Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Telegraph today, the above and:
A wave of violence The flames have been there for all to see. Over six weeks in March and April, there were more than a dozen arson attacks in the two cities, with cars, homes, garages and businesses set alight. In other incidents, shots have been fired and two people, a pensioner and a 12-year-old boy, seriously assaulted by men wearing masks.
I’m not for a minute doubting the trauma for those affected but these events are relatively local and minor compared with this:
From the Daily Mail on February 3rd 2024 but ignored by Scottish media:
The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal at least 55 gangs have been identified operating north of the Border – more than double the number in 2020.
County lines is the phenomenon whereby drug dealers from cities expand their operation by crossing county borders into smaller towns and rural areas.
Gangs from parts of England have forced youngsters and vulnerable adults – aged from 14 to 77 – to smuggle packages of heroin, crack cocaine and other narcotics into Scotland on buses and trains. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13041893/Rise-county-lines-gangs-exploiting-vulnerable-Scots.html
Try searching for ‘BBC Scotland County Lines gangs’ and get only a story from October 2019, one from May 2021 and this from TuS in June 2023:
Why?
Are English County Lines gangs coming up here and…..bad for the image of their Union?
Why are they keen to come here? Opportunities and little local opposition:
Replace ‘Scotland’ with ‘England’ in that search and:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
It is indeed a sad day when we have to rely on the Telegraph for accurate reporting of news and events in Scotland.
As for that parody of a “news broadcaster” in Pacific Quay! 🙂
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A remarkably detailed and informed piece of journalism https://archive.ph/qXvxH from Danny Shaw, unlike BBC Scotland – I wouldn’t so readily dismiss the thrust of it as minor, it is related to the ‘County Lines’ issue.
The example of the tonne of cocaine to a single ‘wholesaler’ in Glasgow – That’s the import side of it solved, on it’s delivery to Glasgow it would immediately be divided up to satisfy pre-orders from intermediaries across the UK, ultimately feeding the distribution end of it, including ‘County Lines’.
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I think the County Lines gangs are bringing their own supply in from English cities.
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Witness the seizures in Abingdon.
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Possibly so John, but you missed the point – That metric tonne of coke wasn’t headed to Glasgow to hang around in storage, the vast majority would have immediately gone south again in smaller consignments, eventually getting to County lines level etc., some of which went back up north again.
That’s what makes police efforts so difficult, it’s a complex network based on money and trust, forever changing to keep the police etc. guessing.
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Don’t think I’ve missed any points. Why would, say, a Liverpool gang not get their supply direct from south and central America via cross-Atlantic container ships?
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Bluntly the risks are too high their small ‘shipment’ will be anonymously tipped off to Border Force.
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“The unreported English gangs really tearing Scotland apart”
The BBC choose not to currently report that in respect to Scotland but they do choose to report the deadly consequences of some of those people who take these drugs that these English gangs distribute within Scotland.
The above differences as to what is and what is not promoted by the BBC is obvious.
To report the former , as in news and the consequences of English county line gangs coming to Scotland would , the BBC assumes, potentially then lessen the blame upon the SNP as the Scottish government.
A ‘blame‘ that they, the BBC, encourage and promote.
While to continuously report the latter , as in what is promoted as “Scotland having the highest drug deaths in Europe” is something they, the BBC, can then politicise against the SNP as the Scottish government.
The BBC in Scotland has a documentary programme called “Disclosure” which they say exposes “issues affecting people in Scotland”.
Surely ‘County line drug gangs from England’ would be a relevant , topical and significant subject that could and should be covered by them as something that most certainly does indeed “affects people in Scotland” and our government too.
Indeed if all media in Scotland (and elsewhere) were to publicise this aspect , as in English County line drug gangs coming to Scotland, as much as they publicise Scotland having the “highest drug deaths in Europe” then more people in Scotland (and elsewhere) would be less ignorant (as in uninformed) as they may currently be on this extremely significant aspect as to how some of the drugs are coming here. (and the criminal activity too).
You know the fact that opposition parties and much of their media weaponise these drug deaths in Scotland , and so promote it as a political failure of the SNP as a government, is then obviously a huge reason as to why this ‘external factor’ , that is English County line gangs , are not then as widely reported upon as much as the “highest drug deaths” are reported in relation to Scotland.
It is clearly the excessive negative #SNPBAD stories reported by the media , minus the context , that also usually always includes the ‘opinions’ of opposition parties and also with glaringly obvious omissions that then sways some of those voters in Scotland to choose other political parties over the SNP.
Also the fact that all and any of the positive stories connected with the SNP as a government is largely neglected by that same media is then also what sways some of those same voters in Scotland to then also choose other political parties over the SNP, that then is exactly the reason why the UK media operate the way they do in Scotland (and elsewhere).
SNP need to win by a majority in 2026 to then diminish the possible threat of Reform UK infiltrating our parliament in Scotland and so being yet another opposition party that the media here , like the BBC, will allow to politicise drug deaths while they, Reform UK, will have nothing tangible to offer to solve what is not only a Scottish problem but an English one too, as in County line gangs from England being able to cross the border into Scotland and cause so much destruction and deaths.
After all much of the UK media and also politically the Tories, the current Labour government and too Reform UK , as a UK media and as UK political parties, are all currently promoting that their Britain should ‘protect it’s borders’ against what they state are the risks that they all connect as coming from ‘Illegal Immigrants’ coming into their Britain (England).
So why then is one of their ‘Internal borders within the UK’ , as in the border between Scotland and England , not as significant as an issue that needs to be addressed in relation to these ‘County line gangs” from England crossing the border into Scotland and causing so many serious problems and criminal activity, in them distributing drugs, intimidating vulnerable people, causing much of the drug deaths here, causing violence and disruption and causing a huge criminal problem for us in Scotland and also causing problems for our Scottish government who are the ones being blamed for drug deaths here while the UK government, based in England , are getting off Scot free ( so to speak, ironically).
Nothing will change as long as we have their UK media and their UK political parties still within Scotland.
What does need to change and be reformed is the ignorance of some of the people within Scotland who seem to accept both the media’s and the opposition parties fake versions of the news and their fake opinions that the SNP , as a party, are those who should be considered as #BAD within the UK , when we on here and others elsewhere know only too well who, via a media and politically, are those who really are #BAD for Scotland, always.
Vote SNP in 2026 via a majority or continue to suffer as people and also watch Scotland , as a nation, suffer even more as it will be destroyed from within if any other party, outright or as part of a coalition, takes control at Holyrood.
(Have we on here and others like us not always been 100% right so far in our political predictions as to the consequences of voting for any UK party, as in see the various previous Tory UK governments and now the Labour UK government – but also watch and see what happens in England with those English councils now controlled by Reform UK as the party in charge).
Now is the time that some people in Scotland need to start learning from their past mistakes that they have made in their usual (bad) voting habits, as in those voting mistakes as (bad) habits that they now need to drop ASAP.
Liz S
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