Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Committee Chair
In the Guardian today:
Stacey Dooley on the UK’s shocking rape conviction statistics [sic] – Prosecuting rape is notoriously difficult in the UK [sic], with an estimated 5% of cases making it to trial, and only about 45% [of those so 2%?] resulting in a conviction. Amid such discouraging headlines, four young women have allowed Stacey Dooley to tell their difficult, complex stories about reporting being raped by someone they know, in the three-year run-up to trial.
There are no UK rape conviction statistics. There are statistics for England & Wales OR separately gathered and reported, for Scotland.
I know, I know, don’t tell us it is less bad in Scotland! It’s still not good enough.
I agree, rape and domestic abuse levels are still a dark stain on Scotland but two things, OK?
One, I remember from decades of teaching and parenting, that if you want things to get better, you need to strongly approve of the progress you do get, even if it’s still far short of your hopes. If you’re grudging all the time, you’ll stifle progress.
Two, the facts matter when they’re published by reliable agencies and everyone has a right to see them.
So, what are they?
Rape cases and conviction rate:
From Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2022-23, there was a 63% increase from 2014, in 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/
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:
Comparative rape conviction rates:
In the ‘Scottish’ Daily Express on 23 October 2024:
Police only solve half of all crimes in SNP’s soft-touch justice Scotland – Police officers in Scotland are solving less crimes than a decade ago with the Scottish Government’s approach to criminal justice blamed by the Scottish Tories. The percentage of non-sexual crimes of violence solved dropped in the last decade from 77% to 68% and for sex crimes it fell by almost 20% from 76.5% to 57.2%. Within this category, only 52.9% of rapes and attempted rapes were solved in 2023-24, down from 74.2% 10 years ago.
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/police-only-solve-half-crimes-33951541
So, in England and Wales, only 11%, 1 in 10, violent and sexual crimes solved but in Scotland, 32% violent crimes, 3 in 10 and 47%, rapes and attempted rapes, 5 in 10.
I know, I’m comparing all sexual crimes in England and Wales with only rapes and attempted rapes in Scotland but I feel sure the latter are even more difficult to close, thus making the comparison favour England and Wales.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Reality.
“There are no UK rape conviction statistics. There are statistics for England & Wales OR separately gathered and reported, for Scotland“
But that is not their UK reality.
The fact that these stats in Scotland are not connected to or collated together with those from elsewhere within Britain or elsewhere within the UK, is something that they , who support the UK, deem not worth highlighting or indeed even mentioning.
Separate legal systems and separate conviction statistics for England & Wales from Scotland be damned !
Stick to the UK only reference programme.
I mean you have to realise now that when a UK politician or the UK media refers to “the country” it has become very ambiguous as to what “country” they are referring to.
They, as UK politicians and as the UK media , may be speaking about a matter that is unique to England or is obviously only relating to England , yet they refer to it being a problem that “We” have in “this country”.
Yet they also then slip in a reference to it being a “British problem” or they even drag in NI as well, in them stating it is a “problem within the UK”.
Confused , well that’s the strategy, as God forbid anyone living in Scotland should ever consider anything is far far better here in Scotland compared to England and Wales , or even distinct from anywhere else in the UK.
As to Stacey Dooley MBE, in the trailer for this programme, she says:
“Join me Stacey Dooley as I spent time in the lives of the people who will make you question what you think you know about life in Britain”.
So then this documentary will be talking to people in all of the nations within their Britain as in England, Wales & Scotland , as it cannot be promoted as being “about life in Britain” without also including people from all of the different Nations within “Britain” ???
Or can it ?
Then of course we also have separate governments, a separate legal system in Scotland from other nations within Britain, so I take it that will also be addressed or even mentioned in this documentary?
We in Scotland also have a separate police force as well as also having laws that are distinct to Scotland, including laws dealing with Rape.
So what exactly will Stacey and this documentary show us that would then make us, in Scotland , assume something different, as in that what we have as a ‘reality’ in Scotland is nothing more than a typical “British way of life” and so then we have a “British way of dealing with things”.
Writing as a woman who lives in Scotland , and then as a woman, who potentially could be a victim of Rape in Scotland, the legal system that I would be subjected to would be that of a legal system that existed in Scotland and not one that existed as a ‘British’ or ‘UK’ legal system.
Though as a woman my sense of vulnerability, my feelings as in my depression, pain and most likely my long term emotional reaction , if raped, would not be so distinct from many other women who live elsewhere, such as women from England, Wales , NI or indeed anywhere else in the world.
We who support Scottish independence are often considered by others as being insensitive to these ‘sensitive’ matters, like for example this topic, when we are highlighting the unfairness of UK politics and also the UK media in relation to Scotland and the UK.
However the fact remains that these constant inaccuracies and misrepresentations are always promoted to include Scotland .
As when any pro UK politicians and their UK media link some process or some failing that is #BAD and that is happening only within England or Wales, it is then referred to by them as being a ‘British’ or ‘UK’ problem or failing.
Which would also then include the inaccurate statement that is being referred to in this documentary as “UK Rape Conviction cases” !
However they expect Scotland to take sole responsibility for any issues that are promoted by others as being only #BAD if happening within Scotland.
Vote SNP in 2026 as a first step to eventually, post our independence, to then getting the actual news where we are from a more positive Scottish perspective and not from the usual negative UK or British perspective that we currently are subjected to. (as in must suffer as part of the UK).
Which may also then, post independence, include many more documentaries from a Scottish perspective that are produced by companies originating from Scotland using more (than is happening now) Scottish talent.
Liz S
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Owen Jones Journalist tweeted this yesterday:
“Labour’s Thangam Debonnaire was kicked out of Parliament by her voters. She angrily denounced claims she’d end up in the House of Lords if she lost. This week, she was made a Baroness. No wonder more and more people are fed up with the system”.
With his tweet he included a video of her on BBC’s Politics Live where she was giving her opinion of Boris Johnson, the then Tory PM , awarding Peerage’s underserved.
“This has been rewarding Cronies and that’s just not on and Keir Starmer would never do that. He would never exploit the Honours system to do what Boris Johnson has done”
Now Owen, in a video , also mentioned that “during the GE itself Thangam Debonnaire was reportedly enraged at claims by the Green party that if she doesn’t get (Re)elected (in the 2024 GE) they’re (Labour) going to put her in the Lords anyway”.
She said at the time “It’s an extraordinary thing to say. That is quite something”.
He also said that “She insisted there’d be no discussion about a peerage with Starmer’s office.
Labour, also exploited the Honours system in December 2024 for ex ‘Scottish’ Labour politicians.
Where Labour , via a now emboldened Sir Keir Starmer after the 2024 GE , saw an opportune moment to finally give a fake award or reward to both Margaret Curran & Wendy Alexander as they were both awarded political peerages in December 2024.
This was in the same year that Labour won 37 Labour MP seats in Scotland, but also with both of these women having male relatives who had both been elected as MP’s in Scotland in the 2024 GE.
Curran lost her MP seat in 2015 and Wendy Alexander stood down as an MSP in 2011.
Fast forward to the UK GE in 2024 and Labour’s success in Scotland and then we saw the son of Margaret Curran, Chris Murray, winning the Edinburgh East & Musselburgh seat for Labour.
We also saw Wendy Alexander’s brother, Douglas Alexander, win the Lothian East seat for Labour as well.
Coincidence then that both Chris’s mum , Margaret Curran, and also Douglas’s sister, Wendy Alexander, were then both awarded political peerages in December 2024 ?
Wendy Alexander has not been active in politics since she stood down as an MSP in 2011 , she was embroiled in a political scandal in 2008 when she ” failed to declare, as gifts, the donations that were made to the fund for her campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party in Scotland” this resulted in her standing down in August 2008 as the Labour party leader in Holyrood.
So why did she, Alexander, get a political peerage by Sir Keir Starmer, as in a reward for her political failure in a involvement in a political scandal ?
Margaret Curran lost her seat in the 2015 GE (coincidentally on the same night Douglas Alexander also lost his seat too) , and she was most ungracious because as a (bad ) loser she flounced off, or was it stormed off or maybe she actually literally ran away on that night , unwilling to face the media or public. (typical Labour politician, as when the going gets tough they get going aka hide).
As it was very obvious that she , Curran, was not prepared to be there at the announcement of her losing her constituency seat and so she declined to speak following the announcement of her own defeat.
She was not even willing to be seen to be gracious in defeat, in declining to congratulate the SNP MP who had won the seat or to publicly thank her own team for all of their support and work during the election campaign, as well as her also not being willing to even thank any voters who voted for her on that day.
But for being so ungracious in defeat she has now also been given a political peerage by Sir Keir Starmer, as in a reward for her political failure in losing her MP seat in 2015.
So why was there such a long hiatus in Labour awarding both Margaret and Wendy political peerages ?
Why indeed ?
We all know how long Labour have been promising to abolish the HOL’s and yet still they seek to fill it with many of those past Labour politicians , many of whom were rejected at the ballot box by voters.
Anas Sarwar hopes his name will also eventually come up as another ‘political’ peerage awarded in the future .
However one wonders what political service has Sarwar done for politics in Scotland?
Other than him also losing his MP seat in the 2015 GE, constantly bowing down to Labour UK as their branch office manager in Scotland and then also constantly carping from the sidelines in Scotland as one of the opposition leaders at Holyrood.
Also should Sarwar be unsuccessful in 2026 (strong chance of this happening) then surely he will need to stand down as Labour leader at Holyrood, so will he then also be yet another one rewarded for failure (again), in Starmer also nominating him in his next Honours list.
Most likely , as Labour will never “change”…..anything, including their own repeated despicable and questionable actions and their same bad behaviour, same ones that they often criticise the Tories for.
(Ian Murray is also a Labour ‘Baron in waiting’ after the 2029 GE, or even before then).
File Labour under hypocrites and political charlatans.
Vote SNP in 2026, then start the campaign to get Scottish independence.
Liz S
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Well said Liz S. Maybe the post-war Labour Government did some good things, in fact they undoubtably did, but they also made us a nuclear “power”, which I detest. Since then, nothing, except along with the Tories, continue the wholesale robbery of our resources. But one basic fact always puzzles me. Why do Scots vote for English based political parties?
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“Why do Scots vote for English based political parties”?
There’s the million dollar Q Alex.
Though many answers can be found in all of the TUS articles that exposes the actions and words of many pro UK politicians who constantly try to manipulate voters in Scotland to vote for them , with them being a part of English controlled parties.
The media then back up their political pro UK message and so they too, as a media, then join in the fight against the SNP. (sometimes they, the media, are also at the forefront of many attacks against the SNP and independence too)
The SNP are not given any respect within the UK as a prominent party that voters here choose to democratically elect as their Scottish government, they are also not allowed to have a dominant political voice within the UK and there is no obliging and welcoming media platform that exists for them within the UK either.
So their, SNP, political message is suppressed while other parties (false) messages and pledges are the ones that are mostly promoted to voters here in Scotland.
Indeed if anything they, the SNP, are constantly side-lined, undermined , attacked and also ignored, when seen as appropriate, by both the dominant pro UK media and also all of the pro UK opposition politicians.
This then can potentially sway uninformed and sometimes gullible voters to be susceptible to pro UK political propaganda from both pro UK political parties and their client media.
Etc , Etc , Etc….(to include also the uber British Nationalists who live in Scotland, who claim to be ‘Proud Scots’, yet their actions and words dispute this as being a valid claim Ha Ha).
We need to get the message out ourselves , as it is abundantly clear that the pro UK media that exists within the UK are also our , Scotland’s , political and constitutional opposition as well, on top of us also being up against all of the combined pro UK (actual) political parties too.
That’s partly a response to your Q, but there are other considerations too, and they as other considerations, may also make some people in Scotland still vote for (be conned by) those political parties controlled from another country (who actively work against our country).
We can all only continue to both write and speak our truth in the hope it will reach others who are less aware of the reality of the damage that UK politics have inflicted upon Scotland for decades, and will continue to do so unless we become independent and so become free from their malign influence.
Liz S
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