is placing significant pressure on its officers.

Another one of these stories that only appear in Reporting Scotland broadcasts and are not fully presented with evidence on the website – different editors? This one is based entirely on the opinion of a trade union leader.

Anyhow, while not wishing to understate the importance and the pressures involved in dealing with anti-immigration protests in Scotland, there are some facts our taxpayer-funded public service broadcaster should be telling us.

First, Scotland has the highest ratio of police officers per 100 000 population – 295.

England and Wales forces have a lower combined ratio 235–241.

This means Scotland has roughly 25–27% more officers per capita than the England/Wales average.

Sources:

https://policepromotion.blog/2024/07/30/police-workforce-2024-part-1-officer-numbers-across-uk-and-ireland

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-30-september-2025/police-workforce-england-and-wales-30-september-2025

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_Kingdom_anti-immigration_protests

How has the level and violence at protests in England and Scotland compared?

Arrests are an objective measure and:

Anti-immigrant hate crime arrests at protests/riots in England are running at 300 times the level in Scotland

From BBC Scotland 9 July 2026:

Police have issued a warning about hate crime and violent disorder after hundreds of people gathered outside a property in Glasgow.

The protest, during which windows were said to have been smashed, took place in Tormusk Road, Castlemilk, at about 18:50 on Wednesday.

It follows another incident on Tuesday when police were called to a large gathering of people who had gathered outside a block of flats in Lamlash Crescent in the Cranhill area.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Violence, disorder, hate crime and threatening behaviour that poses a risk to safety is not legitimate protest. Anyone who engages in these offences will be dealt with swiftly and robustly.”

The spokesman said police officers had engaged with the group of people in Castlemilk who later dispersed.

“Inquiries are ongoing into vandalism and a rock thrown from the crowd during the incident,” he said. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gyqdpd0z8o

‘A‘ rock? Totally unacceptable, I know but let’s get this in perspective. were there any arrests? None.

From Wikipedia:

From 30 July to 5 August 2024,^[a] far-right anti-immigration protests and riots occurred in England and Northern Ireland,^[b] within the United Kingdom.  The disorder, which involved racist attacks, arson and looting, was the largest incident of social unrest in England since 2011.^[39] By 8 August, at least 177 individuals had been imprisoned in connection to the unrest, with sentences averaging around two years and ranging up to nine years. The following month, 1,280 arrests and nearly 800 charges had been made;^[40] as of July 2025, the numbers of arrests and charges stand at 1,840 and 1,103, respectively.^[37] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_riots

I can find media reports of only 6 arrests at anti-immigration protests, in Scotland since 2024.

Why? What’s the difference?

In Holyrood Sources YouTube podcast (?), 30 july 2026, 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.