In the Daily Mail on 11 December 2023:
Sophisticated Scottish cocaine-smuggling gang face jail
and in the Sun on 21 March 2024:
I was groomed by a major Scots crime gang – I was at their mercy out of fears of being murdered
In February 2024, the Mail reported:
The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal at least 55 gangs have been identified operating north of the Border – more than double the number in 2020.
County lines is the phenomenon whereby drug dealers from cities expand their operation by crossing county borders into smaller towns and rural areas.
Gangs from parts of England have forced youngsters and vulnerable adults – aged from 14 to 77 – to smuggle packages of heroin, crack cocaine and other narcotics into Scotland on buses and trains.
Though all County Lines gangs are based in English cities, the headline carefully does not refer to England:
Rise of county lines gangs exploiting vulnerable Scots – top cop tells of threat from expanding drug networks
Only the tabloids and local press cover this plague – of at least 55 English gangs – at all but even there, the word ‘English’ is never used in headlines and, rarely is England ever mentioned in the text.
Why? Damage to the image of the Union is a no-go-area for most journalists who know where their own career prospects lie.
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
“Damage to the image of the Union is a no-go-area for most journalists who know where their own career prospects lie.”
You would think that most journalists are capable of waking up and smelling the coffee – at some point realise the error of their ways and defect to the good side.
If they don’t, they doubtless won’t have any career prospects – unless they cross the border. Even then they may find their efforts to be less than successful…
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journalists know the score they know exactly what they are doing but their job is on the line , conform or get sacked , so they conform , throughout history we have seen people forced to do things they do not eant to do or lose their job , some , terrible things , dont use your own language , dont worship your own religion , dont wear your national dress , spy on your neighbours , kill your own country folk , the journalists are just doing a dirty job at the less violent end of the spectrum , so far…
England only ever uses the word England or English to describe or comment on good , successful things , if its bad , negative , unsuccessful England or English is never mentioned.
If its something Scottish and its bad or negative or unsuccessful its Scotland or Scottish.If its something Scottish and good or successful its British never Scottish or Scotland.
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Well said Terence. Straight and to the point. Whether they work for print, mostly non-dom owned, or the B.B.C, the mouthpiece of the British Establishment, or even the commercial broadcasters, they have to toe the line, or find other employment.
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