Professor John Robertson OBA

Think about that – 44 murders in Scotland last year, down from 58 the previous year, the lowest ever, ever, on record. There were more than twice as many, 95, in 2010/2011, only 3 years after Labour left government. It was 126 in 2002, nearly three times higher. Front page news surely?

BBC Scotland only has this, from yesterday: Women arrested after alleged Inverness murder bid

Trying searching? Surely some media are on this:

That is some crazy algorithm operating there.

The figures for England will not be released till February 2026 but in 2023/2024, there were 583 up from 581 the previous year, per head of population, 21% higher than the 2024/2025 Scottish figure.

I’ve included the domestic abuse figures, worryingly up, though hopefully, because more women feel confident enough to come forward and not an increase in actual incidents but also to quickly point out the rate in England and Wales:

The police recorded 851,062 domestic abuse-related crimes in England and Wales in YE March 2024; a decrease compared with the previous year (911,248), which, in part, reflects recent changes in police recording practices.

With 11 times the population, you might expect England and Wales to have had around 23 000 cases but, above, we see it’s more than 800 000, 35 times higher! Is that plausible? There are sensitive issues operating here, as we see in the grooming cases, that I dare not comment on in writing.

Sources:

^{https://www.statista.com/statistics/283093/homicides-in-england-and-wales/#:~:text=Although%20London%2C%20with%20124%20homicides%2C%20was%20the%20UK,the%20rest%20of%20England%20and%20Wales%2C%20at%2010.1.}

^{https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinenglandandwalesoverview/november2024}