Professor John Robertson OBA
From Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: May 2025, published today:
Police recorded crime is down 1% since year ending December 2023, and remains below the position immediately prior to the pandemic. The total number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland in the year ending December 2024 was 298,308. This was 3,768 crimes (or 1%) lower than the level recorded in the year ending December 2023.
Crime has fallen by 53% since 2008-09. Results from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) show that around one in ten adults were victims of crime in 2021-22 (10.0%), down from 11.9% in 2019-20. This compares to one in five in 2008-09 (20.4%). The estimated number of crimes fell by 53% since 2008-09, and by 18% since 2017-18.
Recorded violent crime decreased in the most recent year. Non-sexual crimes of violence recorded by the police decreased by 2%, from 71,900 in year ending December 2023 to 70,637 in year ending December 2024. Common assault (down 1%) made up the clear majority (83%) of all non-sexual crimes of violence recorded in the year ending December 2024. The SCJS showed the volume of violent crime fell by nearly three-fifths (58%) between 2008-09 and 2021-22 and that an estimated 34% of violent crime in 2021-22 was reported to the police.
Recorded sexual crimes decreased in the most recent year. Sexual crimes decreased by 2%, from 14,894 in the year ending December 2023 to 14,539 in the year ending December 2024. However, sexual crimes have been increasing in the long term. Multiple factors lie behind the long term increase in recorded sexual crime including for example – historical reporting, more online offending and the impact of new legislation. The SCJS for 2018-20 (2018-19 & 2019-20 combined) estimated that 3.6% of adults experienced at least one serious sexual assault since the age of 16, unchanged from 2008-09.
Note, in particular, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), which reinforces the same falling trend suggested by police reporting. That’s two sources saying the same thing.
The third source is from repeated opinion polls showing Scots are significantly less likely to report crime as a major concern for them. For more detail, see:
This means that crime really is falling.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Alas we have Tory Ned’s letting the side down.
DRossie Von Poutlip off, as the old saw has it, to eat worms.
DRossie 3jobs will soon have none, as his career spirals into the gutter.
++++breaking news++++Drossie joins Reform ++++breaking news+++
gavinochiltree
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O/T apologies
Angela Rayner came to Scotland to campaign for the up and coming Scottish parliament by-election in the Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse seat , where she refused to speak to any Scottish newspapers.
She had to abandon her plans though due to pro Palestinian protestors holding a demonstration outside the Labour in Scotland’s office in Hamilton.
What is it with these two Tory HQ parties, as in one who are actually called the Tory party and the other one that is Tory in all but party name (as in the new Starmer Labour party), who both want to avoid all media scrutiny in Scotland yet they , as two Tory parties , still expect people in Scotland to vote for their candidates.
Also where they laughingly allow their candidates to refer to themselves as being a “Scottish’ Labour candidate or a ‘Scottish Tory’ candidate but where we all know that their respective HQ’s, in another country (England) , are the actual ones who ‘call the shots’ for the whole Labour party and also for the whole Tory party as well. (same goes for the Lib Dems and Reform UK too).
Angela Rayner also came to Scotland last year to campaign (lie) for Labour in the 2024 UK GE and it seems that she still arrogantly thinks that Scotland can once again be fooled by her and her party, with her yet again coming up here on a (very rare and fleeting) visit to Scotland on another ‘con mission for Labour HQ’.
Maybe she forgets that some voters in Scotland may now be (finally) thinking ‘fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me’ (fool me three times shame on both of us ) , so basically they perhaps will not be so easily fooled again by the likes of Angela Rayner , a Labour HQ UK government minister (and Deputy leader of the Labour party), coming up here , yet again , to spout even more lies just to get their Labour UK candidate(s) elected.
Vote SNP in all elections via a majority if only to stop these sporadic and inappropriate visits from political party HQ politicians like Rayner, all assuming that their ‘interventions’ in Scotland counts for something , when in reality they only amount to being a huge irritation and a blatant interference in our politics and in our country…..oh as well as being a hugely intolerable situation that needs addressing and that only will be addressed by us being an independent Scottish Nation in the future.
Is Anas Sarwar and other Labour MSP’s so awful that they can neither be trusted nor considered competent enough to campaign themselves in an election for the Scottish parliament, without always needing HQ’s support and help.
That in itself helps prove that all elections irrespective of where they are within the UK are all fought as campaigns on behalf of Labour UK and not for so called Welsh Labour & so called Scottish Labour.
Liz S
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O/T
Douglas Ross List Tory MSP……..also……..a………
Attention seeker and clearly a total political lost cause , who now seeks to try and make himself relevant again in pulling a stunt (not for the first time) in him trying to heckle the FM when he, the FM, was speaking in parliament.
Ross has form in being reprimanded by the Presiding officer for his bad behaviour in the debating chamber at Holyrood , but he chooses to take absolutely no heed of any former warnings that he has had for ‘talking over the FM’ (heckling) and so this time , for doing this yet again, then eventually yesterday he was (quite rightly) ejected from the chamber by the Presiding officer for his habitual bad conduct.
His arrogance, his sense of entitlement and let’s be honest his ‘manly’ pride then decided to become (play) the victim in this situation of his own creation, and so then he , and his Tory party at Holyrood all decided to blame the Presiding officer for this incident in questioning her “neutrality” , as Ross accused her of “bias against him” while the Tories accused her of “blatant bias against them as the Tory party”.
This both Ross and the Tories did in them communicating their false grievances to the pro UK media, who they knew would be very very responsive to their political propaganda and so then, as a British Nationalist media, would then be mostly on the side of both Ross and the Tories.
Now much of the British Nationalist media, in a frenzy, have come to the British Nationalist Tory list MSP and too the British Nationalist Tory Party’s aid, in them , as a media, promoting Ross and the Tory party’s skewed take on this incident at Holyrood in the debating chamber.
That is, in them as a media , seemingly quoting Ross’s and also the Tory party’s false allegations against the Presiding officer, as if they , as Tories , were both justified and credible in their allegations, while ignoring that it was he, Ross, who was the real culprit and instigator of this situation.
The Daily Telegraph front page headline in Scotland:
“Holyrood speaker accused of bias against Unionists”
The (decidedly not so) ‘Scottish’ Daily Express front page headline:
“Holyrood bias claims as MSP’s clash over Net Zero ‘Madness”
Then of course , as per, the BBC website has this as their second top story on the Scottish Politics page with a headline:
“Tories in bias claim after Douglas Ross kicked out of FMQs”
Where within this article they, the BBC, state that Ross “claimed the presiding officer had allowed SNP and Green MSPs to behave in a way that she did not extend to Conservative members” .
Ross also , ironically , stated that “”I have serious questions about the conduct of the presiding officer”
(Where as his own bad conduct is the kind of behaviour that he chooses to ignore and so not regard as being unseemly, unprofessional and also very much being pig ignorant , and also being the kind of bad behaviour that he often repeats as bad conduct within the debating chamber at Holyrood).
“A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said Ms Johnstone has “warned Mr Ross on repeated occasions recently about his behaviour in the chamber“.
“They (also) said this occurred most recently on May 21, and also on May 8 – when the presiding officer told Mr Ross “If I hear you once more, you will leave this chamber” – and on both April 22 and April 3″.
That of course is something both Douglas Ross and the Tories want the public to ignore, or better still (for them as Tories) they want the public to be totally oblivious to the details and history of Ross (and other Tories) bad behaviour at Holyrood.
So instead, as a public, the Tories want them to read the supposed biased and partisan newspapers aka gutter press , like for example , The Torygraph and also other British Nationalist rags too, like the other Tory propaganda newspaper The Daily Express , whose British Nationalist propaganda pieces always demonise independence parties while attempting to promote British Nationalist parties like the Tories.
Douglas Ross who is now an ex Tory MP as he failed to win the new constituency seat (that rightly belonged to another Tory MP as a Tory candidate) in last year’s GE , a new seat that he, Ross decided to stand in as the new Tory candidate for that new constituency.
He is also the now the ex Tory (so called) ‘leader’ at Holyrood as he has had to resign as their (so called) ‘leader’.
His resignation was promoted to be because he had formerly pledged that he would stand down as an MSP if he won the new seat as an MP, as in the one that he had chosen to stand in at last year’s GE, but he did not win it, however he still had to resign as the supposed Tory leader at Holyrood.
So why did he resign as the Tory (so called) ‘leader’, after all he did not win a seat as an MP ?
Well mostly it was because of his bad conduct against a Tory colleague, David Duguid, whose seat he, Ross, allegedly stole, in Ross choosing to stand as the Tory candidate for a new constituency instead of David Duguid in last year’s UK GE, and where a senior Tory was quoted as saying in respect to this incident with Douglas Ross that “The handling has been so bad. The optics are terrible. And his (Ross’s) judgement is sorely lacking.”
(Is there a pattern here with Douglas Ross’s repeated bad conduct ?)
The good news is that Douglas Ross has now announced he will stand down as an MSP in 2026.
However the bad news is that Ross apparently still intends to try and become a MP in 2029, whether that will still be for the Tories or potentially be for Reform UK is something we will no doubt eventually find out, as I personally think that Ross would fit in so so very well with Reform UK , that he may indeed , like other Tories, think that his chances of winning a WM seat would be greatly increased with Reform UK (if they, Reform UK, are still polling well in 2029 pre the next UK GE while the Tories were still descending in the polls, as a party, in 2029).
Ross is yet another British Nationalist supposed ‘politician’ acting like a bad loser , whose own political (deserved) demise is clearly down to him and him alone, as his constant bad and poor decisions, his lack of manners, lack of political morals, his lack of professional conduct and his blind ambition (and also his previous tendency to flip flop on statements that he made) are all of the things which have now resulted in him , come 2026, no longer being a (supposed) actual politician, either in Scotland or at WM.
So now instead he is merely someone who is regarded as being:
A failed Tory candidate at last year’s GE.
A weak and failed Tory List MSP .
Also very much one who failed at being a so called ‘good’ Tory leader at Holyrood.
This was after what was considered by many to be the fake resignation of Jackson Carlaw as the – so called – still relatively newish- Tory ‘leader’ – at Holyrood, as he, Carlaw, was only just elected as Tory ‘leader’ in February 2020 and then he resigned in July 2020 ?????
This then enabled the extremely ambitious Douglas Ross to be parachuted into the position of being the new -so called- Tory leader, where he was allowed to be unchallenged as a candidate for the leadership, which was then perceived to have been a (underhanded) alleged plot concocted between Ross and Baroness Ruth Davidson , where she , Davidson, was seen visiting Ross at his home prior to the announcement of Carlaw’s resignation and then also prior to Ross’s candidacy to be the (sole candidate) for the Tory leadership at Holyrood
Vote SNP in all future elections , via a majority , as we need to show both the biased so called ‘Unionist’ media and also the hostile so called ‘Unionist’ political parties that their British Nationalism can no longer influence some of those voters in Scotland to continue to either support them politically and also to continue to still believe them as either politicians or as a so called, but clearly not, non partisan media.
More so within Scotland now that more voters must surely finally be far far more aware that they are being played by them, the pro UK media and the pro UK politicians here in Scotland.
As there is surely only so many times that the pro UK media and pro UK political parties can assume that they , as a pro UK media and pro UK politicians, can treat us within Scotland as if we were all gullible fools.
Where some voters within Scotland are always assumed to be those who will be very easily manipulated by them as a pro UK media and as pro UK politicians, hence why they continue to treat them like mugs, in that they assume that there will always be some voters within Scotland who are always willing to still keep believing anything and everything that they both say and write.
That cannot be sustained surely, unless they as voters , intend to enable their own demise , financially and also in so so many other ways as well, just so that Scotland remains within the UK ????
So hopefully there will come a point when both the media and also certain political parties should see an end to their political and media dominance as propaganda merchants in Scotland, as surely their combined ‘end is truly nigh’………..
(Nigh , as in finally a conclusion is near for them where they will be finished in Scotland politically and as a media, and obviously not the other assumed literal meaning of ‘nigh’ Ha Ha).
Liz S
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