higher in England & Wales

johnrobertson834

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goingCrowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-goingOr by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From BBC UK, the above, and: Specialist courts to handle cases of rape and other sexual offences will be introduced across England and Wales over the next two years, the prime minister has announced. Each crown court will have at least one courtroom especially set up to hear such cases, while alleged victims will be able to view proceedings remotely and give evidence from a separate room via video link. Watch out for the media operating in Scotland to call for the same in Scotland and to quickly accuse … Continue reading Massive improvement in rape conviction rate in Scotland and rape offences up to three times higher in England & Wales