Reported in the Independent today, a survey by the Prison Reform Trust fails to distinguish between the Scottish and English systems. It’s not a rare phenomenon.
Dramatically they indicate:
The UK has more prisoners serving life sentences than any other country in Europe, according to a new report by the Prison Reform Trust. There are 8,554 inmates across the UK serving life sentences – more than France, Germany and Italy combined. The British total also exceeds the number of life-sentence prisoners held in jails in Russia and Turkey.
Then call for: ‘a major re-think in sentencing policy, arguing that it was “out of kilter” with the rest of the world and had created an overcrowding crisis in Britain’s jails.’
I couldn’t find Scottish numbers for life-serving prisoners, but the graph below shows the changing climate in Scotland with regard to internment.
House of Commons Briefing Paper CBP-04334, 23 July 2018
Talking-up Scotland 
I often think “they” still regard Roman Britain as the Britain of today.
We beyond the wall, are off the radar, and beyond their ken. Hopefully we will be beyond their grip shortly.
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Don’t suppose anyone will go to jail for this little abuse of power episode? Reported on the beeb so assume a ‘news management’ operation in full flow right now. It was apparently reported in Sunday Mail yesterday. Can’t imagine how the ‘Institute for Statecraft’ ended up with a Scottish (Fife) address and registered as a Scottish charity – can you? Links (thanks to Nana over at Wings – this link is rather more detailed than the beeb’s anodyne stuff)) and beeb snippets below:
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/integrity-initiative-look-deep-state
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46509956
The Foreign Office is investigating claims a government-funded campaign group countering Russian disinformation retweeted articles critical of Labour.
The Institute of Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative has received £2.3m.
Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan said he would “totally condemn” any UK-backed organisation “involved in domestic politics in that way”.
But Foreign Office sources claimed Russia was trying to discredit the Fife-based organisation.
The Institute for Statecraft is a charity registered in Scotland and based in Gateside that is intended to promote good governance.
Sir Alan had confirmed Foreign Office funding for the initiative on 27 November in a written answer to a Parliamentary question from Labour MP Chris
Williamson.
He said it received £296,500 in 2017 and £1.96m this financial year as part of the British government’s declared campaign to challenge Russian propaganda on social media.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Alan said he had ordered an immediate investigation after seeing the reports.
“I don’t know the facts but if there is any kind of organisation for which we are paying which is involved in domestic politics in that way, I would totally condemn it, and I have already over the weekend asked for a report to be on my desk by 10 o’clock this morning to say if there is any such activity”.
Last month the Institute for Statecraft’s computer system was hacked by a group that Western officials believe is linked to the Russian state.
Since then internal documents have been leaked to the Russian media about the organisation’s activities, including lists of journalists it had contacted.
A spokesman for the Integrity Initiative did not deny the retweets
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