You’ll think I must be making this stuff up but English schools permanently excluded ONE THOUSAND times as many children, per head, as in Scotland but we’ll pay some of the price for that as they’re used as drug mules by the English County lines drug gangs plaguing Scotland

Professor John Robertson OBA

Thanks to Dottie once again for alerting me to this:

In the Guardian today, the above and:

More than 10,000 children were permanently excluded from England’s state schools last year, alongside record numbers of suspensions involving pupils aged six or younger or with special needs, as teachers struggled to cope with worsening behaviour.

The figures for the 2023-24 academic year revealed that the number of permanent exclusions leapt up by 16% compared with the year before, while the total number of suspension days rose by 21% to 955,000.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/10/rise-in-school-exclusions-in-england-including-among-children-under-six

There were 11 676 temporary and 1 permanent exclusion from Scotland’s schools in 2022/2023, the most recent figures.1

Now, I know some don’t want to see comparisons with other parts of the UK. ‘I don’t live in England’, they’ll shout, but I feel you you don’t always know what you’ve got until you see what others have got or have not got.

So, all things being equal with 10 times the population, England might be expected to have around 120 000 temporary exclusions and 10 permanent exclusions?

According to the Guardian above, It had ‘955 000‘and ‘more than 10 000‘. 8 times as many temporary exclusions and more than 1 000 times as many permanent exclusions!

In addition to the immediate and obvious consequences of such a phenomenon, what other consequences might there be?

Pupils excluded from school are at a “heightened risk” of being drawn into county lines drugs gangs, an official report warns. Police officers “reported a strong link between school exclusion and becoming a target for county lines criminals”, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. 3

Knife crime: Excluded pupils ‘sucked into criminality’ – Theresa May is being warned that a “broken” system of support for troubled and excluded youngsters lies at the heart of a rise in knife crime. Police commissioners and London’s mayor have written to the PM saying pupils, both formally and informally excluded, are being “sucked into criminality”.4

What can happen to these children if County Lines gangs get them, forced to carry drugs internally:

Imagine this was the other way round. Imagine the Scottish media coverage.

Sources:

  1. https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-exclusion-statistics/
  2. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england/2022-23
  3. https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/strong-link-between-exclusions-and-drugs-gangs
  4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47470502

8 thoughts on “You’ll think I must be making this stuff up but English schools permanently excluded ONE THOUSAND times as many children, per head, as in Scotland but we’ll pay some of the price for that as they’re used as drug mules by the English County lines drug gangs plaguing Scotland”

  1. wouldn’t think, for a second, that you’re making it up. So infuriating that the pretendy “Scottish” press don’t print it though.
    John Lawson.

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  2. If it were not the school holidays in Scotland, the media and the teacher unions would be lamenting the fact that ‘not enough children’ are being excluded from schools in Scotland. They would assert, with no evidence, that retaining ‘feral’ children in schools in Scotland was causing a ‘tsunami of stress’ amongst school staffs, with ‘thousands ready to quit’ and teacher recruitment ‘in free fall’.

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  4. I think we all know who is responsible for the making up, as in the fabrication , the speculation, subjective opinions and too the misinformation that is meant to represent the ‘news where we are’…..and that would most definitely not be this site.

    Here is one example of fabricated misinformation presented as news via BBC Scotland and then noticed by MSM Monitor.

    BBC Scotland News tweet:

    “Learner drivers currently having to wait months until they can sit their tests, so can Scotland fix it’s Driving test System” ?

    Linked to this tweet was a video.

    Then there was another tweet from the BBC Scotland News twitter account correcting their original tweet and the linked video to that original tweet.

    “Correction: This video refers to the Scottish government and it should have said the UK government”.

    So…….

    Who identified the error or was it identified via a complaint to the BBC, who then as those called out for this lie then had to correct the misinformation they had communicated in their original tweet.

    Just think someone who works for the BBC allowed this to go unchecked , so who compiled the video , someone who works for the BBC but is based outwith Scotland or someone who is based in Scotland and accepted this misinformation as being correct ?

    Was it a mistake or deliberate ?

    In other words was it incompetence or a deliberate act to try and harm the Scottish government and then also very much harm the SNP politically……seems to be a pattern with the BBC here where ‘misinformation’ is broadcast and tweeted that is not actually factual.

    Maybe we should tell fellow Scots to source their Scottish news from any source other than the BBC and also give a wide berth to most of the other MSM media as well and instead they should perhaps consider doing a wee bit of research online via a variety of sources …..like visiting this site for example ……………that should then help swing the vote even more away from all of those pro UK parties and see an even further decline in audience figures for the BBC News programmes (and others) and also a decline in readership figures for much of the UK supportive MSM that produces suspect ‘news’papers.

    BBC a supposed National News broadcaster that makes a continuous amount of mistakes that seem way way too tactical , as they always, as so called ‘mistakes’ , mostly harm the SNP more than all of the other political parties….. I guess the British part of their organisation has a job to do on behalf of their Britain.

    In fact Anas Sarwar is relying upon them, the BBC, to very much do that job for him and his party to try and help him win next year……….

    Liz S

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  5. Ahem… Speaking of kids becoming drug mules – I’ll just leave this here.

    Rgds,

    Graham

    https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/crime-courts/6802450/scouse-jack-county-lines-drug-gang-member-jailed-in-inverness/

    ‘Scouse Jack’ county lines drug gang member jailed in Inverness

    Jack Horgan from Liverpool denied being the man whom the Scouse Jack drug gang is named after.

    July 10 2025, 11:30 am

    Police recovered drug wraps from an Inverness address.

    A Liverpudlian drug dealer who was part of a county lines gang supplying Inverness, Nairn and Aviemore has been jailed for 21 months.

    Jack Horgan admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin but denied being ‘Scouse Jack’ – whom the distribution network was named.

    His solicitor told the court he had become involved in couriering drugs after running up his own debts with dealers.

    Horgan, 26, admitted committing the crimes between March 9 and June 2 2021.

    Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that the ‘Scouse Jack’ gang had been known to be supplying drugs in and around Inverness since 2019.

    The gang used a phone number to notify customers of drug availability and arrange deals.

    Intelligence led police to drug gang members

    She said on March 9 of 2021 Horgan had been in a car that was stopped on the A9 near Kingussie by police acting on intelligence.

    Another occupant was Carl Masher – who has already been sentenced for his role in the operation.

    Telecoms enquiries showed that the phone operating the ‘Scouse Jack’ county lines number had also been in that vehicle, and had travelled from Liverpool on that day.

    It was not recovered from any of the occupants of the vehicle and later searches found it snapped in half at the side of the road.

    The court heard that, while operating in Inverness, the Scouse Jack operation used a “vulnerable” local drug user Christopher Gow – who has since pleaded guilty to his involvement – to support and assist them.

    Mrs Gair said on June 2 officers were conducting surveillance at Gow’s Polvanie View home and saw an Audi A4 arrive just after 8pm.

    Two men got out and went inside for an hour before leaving in the same vehicle.

    The address was then raided by police at 10.24pm.

    A search of the property found 111 wraps of cocaine in half-gram rock deals, valued at £2310 and 59 half-gram wraps of diamorphine valued at up to £1170. £5460 in cash was also recovered.

    Solicitor David Patterson, for Horgan, said his client was not the “Jack” for whom Scouse Jack was named.

    Debts led to drug-dealing involvement

    He said his Horgan had been a drug user whose use had escalated following a bereavement, resulting in him accruing debts. As a result, he had become involved in the couriering of drugs.

    He said his client – who appeared from custody – had made a conscious effort to distance himself from negative influences and was “determined to better himself”.

    Sheriff David Harvie said: “County lines are a scourge throughout the country. Regardless of how you became involved, you were significantly involved and you will be dealt with accordingly.”

    He jailed Horgan, of Boundary Farm Road, Liverpool, for 21 months.

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