Professor John Robertson OBA
From BBC England yesterday, the above and:
Five members of a county lines drug gang known as the Scouse Dave Line have been jailed. A total of seven members of the organised crime group, which peddled crack cocaine and heroin between Liverpool, Gosport and Plymouth, were sentenced during the two-day hearing at Portsmouth Crown Court.
When I saw the word ‘scouse‘, I was reminded of this:
My Google Alert on 14 February 2025, offered Operation Apollo continues crackdown on County Lines with over 300 years in jail time secured [by the above members] from Cheshire Constabulary. There’s no mention of Scotland in it but it triggered a memory in me. This from 2022:
A series of raids across Scotland last week highlighted the continuing focus of Merseyside’s organised crime groups on the drugs market north of the border. Last week officers from Merseyside Police teamed up with Police Scotland for raids in Peterhead, Aberdeen and in Knowsley. On Wednesday, November 2, Police Scotland raided an address in Peterhead where cocaine and heroin were recovered and a man and woman arrested.
Debate has been raging north of the border over how to handle drug-related deaths, which have remained high for a number of years and show little sign of significantly reducing. Scotland still has the highest number of drug deaths in Europe. In 2021, 1,295 deaths were linked to illicit drugs in Scotland, albeit down from 1,411 in 2020 which represented the highest number on record.
Liverpool based street gangs do not appear to have been phased by the misery, death and addiction on the streets of Glasgow and other Scottish cities and towns, however. In 2018, a National Crime Agency (NCA) annual strategic assessment said: “Significant serious organised crime connections exist between Scotland and the north west of England, predominantly Merseyside.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-drugs-gangs-still-eye-25476347
Was any of that reported by BBC Scotland, STV? I can find nothing.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Perhaps because the number of drugs deaths provides the lazy hacks of the Scottish media with a story they can recycle without having to do anything new, such as report on efforts to ameliorate the situation.
Alasdair Macdonald
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I hears on the news that drug death in England and Wales is the highest in the last 30 years no figures given so don’t know the truth of it,would be a change from smearing Scotland all the time by the Yoons.
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Archipelago
Group of small islands or an area of sea
Where there are many small islands, see
England, Scotland… the largest, anyway
However, this arrangement, not voluntary
Bordered nations, universally recognised
Futures are changing = to be reorganised
Ewenart
© Ewen A Morrison
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Apologies John.
Check out a tweet via Angus Robertson where he has included a video that exposes Anas Sarwar’s betrayal and duplicity. (I first saw it today on a Twitter account from a English Corbyn supporter James Foster who had retweeted the video from Angus’s twitter account ).
Angus tweeted “The SNP has just won two by-elections from Labour in Glasgow. No wonder with their cuts to the disabled and more austerity planned. No wonder Anas Sarwar is in trouble. Watch this and share”.
James Foster tweeted in response via his Twitter account:
“Watch this. And @KeirStarmer says he wanted to “restore trust in politics”? He’s not the only one like this but shame on you,@AnasSarwar A total betrayal. People should not believe a word you say”
As to BBC and some other media in Scotland (deliberately) ignoring the ‘English connection’ in drug gangs coming up to Scotland while simultanously constantly reporting how bad drug deaths are in Scotland, that is , I think, an absolute disgrace.
Yet so very predictable from them.
How the BBC can attack and also encourage (invite) attacks being made against the SNP, as the current Scottish government, on drug deaths in Scotland, yet they constantly omit really significant factors , such as drug gangs coming up to Scotland from England, as an important contributing factor that then prevents, in some instances, any substantial decrease in these drug deaths here.
As these drug gangs are a huge obstacle to progress being made in this fight against drugs and also in the attempts to see a reversal in the drug death statistics everywhere in the UK, including , very much within Scotland.
It seems to be, sorry I mean it is, very much a political decision being taken by the BBC, where they choose to exclude certain facts from their reports , that as omissions, then aids the opposition parties more while damaging the SNP as the current Scottish government.
We all know that drug deaths in Scotland is only being promoted as a political issue while they, the BBC and others, can promote it as being “the highest drug deaths in Europe” .
However if that were to change, where there was then a substantial decrease in drug deaths here , so no longer could they state that Scotland “had the highest drug deaths in Europe” as a #SNPBAD news story, it would then be dropped by them, like a hot brick !
Of course comparing and noting Europe with Scotland, they, the BBC and other media, do realise that Europe is full of ‘independent countries’ who are lucky to not be tied to an overbearing and domineering UK state who prefers to hinder rather than to help Scotland.
A UK state that has a UK government whose only mission for Scotland is to make Scots (wrongly) assume that the ‘UK is best’ where they try to do this by attempting to convince us that our Scottish government (while the SNP are in charge) is worse for Scotland, the facts and reality dictate that this is fake news.
It seems the British media are always way too willing to use and exploit anybody and anything to win their argument that Scotland is “Better Together” with the UK, their arrogance and ignorance forbids them to see that the opposite is the case for Scotland. (actually they do know the truth , but in knowing the truth they then need Scotland to remain a part of their UK , as a means of their own self survival).
Vote SNP in 2026 as a first step to making cr*p like this all eventually stop.
Liz S
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Not one of the X-men but your quote was enough to track down the video https://x.com/AngusRobertson/status/1903091470623535547
Loved the end edit… 🤣
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Ha Ha….yes I’d seen that last bit before in another video , where the person suggested that when the Journo asked this , well Keir Starmer did not seem to even know who Anas Sarwar was …..
He, Starmer, did look somewhat lost for words as in ” Who the H is he talking about” ?
Liz S
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I’m sick to death of lying unionist hacks operating their anti-Scottish propaganda and charlatan tv news presenters promoting Westminster lies to keep Scotland Doon Hauden.
it’s time that we, the Scottish people called them out on it DAILY.
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