Professor John Robertson OBA
Today, the Herald has a one-year increase from 48 to 79 cases of police callouts for assaults and threats at bus stations, based on the latest opposition party freedom of information request response, presented as a ‘skyrocketing’ crisis, amid a ‘rise in youth violence‘, for John Swinney.
Leaving aside the obvious limitations in a one-year change to identify a trend, the report does not mention that the percentage of 16-24 year-olds reporting having experienced violence has actually fallen from 12% in 2008 to 7.5% in 2024.1
Most important, we do not see that there were 59 314 recorded crimes of ‘common assault’ in Scotland in 2024, 57 708 in the previous year, nor that this is only up 2% on the 2014 figure, in a sequence of statistically insignificant one-year variations.2
So, to put them into context, 79 callouts, not necessarily charges remember, represents only 0.13% of the total of 59 314 common assaults recorded and the 48 in the previous year represents only 0.08% of the 57 708 – an increase of 0.05%.
Remembering again that these were callouts and not necessarily recorded crimes, this is a meaningless statistic from the Scottish Conservatives presented once again as a summertime media feed, costing the taxpayer around £330 every time.3
Sources:
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-crime-and-justice-survey-2023-24-main-findings/documents/
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2023-24/documents/
- https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/04/10/1-4-million-of-public-funds-and-32-000-staff-hours-used-to-meet-freedom-of-information-requests-such-as-those-by-bbc-scotland-labour-cons-and-lib-dems-trawling-for-snp-bad-news/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THIS ONCE HONOURABLE LEADING SCOTTISH NEWSPAPER
NOW THEY SUBJECT SCOTS TO CONTINUAL LIES AND MISINFORMATION
dear oh dear
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THEY SHOULD BE FINED FOR TIME WASTING
OR BETTER STILL BE FORCED TO PAY FOR ANY FRIVOLOUS APPLICATIONS
THEY ARE USED TO WASTING SCOTTISH MONEY
REGULARLY
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As said previously I do feel sorry for the Herald journalists (joke) that the pressure they must be under to come up with yet another SNP bad headline must be almost unbearable.
Robbo
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Yes, but I’m afraid the damage has already been done. No doubt the Herald’s sale numbers have fallen drastically over recent years, and I don’t doubt their internet readers are also low in viewers, but if you think of the people who pass a rack of newspapers, and glance at the headlines, as I do myself, then, as I say, the damage has been done. Although I’ve no proof, I believe these rags are being kept afloat with “dark money”, from somewhere in the British State, with only one instruction, publicise all the supposed bad news about Scotland, true, or otherwise, and the mugs will believe the brainwashing. And you only have to look back to last year’s G.E result, to see it works. If it wasn’t for this constant hostile propaganda, I believe support for Independence would be around the 70% mark, and all we would have to do is to make it happen.
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Yes, but I’m afraid the damage has already been done?
Indeed and that’s why they keep doing it.
John
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I had to scroll a fair way down McCurdled’s Yahoo article to see which Tory nugget was responsible for this tripe and quelle surprise, the infamous Liar Kerr, sorry, Liam – Liar’s parents did their best, but the opportunist is now on the region list and at least has a regular income so that must be a blessing for them, eh ?
Just imagine what justice might have been served had the tragic case of Keith Rollinson (58) being brutally assaulted by a 13 year old 3 years ago in Moray actually occurred in Buchanan Street bus station, Glasgow, rather than in 4-jobs Forres Gump’s own back yard during a Tory crisis over ‘partygate’ with Mone moaning there was nothing to see…
Yet if you wish to see a Wikipedia entry so pruned of context as to be embarrassing, peruse this load of shite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Kerr… – At least we know he has neither father nor mother, isn’t that jolly….
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