The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson

By Professor John Robertson OBA

The Herald today claims:

‘Culture of misogyny’ in Police Scotland sex crime unit – Detectives working in Police Scotland’s rape investigation unit would “frequently” describe female complainers as “slags,” a whistleblower has alleged. In a 30-page statement, submitted to the force’s Professional Standards Department (PSD) in May 2023, and seen by The Herald on Sunday, a senior officer said there was a “culture of misogyny amongst officers, both male and female” in the division responsible for investigating some of Scotland’s worst sexual crimes.

Clearly that should be investigated but the wider public also need to be offered fuller evidence on misogyny in Scotland so that they can judge how to react. That’s not in Herald report, so:

First, Dismissals increase as Police Scotland deal with abuse in the wake of Everard case in England

From a Police Scotland Freedom of Information response on 17 December 2024, we see a steady increase in the force’s readiness to dismiss officers who have abused their position, from only 1 in 2019, to 7, 8 and 11 in the last three years.

This follows Police Scotland action in2021:

A new verification check for lone police officers in Scotland has been introduced in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard. Police Scotland said it wanted to reassure the public after she was abducted and killed by Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens.

Couzens, 48, used his warrant card to abduct Ms Everard from a south London street before raping and murdering her. Members of the public in Scotland can now request a control room check.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58776349

Action, doing something but what about in London where these events began? What is the Met doing? Well, nothing yet. From the Times today:

Flashers and perverts remain eligible to join the Metropolitan Police and other forces because of a loophole in vetting. The anomaly means that Wayne Couzens, the officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard, would probably still have been hired by the Met even if he had been arrested for exposing himself.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rethink-vetting-loophole-that-lets-sex-perverts-join-the-police-kj0wvx0jh

Second, in the latest figures for 2022/2023, there has been a 63% increase from 2014, in the number of people proceeded against for rape and attempted rape and a 108% increase in convictions for these. https://www.gov.scot/news/criminal-proceedings-in-scotland-2022-23/

Third, On the 24 February 2024, Scottish Labour has voted down a motion submitted via its women’s conference which had urged it to “acknowledge the principle of women’s sex-based rights”, despite most Constituency Labour Party delegates and the Scottish Labour women’s conference supporting the motion.

Critics of the motion have hit out at “transphobia” within the party, but supporters said it was “chilling” to see a women’s conference motion voted down. A card vote was held on the floor of the Scottish Labour party conference in Glasgow over the motion this weekend. LabourList can reveal 69.3% of CLP delegates’ votes were for the motion, but votes are weighted equally between CLP delegates and party affiliates.

The motion fell because 77% of affiliate votes were against it, making it the first and only motion to have been rejected by the conference. The party’s affiliate groups include trade unions, socialist societies and equality groups. Multiple sources told LabourList several trade unions voted against the motion. 

https://labourlist.org/2024/02/scottish-labour-rejects-womens-conference-and-clp-backed-motion-backing-sex-based-rights/

Fourth, Police Scotland praised for sensitive approach to domestic abuse calls

On BBC Scotland’s Nine, in July 2020, Dr Marsha Scott of Scottish Women’s Aid, spoke of the 95% reported increase in calls during the lock-down and the way it has even further limited the choices available to those being abused. It’s a disturbing aspect of the strategy which further demonstrates the need for Scotland to be able to come out of lock-down as soon as is safely and sustainably possible. There was one positive comment from Dr Scott [47 min] which, of course, should be reported here:

And one of the big things that we found on the helpline was that a really big part of the calls in the initial part of lock-down was just information about, if women decided to leave and could leave, would the police tell them that they had to go back. I mean we heard some stories from England that that might have been the case. And I want to give lots of credit to the Scottish police. That was certainly never the message up here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000l6gt/the-nine-23072020