The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser, finishing in 5 days, 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, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS
Today, BBC UK headlining and interviewing yoga teacher, Leanne Lucas, who almost died in the Southport attack, state:
While Leanne recovered from life-saving surgery, rioting began, first in Southport, then spreading across the UK
Not for the first time this form of inclusion does not accurately represent the situation in Scotland.
From BBC UK on December 18th, 2024:
Police were unprepared for the scale of disorder that broke out in part of the UK following the Southport knife attacks, a police watchdog has found. Police intelligence did not predict the “rising tide of violent disorder well enough”, according to the review of their response to the worst UK unrest in more than a decade.
Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke praised officers for their “immense bravery and personal sacrifice” while protecting the public. But he warned it was “clear” that police had missed opportunities to prepare for widespread disorder, and that earlier incidents involving “extreme nationalist sentiment” had been underestimated. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpvn0dnnyj3o
From BBC Scotland in 9 August 2024, in what must be an unauthorised ‘Scotland is the best‘ report by a junior reporter not yet ‘inducted‘:
Police Scotland is considering a request to send 120 officers to Northern Ireland following several nights of anti-immigration riots in Belfast and other parts of the UK. Jon Boutcher, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said his officers were exhausted and could not “stand alone to deal with disorder like this any more”.
Mr Boutcher said the PSNI needed support as it had been allowed to “decay” in recent years. The National Police Coordination Centre, which provides support to forces across the UK, said it was considering a request from the Police Service in Northern Ireland (PSNI) for back-up from other forces.
“As a national service, Police Scotland has the ability to flex resources where the need is greatest in order to keep people safe,” said a Police Scotland spokesperson.
{The FM] said Police Scotland had “formidable” resources that could be deployed flexibly across the country if required. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c77lxyz7702o
How was this possible?
From the Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report : July 2024 edition:
Crime has fallen by 53% since 2008-09. Results from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) show that around 1 in 10 adults were victims of crime in 2021-22 (10.0%) compared to 1 in 5 in 2008-09 (20.4%). The estimated number of crimes fell by 53% over the same period, and by 18% since 2017-18. https://www.gov.scot/publications/safer-communities-justice-statistics-monthly-data-report-july-2024-edition/pages/3/#page-top
IMPORTANT – This is not based on police reporting which is known to understate the actual level of crime but on The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), a large-scale (5 500 interviews) social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland and is considered ‘gold standard’ research methodology ie very accurate.
In crude terms, you’re half as likely to be victim of crime than you were 17 years ago. How’s that for real news utterly unacceptable for our MSM’s agenda?
Despite this massive fall, there are actually slightly more police officers, as of March 2024, than there were, 17 years ago, at the end of the last Labour Government in March 2007:
From Police Scotland data, 7 May 2024:
Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland.
The key findings of the statistics are:
There were 16,356 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 31 March 2024
This is an increase of 122 FTE police officers (+0.7%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007 https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-31-march-2024/
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brow
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Ahem…
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/crime-courts/6697340/english-drug-dealer-sold-from-fraserburgh-flat/
More English drug dealers pitching up in the North East:
An English drug dealer who sold cocaine and heroin from a Fraserburgh flat has been locked up for more than a year.
blah blah blah, the usual story..
Chambers-King’s defence solicitor, Leonard Burkinshaw, told the court the HMP Grampian inmate moved north to pay off a debt owed to drug dealers in England.
“Effectively, he’s a young man who got himself involved in drugs in England. It led him into debt. As he says, he was working off that debt.
“He was told to come up to this area to work that off.
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Not to much ‘Better Together’ more really ‘Lumped together’ by the media who present negative stories which are linked only to specific nations within the UK, as in linked to England & NI, as in those nations outwith Scotland.
As in this instance when it was only two nations , England and NI , where rioting happened , then the media think they are then totally justified in describing it as being rioting “across the UK”.
Some see this as no problem as in somehow thinking that it is accurate.
Yet we also saw the same kind of reporting with knife crime , where Scotland has seen success in reducing knife crime in adopting a strategy that takes a public health approach but where England and Wales have seen an increase in knife crime deaths.
Yet………
The Daily Mail in June 2024 had a headline “Knife crime epidemic continues to plague Britain’s streets”. (Britain ? Really ?).
The Daily Express in January 2024 had a headline ” Sadiq Khan blamed for UK knife crime rise with 1000 Londoners killed on his watch” (Sadiq Khan is the London Mayor and not the UK Mayor….so how senseless is this headline !).
The Independent in May 2024 had a headline “Rise in UK knife attacks leads to crackdown and stokes public anxiety”. (rise in UK knife attacks ? Fake news as rise is in only England & Wales and not the whole UK).
So Scotland is ‘Lumped together” with other nations in both Britain and the UK by the, checks notes, UK media.
However when it comes to drugs that is a very very different story….with the, checks notes, UK media…as then it is only a problem with Scotland and only Scotland , and never presented as a British or a UK problem , nope only Scotland is promoted as having this problem.
Here is some online headlines by UK newspapers on drug deaths:
The Daily Mail August 2024 “Scotland’s rising drug deaths toll is still the worse in Europe”
The Daily Express August 2023 “Scotland still the drug deaths capital of Europe as SNP accused of creating deadly plague”
The Independent August 2024 “Scotland’s drug deaths remain Europe’s worst after heart breaking 12% rise”.
So when it is a negative story connected to Scotland, then it is both identified as and presented as being Scotland alone that takes all of the responsibility for this , and never ever is it presented by the UK media as being a “British” or a “UK” problem.
It is also always politicised .
So the reality is that the increase in deaths from knife crime and also the highest amount of cases for knife crimes are in England & in Wales , which is where other governments within the UK are in charge and so they are responsible .
Yet somehow the UK media prefers to make this out to be a “British or a UK problem”.
That’s what happens when you have a UK media , who publish in Scotland, and who act against Scotland .
Liz S
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What a team!
Graham
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Meant to add that the UK media also headline that knife crimes “rise in England and Wales” so why then also present it as a British or UK problem ?
Why indeed.
Liz S
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UK -wide problem with knives , UK-wide problem with riots , but Scotland has the worst drug deaths in Europe ….?
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