As the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election looms, little media coverage, perhaps not surprising as you will see below, has looked at the SNP’s record in government with regard to crime and policing.
The contrasts in the trends in Scotland, England and Wales are stark.
When Harold Wilson’s Labour came to power in 1964, there were around 160 000 crimes recorded across Scotland. By the last year of the Labour/Lib Dem alliance at Holyrood, in 2006, that figure had almost tripled to more than 400 000!
After 16 years of SNP rule that figure had fallen steadily year-on-year to less than 300 000 in 2023.
At the same time, in England and in Wales, with the Conservatives in control in England and Labour running devolved government in Wales, crime surged. By 2023, there 94 crimes for every 1 000 people in England and Wales but only 53 in Scotland. Overall crime in England and Wales is now almost twice as high as in Scotland. That is a staggering difference between otherwise very similar countries.
Violent crime, an understandable and particular concern for the electorate in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, has also fallen dramatically in Scotland from more than 92 000 under Labour in 2003 to 62 000 under the SNP in 2021. This is a massive fall of almost one-third!
In England and Wales, in sharp contrast, violent crime has soared from 665 000 when the Conservatives came to power in 2010 and after decades of Labour power across Wales, to more than 2 million in 2023, almost tripling!
South Lanarkshire has currently a crime rate somewhere in the middle of the Scottish range, 17th out of 34 regions, at 48 crimes for every 1 000 people, below the Scottish average of 53 and well below that of Dundee at 81, Glasgow City at 77 or North Lanarkshire at 55. In 2006, there were more than 20 000 crimes in South Lanarkshire. By 2023, that had fallen to less than 16 000, a 20% fall.
In terms of violent crimes, South Lanarkshire had 779 recorded cases in the last year of the Labour government in 2006 but by 2021, after 14 years of SNP government, there were only 112, a massive reduction.
Despite these enormous reductions in crime, Police staffing across Scotland has only fallen very slightly, as of March 2022, was 27% higher than in 1985 at that time of far higher crime than today and, in 2023, has 400 more officers than when the SNP came to power in 2007.
England and Wales have only 228 police officers for every 100 000 people while in Scotland the figure is 316, 34% more.
Finally, in March 2023, Lanarkshire Division of Police Scotland had 4 436 police officers, up from 4 311 in March 2017 when police Scotland was formed.
Sources:
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2006/09/recorded-crime-scotland-2005-06/documents/0038291-pdf/0038291-pdf/govscot%3Adocument/0038291.pdf
https://www.statista.com/statistics/370370/crime-figures-in-scotland/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030625/crime-rate-uk/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/288256/violent-crimes-in-england-and-wales/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/370395/scotland-crime-rate-local-authorities/
https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2005-06/pages/13/
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.scotland.police.uk/spa-media/tgwakhio/council-quarterly-bulletin-quarter-1-official.pdf
https://www.statista.com/statistics/327271/crimes-in-scotland-by-local-authority/
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00634/SN00634.pdf
https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-30-june-2023/
https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/how-we-do-it/police-scotland-officer-numbers/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Damn Jackie Baillie replies :
Tsk ! Tsk ! Under the SNP the Crime Figures have not dropped to Zero which is an indictment of their complete failure as a Government . Under Labour’s Sir Kid Starver we will not set a target until we see the awful state of things when we get into power then we will renege on any promises made prior to the election .
Nor have the SNP abolished Poverty in Rutherglen as we would do in our first term – unless we don’t .
Under the SNP pigeon droppings are at the highest since we started making this an issue but the people of Rutherglen have been denied their share ; we will immediately appoint a Pigeon Tsar to oversee this Public concern .
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Labour branch office in Scotland have said they’ll abolish ‘Poverty in Rutherglen? First I heard.
Keir Starmers Labour might as well rename themselves New LabCons. England has a bleak future, they have no alternative to the very right wing ideology that is Labour and Tory, and with their Brexit sense of devil may care attitude, it doesn’t bode well for reducing crime, reducing poverty, or just any well functioning society.
Just hope all the well off folks from England buying up properties in Scotland don’t scupper the next independence referendum.
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When is a success in Scotland promoted as a failure by pro UK politicians and their media….when it is a success achieved by the SNP/Green party/Scottish government.
When is failure ignored in the UK by politicians and the media in Scotland…..when it is a failure generated via Labour in Wales or the Tories in England (and the UK)….could also add the omission, via media, of both Labour, Tory and Lib Dems past and current involvements in politics within Scotland….to include councils they run also….where they have failed the citizens they are and were supposed to support and care for…..and where the media fails to report their respective political failings for reasons all too apparent……they, the media, also fail to highlight how they conspire , as parties, to form alliances to shut out the ELECTED SNP members of a council from taking control of that council…..but tis not only done via councils it is also seen to happen via UK politics too….where for them any pro UK party winning in Scotland is better than an independence party winning here…..
That is politics in their UK…..and how the media promotes it.
Once you understand that then you get to the point of believing NOTHING either the media or certain political parties and their elected representatives say…..thus you stop listening , stop watching and stop reading anything that is sourced via their media….which means your sanity and your blood pressure is kept at a safer level…… and also your thirst for real knowledge and information is determined by you as better served by OTHER sources….like this site and some others….and where at least you are given facts to recognise what are the real LIES and what is the actual TRUTH….but also WHO is LYING and WHO is telling the TRUTH.
No need to expand on that though is there ?
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STV news this evening featuring water sewage contamination on a few days to start with to be followed no doubt by a succession of ‘how the Scot Gov has failed us’ stories in the coming weeks. That folks is just how the Britnat media operates in Scotland ….enjoy.
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It’s usually fed them by political agitators trying to draw parallels with England, and notably never features a SEPA spokesman giving the low down as it would totally destroy the hype…
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Good to see the data and to learn how much better Scotland is doing to reduce crime since the SNP party became the preferred choice of government. I suppose under unionist rule it was never going to be a priority to reduce crime in Scotland. The unionists in control for a very long time revelled in the high crime rates in Scotland, all part of their Scotland is really dreadful narrative. (Their oil is nice though lol).
When you think about it, promoting Scotland as highly crime ridden in the past, is a strange one given it was just up north in north Britain so responsibility lay with the various cabals in power in London, ironically, and local unionists councils. Hmm.
The LabCon/Tory alliance would soon reverse the SNPs’ excellent work in reducing crime in Scotland if they could. Let’s hope they never get the opportunity to do so.
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“Ah, but …… people huv jist stoapped reportin things tae the polis because they dae nothing onywey.” – Her Dameness, the Jaikie of Baillie.
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Amazing!!!! For the first time in a couple of years I have been able to publish something on this site under my own name! I have had to post anonymously because postings under my own name vanishe into the aether.
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