As BBC Breakfast ask Gisele Pelicot to discuss the astonishing, shameful, failure by an English judge to detain three frankly evil young gang rapists, BBC Scotland seem unable to find a story to tell us that things are as bad here.
They tried in June 2025 when annual crime statistics were published showing an increase in sex crimes.
The media in Scotland are headlining the increase in recorded cases of rape and attempted rape in Scotland. Though the increase may in part be a consequence of a greater confidence by victims to come forward and report these crimes, the figures remain disturbing. They have been disturbing for years before and represent a dark shadow on the reputation of a supposedly civilised nation.
However, if like drug deaths, these statistics could be presented to suggest Scotland is the ‘rape capital’ of the UK or Europe, I feel sure we’d see that endlessly repeated.
Let’s look at England & Wales where crime is recorded in a similar way and thus comparable.
The 2024/2025 figures are not out yet but for 2023/2024, there were 67 928 cases of rape or attempted rape in England and Wales.
All things being equal, per head, you might expect the figure for England and Wales to be around 11 times Scotland’s 2 500 to 2 900 range. Even if we take the larger figure, we get 31 900, less than half the actual 67 928. Rape and attempted rape is a staggering twice as common in England & Wales than in Scotland.
The level in England & Wales has been close to 70 000 cases since at least 2021, so consistently more than twice as high as in Scotland.
If drug deaths can be compared then why not rapes?
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Talking-up Scotland 
Do the figures for England include offences in the palace of Westminster ? Just asking .
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The number of people involved in the mainstream media in Scotland is relatively small and most would not be employed by the generally right wing media if they did not have views which the owners deemed ‘sound’. They read each other’s social media postings, they frequent the same cafes and pubs. So, there is a tendency for their opinions to converge. Thus we get not only similar opinions appearing but often the same cliches are used.
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