and September was almost 20% higher than in the same period last year.
By Professor John Robertson
BBC Reporting Scotland, in their own insert but also picked out as a special on life in Scotland for BBC Breakfast and extended on the BBC website, the above report of increased rape reporting to suggest Scotland is the rape capital of the UK to go along with the fake drug death capital story.
No context whatsoever is reported to counter this shameful, exploitative narrative.
Here is again:
Rape offences 2-3 times higher in England & Wales than in Scotland
The police in Scotland recorded 2,529 rape or attempted rape crimes between in 2022/23, compared with 2,498 rape crimes in the previous reporting year.
All things being equal, per head of population with 11 times that, we might expect there to have been 27 819 cases in England & Wales.
There were 68 949, up from 16 038 ten years before. Between two and three times as many.
Sources:
How did Scottish Labour do when they were in charge? Labour failed to scrutinise police complacency over 300 rapes and assaults in 2005
From BBC Scotland, June 10 2024:
Nearly 300 rapes and sexual assaults reported by sex workers during the Emma Caldwell murder investigation were not dealt with by police at the time, a senior officer has confirmed.
Police Scotland’s deputy chief constable said an operation had been launched to examine sex offences which were reported around 2005. She said a number of the offences were now being dealt with by the courts. A former detective told the BBC he had received multiple reports of rape when he worked on the murder inquiry. But he said they were “boxed” – marked as irrelevant and not followed up.
The then Strathclyde Police launched one of its most expensive murder investigations after Emma Caldwell’s body was found in remote woodland in South Lanarkshire in 2005.
Imagine, these events took place in 2015 after 8 years of SNP government?
The media would be all over the current SNP First and Justice ministers, asking why they had failed to scrutinise Strathclyde Police? Why had they apparently ignored the reports of massive abuse of sex workers?
Had First Minister Jack McConnell and Justice Secretary Cathy Jamieson taken their eyes off the ball in 2005? Were they too busy campaigning to keep the UK together in the face of surging SNP support? Should heads have rolled?
Does this remind you of something else?
This? https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=blood
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
”There are lies , damned lies and any statistics that we can twist to show the SNP in a bad light !” BBCScotland Mission Statement .
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You mean false ‘statistics’, as in lies.
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When we read your reports, we can understand why it is SO important to refute each and every false story. But also, we can understand how utterly draining it must be to have to wade through the mass of negativity on a daily basis.
Thank you for your dedication.
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My husband said that this story was on the main BBC UK news on their breakfast show this morning, so not just “news where we are” but also to be shared with others in their UK (English) news ‘where they are’ , but only promoted as #BAD Scottish news.
As to “Rape offences 2-3 times higher in England & Wales than in Scotland”
If this were disclosed in conjunction with the story relating to rapes in Scotland then you need to remember the rule being applied within the UK on any #BAD stories linked to England , and now Wales too with Labour being the new UK government
Which is, as a rule, that if something is #BAD in England or Wales (or both) then it is promoted as being #UKBAD.
If something is reported by the media (especially the BBC) as being #BAD in Scotland then it becomes only a #SCOTLANDBAD matter and not publicised as a #UKBAD matter. (even if it exists as a situation elsewhere in the UK or is worse in other parts of the UK).
This is now very much their , the BBC’s, modus operandi in trying to convince people in Scotland that the SNP are #BAD .
While we in Scotland are then supposed to naively surmise that everything elsewhere within the UK is far better as a result of better governments elsewhere in the UK.
As to the BBC revisiting Labour’s time as the Scottish government to highlight their, Labour’s, incompetence, mistakes and negligence as a former Scottish government , well that is never going to happen with the BBC.
Especially when they, the BBC, are on a mission in Scotland to convince voters here that times are hard in Scotland, but only because of the SNP and only the SNP, and where no other (UK) government is involved or is in any way culpable for what the BBC state is a fact in that #ScotlandIsSh*te.
Reality and also lived experience aka suffering elsewhere begs to differ !
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“My husband said that this story was on the main BBC UK news on their breakfast show this morning” – Anything James Cook wants promoted as UK News gets featured, and usually fizzles out unless picked up by the ‘sofa crowd’.
However what appears to be behind it is this https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6l47neg67o to launch the latest phase of PS’s social media campaign to reduce sexual assault among young males by encouraging reporting such incidents to Police.
It sounds very much to me like being the victim of your own success, BBC Scotland style…
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Yes, that was what I felt when I read the statement from Police Scotland – more women (and others) are feeling greater confidence about reporting sexual assaults, which is a wider category than rape.
When we read accounts of how detectives in Glasgow Police reacted to what became known as the ‘Bible John Murders’, there was a widespread mindset at the time amongst the general public and the media, that women who had been raped or sexually assaulted had been ‘asking for it’. So, there was a lack of urgency by detectives in investigating these crimes. And, it turns out, that Bible John was probably a relative of one of the senior detectives.
Fortunately, the mindset within Police Scotland seems to have improved significantly over the years. I suspect that the accession of women and gay men to senior positions in the force has had an effect. Sexual assault and domestic abuse allegations are treated far more seriously nowadays. And that encourages more victims to come forward. There are other changes in society and in workplaces which contribute to such changes.
However, the media rarely want to report this. They operate on the principle that people are nasty and brutish. They mix largely with each other rather than in wider society and nasty, brutish people is who they mainly meet.
Alasdair Macdonald.
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@ProfJWR – I don’t watch or listen to any mainstream news on any channel at all now because I know that where Scotland and the SNP government are concerned, no matter what the issue is they do not report it favourably and will skew, ignore or inflate any data to make Scotland and the SNP look as if it is failing. We all recognise that they do this to influence their remaining viewers/listeners/readers that Scottish independence is a very bad idea and that the SNP are particularly to blame for every “perceived” failing. I am eternally grateful to you for doing what you do and providing real analysis, context and comparison. Thank you once again.
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There is also the further context of increased trust in PS over reporting sexual assault…
The contexts are all there for honest journalists, BBC Scotland don’t have any….
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So many lies so much BritGov propaganda waged against Scotland, anything to put voters off voting for the only party in Scotland that will continue the work they have already done in a few short years, to start to repair some of the terrible damage to Scotland’s people and communities on Labour and Tories’ watch. SNP need to make sure people know just exactly what the Labour/Cons’ legacy in Scotland is, and how much money and positive policy is required to even start to repair the EngGBUK damage.
O/T I see expensive (very!) properties having been up for sale in Edinburgh recently are er selling like hotcakes. It’ll be mainly, in fact probably all, well off and rich English folk escaping to
benefit from Scotland’s clean water, free prescriptions and functioning health service etc.
Voting rights?
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