Tag: writing

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Anas ‘No shame’ Sarwar is a perfect fit for the Lords and the ugliest building in the ugliest style in the world, in Glasgow

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Did the new Baron of Maxwell Park, Anas Sarwar, like the look of this pile? Scottish Baronial is one of Scotland’s most embarrassing contributions to the world. It’s by miles the ugliest architectural style in the world and that above Burgh Hall in Maxwell Park is the bloody ugliest example of it I’ve ever seen. Appropriate for the c…………..ountry gentleman? 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 By Liz S New peer Anas ‘no shame’ Sarwar will soon be doing the media circuit in him appearing as a guest on various … Continue reading Anas ‘No shame’ Sarwar is a perfect fit for the Lords and the ugliest building in the ugliest style in the world, in Glasgow

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Another desperate attempt to drag us into the surging violence and hatred of the UK

johnrobertson834

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 Headlining for BBC Scotland today above, and: A 25-year-old Scottish man has been jailed for racially-motivated “violent disorder” linked to rioting in Belfast during the summer of 2024. Reece Dunnett, from Dunfermline in Fife, pleaded guilty to rioting and criminal damage offences at Laganside Crown Court on Friday. He received a 27-month sentence – half of which to be spent in prison and half on licence after his release. Dunnett committed the offences after trouble arose in the Sandy Row and Donegall Road areas … Continue reading Another desperate attempt to drag us into the surging violence and hatred of the UK

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Fact – there are no current investigations in Scotland involving offences against children like the investigations into abuse being perpetrated by “grooming gangs” in England

johnrobertson834

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 The National review of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation and child criminal exploitation Last updated: 3 September 2026 has not found evidence of any large-scale grooming gang activity comparable to that found across the ‘north’ of England in places like Rotherham and Rochdale, where more than a thousand young girls were abused and hundreds of offenders were prosecuted and jailed. What it has found is that it does not have the data to confirm that such activity does not take place in Scotland. Opposition politicians … Continue reading Fact – there are no current investigations in Scotland involving offences against children like the investigations into abuse being perpetrated by “grooming gangs” in England

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Millions of litres of raw sewage in 50 toxic waste ponds and tanks, some huge, some stirred, most open to the air and all within a few hundred metres of a giant hospital for the seriously sick – Welcome to Glasgow under Labour

johnrobertson834

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 The view above of five large open-topped raw sewage tanks, from the viewpoint in the red arrow below. To the left, the viewer sees a large building with the moss green flat roof – labs, testing. A wee wall attempts to protect it from sewage bioaerosols containing more bacteria and fungi which travel around 100m, than anyone could list here. To the left again, at the bottom of the image, the main hospital entrance and in the semi-circular, the hospital for children where cancer … Continue reading Millions of litres of raw sewage in 50 toxic waste ponds and tanks, some huge, some stirred, most open to the air and all within a few hundred metres of a giant hospital for the seriously sick – Welcome to Glasgow under Labour

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Child grooming gangs like those in Rochdale and Rotherham in Scotland – sometimes the [complete] absence of evidence can mean the evidence of absence

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the extent of child abuse carried out by grooming gangs in Scotland, according to a review. 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 For some reason, but not unusually for Reporting Scotland, this story is not reported more fully on their website. The National review of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation and child criminal exploitation Last updated: 3 September 2026 has not found evidence of any large-scale grooming gang activity comparable to that found across the ‘north’ of England in places like Rotherham and Rochdale, where more than a thousand … Continue reading Child grooming gangs like those in Rochdale and Rotherham in Scotland – sometimes the [complete] absence of evidence can mean the evidence of absence

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Violence against women – does the Guardian’s Scottish Correspondent ever read anything first?

johnrobertson834

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 The Guardian’s Scotland Correspondent, Libby Brooks, is often ill-informed and this show little sign of doing any better. The image is, of course, from a march in London. Good morning. Violence against women and girls, in all its myriad forms – physical and mental, blatant and insidious – is a global challenge. It reaches back through millennia and, lately, it has been turbo-charged by technology, which offers abusers new ways to shame, harass and monitor victims. What would it take to eradicate it? Scotland’s first … Continue reading Violence against women – does the Guardian’s Scottish Correspondent ever read anything first?

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Scotland’s IVF service – target-busting for 11 years saving lives and reducing NHS costs as NHS England prices people out of becoming parents

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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 From IVF waiting times in Scotland Quarter ending 30 June 2026 published today: During the quarter ending 30 June 2026, 360 patients were screened. The 90% standard was met, with all patients attending a screening appointment within 52 weeks of referral. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland-quarter-ending-30-june-2026/ These results maintain a frankly awesome performance going back more than 11 years. From IVF waiting times in Scotland Quarter ending 31 March 2026 published today: During the quarter ending 31 March 2026, 373 patients were screened. The 90% standard was met, with all patients attending … Continue reading Scotland’s IVF service – target-busting for 11 years saving lives and reducing NHS costs as NHS England prices people out of becoming parents

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Funding education ‘for the good of society’ but ‘whose society?’

johnrobertson834

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 By Alasdair Macdonald Within the pre-school and school sector, funding per capita allocations increased as age groups increased. So, allocations to pre-school organisations were less than those for primary and, these, in turn, were less than the allocations to secondary. And, within secondary, these were even greater for senior secondaries compared to junior secondaries and for students in Fifth and Sixth Years, the two years after the school leaving age of 16. Students opting to continue beyond the statutory minimum leaving were disproportionately from … Continue reading Funding education ‘for the good of society’ but ‘whose society?’

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Approach with caution – Mark Smith’s ‘new’ made-up crime stats

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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 I haven’t bothered with the The Herald’s Mark Smith for years now. In 2022, I wrote ‘Herald’s Mark Smith does a Ross Kemp and gets out of Holyrood before a few elderly feminists ‘kick off’ and thrust their merkins at him,’ but have not looked for fear of upsetting myself. It’s at: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/12/26/heralds-mark-smith-does-a-ross-kemp-and-gets-out-of-holyrood-before-a-few-elderly-feminists-kick-off-and-thrust-their-merkins-at-him/ Approach with caution. Today, we have another of his biographical proud diversions in an attempt to seem clever: It is a constant disappointment to my parents that, despite the fact I … Continue reading Approach with caution – Mark Smith’s ‘new’ made-up crime stats

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Scotland has 21% more to spend on each school pupil but 24% less to spend on each undergraduate than England? Harvard Researchers would say ‘Good, good!’

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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 From the Higher Education Policy Institute yesterday and echoed in reports from Universities Scotland and the NUS: How Scotland has 21% more to spend on each school pupil but 24% less to spend on each undergraduate than England. This is all much more important than it might initially sound. Policymaking in Scotland is shaped by the size of its relatively small polity, meaning the political class is tighter and universities have more direct engagement with their political overlords, at least compared to England. This … Continue reading Scotland has 21% more to spend on each school pupil but 24% less to spend on each undergraduate than England? Harvard Researchers would say ‘Good, good!’