Professor John Robertson OBA
In Holyrood Sources YouTube podcast (?), three days ago, with an ex-SNP (disappointing) and and ex-Tory (full cringe) SPAD, on whether or not Scotland will be immune to race-related riots this summer, the latter said:
Um, I think it’s fair to say that there is an increase in Scotland in kind of low…it does seem to be fairly clear that there’s an increase in relatively low level anti-social behaviour…I think there are big problems there. There’s big unrest there….but…Scotland is not England and Scotland doesn’t necessarily experience the same things that England experiences particularly around the issue of immigration…At the same time…there is nothing worse than Scottish exceptionalism when it comes to all this sort of thing. We share the same island. We’re similar sorts of people. The conditions that exist for unrest in England could easily exist in Scotland at some point. So, I don’t think we want to exercise too much exceptionalism about this issue and presume that that sort of thing could never happen here.
So this increase in ‘low-level anti-social behaviour‘, that’s the kind of thing that might have been recorded as ‘breach of the peace‘ in the old days and is now recorded as ‘reckless conduct‘, ‘fire-raising‘ and/or ‘vandalism.’ Are these increasing?
No, the first is down 8% on last year at at the lowest point since before the pandemic, the second is at the same level as last year but well down on the year before, and the latter is down 32% on ten years ago:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2024-25/documents/
There is nothing worse than Scottish exceptionalism?
There is deep irony in that, from an ex-Tory SPAD, from a party which, with the other opposition parties, devotes much of its efforts, often fed by freedom of information requests, into Scottish exceptionalism of the dark kind – more drug deaths, longer waiting lists, staff vacancies, not enough GPs, ‘failing’ schools……
The facts are clear. We have the best hospitals, the best schools, the best policing, the most progressive taxation, the most affordable housing, the kindest treatment of the disabled, the most energy, the most food and drink, the most trees…..
We share the same island. We’re similar sorts of people?
True but we don’t have to be the same kind of society or be those kind of people forever – racist, divisive, violent and so cruel toward the disabled that they end their lives. After 18 years without the nasty parties and despite our limited freedom of action, we already have less crime blighting communities, less racism, less poverty, better public services for all and a unique institutional kindness at state level toward toward the disabled.
This kind of Scottish exceptionalism needs to be talked-up so that folk know about it and vote for it, so I’ll be keeping on with it and more so, if I can.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
John thanks, yes I came across that BritNat YTube channel a while back. I was almost conned into thinking it might be balanced and unbiased. I soon realised it is a BritEng unionist channel posing as somehow not anti SNP, when it quite clearly is and it’s designed for SNP bashing in a very sleakit way. Very cunning.
The ‘similar sorts of people’ what the heck is meant by that, and the ‘same island’?
God give me strength, my pals in England, (claiming Scotland should not be independent, one of them being from Ireland) in 2014 said, ‘but we all share the same land mass’.
Sigh. I replied that most countries of the world share a land mass with er plenty of others but they don’t have the bordering countries controlling their country, resources and land, and well everything really.
‘Similar sorts of people’ as are all peoples of the world, similar, but different culturally, in their language and their values, and as you rightly point out, Scotland is different to England on so many levels, it’s much better. We can’t let that be reversed.
Have a good weekend all at TUS. Enjoy the sunshine, I’m struggling with a depressed son re world events, and a bored cat being kept indoors, due to having fledging Blackbird out the back though I think it’s more at risk from the damn seagulls now. Our cat knows to leave the birds alone he really does, but they are still scared.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Take care AH. Best wishes to you, your son and the cat. Our cat sits in the garden unmoving for hours and still she kills the odd stupid passer-by (mouse or bird).
For a cheer-up and reminder of all the lovely folk there still are in England, try the Rev series on BBC. I’ve grown very fond of it and may rewatch.
LikeLike
The language in the first quote is more like someone after a skinfull speaking into a wind turbine than a coherent interviewer.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That really sums up the depth of thinking that goes into this anti-Scottish propaganda .
There is no real analytical debate , there is no proper comparison of societies , there is no attempt to understand the Scottish dimension to any issue ,….it’s just –
”We in England have big problems ( of our own making) so you must have the same !”
LikeLiked by 4 people
‘We share the same island. We’re similar sorts of people.’
Compare and contrast (examples):
(i) voting by majority to reject the Tory Party at Westminster elections since c. 1956, i.e. c. 69 years – that sort of similarity?
(ii) voting by majority to remain as member of the EU – that sort of similarity?
(iii) c. 45% voting in 2014 to dissolve the Union and according to opinion polls, now even more – that sort of similarity?
(iv) enough citizens in Scotland voting to elect a political party to govern in Edinburgh that: (a) supports the dissolution of the Union: (b) rejects nuclear power in Scotland, (c) rejects the presence of nuclear weapons in Scotland; (d) spends in order to reduce child poverty (Scottish Child Payment); (e) continues to cover costs of university tuition fees; (f) acts to make income tax more progressive. Scotland’s electorate has had the option to show their preference for the policy positions of British political parties vying to govern Scotland, British parties with similar policy positions to those elected to govern England. But they have chosen not to – that sort of similarity?
LikeLiked by 2 people
” There is nothing worse than Scottish exceptionalism” Oh yes there most definitely is.It’s called ‘English exceptionalism’. Just ask any former colony of the British (sic) English Empire about how they were treated and how out of 67 countries who’ve since gained their independence not one have ever asked to come back under the control of London ever again.
Good riddance was the phrase they all used and we should also say good riddance to them with your sense of entitlement, your arrogance, your racism to those who are not you, your class system and to be honest your stupid put on snobby accents.
Jim S
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let’s not forget our North Sea treasure. Scotland, the first country to discover oil and get poorer. https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-idiot/#more-130340
And to make us even more exceptional after 100 years Scotland became the only country in the world to produce oil and not refine it. Even the Congo has a refinery. Belgium has three and is getting a fourth thanks to a UK Govt. gift of £600 to the wrecker of Grangemouth. Just to make it funnier Belgium doesn’t have oil.
Now that’s pretty exceptional pitch black exceptionalism.
LikeLike
By sheer coincidence, a ‘Holyrood Sources’ YouTube video was recently highlighted, featuring an interview with James Hawes with the headline “THE UK IS DOOMED”, so curiosity aroused sat down to watch and listen.
I lasted about 19 minutes before having to walk away in frustration – The interesting perspective Hawes opened with, the collapse of ‘union’ politics in face of the rise of southern england (Reform) politics, was very quickly shunted into a siding, the possibility of greater exploration and understanding entirely abandoned to recycle the cringe.
I went back several hours later to see if the discussion had indeed been steered as suspected, and yep, only a complete change of personnel and leadership could save the SNP and Indy aspirations.
I should have known with McIver on the panel what kind of ‘show’ it would be, I shan’t make that mistake again….
LikeLike