By Professor John Robertson OBA
in The Guardian today:
Police service in London faces ‘eye-watering cuts’, says Met chief Mark Rowley
Surely this is not possible in a country already stricken by high levels of crime with inadequate staffing levels and poor starting pay levels which inhibit recruitment.
The details, you won’t see in Scottish media:
The true facts are, from open, transparent, official, checkable statistics, in Police officer quarterly strength statistics: 30 September 2024, published today is:
Police officer numbers increased by 220 FTE officers (+1.4%) in the last quarter from 30 June 2024
This is an increase of 193 FTE police officers (+1.2%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007
https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-30-september-2024/
From indeed, the Scottish average salary is £40 926 and the English average is £34 807 making the average Scottish police officer £6 000, 15%, better off.1, 2
Starting salaries?
Scotland – £30 039.3
England? Between £28,551 and £29,907.4
Crime rate?
Scotland – 55 crimes per 1 000 people
England – 89.7
Staffing to deal with crime?
Scotland – 316 officers per 100 000 people.
England – 228.
So, Scotland is 27.8% better staffed.
Sources:
- https://uk.indeed.com/cmp/Police-Scotland/salaries/Police-Officer
- https://uk.indeed.com/career/police-officer/salaries
- https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/finance/pay-and-grading-structure/
- https://careers.northumbria.police.uk/police-officer/benefits/#:~:text=With%20a%20top%20salary%20of,Superintendent%20%C2%A399%2C612%20%E2%80%93%20%C2%A3111%2C117
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030625/crime-rate-uk/#:~:text=The%20crime%20rate%20in%20the,just%2052.3%20by%202021/22.
- https://policeprofessional.com/news/england-and-wales-have-fewer-police-officers-than-any-major-european-nation/
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Clearly more and better paid Police Officers are required in Scotland to confront the invasion by the English County Lines Gangs swamping us with drugs !
( Not to mention the extreme pressure on resources caused by the never-ending Branchform Investigation of …?)
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Ah, but ….. Whit aboot ‘No Mean City? That proves that Scotland has worser violence than anywhere in the world.
This will be the attitude of the ‘Scottish’ media and the ‘Scottish’ Labour Party.
’No Mean City’ was a work of fiction published in 1935 – 89 years ago – but it is still the media paradigm of Glasgow.
Alasdair Macdonald
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You will not hear Starmer or his chums quoting this or any other such comparison when he describes how terrible Scotland is being run. He obviously gets his information from Sarwar…
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They make up the LIES it’s nothing to do with ‘information’, and Sarwar follows his masters’ orders, his master being Starmer in London and the Brit state…
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Talking of the Police and teh Labour party, Declassified has an interesting article, which was written by Des Freedman.
“Journalism is not a crime – Tell that to the British state”
The article is asking “Why are no national news outlets covering the crackdown on pro-Palestinian journalists in Britain”?
It quotes Keir Starmer who stated in a Guardian article that “Journalism is the lifeblood of democracy” and he also wrote that “Just because journalists are brave does not mean they should ever suffer intimidation”.
Yet contrary to that apparently “11 days before his article was published, officers from the counter-terrorism unit of the Metropolitan Police raided the home of Asa Winstanley, a well-known pro-Palestinian journalist with the Electronic Intifada, and seized his devices under provisions of the UK’s Terrorism Act”.
“Winstanley was presented with a letter indicating that the raid was part of ‘Operation Incessantness’, a counter-terror initiative about which little is known”.
Declassified then wrote that…
“This is not the first use of anti-terror laws to try to silence pro-Palestinian voices in recent months”.
“The attacks on journalists are part of a wider pattern of harassment of pro-Palestine activists”
The article then goes on to state that “Not a single national news outlet in the UK has reported on the policing of British pro-Palestinian journalists. Not one of them has thought to investigate what ‘Operation Incessantness’ might mean for press freedom”
“Not one of them has reflected on the precedent set by the use of anti-terror laws for reporting on Gaza”.
The article then concludes that:
“So when Keir Starmer proclaims “there is no direct threat to press freedoms in our country”, take this with more than a pinch of salt. As we have seen, the ‘indirect’ threats of the DSMA and the concentrated nature of media ownership are significant enough”
“A letter published in the Independent from 230 members of the media industry, including over 101 anonymous BBC staff members, complaining about biased media coverage of Israel suggests that the opposition to the genocide is growing and includes a significant number of journalists”.
This is a very good article from Declassified and of course we all know how much Keir Starmer and his party favour Israel over Palestine hence why these types of incidents are allowed to occur.
Also the fact that “101 anonymous BBC staff members” complained about “biased media coverage ” in respect to Israel then one wonders why many who work within BBC Scotland are not inclined to highlight similar” biased media coverage” in relation to Scottish Politics and the constitutional Q.
Or are those employed in BBC Scotland as journalists complicit with this behaviour of those who are against both the SNP and also Scottish independence ?
It does also give you an insight into how some sections of the Police work with the apparent blessing of the UK government in them, the Police , deploying specific ‘laws’ as a reason (excuse) to silence those who support specific issues, that are considered as issues , ones that the state/establishment do not support (or want highlighted) while also actively ignoring the actions of those on the opposing side and that which they support.
The power of certain media, certain governments and certain sections of the Police force does then explain more about how some of us feel that the full force of their powers dominate within Scotland .
And also explains why we then often see others get off Scot free (or in the SNP’s case not Scot Free) when they , as the opposition, do wrong.
The British state upholds a two tier system upon everything.
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London cops also arrested a 78 year old man for openly speaking out against Israel’s atrocious attacks on the people of Palestine, the way he was treated was appalling, as he has cancer and a heart condition. One guy (but not all) who was involved in his imprisonment and near torture in a cell in London, pretty much acted illegally in the way they treated him and the way they attempted to label him as guilty in their own opinion, and later had to apologise to the guy! Presume otherwise he’d be sacked or face charges himself.
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