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Brian Leishman, Scottish Labour, above lies through his teeth above the situation with regard to fires and the fire service in Scotland in 2026.
Above, the bigger picture for fire services in the UK, but the Scotsman today is platforming a trade union they used to habitually attack before they became useful for the Union:
From Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: March 2026, the above and :
The number of deliberate building fires has fallen over the last year while the number of deliberate road vehicle fires increased over the same period. There were 290 deliberate building fires in 2025-26 Q1, down from 302 in 2024-25 Q1. There were 229 deliberate road vehicle fires in 2025-26 Q1, up from 170 in 2024-25 Q1.
From Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: August 2025:
Number of fires fell 10% in the last year. In 2023-24, there were 24,060 fires in Scotland, down 10% on 2022-23 and the lowest in the last ten years. There were 42 fire fatalities in 2023-24, down from 43 in 2022-23 and around the average for the last decade. https://www.gov.scot/publications/safer-communities-and-justice-statistics-monthly-data-report-august-2025/pages/statistics-on-community-safely/
Longer term, has the number of fires increased or decreased?
Domestic fires have plummeted by 50%in the last 2 years.
Non-domestic fires fell 34.7% in last 10 years.
Staffing trend?
An 18-20% staffing reduction set against a 50% reduction in domestic fires and a 35% reduction in non-domestic fires suggests a clear business case for fewer firefighters and one that the Herald would not have hesitated to make before 2007.
Here’s the Herald in 2003
Delegates of the Fire Brigades Union voted overwhelmingly to reject the offer to end their long-running dispute – probably leaving more members of the public feeling that the union wants to have its cake and eat it, too. Like the nurses (who nonetheless earn less), firefighters deserve more; not the 40% claim they submitted all those months ago, or a substantial deal of any kind that is not conditional on the adoption of flexible working and staffing arrangements. The FBU wisely decided yesterday not to strike before war with Iraq ends. Even then, if there is still no deal and more strike days are called, the FBU risks losing even more public support. The public will not want to see troops, who have been away from their families fighting a war, returning home to find leave cancelled or restricted so that Green Goddesses can be manned. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/11903322.fire-fighters-should-settle-nurses-show-the-way-ahead-in-the-public-sector/
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Talking-up Scotland 
If he, Brian Leishman, is accusing Neil Gray of promoting a “pack of lies” , then surely we (and he himself) needs to remember that he, Leishman, together with Anas Sarwar, once promoted a “pack of lies” on behalf of the Labour party.
In 2024 he, together with Anas Sarwar, assured Scotland and the constituency of Grangemouth that Labour would save jobs ay Grangemouth Oil refinery.
On 27 June 2024 in his campaign for the UK GE he posted this on ‘X’:
“Only @ScottishLabour has a plan to save the Grangemouth refinery and it was great to have @IanMurray out campaigning with us today. A Labour government wants to keep Grangemouth working and with our Green Prosperity Plan we will invest in the sites future”.
On the 2 July 2024 he also posted this below (together with a video of him and Anas Sarwar promoting a “pack of lies” in their fake campaign pledge to save jobs at Grangemouth Oil Refinery , but only if Labour were elected as the next UK government in the 2024 UK GE):
“The SNP have done nothing. Only voting @ScottishLabour on 4th July can save the jobs at the Grangemouth refinery”.
I mean he really does have a brass neck does he not.
He thinks that just because he started to play the innocent victim after the 2024 UK GE, what with him being supposedly duped by Labour HQ and also by Sarwar, so then now the voters in Scotland should all sympathise with him , agree with him when he shouts #SNPBAD and so then forgive and forget his very prominent role in promoting a “pack of lies” in 2024, that is in relation to (only) Labour supposedly going to save jobs at Grangemouth Oil Refinery if they won the UK GE.
Reality now being that Leishman is doing a great job of trying to save his own political Ar*e.
He has to appear to oppose quite a lot of acts and policies via Labour HQ as the UK government , but then he also still wants to be a Labour MP – that somehow is not a credible position to hold, surely ?
Is his a classic case of faux opposition or controlled opposition (or both) .
Sick of him (apparently) constantly objecting to various Labour UK government policies and actions , yet he still wants to be a Labour MP. I mean he has already been suspended by Labour when Starmer was the PM.
However when he was reinstated as a Labour MP he said:
“I am a proud Labour Party member” and he also said “I don’t want to lose the whip and, to be honest, I don’t think what I have said and what I have done in my first 12 months as an MP (mean) I deserve to.”
Well he may think that , however I do hope voters in his constituency do believe that he “deserves to lose” their votes and also his constituency seat in the next UK GE ( if not sooner).
One of the way too many parcel of rogues within the Labour party (both at HQ and branch office level).
Liz S
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