Violence against women and girls in Scotland – a fraction of the cases but several times the media interest to keep us down

women and girls launches today…On average, more than 200 reports of violent crimes against women and girls are made here every day. The above BBC Scotland story is an insert in their repeated short BBC Breakfast reports which, as often happens is unique to the Reporting Scotland Down team and does not feature in their fuller online reports. With only 3 days left, support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 The ‘more than 200 reports every day‘, implies around 7 300 per … Continue reading Violence against women and girls in Scotland – a fraction of the cases but several times the media interest to keep us down

Why are so many young men committing sex crimes? Why don’t you start asking that in England where things are twice as bad?

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goin Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From BBC Sounds yesterday, the above, and: Sexual crimes recorded by Police Scotland are at their highest level since 1971. With the Scottish Government preparing to recognise misogyny as a “distinct form of prejudice and abuse” in law, we speak to Karyn McCluskey (pictured left), formerly of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, and criminal defence lawyer Tony Lenehan KC (pictured right). https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0p90gzq I’m not of course questioning the importance of reducing violence against women but it remains important to make sure this kind of … Continue reading Why are so many young men committing sex crimes? Why don’t you start asking that in England where things are twice as bad?

Violence against women – does the Guardian’s Scottish Correspondent ever read anything first?

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 The Guardian’s Scotland Correspondent, Libby Brooks, is often ill-informed and this show little sign of doing any better. The image is, of course, from a march in London. Good morning. Violence against women and girls, in all its myriad forms – physical and mental, blatant and insidious – is a global challenge. It reaches back through millennia and, lately, it has been turbo-charged by technology, which offers abusers new ways to shame, harass and monitor victims. What would it take to eradicate it? Scotland’s first … Continue reading Violence against women – does the Guardian’s Scottish Correspondent ever read anything first?

BBC Scotland ‘Disclosure’ team that did ‘Welcome to Glasgow’ have all called in sick after request to go down and help BBC Tees do a ‘Welcome to Cleveland’ as locals there hear Glasgow has far lower crime and far more police officers

Fresh from their disclosure of pandrop shortages in Scottish care homes for the elderly, following the wrong lorry full of underage calves to France and their recent, courageous if mostly armchair, investigation into tiktok videos of trouble in Glasgow, the BBC Scotland team are reported to have taken fright at the notion of actually going down to the really mean streets on Cleveland (Middlesbrough). Dismayed, BBC Tees, below, are pushing the story off their website with vague headlines. Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 How mean are the streets in … Continue reading BBC Scotland ‘Disclosure’ team that did ‘Welcome to Glasgow’ have all called in sick after request to go down and help BBC Tees do a ‘Welcome to Cleveland’ as locals there hear Glasgow has far lower crime and far more police officers

The number of women murder victims has fallen dramatically, almost by half, over the SNP period and to 15 last year, but the Sunday Post pads out its front page with the likes of Jack McConnel!

___________________________________________________________ Help Talking-up Scotland keep going. Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 ____________________________________________________ First-off, didn’t that set of images above surprise you? The Sunday Post has an array of the woman victims of violence AND, I thought, their male abusers together. No, it’s the men and some of the women who are those campaigning on behalf of women’s rights. Can you see Nicola Sturgeon there. If not it’s shameful for reasons I’ll come to below. A year or so ago, the Guardian had a similar image but it was all women victims. Why has the … Continue reading The number of women murder victims has fallen dramatically, almost by half, over the SNP period and to 15 last year, but the Sunday Post pads out its front page with the likes of Jack McConnel!

STV on youth violence – Disgusting, shameful, exploitative, scare mongering and all wrong as murder by minors falls to a quarter of the level

STV tonight in a desperate attempt to win viewers, completely misrepresent the world you live in, with this report based on anecdotal evidence only, and ignore once more the facts, the facts that matter so much to all of us if we are to live a life based on what we can expect to experience. The facts: Murder by minors – Only a quarter of the level 20 years ago! The trend is clearly and definitively the other way in Scotland. Above, the official data reveal a steady, statistically significant, falling trend in the number of homicides by minors, over … Continue reading STV on youth violence – Disgusting, shameful, exploitative, scare mongering and all wrong as murder by minors falls to a quarter of the level

Researchers cast serious doubt on reality of hate crimes ‘surging’ in Scotland – I’m certain they’re not – they probably fell by around 4%

BBC Scotland today try to have it both ways in this headline. What percentage of the population is, like TuS readers, media students and other perceptive folk out there, thinking ‘Ah it’s just charges. It might not really be soaring at all?’ It’s not. Hate crimes in Scotland are not ‘soaring.’ I’m as certain as I can be. Why? First, from the same report: A new law introduced in 2024 created a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.1 Broaden the definition of hate crime and more cases are … Continue reading Researchers cast serious doubt on reality of hate crimes ‘surging’ in Scotland – I’m certain they’re not – they probably fell by around 4%

Multiple academic research studies suggest sexual crimes in Scotland are far less common than in 1971 and half the current level in England & Wales so BBC Scotland report today is tasteless, uneducated, dishonest and frankly wrong

No tasteless, titillating for some, exploitative Getty images of tearful young women victims of sexual violence here, unlike in BBC Scotland reporting. From BBC Scotland today: Sexual crimes in Scotland hit record high levels. Sexual crimes recorded by Police Scotland increased by 10% last year and are now at their highest level since 1971, official figures show. The message here is wrong, so wrong. Why? The weight of evidence (stable survey prevalence despite exploding recorded figures, increased reporting, societal improvements in women’s rights/consent norms, and parallel declines in other violence) strongly suggests actual rates for many equivalent traditional/contact sexual crimes … Continue reading Multiple academic research studies suggest sexual crimes in Scotland are far less common than in 1971 and half the current level in England & Wales so BBC Scotland report today is tasteless, uneducated, dishonest and frankly wrong

“Scotland has proudly led the way in many areas concerning women’s rights and violence against women” but Kevin McKenna has other ideas, dark, smelly ones

I’ve been looking the other way, embarrassed as I can be when confronted with a loud mental health problem in the aisles of a supermarket, by the latest string of fake news from Kevin McKenna, greasing the pages of the Herald, this last few months but, such is my lack of inner peace, today’s utterly fantastic ‘John Swinney and the Scottish Greens have, in effect, given a free pass to pimps’ pushed me over. Why is it, like all of his stuff these days, fake? First, in the year-ending June 2025, there were 72 804 cases of rape and attempted rape, 211 225 sexual … Continue reading “Scotland has proudly led the way in many areas concerning women’s rights and violence against women” but Kevin McKenna has other ideas, dark, smelly ones

Domestic abuse is twice as common in England & Wales but care should be taken in interpreting this

From Domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland, 2024-25 published today: The police recorded 64,967 incidents of domestic abuse in 2024-25, an increase of 2% compared to the previous year. Despite increasing over the latest two years, this figure remains below the peak in 2020-21. https://www.gov.scot/news/domestic-abuse-recorded-by-the-police-in-scotland-2024-25/ The introduction of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and greater recognition of coercive and controlling behaviour have likely improved identification and recording of some forms of abuse that previously might not have been recorded as such. The statistics show offences under that Act now make up a measurable share of recorded domestic-abuse-related … Continue reading Domestic abuse is twice as common in England & Wales but care should be taken in interpreting this