Talking-up Scotland

It’s all about choices. I won’t repeat how and why it happened but BBC Scotland ‘news’ this morning gave us a bitter headline opener with two very negative stories about life in Scotland and that kind of thing must wear some of us down.

So, to keep your mental state in balance, TuS can remind you of another report on the same broad topic.

BBC Report 1:

‘The Scottish criminal justice process often leaves those who’ve reported sexual assaults marginalised and feeling let down according to a report just published.’

TuS News Balancer 1:

The conviction rate for sexual assaults is an objective indicator of how well a criminal justice system is treating victims so:

Scotland’s rape CONVICTION rate is 13 times higher than in London

I haven’t seen this reported anywhere.

BBC Report 2:

‘Scotland’s Chief inspector of Prisons says she’s very concerned that the number of inmates is starting to exceed capacity.’

TuS ‘Antacid’ Balancer 2:

I may overbalance your system here but there are so many positive reports on Scotland’s prison service, all missed by BBC Scotland, that I can’t make an easy editorial judgment, so:

SHOCK: Lib Dems or Tories devastated that NO ONE (0, FA) escaped from Scottish prisons!

Have Scottish Lib Dems drawn another blank as they reveal ‘astonishing’ fall in prison staff assaults?

Have Scottish Lib Dems been disappointed to find Scottish Prison Staff are NOT doing a Damien Greene?

Drone activity in Scottish prisons plummets!

Scotland’s Police and Prison staffing at MUCH higher level than in England

Suicide rate in Scottish prisons lower than in much of Europe

Bad news for Lib Dems as all of Scottish prisons revealed to have complete health teams

England’s prison officers and mental health nurses, the ‘canaries’ first to show effects of poisonous Tory policies? ‘Not on our watch’ in Scotland

Why are prison officers staying in post in Scotland as they flee the tide of violence and self-harm in England and Wales?

As England’s prisons sink into crisis, Scotland’s prisons benefit from a ‘consistent government’ with ‘political guts’ 

You can bet that last one didn’t make the news as the Chief Executive of Scotland’s Prisons said in 2017:

‘Compare that [England] fairly, and I think evidentially, with what’s happening in Scotland, and I think what we’ve benefitted from here…has been a consistent form of government. Some may disagree with that view, but I’ve been running the SPS for approaching six years now and no doubt, I have benefitted from a consistent requirement presentation from the Scottish Government in terms of what prisons should be doing, and that relationship, therefore, builds up over time.…I think we’ve had consistency and clarity of expectation. I think related to that has been, therefore, a consistent approach to the funding.’

https://www.holyrood.com/articles/inside-politics/what-are-we-doing-right-scottish-prisons-isnt-working-england