Professor John Robertson OBA
From Hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland, 2023-24, published today, we can see that hate crimes in Scotland, in 2023/2024, were at the lowest level since 2014/2015, down from 7 029 to 6 227.1
The equivalent figure for England and Wales was 140 561.2
With 11 times the population, England & Wales might have been expected to have around 70 000 but in fact had twice as many.
What might explain this? See the claim in the National above.
Any objections? Well, the Scotsman 5 days ago:
‘Scottish exceptionalism’? Why Scotland really does have a racism problem Scotland may not have experienced last year’s far-right riots, but there are plenty of signs of extreme attitudes towards asylum seekers, Muslims and people of colour The harmful rise of the far-right, the spread of disinformation, and declining trust in politics are issues which have been repeatedly highlighted to the Scottish Government, and resulted in a recent summit to discuss the problem hosted by the First Minister.
Sources for the above claims? None. They’re just journalists. What do you expect?
Sources:
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/hate-crimes-recorded-police-scotland-2023-24/documents/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/536448/police-recorded-hate-crime-in-england-and-wales/#:~:text=In%20the%202023%2F24%20reporting%20year%20there%20were%20140%2C561,Wales%20compared%20with%20147%2C645%20in%20the%20previous%20year.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
What indeed can we expect of what are usually just dismissed as the MSM? Not a lot, so we don’t get a lot.
Missing from your list of The Right are those who parade their Unionism and who appear to have increased the number of parades per year. A lot of places never previously on their horizon suddenly have a parade. Is this a small weakened organisation trying to appear big and strong? Who pays for these parades? More Dark Money distributed to achieve the aims of …………………..?
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At PMQT yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer answered several questions about the Scottish government from Labour MPs from Scotland.
In one response he made a reference to 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation in Scotland.
It is telling that not one single Labour/Tory/Lib-Dem/Reform MP raised this homeless statistic for England. 👇
It was published at the end of April 2025.
https://cih.org/news/cih-responds-to-englands-latest-homelessness-statistics-april-2025/
“As of New Year’s Eve, 2024, the statistics show that 127,890 households, including 165,510 children, were living in temporary accommodation (TA), unsure of when they would have a safe, secure, and permanent home.
This represents a 13.6 per cent increase on the same period in the year before and a 1.5 per cent increase on the previous quarter. The most common length of time that these families with children will spend in TA is over five years.”
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In regard to general homelessness, that community includes many who have been evicted while, if not due to, suffering significant mental health and/or substance abuse tribulations. It’s as though some people can be consciously or subconsciously considered disposable.
It’s additionally offensive that (at least where I reside) people who cannot afford an official residence are in effect made too poor to be permitted to practice what is platitudinously described as all citizens’ right to vote in elections.
In fact, human beings can actually be perceived and treated as though their suffering and even death are somehow less worthy of external concern, sometimes even by otherwise democratic and relatively civilized nations [along with their media].
Their worth(lessness) is measured basically by their ‘productivity’ or lack thereof. Their value will also be qualified/quantified by their overabundance and/or the protracted conditions under which they suffer; and that suffering and even loss of life can eventually receive reduced (or even no) coverage in the daily news due to a resultant gradual lack of ‘newsworthiness’.
Then those people may begin perceiving themselves as worthless and accordingly live their daily lives more haphazardly.
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Hi John, in BBC Scotland report today, “Eleven children safeguarded in organised crime gang crackdown”….. Eleven children safeguarded in organised crime gang crackdown – BBC News there is no mention of county line gangs, which the story is actually about, whereas from the actual source they took it from, Police Scotland’s website….. One hundred arrests and drugs seized across Scotland as part of Operation Intensity – Police Scotland….we see “Detective Superintendent Stevie Elliot said:
“This operation is a clear example of how we use our national resources, alongside the knowledge of our local policing teams, to bring down large gangs operating across the country.
“Our strategy was maximising the safety of the public and protecting vulnerable people, particularly children and young people who are all too often coerced and groomed by County Lines drug dealers.
“Organised criminal gangs show no shame or remorse for their actions and all their activities are focused on profiting from exploitation.”
Wonder why the BBC, our public service broadcaster, has failed to mention this very important message from Police Scotland?
JB
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I’m sure you’re correct but the PS Scotland report holds back from a specific link to England so we’re limited in what we can say.
John
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O/T Back on June 13, 2024, a BBC Scotland editor published an article on the BBC News website (so it must be true) with this opening: “Read my lips,” said Anas Sarwar, during the BBC Scotland leaders’ debate this week. “No austerity under Labour.”
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp4409yejrwo
Fast forward to today when the push back against the policies of Mr Sarwar’s Labour in Name Only (LINO) party in government in Westminster has been given further impetus. It is being reported that 42 Labour MPs have sent a letter of protest to the PM. Here is how two Labour-supporting online media organisations are covering the latest expression of discontent.
From Left Foot Forward (May 8, 2025) ‘These are the 42 Labour MPs who have called for Starmer to abandon disability benefit cuts ‘ – “The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity”
Here we learn: ‘The prime minister Keir Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves are coming under increasing pressure to abandon their planned cuts to disability benefits. The cuts will see a tightening of criteria for Personal Independence Payments which will see many people who would receive a daily living payment become ineligible for this.’
It adds: ‘The cuts, announced earlier this year, are projected to hit 700,000 people already in poverty, and push around 250,000 people below the poverty line. In total, it is expected that around 3 million people will see their benefits affected by the changes.’ (my emphasis)
‘In their letter, the MPs say: “The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over 3 million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected.”
The letter continues: “Cuts don’t create jobs, they just cause more hardship.”
Left Foot Forward notes that whilst many of the MPs who signed the letter are on the left of the party, a substantial number of the signatories are from the right and centre. This makes it EVEN more noteworthy that of the 42 MPs ONLY one is representing a constituency in Scotland, namely Brian Leishman, the MP for Alloa & Grangemouth.
This is how the matter is reported by Labour List (May 8, 2025): ‘Labour MPs slam disabled benefit cuts as ‘impossible to support’.
This article also quotes from the letter,: “The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over three million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected. Without a change in direction, the green paper will be impossible to support.”
Should we now have a heightened sense of expectancy of the journalist profession in Scotland doing its job? Will BBC Scotland, STV, the Daily Record, The Herald, The Scotsman etc. that supposedly serve Scotland demand that Mr Sarwar and his colleagues explain why they conned voters in Scotland to vote for LINO in such an egregious manner during the 2024 Westminster election campaign? Aye right!
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I consider myself lucky in having had a mother who, unlike many other people I’ve met over my lifetime, did not even subtly express prejudiced or disdainful sentiments about people of other races and cultures. On the contrary, she, though being of Croatian heritage, openly enjoyed watching/listening to the Middle Eastern and Indian subcontinental dancers and musicians on the multicultural channel.
Most memorable for me was being emphatically told at a very young and therefore impressionable age by her about the exceptionally kind and caring nature of our Black family doctor. I believe that in doing so she had a positive and lasting effect on me.
Racism or racist sentiment is typically environmentally developed/acquired during childhood, often enough even passed down generationally, if not also genetically. Especially if it’s deliberate, rearing one’s very impressionable young children in such an environment of baseless contempt and overt bigotry amounts to a formidable form of child abuse.
If racists won’t do it for plain moral reasons, they then should do their own children a big favor by NOT passing down onto them such destructive anti-social/-societal sentiments and perceptions (including stereotypes and ‘humor’), since such rearing can readily make life much harder for those children.
It fails to prepare them for the practical reality of an increasingly diverse and populous society and workplace. It also makes it so much less likely those children will be emotionally content or preferably harmonious with their multicultural and multi-ethnic/-racial surroundings.
Children reared into their adolescence and, by extension, young adulthood this way can find themselves seemingly always feeling angry yet not really knowing exactly at what. They also may feel self-compelled to move to another part of the land, where their own ethnicity/race predominates, preferably overwhelmingly so.
This serious social/societal problem can/should be proactively prevented by allowing preferably-all young children to become accustomed to other races/cultures/faiths, etcetera, in a harmoniously positive manner.
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