(c) BBC
Our mainstream media and Unionist politicians love any evidence they can find that Scots are pretty much the same as the English and so don’t really need autonomy. However recently, we’ve had:
Scots more likely to give to charities, to volunteer or to sponsor others
and:
Who said Scots were not more left-wing than those in the rest of the UK?
As for racial crimes, I’ve already noted differences in:
Bias by Omission: Has Scotland witnessed a spike in post-Brexit hate crime – or not?
Returning to the headline, I think we have contemporary evidence of quite a significant difference between levels of racial crime. According to the Independent yesterday:
‘Hate crimes have rocketed by almost a third in the UK in the past year, with unprecedented spikes around the EU referendum and terror attacks recorded by police. New figures released by the Home Office confirm victims’ reports of a dramatic increase in incidents motivated by attackers’ hostility towards their race, nationality, religion or other factors. Data from police forces across England and Wales showed there were almost 80,400 hate crimes recorded in the 2016/17 financial year.’
Official figures, for Scotland, released in June 2017 tell a very different story of post-EU referendum, post terror attacks.
‘There were 3,349 charges reported in 2016-17, 10 percent fewer than in 2015-16, and the lowest number reported since 2003-04.’
Not only are racial crimes falling in Scotland as the soar in England and Wales, they are also at a much lower level in the first place. In Scotland, in 2016/2017, there was one racial crime for every 1582 people. In England and Wales there was one racial crime for every 696 people. The rate in England and Wales is thus more than twice as high as it is in Scotland.
Talking-up Scotland 
Each passing day brings more evidence that being within the UK is the political equivalent of being shackled to a corpse.
Once they realise they are venting their frustration in the wrong direction the present failing system will be gone very quickly.
That I believe is partly the reason for the elite being in such an open scramble to accumulate wealth in recent years.
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Divide-and-rule has always been a very successful tactic by ruling groups, especially in times of crisis for the society which they ‘lead’, but, is used, routinely, as a way of maintaining power. The continual alluding to it creates a hegemony and, when the crisis arrives the people most adversely affected by it – usually the poorest ,in inadequate housing, in communities with higher levels of crime, on low wages in precarious jobs – are most ready to accept the accusations that it is ‘east Europeans taking jobs’, it is ‘immigrants’ getting houses’, it is ‘Muslims abusing white women, etc. Despite the expansion of IT sources of information, the mainstream media, owned and controlled by the ruling groups, still determine the messages to be propagated. People who are stressed out by poverty, suffering low self respect, angry, unclear of who the oppressor is react in indiscriminate rage. If it is against minority groups the ruling groups do not feel under threat, but, if the reaction, as in the riots in London and English cities about 5/6 years ago is against property, or as in the poll tax riots is against taxation (remember what started the American revolution.) or as in the miner’s strike, is about power then there will be severe repression.
Perhaps, in Scotland, because of our different education system, our different legal system, the legacies of John Knox, the fact that we have been on the receiving end of repression and contempt, our greater political sophistication, not just because of the recent referendum, but through our history of trade unionism, of land reform issues, of radicalism, etc. the culture is different. Our culture is Pictish, Norse, Welsh/Ancient British, Scottish/Irish/Celtic, Angle, etc and so maybe there is an acceptance that we are a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns.
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Divide and conquer, need look no further than our beloved Old Firm. When Rangers went down, the BBC did all they could to keep fans interested.
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Yes, I never see the Bairns on TV any more!
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Try BBC Alba.
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More chance over on CBeebies
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“Rocketed by almost a third in the UK last year”. UK = England & Wales. An exasperatingly familiar conflation in the MSM.
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Within only two or three paragraphs too.
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Breaking Fake News.
Radio2’s 5pm bulletin . . . “The Worlds First Off Shore Floating Wind Farm Has Been Opened by Scotlands First Minister”. Whilst at the back water of The BBC’s Radio Station in Scotland , no mention of who opened it.
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Can’t be accidental can it?
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Don’t ask me, your the media professional. But since you asked, I’d put it down to the BBC in Scotland attempting to control Scottish voters opinions on political matters.
Listen to Mortisey’s new song “I spent the day in bed” , recommends his friends don’t listen to the news, . . . Just what we want!
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Hi John – Hi all. Thanks for monitoring the radio news for us CB – Beeb Jockland have gone beyond parody these days. It is no longer simply UK state propaganda that it peddles. It seems to have toppled over into some kind of ‘SNP Baaad’ paranoia nowadays. Something ‘clinical’ going on in that institution. Sad – but no other explanation seems to fit.
Ludo
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How about calculating. They know exactly what they are doing, it’s scientific, and it works.
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Full propaganda mode
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The beeb Jockland website is coming up trumps again – Does mention that the Hywind Offshore farm was opened by NS and carries a quote from the FM.
Before we give them too much praise note the Headline they use to carry todays updated employment figures:
HEADLINE: ‘Scottish unemployment rises by 9,000’
They could have pulled out a headline from any one of these ONS stats (below):
Scotland’s employment rate increased by 1.2 percentage points over the quarter to 75.3%, above the UK rate of 75.1% with 35,000 more people in employment than the previous quarter
113,000 people were unemployed with unemployment rates at 4.1%, below the UK rate of 4.3%
Over the quarter inactivity rates decreased by 1.4 percentage points to 21.5%, just above the UK rate of 21.4%
Over the quarter Scotland’s female employment rate increased to 72.0%, higher than the UK rate of 70.7%
Over the year youth unemployment decreased by 1.6 percentage points to 10.6%, lower than the UK at 13.3%.
As John and Alasdair frequently remind us – the beauty of the beeb’s propaganda is in their subtle ‘framing’ of the debate. One has to recognise their professionalism in how they work their propaganda messages. It just reiterates how vital sites like John’s are in enabling a clearer view of the realities of Scottish life and times being disseminated beyond the beeb/MSM prism.
Ta, ludo
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Thanks Ludo but it’s more and more ‘our’ site.
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Hi all – The beeb Jockland website has just put up an interesting bit of news (well interesting to sad beggars like me anyway!). It is reporting that a Serbian activist has been elected Rector of St. Andrews Uni today (see below):
Serbian political activist elected as St Andrews rector
Mr Popovic is a former Nobel Peace Prize nominee who founded the student protest movement Otpor!
The group played a pivotal role in the overthrow of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
Mr Popovic is a founding member of the Centre for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (Canvas), a not for profit organisation (NGO) which has trained pro-democracy activists in more than 50 countries including Iran, Palestine and Egypt.
He is an advocate of non-violent protest which utilises people power and humour – “laughtivism” as Mr Popovic calls it.
The former Belgrade student defeated his opponent, MSP and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, gaining more than double the votes.
Mr Popovic replaces MEP Catherine Stihler as rector, who took up the post in 2014.
I know nothing about Mr. Popovic other than this thumbnail sketch provided by the beeb – but he does sound as if he might be one of ‘the good guys’?
Certainly his theory of ‘laughtivism’ must have been kicked into overdrive when he realised that the outgoing Rector was Catherine Stihler and the opposition candidate was wee Willie R!
It is much to his credit that he didn’t base his entire view of the nation of Scotland on those 2 facts and decline nomination.
Cheers, Ludo
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Ludo here is another view of Mr Popović https://journal-neo.org/2017/10/01/the-dishonest-career-of-the-remarkable-srda-Popović. .
This is not a good development. Scotland’s trajectory is drawing international attention and not all of it is benign
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Interesting, thanks.
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Ludo is edging it!
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