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The same difference

Posted on May 08, 2018 by

This one won’t take long. This is the front page lead on today’s Herald:

It’s a trope beloved of Unionists (and was a particular favourite of the paper’s departed columnist David Torrance) – how dare Scotland imagine that it’s special? – and the Herald bangs the drum extra-hard this morning, with Anas Sarwar given lots of room to talk Scotland down while insisting that he’s not talking Scotland down, claiming that the idea of Scotland being “less intolerant than our neighbours” is a myth.

So let’s just check the facts.

Race hate crime in Scotland is falling, is at a 15-year low (after a spike during the last Labour-Lib Dem government which ended as soon as the SNP came to power), and has in fact dropped by a very substantial and welcome 26% in the last five years.

How about England?

Oh, it’s increasing dramatically, not just since the Brexit vote but also in the longer term. But of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not still roughly the same as in Scotland – it might have started off a lot lower. So do we have actual numbers to compare? As it happens we do:

England’s population is almost exactly 10 times Scotland’s. If Scotland has 64 race-hate crimes a week, England should be in the ballpark of 640. But 62,685 divided by 52 weeks is 1,205 – remarkably close to TWICE as many per head of population.

(Something which alert readers could probably have deduced simply from the fact that notorious Tory brain-vacuum Annie Wells said the numbers were the same.)

All racism is bad and one race-hate crime is one too many, yada yada yada. But the point being claimed by the Herald is a direct comparison with another country, and the entirely non-mythical reality of that comparison is that one country’s problem is half the size and steadily falling, while the other’s is twice the size and persistently rising.

(And while stupid people will claim that that’s because Scotland has only about half the immigrant population of England, the truth is that racism is usually strongest where there are FEWEST immigrants. The more people are actually exposed to immigrants the less they tend to fear and hate them, as they discover that they’re just normal people. Scotland bucks that trend by having less immigration AND less racism, which suggests that hostility towards immigrants is less inherently present to start with.)

So yeah, just the same.

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Doug Bryce

Brexit exposed who the real nationalists and xenophobes are.

The UK has many problems – however the EU and immigrants are not the root cause.

Proud Cybernat

SNP BAAAAAAD !

A man’s a man for a’ that.

RogueCoder

Not to mention that England voted 53% in favour to Leave the EU, while 62% of Scots voted to Remain.

Conclusion? Scots are less xenophobic – or at very least less susceptible to the racist hate-mongering pish in daily newspapers.

Conan the Librarian

You should take a look at Chris Deerin’s latest piece of crap.

Ken MacColl

Of course Scotland is special.
Where else is there a country that is so ill served by its printed and broadcast media who are so consistently and predictably opposed to the will of its people?

Donald anderson

The Sunday Herald is going the same way. The S H and the National do not have their own budget.

All the race hate/Loyalist groups in Scotland are Unionist.

Archbishop of Dork

The yoons don’t really want Scotland to become a better country. As exemplified by Labour’s Margaret Curran being elated by the election in Scotland of UKIP’s David Coburn.

Breastplate

Yes, of course we have knuckledraggers here, every country has them. I would hazard a guess at the right wing nazi saluting Unionists being a big part of our country’s problem.
I’m pretty sure if we didn’t have these morons then Scotland’s stats would be much better.

Martin Keatings

It’s easy to claim that hate crimes are rising. In truth though, even if it were the case the figures show an increase (which it doesn’t) all they would show is that more people have been prosecuted for it last year than previous years. It doesn’t however show that more people have committed the offence. So you could equally say that more police officers on the beat has resulted in more crimes being caught which would have otherwise gone unnoticed. I mean 5 years ago you wouldn’t have seen someone prosecuted for teaching a dog to do a nazi salute and now you have and I am sure for every one that got caught doing similar things, there were 5 who didn’t. Now they are catching 3 and only 3 are getting away with it. Next year it might be 5 caught and 1 getting away.

Arrest figures only show more people arrested, not how many are committing a type of offence.

galamcennalath

One reason for the difference might be that England has gutter media which stokes racial hatred with anti immigration nonsense. Scotland, in the other hand, has gutter media which pushes anti Scottish propaganda!

jfngw

Don’t worry they will find a way of using the stats to prove that Scotland is more racist. Seen it done before by using them per head of immigrant. Obviously the less immigrants then the higher the number, so if there is only one immigrant then the rate is 100%.

If we are to have another EURef imposed, the last one was, then I expect the deal to be if Scotland votes Remain and the UK votes Leave then the Treaty of Union ends immediately.

Smallaxe

One less knuckledragger, from the previous page;
link to wingsoverscotland.com

Clydebuilt

I stopped buying the Sunday Herald thus weekend because of its front page depiction of the March. After today’s front page LIE I ain’t buying any more Heralds.

What sort of business model is where a paper goes to war with half the population.

Colin Alexander

It wisnae the independence marchers – who comprised of people of various races and national origins – who were doing the fascist Nazi salutes.

No need to tell you who it was but, I will do it anyway:

The fascists I saw were the Union Jack waving UK Unionist BritNats, just like George Square in 2014.

Of course, not all people who support the Union are morally warped like these bampots, some Unionists / previous No voters made a mistake and will hopefully choose independence next time.

So, please don’t tar all No voters with the same brush. Many No voters from 2014 will be YES next time.

Calum McKay

unionists run thier country down to increase the chances of it remaining in a union with a larger neighbour.

Some strange thinking there!

That not to say there is not racism in Scotland, but lets place it in context and proportion to ensure it’s addressed!

Greannach

I see Brain of Britain question-setter Annie Wells MSP has illuminated the discussion with her piercing insights.

Is the Scottish branch of the Tory party not concerned that the dribblings of this character are her equally challenged colleagues at council, Westminster, Holyrood and European levels are making a laughing stock of their organisation?

I don’t want them to stop, but I’m trying to work out if the organisational gurus of the Great British Rape Clause Party are as dim as their representatives.

Proud Cybernat

“So you could equally say that more police officers on the beat has resulted in more crimes being caught which would have otherwise gone unnoticed.”

There are less police officers now on the beat in England and the race-hate prosecution rate is rising.

Betty Boop

@ Clydebuilt, 10:08am

Re: Herald/SundayHerald

What sort of business model is where a paper goes to war with half the population.

I doubt such publications need a business model. Their purpose is no longer, perhaps never was, solely to report news. With the backing (financial and otherwise) available for forests of propaganda, I doubt they are bothered whether anyone actually pays to read their bilge.

stu mac

I seem to recall that the Rev covered a similar article a while back. If my recall is correct it’s evidence they just regurgitate the same rubbish over and over. Must get monotonous for the poor Rev sometimes, at least we can ignore it.

Ghillie

This is entirely based on personal experience, not a scientific or statistical study, but, my personal experience having grown up in many countries abroad is of having been subject to unfair comment throughout, courtesy of the ‘British Empire’ that being Scottish was somehow inferior.

I was brought up to know that that was not true. And many friends from nations of the United Nations family supported that view.

I grew up well aware, through out the 60’s 70’s 80’s 90’s and beyond, who were the real touters of racial discrimination.

Welsh Sion

Off topic

This arrived in my in-box from my Convenor (SNP London Branch), and I urge you all to sign and share the petition. Thanks.

__________

Universal Credit: split payments between adults in each household

SNP MP Dr Philippa Whitford has started a petition to make changes to Universal Credit that could help protect victims of financial abuse. Please sign and share this petition to tell the UK Government that they shouldn’t be making it easier for the perpetrator, they should be making it harder.

The petition can be accessed here:

link to petition.parliament.uk

Naina Tal

Not trying to defend those giving the Nazi salutes, but I think at least some of them think they are taunting us. In their febrile minds WE are the (as they always describe us) “Nat sis”. May not have entered the said febrile minds how it appears to others, so occupied are they with their own hatred.

fillofficer

the media reaction to a successful march
(described as a demonstration by brewer)
their whining is affecting my tinnitus

[…] Wings Over Scotland The same difference This one won’t take long. This is the front page lead on today’s Herald: It’s a […]

Welsh Sion

Small battlr on the BBC bias front.

EXHIBIT A: Early May Bank Holiday weekend heat record broken
7 May 2018

“The Met Office said Scotland and Wales just missed out on breaking their own bank holiday weekend records but still enjoyed their hottest day of the year so far with 23.1C recorded at Charterhall, Berwickshire, and 25.7C at Usk.”

link to bbc.co.uk

EXHIBIT B: Usk has highest temperature as Wales breaks May Day record
7 May 2018

“Wales has enjoyed its hottest May Day since the bank holiday weekend was introduced in 1978.

The previous record was set in 1999 when 23.4C was recorded in Machynlleth.”

link to bbc.co.uk

Macart

That’s surely beyond simply lazy journalism by the Herald.

Choices: – Didn’t check the figures in a grey moment – Couldn’t be arsed regardless – Deliberately attempts to mislead the public and denigrate Scotland’s population

None are particularly a good look for the Herald.

Giving Goose

The Scottish MSM is just a propaganda organ of the British Government.

That is a fact.

It attempts to look like it is diverse, with different newspaper titles, different television and radio programmes, but this is intended to deceive.

Many people have quite rightly asked how the Herald and other publications can justify their business model which appears to deliberately seek to alienate a significant proportion of the Scottish population and therefore reduce the numbers of sold copy.

It looks like financial suicide.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the British Government is, in some clandestine way, providing financial support to the Herald in order to make up financial shortfall. That’s just speculation but certainly worth considering.

Regarding the mis-reporting of racism figures – the Scottish MSM simply has to do this because if it didn’t, it would expose the fact that Scotland is actually different, and that the UK is not a unitary state where there are commonalities across the board.

I recall Ian Davidson, when a Labour MP, going out of his way during the English riots to attempt to link Scotland to the events. This displayed a similar approach and way of thinking.

All in the cause of Unionism.

Proud Cybernat

Unionists be mad. Truly.

Willie

Can’t help but conclude that the singling out of the ” Windrush” group for the ” Hostile Environment” treatment was an example of state sponsored hate crime.

And who will be singled out next for the striped pyjamas and gold star treatment.

Josef Ó Luain

When, some time ago, my ofttimes naive pal enthusiastically presented me with a copy of the SH with a front-page splash proclaiming its newly found allegiance to Indy, my cynicism levels leaped into the red.

Now why did that happen …?

Willie

And in relation to the ” Windrush” persecution let us also be aware the HM Government are drafting legislation to introduce laws that will restrict legal representation to individuals subject to immigration proceedings such as wrongful deportation as was ‘Windrush’

Nacht und Nabel, 1930s Germany is here.

Big Jock

The old Same-ing technique often used by unionists. We are all as bad as each other, you are no better. They use the same argument when it comes to history and culture. This is something in the English psyche. Hence when they move to other countries they take their attitudes and baggage wherever they go.

The highlands are full of incomers who know better than the locals about what the communities need. Never shy of speaking for them or becoming leaders of local councils. They see Scotland as part of their country , they don’t see it as another country as they are not comfortable with differences.

Scotland voted 62% to remain in the EU, they voted to leave. We don’t need a clearer example of how they view other nations.

Les Wilson

There are no bigger racist in the whole of the UK, than those who despise SNP supporters and everyone who supports Indy.

Are the all but one papers not racist then? is the BBC not racist? Are rabid Yoons not racist. These are the worst as it is daily/ hourly.

An instance, turned on BBC this morning while taking stuff to the council dump. She had some guy on who had suffered all his life due to a particularly bad facial birth mark. We can only imagine how bad that could be. However, he made a comment on an article he had read, that Scotland has the most racist murders in the Uk, I only assume it was per head of population?.

Kaye was almost wetting he pants hearing that, she asked the lad if she could get the info he was talking of, so she could check if it was accurate, that would be interesting, she commented.

If it has been published somewhere, by who? Then we can smell another BBC,Scotland very bad story coming up.

Robin

A wee example of English White Anglo Saxon “think” is when it was put to this white English guy that London is now the “Murder Capital of the World”, his reply was that they were not English, they were Blacks killing Blacks.

Sums these English racists up quite nicely does it not.

galamcennalath

Everything which marks Scotland and England out as being different is a threat to BritNat ideology.

They want a state whether there is little deviation from the ‘London standard’. It sometimes seems 1984 is their instructions manual where everything and everyone must fit, comply, and conform.

The opposite is happening despite their relentless efforts. The process of the two nations going their own way and doing their own thing continues. The outcome is inevitable, and in time most folks will see that.

Robin

Kaye Adams is famous for getting English listeners to call into her show with examples of being racially abused by Scots.

She loves nothing more than having “proof” that the Scots are a racist Nation,,especially Independence supporting Scots.

Tokyo Kaye, obedient servant to her English paymasters.

bigG

Race aside, We are a far more tolerant people!. the majority of people in Scotland put up with this sort of crap day in day out . if that is not tolerant I dont know what is.

Clootie

Eat your cereal…Scotland is shite! Accept it

Craig P

Are sectarian incidents included in race hate stats?

If not, then maybe that goes some way to Scotland appearing more tolerant than the rest of the UK.

Perhaps unionist politicians would like to highlight that. Really focus on and celebrate the likely fact that loyalism makes us less tolerant than we otherwise would be.

I am sure the Scottish people would thank them for that service.

Legerwood

Also in the Herald today Mundell and McVey claiming, not for the first time, that Scottish Government won’t be ready to takeover responsibility for the devolved benefits and UK ministers may have to step in. Handover is 2020.

Front page, continued inside, all based on an article written by Mundell and McVey – no I did not know they could string a sentence together either let alone an article.

liz

I think the Herald, SH don’t care if they lose readers. Reason being they’re now getting enough cash from the BBC licence payer to keep them afloat.

Another example of corruption in this country,
Why should money be taken from this fee, which people pay, sometimes reluctantly, because they want to watch TV and handed to private companies?

jfngw

@liz

They don’t receive licence fee money, the licence fee is a tax paid to the government to watch any live TV.

The papers are receiving money from the government, it’s not a free press when it is government sponsored, it is no different than the Russian press now.

Effijy

I am awaken by Heart Radio on my alarm clock.

I couldn’t believe their news bulletin this morning.

It seems that a number of Killings has happen across the United Kingdom over the holiday weekend.

They then name London, Manchester and Liverpool as the locations for these crimes.

They were all cities in England the last I looked, not across the UK?

Just to keep Scots in their place, they breath takingly added that Glasgow has had gang and killings previously????

The Glasgow gang land incidents were reported in the news back in the day. They have nothing to do with this weekend’s news.

Its just added in there so that Scotland should be included in anything bad happening in England. You are not better than us!

Absolutely pathetic! Sick to the teeth with blatant propaganda across the whole of the UK’s Media.

Do you ever wonder how many millions it must cost to ensure every media outlet is supplied with fresh distortion of the truth
and Scotland Bad stories?

At least they take our money to pay for it.

Andrew Morton

Being a fully paid up pedant, it’s worth pointing out that neither the Herald article nor this one take into account the other factor, which is the proportion of people of people of othe races to the population as a whole.

Jack Murphy

Off Topic.
The Tories at each other’s throats again:

“Boris Johnson makes astonishing public attack on Theresa May’s ‘crazy’ Brexit customs plan”

“Boris Johnson has made an astonishing public attack on Theresa May’s ‘crazy’ customs plan, as the Tory Brexit rift deepens.

His intervention is set to stoke tensions in the party as ministers remain in deadlock over how to deal with trade with the EU after Britain leaves……..”

The sonner we’re out of this unholy Union with England’s/Westminster politics the better.

The Mirror:
link to archive.is

Cuilean

People denigrate the National and lump it with the Sunday Herald. We may not agree with everything in these papers but that is true of every paper worthy of the name.

So I keep buying both, warts n’ fucking all.

I will continue to buy both as to not buy either will undoubtedly hasten their demise which will also undoubtedly gladden Ruth Davidson’s shriven husk of a heart. For that reason alone, it’s well worth the pennies.

Here’s the Wee Ginger Dug’s take on The National earlier this year:

The National faces difficulties that other newspapers don’t face. It’s a national publication so doesn’t have the regional focus of the Herald, based in Glasgow, or the Scotsman, based in Edinburgh. The National also faces the concerted hatred of British nationalists who resent the fact that one single daily newspaper dares to break the anti-independence consensus they’d enjoyed for so long. Callum Baird, the editor of The National, has been called a conspiracy theorist by certain Scottish journalists for stating that people actively hide copies of The National in shops in order to make it more difficult for customers to find the paper. But the reason Callum has said that is because when he and I do public meetings of The National Roadshow events, readers have told him that they’ve caught people in the act of hiding the paper! British nationalists in Scotland feel so threatened and weak that they’re scared of one single daily newspaper. Let’s give them something to feel terrified about.

As a regular columnist for The National, I’ve got a vested interest in supporting the paper, but the fact is that having a daily print newspaper gives the Yes movement a toehold in the mainstream media that we wouldn’t otherwise possess. That gives us a legitimacy and a credibility that we’d otherwise struggle to achieve, particularly since prominent independence campaigners are less likely to appear on our TV screens than those who support the British state or who are happy to criticise the SNP and the vast majority of the traditional press has no interest in giving the cause of independence a fair hearing. The National gives us a national platform and a voice that we would otherwise be deprived of.

Since The National pays its contributors, it helps to support a community of pro-independence writers and journalists who would otherwise be marginalised and ignored. Writing for The National gives me a little bit of financial security and that’s what allows me to write and campaign for independence on a full time basis. I’m proud to be associated with The National, and proud that it speaks up for Scotland.

If we want to see another 1000 issues of Scotland’s best newspaper, we need to support it. If we want to see the front cover that we all long for – SCOTLAND SAYS YES – then we need to support The National. You can subscribe to the digital edition or subscribe to the print edition. Or you can order a copy from your local newsagent and then you never need worry about it not being available.

Support it, buy it, share it. Here’s to another 1000 editions.”

DW

Surprised to see some people on twitter dismissing this article due to Scotland having a lower percentage of immigrants, and even England having “proportionally, far more non-white residents than Scotland” (as if hate crime against, for example, the Irish didn’t exist).

After a quick check on wikipedia, it turns out that the percentage of people born outside of Scotland, but living in Scotland at the last census was 16.68. The percentage of people born outside of England, but living in England was 16.54.

At the last census, Scotland had, proportionally, more immigrants.

link to en.wikipedia.org
link to en.wikipedia.org

Fireproofjim

Rocky II @ 12.23
It’s called trust. You wouldn’t understand.

boris

Excellent rebuff of Unionist garbage dressed up as news reporting. The tactic mirrors the propaganda of Mosley’s Tory bent blackshirts of 1930

galamcennalath

DW says:

the percentage of people born outside of Scotland … was 16.68. The percentage of people born outside of England … was 16.54.

Now, THAT is a fact well worth remembering. Thanks for highlighting it.

wull2

For real news just vote YES next time and we wont be exposed to this..

Ottomanboi

Denigrate all things concerning Scotland, the essence of British Unionism from day one.
There can be no reasoned dialogue with such a system.

Brian Doonthetoon

“It is not fair or honest for one or two people to earn Hundreds of Pounds off the backs of hard working contributors and volunteers.”

That reads like libel.

galamcennalath

I feel like I’m actually living in The Matrix sometimes where so much of what I see, read, hear, is not what it seems! Imagine what your view of Scotland and the society around you would be is you believed all this guff the media (from BBC to fake rags) come out with. I can’t actually imagine, but some folks will live in this ‘other world’.

It’s not just the Scottish constitutional debate, it’s the Middle East, external threats … all of WM policy and actions, But more and folks are questioning the ‘altered reality’ presented to them. An OT example …

“Brexit: The Cabinet’s battle over EU customs is an insult to our intelligence”

link to archive.is

I for one, am not buying the mainstream narrative of Brexit cock up – I think it’s all to plan. It’s probably all about delaying any excuse for ScotRef, or even to engineer a soft exit, or simply to facilitate a crash out blaming the EU.

thingy

Leask, a man badly in need of a Michael White moustache.

Or maybe just a man badly in need of a Michael White. 🙂

Liz g

Briandoonthetoon @ 1.12
Me too,but I can’t be sure.
So it’s ok by me (a contributor) if some of the takings are diverted to obtaining advice!

galamcennalath

Leask, as highlighted on WoS Twitter …

“Academics subject to peer review spend years researching a subject. Their findings are published in a newspaper. A blogger then takes “literally 60 seconds” to Google and declares their work a “lie””

It’s formula. Take an undisputed fact. Then slip in fakery while the reader has been ‘dazzled’ by the fact.

Genuine academic research is painstaking and peer reviewed. True.

“Their findings are published in a newspaper”. Not exactly. They were selectively quoted and a fake conclusion drawn by dodgy extrapolation.

John Robertson
Terence callachan

DW says

Yes Scotland has more people born outside of Scotland than England has people born outside England
BUT
Most of those people living in Scotland who were not born in Scotland are English people they make up 18% of Scotlands population now
I can guarantee you that Scots living in England do not account for 18% of Englands population
English people voting NO
Wealthy people voting NO
Old die hard Labour people voting NO
These are the three main groups that vote NO and they are of equal size

K1

Leask, a man badly baldy in need of a Michael White moustache.

Fixed that fur ye thingy 😉

Jim Davidson

@Rocky 11
What secrecy, it has been explained to you that everyone working on the stall was told the the total and what the monies will be used for. I will take a guess at funding materials, costs, etc, for future events and other Indy related stuff.
Apart from your rabid self, who and where are all these fellow wingers that have lost trust. I have been reading this blog since the outset and watched with admiration as the many committed individuals became a “group of pals”. It is they who have turned this blog into a physical presence and movement. They have put so much time and effort into doing that and I for 1 although I’m sure I speak for many trust them impeccably.
Where’s your proof that one or two individuals are making hundreds of pounds of the backs of contributors and volunteers. Apart from being a ridiculous statement its also libelous. As has been mentioned previously. If you really are that concerned, contact the appropriate authority instead of bumping yet rabid gums on here

Proud Cybernat

“IndyRef2 can be held without UK Government permission.” – Prof. John Curtis, Dailt Record, 8/5/2018

As if we didn’t know.

Rocky II

Brian Doonthetoon

That reads like theft to me. Anybody who takes bucket loads of cash away from a fundraiser and doesn’t disclose how much was raised is setting themselves up for all sorts of allegations to be aimed at them.

And I would say that you have a biased opinion regarding this matter. You and the major Stall holder, namely Ronnie Anderson, are very close friends and you stay over at his house during these events.

Sticky Fingers is contagious but treatable.

Again I ask,,where is the cash and how much was raised?

Fairly straightforward questions IMO.

Answer them and that is an end of the matter.

Welsh Sion

Les Wilson @ 11.37 am says:

… an article he had read, that Scotland has the most racist murders in the Uk, I only assume it was per head of population?.
Kaye was almost wetting he pants hearing that, she asked the lad if she could get the info he was talking of, so she could check if it was accurate, that would be interesting, she commented.

If it has been published somewhere, by who? Then we can smell another BBC,Scotland very bad story coming up.

______

It’s in the Daily Rancid, an article written today @ 4.30 a.m. by (ahem!) David Clegg, and is also a shameless (in all senses) puff for the author of a new book on the subject.

I won’t provide the link here but if you Google “Racist murders ‘more common in Scotland than rest of the UK'” @ the Daily Racked, you should find it.

wull2

Forget Groundhog day, in Scotland it is Groundhog so called News.

Jack collatin

Now we know that Anas Sarwar is that thick that he is prepared to set himself up as a willing Herald patsy to front a lie about the level of racism in Scotland.
I observed before:
The Dead Tree Scrolls and BBC/STV/Sky could save themselves a fortune if they just ran ‘Scotland Is Shite’ on a permanent loop each day.
Has there been a study to establish who are committing these offences?

The Nazi saluting knuckledraggers, Blue Tory Councillors, and James Kelly’s OBFA ‘innocents’ must make up a significant majority.
Sarwar, the private school socialist.

Rocky II

A perfect example of how a fundraiser should be disclosed is the Rev’s very own fundraiser.

It is out in the open for all to see and the final tally is known.

He then gives a rough outline of how these funds will be spent.

You don’t pay into the Wings fundraiser with no running total. It would leave the Rev open to accusations of fiddling the final total and in the end people would not contribute.

The same rules should apply to the Wings Stall.

We need to know how much was raised and we we are going to spend it on?

K1

Thank you John, good to see ye here and hope you are well ;-).

Excellent evidence based rebuttal of Sarwar’s utter pish…he’s at it…love your last line:

‘He may, however, have been the victim of racism within the Scottish Labour party. I have no evidence to contradict that notion.’

Quite.

Rocky II

Jim Davidson

Not the comedian Jim Davidson,,surely not???

Welsh Sion

Figures from the 2011 Census.

Wales
Born in Wales: 72.66% (DOWN 2.73% since 2001)
Born in England: 20.77% (UP 0.45% since 2001)
Born in Scotland: 0.84% (DOWN 0.05% since 2001)

Scotland
Born in Scotland: 83.32% (DOWN 3.81% since 2001)
Born in England: 8.68% (UP 0.6% since 2001)
Born in Wales: 0.33% (NO CHANGE since 2001)

England
Born in England: 83.46% (DOWN 3.98% since 2001)
Born in Scotland: 1.34% (DOWN 0.28% since 2001)
Born in Wales: 0.96% (DOWN 0.28% since 2001)

Source: ONS and Wikipedia

Glamaig

Les Wilson @ 11.37 am

The book is also being promoted on the BBC Scotland Politics webpage now so I guess Kaye must have done her bit.

liz

@jfngw Think you’ll find it is coming from BBC licence money.

On 11 May, a partnership agreement, jointly signed by Ashley Highfield, Chair of the NMA, and James Harding, Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, was published simultaneously on the NMA’s website and the BBC’s website.

The letter identifies four initiatives on which the NMA and the BBC plan to work together, including a ‘local public sector reporting service’ (since redubbed the Local Democracy Reporter scheme), through which the BBC will award £8m of licence fee funds to local newspapers in order to employ 150 local journalists per year, to generate reports on local democracy

HandandShrimp

I don’t think there is much doubt that Scotland does have a problem with racism, you only have to look at the number of Tory councillors sent on diversity training courses.

Liz g

What Jim Davidson @ 1.35 says.

Briandoonthetoon…
Don’t end the matter, never apologise,never explain!
The only response is N.O.Y.F.B.
Leave this on rinse and repeat,see how long it lasts,and it will be sorted at the next stall,very easily.
And ironically! LOL

Dan Huil

British nationalist hatred for Scotland continues unabated. Tractors. Keep boycotting the britnat media. Don’t pay the bbc tax.

Bobp

Breastplate 9.58am. You got that right, I’ve travelled all over Europe and england with celtic supporters for years. And do you know what I’ve never seen. I’ve never seen them giving Nazi salutes.

Dr Jim

Honest Anas the opportunist:

Is this the same Anas Sarwar whose shops have been caught selling the cheap brain damaging Hooch ciders for the original price after the ban, and filmed doing it but of course not shown on the Telly

Aye Anas is an honest man

And just because you might happen to be married to someone not of your own race doesn’t make you NOT a racist, we’ve all seen Anas Sarwars faux indignant interventions on many things over the years

Anas has always been a do as I say not as I do kinda opportunist liar with one agenda, to be a king in the house of Lords, but he keeps getting found out

jfngw

I think we know what tonight’s Reporting Scotland will be headlining. Man selling book say’s Scotland is Shite, BBC agrees and are looking for as many people that they can find that agree.

Remember no matter what the figures are in Scotland we will be portrayed as the same or worse than England. They need you to believe you are inferior, that’s how the empire works and always has.

Bobp

Should also have said that we didn’t disrespect local cultures.

Capella

The BBC featured this story on GMS apparently. They got it from an obliging “academic” who has written A BOOK demoishing the myth of Scottish tolerance.

Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Davidson said the book aimed to address the “fantasy” that “somehow Scotland is different in this respect”.

He added: “Just take one figure – in the year 2013/14 there were just under 5,000 racial attacks in Scotland. That is about 92 a week, and as we demonstrate in the book there’s a massive under-reporting of these kind of incidents.”

So maths is not his strong point. As Stu points out, the actual figure is 3,349. Even the BBC admits this.
link to bbc.co.uk

Chick McGregor

A National sports writer a few days ago claimed Paul Lambert was the last Scot to get a European Championship winner’s medal, not true. The last Scot to get one was Darren Fletcher 10 years ago with Man. U..

The last Englishman to get one was 6 years ago with Chelsea and the last British player was Gareth Bale from Wales with Real Madrid.

Arajag

This article does not take into account demographic make up of ether country. Indeed, Scotland is far less diverse than England. (96% of people identifying as “white” versus 85% in England.) – So a direct per head comparison is somewhat redundant. Indeed, given this lack of diversity the numbers do not paint Scotland in a particularly good light. (Scotland manages significant Race hate with far fewer potential victims)

Proud Cybernat

Coincidentally, on Saturday when the best part of 100 thousands Scots marched peacefully through Glasgow’s streets, supervised by a token police presence of about a dozen or so officers, there was another march/rally going on in London at the very same time – a very different march:

“…there was not a rhetorical device employed that wasn’t in use at political meetings across Germany in 1932. I use that line without hyperbole.”

A Day of Fear

link to mike-stuchbery.org

Jim Davidson

@Rocky 11
What’s with all this we nonsense, who exactly are you spokesperson for. Certainly not me, its no business of mine as I have no involvement in the wings operation.
Have you spent time and money purchasing/distributing flags badges etc
Have you spent time and money driving round the country delivering the wee blue book
Have you spent time and money getting to, setting up, manning stalls at the various rallys
So what qualifies you to be making demands. Your only contribution seems to me to be incessant purile accusations and general tinfoil hat yoonery.
Do you honestly think this small band of dedicated wingers are just doing this for a bit of back pocket cash rather than the Indy cause.
Personally considering the amount of their time they give to providing a physical wings presence at these events, I wouldn’t begrudge them a round of drinks out of the bucket for their efforts. Not that I think they would. Considering the hostile environment that wings is up against, they more than anyone need to be squeaky clean, and they are all aware of that.
So on behalf of the “we” f off and take your rabid nonsense elsewhere

mike cassidy

Only an idiot would suggest Scotland has been or is a racist- free zone.

If that was the claim that the authors were saying they were refuting, then nobody would give a feck.

Academics prove bears shit in the woods and all that.

Even the Herald wouldn’t care

But the Herald clearly want to lay emphasis on what the authors want to say about Scotland today.

This from the Herald article.

Fellow author Carol Young, senior policy officer for the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, added: “There’s a perception that Scotland has less of a problem with racism than other areas of the UK, perhaps best summed up by the phrase ‘we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns.’ But regardless of popular opinion, the statistics suggest otherwise.”

If this is an accurate quote from one of the coauthors – and I know we’re talking the Herald here – then she is simply wrong.

The statistics – as the Rev has indicated above – DO suggest Scotland has significantly less of a problem than England.

End of.

Jim Davidson

Your the fkin comedian Rocky

Robert J. Sutherland

Willie @ 11:28,

There’s the stark difference at an official level. Down in England there was the UKGov-sponsored “Get back home, migrant” vans touring the streets, whereas up here we have the FM saying out loud and proud in public that immigrants are welcome and are an important part of the economy.

Governments responding to public sentiment, or governments leading it – which is chicken and which is egg? Doesn’t seem to matter, since the implications are just the same.

Artyhetty

Haven’t police numbers in England gone down by 20% or so? Sorry, I mean the UK tory government have taken the numbers down. Not to worry, they have a ‘private police force’ it’s been piloted and is due to ‘hits the streets of Britain to fill void created by austerity’. That’s what is in the news today, and so have a look at RTnews.

Read about it yesterday, it’s to police the streets of the rich and mega rich, who pay for it and has been successful in keeping the plebs away, catching theives and all kinds of what they see as unsavoury people. Not only that those who wander around Kensington or Mayfair looking a bit drab, get their photo plastered all over twitter as suspected rogues!

These are jumped up security guards and are ex police, ex soldiers and are not accountable to the actual law, it seems.

Best sew those holes in your jackets and wear your best shoes if walking around anywhere in England where these law unto themselves thugs are loitering! Wait, is this 1818? I must have just dreamt it was 2018. The news has it reported as Britain, not England.

K1

They’ll jump on and promote any ‘book’ that supports their own prejudices and narrow political anti Scotland (read anti SNP) agenda. That’s what Leask is referring to when he huffily defends his Herald pish.

“Academics subject to peer review spend years researching a subject. Their findings are published in a newspaper. A blogger then takes “literally 60 seconds” to Google and declares their work a “lie”

Rev hasn’t ‘declared their work a ‘lie’, what he’s done is declared the Herald’s headline and conclusion a ‘lie’ The statistics don’t back up the conclusions that the Herald article is promoting. Anas Sarwar has being trying to wedge this in to our political discourse for a wee while now. Leask and his cronies are merely obliging a pal by using a ‘book’ to somehow back up Sarwar’s current political ploy to make out that under the SNP, racism is equal to or just as bad as down south.

The reality and facts tell the complete opposite story. Leask has no journalistic integrity, a real journalist would have taken the ’60 seconds’ to do what the Rev did and would have found the book to be somewhat lacking in veracity on this score?

But Leask isn’t a ‘real’ journalist’. Obviously. Cause if it took the Rev 60 seconds and Professor Robertson a wee hour or so to expose the truth of the matter between England and Scotland’s ‘hate/race’ crime levels, and the differences between them, Leask and the Herald would not have been able to ‘manufacture’ such an article in the first place…eh?

And that’s why they hate Wings so much, it exposes ‘Them’ as the fraudulent purveyors of gutter tripe journalism. Ad hominem is all the likes of Leask has left, his integrity and honesty as a man went the way of the dodo decades ago.

Capella

In the quote from GMS he says that the 5,000 crimes were reported in 2013 – 14, not 2016 – 17. But the chart above indicates that there were around 4,000 crimes that year.

The paper that the chart is taken from is a good source and maybe a better read than his “book”.

link to copfs.gov.uk

Bobp

With all the evidence in front of our eyes in this digital age. How in God’s name can any sane or rational person( other than a certain type of bigot) vote against Their own country’s independence. Are these people really so brainwashed by hatred.

Socrates MacSporran

I live in one of those former East Ayrshire mining villages which can best be summed-up by Donald Findlay’s great crack about High Valleyfield in Fife: “8000 inhabitants – four surnames.”

It’s the same down here, where: “Wha’s he fur a Smith,” is often used when one of the umpteen Wullie Smiths in the village is being discussed.

The natives (I’ve been here nearly 40-years, but, am still an “incomer”) don’t like the natives from the village four miles down the road, but, we’ve got families in this village who are ethnically: Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, or from several African and Middle Eastern countries. All love it here, all are treated with respect, and in return, treat the natives with respect.

I see a level of racial tolerance in this wee, supposedly backward village that I never saw while living in Wales and in Yorkshire.

Indeed, while in Yorkshire, I remember a couple of locals, of Asian extraction, hurling abuse at later arrivals, also of Asian extraction. The ones doing the abusing were Yorkshire-born, not immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. It could be something they put in the water in England, I feel.

jfngw

If the writer of this book wants to include anti-irish/catholic in the racism of Scotland then he really needs to include these same types of figures in England. Or is he inferring there was no anti-Irish, Scots or Welsh sentiment in England.

You can’t just include stats for one nation and ignore these same stats elsewhere just to prove your case. After all Brown was disliked down south as much for his ‘North Britishness’ as any of his policies.

Robert J. Sutherland

Terence callachan @ 13:31,

Aye, but the argument is also frequently aired by media BritNats that English people in Scotland are (allegedly) also subjected to abuse just because they come from down south. So they count too.

You can’t have it both ways.

cearc

Nobody ever suggested that the’Wing’s Stall’ was a fundraiser.

Just some people thought that rather than having coffee mornings that mainly yessers and maybe soft noes would attend it would be good to take stalls at local Fayre/Games days to talk to people bring pro-yes material, leaflets and website addresses etc.

Not necessarily even the same people, different people in different places but same, gazebo, handy stash of leaflets etc. being lent around.

It is no more your business than how much money was taken or what will be done with it, than how much the ice-cream vendor took.

starlaw

rocky 11

whit wie ur ye stull haverin oan aboot ra Wings wee shoap und whit did they dae wie ra bawbees.
Ye wir telt thut ray bocht hairy string wi ra bawbees. So haud yur wheesht its bugger awe tae dae wie you oanywie.

Capella

Perhaps he (the academic) is lumping in anti-Catholic crimes as race crimes on the theory that all Catholics are Irish.

I wonder if the race crimes that do exist are actually perpetrated mainly by Unionists/Loyalists. The only bigots I have heard openly spouting racist nonsense have been staunch Unionists. Brexiteers also seem to be motivated by xenophobia.

But I’m not claiming that as an acacdemic study.

Proud Cybernat

BREAKING from Pravda Quay
with Union Jackie Kim Ono:

comment image

jfngw

In the future recall the Herald reporters assertion, never compare crime stats as this is a trainee level error.

Is this true for all stats I wonder or only the ones that are lower in Scotland because I’m continually reading when Scots stats are worse than the UK. They are quite willing to use these to rubbish Scotland without mentioning the distortion of the figures by London and the SE of England.

Remember most journalists are egotistical aresholes, and I’ve met a few in my time. They are interested in their career, the truth is usually of secondary importance.

Dr Jim

There’s very little anti Englishness in Scotland but there is plenty of anti Arsehole and that applies to everyone so for the some English folk who might try to apply anti English to themselves I’m afraid not, it’s probably the anti Arsehole thing which sees no colour or creed

You’re an Arsehole or you’re not, and BTW we’ve all fallen foul of that rule from time to time, knowingly or not

K1

Perhaps it is time to change the term to ‘Proud Arsehole Butts’ Dr Jim. 😉

Dan Huil

British nationalists love trying to drag other people down to their rancid level of hatred.

Rocky II

Jim Davidson,

You really are a comedian aren’t you?

Who is this “we” you talk of. You have a couple of rabid Wingers like Starlaw and Briandoonthetoon backing you up, but that is to be expected.

So please don’t resort to name calling and insults. We expect that from posters on the Scotsman or Daily mail, not on Wings.

I am asking TWO fairly simple questions:

1/ HOW MUCH MONEY WAS RAISED ?

2/ AND WHERE IS THE MONEY NOW ?

Proud Cybernat

Hey Rocky II – the money was all spent on fags n booze. Ah think yae should report this to HMRC if you’re so troubled by it. Off you trot now.

Sarah

O/T For the avoidance of doubt I too would like to congratulate the Wings stallholders for all their hard work. It is much appreciated.

Re The National – I enjoy the National Conversation [aka letters] pages most, plus the Scottish history and culture articles [and some sport, the puzzles, some opinion pieces..]. Long may it flourish.

Today is the last day of the Iscot fundraiser – I’m a little worried as there’s been no update since last night when it was at 62% of target.

smithie

To Brian DTT and Ronnie
Over the years i have held various positions on committies and including Treasurer and if i had some belly slithering person casting aspersions on my integrity….lets say i would not be a happy bunny so this is why i am commenting on this case.

Either get him reported for Trolling….which i believe he is…or drag the scroat through the courts and i will be more than willing to contribute to the cost

Proud Cybernat

iScot Magazine CrowdFundraiser

Here’s the PayPal link if anyone wishes to contribute:

link to paypal.me

(From here: link to iscot.scot )

Dorothy Devine

Mr Davidson , take a bow!

Sadly the person so intent on finding out that which is none of his concern is so feeble minded he doesn’t know when to shut his geggie so continues to be an embarrassment to himself and an irritant to everyone else.

Volunteers are unpaid . Volunteers spend their own time and money setting up their stalls , manning their stall, removing their stall , storing their goods ready for the next time when they work for the benefit of Scotland’s future – again for nothing. It’s a kind of circle of goodness , a halo if you like.

Now put a sock in it.

jfngw

Surely the Herald should not be reporting the mythical £80bn growth loss figures as this requires comparison with the rest of UK. And you know comparison of this type are trainee level errors aren’t they. Oh forgot they are detrimental to Scotland, how stupid of me.

Robin

STV News:

Scotland ‘has higher rate of race murders than rest of UK’

A new book claims the idea Scotland is more welcoming to immigrants is a ‘misleading fantasy.’

“It states that in Scotland between 2000 and 2013 there were 1.8 race-related murders per million people, compared to 1.3 per million in the rest of the UK.”

So if the Author has these stats to hand then surely he will have the details of who carried out these murders?

After all. 1.8 per Million in Scotland works out about THREE murders per year.

It shouldn’t be that difficult to trace who was murdered due to race in Scotland between the years mentioned.

link to stv.tv

Bobp

Socrates macsporran 2.42pm. I take it thats near Drongan or rankinston. Har de har. Lovely natives.

dakk

‘Anti Scottish Scotland Is A Living Reality Today’

would be the truthful headline if the Herald was interested in real journalism and honesty.Imagine the impact if they spoke the truth.

They and their fellow British nationalists in the msm along with around half the voting population of Scotland are anti Scottish.

They may or may not be racist,but they sure as hell are seriously injurious to Scotland and are a scourge on us all.

I can’t imagine any honesty or positivity about Scotland in a Britnat propaganda sheet or tv channel.Ever.

Even if we gave up our quest for truth and democracy for Scotland they would still persist.They just enjoy being abusive and condescending too much to ever stop.

One of the defining British characteristics along with warmongering, greed, hypocrisy,dishonesty and snobbery.

HandandShrimp

If there is anyone here yet to subscribe to iScot then I can heartily recommend it. May’s copy arrived this morning and it is yet another cracker with excellent articles covering a range of topics and beautiful pictures and graphics…a quality publication. I see they are doing the Saddler passport cover offer for new subscriptions again what is not to like 🙂

Proud Cybernat

Saw this and it truly encapsulates the Media war against Scotland’s self-confidence we witness day-in, day-out:

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target’s belief.” – From Wiki

So surely that makes the BritNat media fannies by gaslighting then?

Rocky II

smithie: 3.18pm

I am asking two questions, can you please point out which law I am breaking.

Here the the questions I asked just in case you got confused with some other post.

1/ HOW MUCH MONEY WAS RAISED ?

2/ AND WHERE IS THE MONEY NOW ?

Rocky II

Dorothy Devine

Can you answer these simple questions then?

1/ HOW MUCH MONEY WAS RAISED ?

2/ AND WHERE IS THE MONEY NOW ?

Proud Cybernat

Hey Rocky II – give us your email addy and I’ll send you all the receipts. Can’t say fairer than that.

Socrates MacSporran

Bobp @ 3.29pm

Same county, different post code and vastly-different mind set. We have evolved somewhat since 1690, something which cannot be said of many of the residents of the two fine Unionist strongholds you mention.

Mind you, we do have a fine contingent of sash-wearers here.

Socrates MacSporran

Can somebody please put Rocky II out of his misery, by telling him whose account the money is resting in?

HandandShrimp

Socrates

Father Ted I think 🙂

Will someone please buy some of RockyII’s badges, he is clearly feeling left out, then he might STFU.

smithie

Rocky….simple

It’s got fuck all do to with you.

Liz g

Dorothy Devine
Just because you could don’t mean you should.
…………
Smithie
Legal advice isn’t free,I mind at set your rates,and ask for a billing address!

Proud Cybernat

I’ve got all the money, Rocky II. It’s in my account. Cos it’s mine. Send us your email addy and I’ll send you all the info you desire.

yourname[dot]secondname[at]provider.whatever

and I’ll get it all to you.

Ian McCubbin

What wont the unionists use to undermine independence?

How are these newspapers voing to survive after independence.
They better start swutching sides soon or go out of business..
I dont buy ir read them because I know there is kess fuction in the beano

Reluctant Nationalist

@ Robin, 3.27pm

Kriss Donald would’ve been one of them. In fact, wasn’t that the very first official racially-motivated murder conviction in Scotland?

Liz g

Socrates McSporran @ 3.47
Its nobody’s business but our own,the Wing’s stall operatives are answerable to no one.
Although mibbi they could be persuaded to do some administration work for an appropriately sized donation ?

Bobp

Socrates macsporran 3.45pm. Lol. Awra best.

jfngw

@Robin

Don’t agree with the three per year figure. The STV article states 1.8 per million between 2000 & 2013, I make that 9 race murders in total over 14 years (assuming the dates are inclusive). That’s 0.64 murders per year.

With such low figures trying to extrapolate is ludicrous, one murder less would make the 1.125 and lower than rest of UK. I don’t think I’ll be buying this book if this is the level of analysis.

In fact if you pick and choose what group of years to include I suspect you could get any result you want.

Naina Tal

Hey Rocky2 gie it a rest there’s a guid boy..Had enough o yir threed disruptin shite. Ah’ve follied Wings for long enough tae ken whit the guid fowk yir accusing hev done for the cause.
Noo maistly ah just lurk or sometimes ah pit in a wee comment (usually o the leed balloon category) bit Ah’m sure if their had been oany jookery pokery it wad hae been fund oot lang syne. These are great great people.
Noo you are getting own ma tits…

smithie

Rocky, not confused in the least…simples

Got fuck all to do with you

Ian Brotherhood

@Dorothy Devine –

‘shut his geggie’

😉

Soo-perb!

Haven’t seen that for years.

🙂

Jim Davidson

Rocky 11
“don’t resort to name calling and insults”
Perhaps you should read over some of your previous posts and take your own advice on board
For clarification I think you will find it is I who are backing them up.
It must be obvious by now that your not going to have your questions answered on a public forum, for reasons that have been explained to you previously, although I have no doubt you will continue in your futile nonsense.

gus1940

I have a subscription to iScot.

If the latest fundraiser falls short of its target by closing time I would have no objection if Stu subbed the shortfall to them from the surplus collected in the latest Wings fundraiser.

This excellent magazine must not be allowed to die.

ronnie anderson

TRANSPARENCY Wings Stall transparency was adopted on Sat by AUOB when 15 collection buckets were emptied on tables & people round about ( no committee members ) were asked to count the monies .

( NOT RONNIE ANDERSONS STALL ) The double Gizebo was purchased from Wings Stall funds . The old Gizebo from Yes in Strathclyde Park ( the Hairy Stringed repaired one ) is still employed when we do Tea’s/Coffees & is lent out ( free of charge ) to other Yes groups until they can raise the funds to buy their own English Scots for Yes being one such group ( Holyrood 2015 ) .

WE the Wings Stall Volunteers Are Dedicated WINGERS & would NOT suffer the Wings Over Scotland Brand being brought into disrepute , thats why the practice of accounting at the end of the day was /is adopted & the Many Wingers IF U care to read can see & hear how much monies are raised & what it will be spent on .

Im NOT a person that seeks to placate Muppets/Trolls .

Normally as after previous events monies raised would be posted on the page & O/T but U shot your bold R2D2 before we had even started to count the proceeds . I did say in reply to your 1st post there would be Disclosure of monies raised Glasgow Green & Dumfries Marches & we’re emphatic on that .

I would be very careful of malinging GOOD PEOPLES names . Betty Boop how much did that New Ring Ring TILL cost U & Jim .

NOW PISS OFF AND FOREVER HOLD YOUR WHEEESHT . ( at least until after the 2nd June )

dandy dons 1903

Desperate stuff from the yoons trying to paint the indy movement as intolerant bigots, maybe they should look at themselves first before commenting.

Alba 46

The Rev has stated on many many previous occasions don’t answer trolls, as it just encourages them to respond. Which in turn ruins the thread.

People who are responding to trolls are as bad as they are.

For gods sake give it a rest and leave these people to their own devices.

Albert Herring

@Dr Jim

Arseholeism

or

“Good guy, good guy, good guy, wank, good guy, wank, wank, good guy, good guy”

Robin

jfngw 4.01pm

“It states that in Scotland between 2000 and 2013 there were 1.8 race-related murders per million people, compared to 1.3 per million in the rest of the UK.”

Hi mate

I took it to be 1.8 per Million per year. Which would be 5.4 divided by 1.8. murders per year.

Is it not?

Or am I missing something?

smithie

Alba 46
Alba normally i would agree with you but this”person” i believe has crossed the line, he/she is questioning the integrity of fellow wingers and i’m sorry i won’t have it

Cathie Lloyd

I accept your points about the comparison. However, I’m aware of disturbing incidents in Edinburgh. Racist insults at a 13 year old in Morningside. A stabbing in a hostel which has left a Syrian refugee dangerously ill in hospital. We can never be complacent about racism.

Naina Tal

Smithie: Right wi ye there. Wis just shoot tae say the same masel.

Naina Tal

Aboot no shoot!!!!!!

smithie

lol i hear you Naina Tal

Jim Davidson

@Alba 46
You are right of course, but schomtimes its better to keep poking them wi a sharp stick and let them dig a big deep hole for themselves with their outrageous and libelous accusations.
My work here is done, although I should thank him for delurking me. Its been to long, hopefully my future posts will be on topic in futures

orri

The interesting thing here is that the archived version doesn’t have that headline.

What we have here is a failure to understand that anti-racist means opposed to racism. Which in this instance means that the measures taken by Holyrood to reduce racism and intolerance are based on a myth so a waste of time according to the headline.

On the other hand you can’t simply dismiss the lower stats based on lack of targets. Some arsewipes pick on more isolated minorities.

Then again the claim that anti-irish racism was being disguised as sectarianism by the OBFA might be another reason for them being so keen to repeal it.

Long story short Scotland in general is sick to the back teeth of racism and bigotry and has elected a government trying to counter it, in other words is anti-racist.

Dr Jim

Unionists responsible for more racist attacks on people in Scotland than Nats

That might make a better Herald headline, do you think we’d ever see it, not difficult to provide video evidence for it either

Alba 46

As reporters go you do not get much better than John Pilger. I first noticed him with his reports during the Vietnam war. He was universally detested by the establishment particular the USA.

His reports told stories that the establishment did not want to be reported, he ignored them and continued doing what he does best and reported the FACTS regardless of the subsequent shitstorm.

He has continued to report in his own unique and factual way his entire life from all the various war zones throughout the world.

In the following interview on RT he gives his views an the current sorry state of journalism and the adherence to toe the political line.

There are not enough journalists of the calibre of John Pilger and that is a tragedy. The current crop could not lace his shoes.

link to rt.com

Achnababan

Just a wee correction. Leask claims the book by acaedemics he used to substnatiate his narrative (fantasy?) was peer reviewed. Books only undego very soft reviews, typically by the publisher’s assistant looking for bad grammer or typos. In other words could be utter tosh!

HandandShrimp

Back to the main topic, which is far more important than Rocky’s obsession, the thing to note in the report that seems to e not getting as much airplay is the identifcation of a much healthier political atmosphere in Scotland over Westminster. Given the backdrop of Windrush and Home Office targets that is a significant difference.

No one is saying that there is no racism in Scotland. There clearly is. We have our BNP/SDL types. There is still a culture of xenophobic suspicion, Islamaphobia, antisemitism and all the rest in Scotland. What Scotland lacks due to much lower levels of immigration is inter-community strife, Somalis fighting Asian for example. However, the political is different and that is important. Something that the press might give a little more emphasis without diluting the message that dealing with racism is still a work in progress.

Golfnut

I haven’t read all the comments and someone may well have already mentioned this, so apologies. My memory might also be playing tricks, but I’m sure someone will put me right.

Surely, a comparison on race crime between England Scotland is impossible. Both countries must both operate the same designations of what a ‘ hate crime ‘ is. An Englishmen kicking five bells out of a Scot, Irish or Welshman, while abusing their nationality, is not counted as a race crime. In, Scotland it is.

ronnie anderson

HandandShrimp I told you on Sun that the PnR had left a flag for you at the wings stall , so’s got confuddeled wie names it was for Archie nor Erchie

Meindevon

Agree with Gus. iScot needs to survive. It’s a great magazine even if you don’t want Indy I have it on sub and pass them around my English friends.

Off topic but in Baltimore atm and just seen a plaque re an old American ship which was returning with Jewish refugees from Germany in 1947 and was attacked by the British. The refugees were forcibly returned to occupied Germany and detention camps. The ship was renamed the Exodus 1947.

Between ‘46 and ‘48 ten ships were acquired and used by the USA and Canada to bring refugees through ‘British blockades’. ‘ The saga of the Exodus inspired the world to condemn British policy.’

Never heard of this… surprised not!

Robert Peffers

@Betty Boop says: 8 May, 2018 at 10:44 am:

“I doubt such publications need a business model. Their purpose is no longer, perhaps never was, solely to report news. With the backing (financial and otherwise) available for forests of propaganda, I doubt they are bothered whether anyone actually pays to read their bilge.”

I became a SNP supporter while still at school in the 1940s and began to buy a daily paper in the early 1950s. I have always been an avid reader and before the days of TV in Scotland and the advent of computers my minimum books read in an average week was 7 library books plus paperbacks.

However, it didn’t take me long after beginning work to find out that there was then only one Scottish newspaper worth reading and that was the then excellent Scotsman. In those days the Herald was the Glasgow Herald and thus not of the same interest to a lad from the East of Scotland.

What was very clear to me in those days was that the newspapers of the day were either scandal sheets or unionist through and through, but then I was always a great one for Scottish history and that included political history so the relevant point, Betty is that the Scottish MSM were always a bunch of lying )cough!), pretendy journalists – with just a very few exceptions.

The thing though was that in the main they then did report the news but the news was authored by unnamed, “reporters”. The opinion pieces were written by named columnists who you soon knew what their political colours were and the general political trend of the publication was written by the Editor and sub-editors.

The only thing you knew you could trust was the reported news. BTW: In those days the Press regulation was done by the National Union of Journalists and on the day they were replaced as the regulators the MSM was headed for the gutter.

crazycat

@ Achnababan at 5.09

Achnababan says:
8 May, 2018 at 5:09 pm
Just a wee correction. Leask claims the book by acaedemics he used to substnatiate his narrative (fantasy?) was peer reviewed. Books only undego very soft reviews, typically by the publisher’s assistant looking for bad grammer or typos. In other words could be utter tosh!

Leask doesn’t understand the concept of “peer review”.

Here’s the definition (from Merriam-Webster – my bold):

a process by which a scholarly work (such as a paper or a research proposal) is checked by a group of experts in the same field to make sure it meets the necessary standards before it is published or accepted.

and here’s what Leask tweeted today (quoted here – link to twitter.com – my bold again):

I have no need to substantiate a position. The facts in this matter are not in dispute. Academics have published a book and we have reported their findings. Do feel free to come back when you have published a peer review in an academic journal and we’ll cover that too.

(Papers I’ve written have been the subject of peer review; I’ve also carried out such reviews. They are anonymous – though in specialized fields it’s sometimes quite easy to work out who wrote them – and are not published.)

crazycat

@ Achnababan at 5.09

Just a wee correction. Leask claims the book by acaedemics he used to substnatiate his narrative (fantasy?) was peer reviewed. Books only undego very soft reviews, typically by the publisher’s assistant looking for bad grammer or typos. In other words could be utter tosh!

Leask doesn’t understand the concept of “peer review”.

Here’s the definition (from Merriam-Webster – my bold):

a process by which a scholarly work (such as a paper or a research proposal) is checked by a group of experts in the same field to make sure it meets the necessary standards before it is published or accepted.

and here’s what Leask tweeted today (quoted here – link to twitter.com – my bold again):

I have no need to substantiate a position. The facts in this matter are not in dispute. Academics have published a book and we have reported their findings. Do feel free to come back when you have published a peer review in an academic journal and we’ll cover that too.

(Papers I’ve written have been the subject of peer review; I’ve also carried out such reviews. They are anonymous – though in specialized fields it’s sometimes quite easy to work out who wrote them – and are not published.)

crazycat

Apologies for the double post – I realized I’d included the cite tag for the comment I was replying to, and mindful of hammers, tried to interrupt the posting. More “review” needed, clearly!

I’m hoping that putting the tag within blockquotes has renedered it harmless.

crazycat

Apologies for the double post – I realized I’d included the cite tag for the comment I was replying to, and mindful of hammers, tried to interrupt the posting. More “review” needed, clearly!

I’m hoping that putting the tag within blockquotes has rendered it harmless.

Robert Peffers

@Giving Goose says: 8 May, 2018 at 11:26 am:

” … I wouldn’t be surprised if the British Government is, in some clandestine way, providing financial support to the Herald in order to make up financial shortfall. That’s just speculation but certainly worth considering.”

Nope! It is much more than just speculation, Giving Goose, it is factual.

In spite of what most people are led to believe, the BBC does not directly get the TV Licence money that is collected. The Licence Fee is a payment to purchase the right to view live video broadcasting – The word, “Licence”, actually means to have permission and that permission is obtained from Her Majesty’s Government and Westminster is NOT legally sovereign in the Kingdom of England as that is the Royal Prerogative.

Legally Her Majesty is permitting the licence holder to view live video broadcasts. Note that it applies to all broadcast video and not just from the BBC. The way the BBC is funded is NOT by the Licence fee but by an agreed grant from Her Majesy’s Treasury and even if no one bought a licence the BBC will get the agreed grant.

The BBC is funding reporters to all the major Scottish newspaper companies and thus it is the taxpayer’s money, whether the buy a licence or not, that the Westminster Government is giving to the BBC to provide reporters to those Scottish lie sheets.
Regarding the mis-reporting of racism figures – the Scottish MSM simply has to do this because if it didn’t, it would expose the fact that Scotland is actually different, and that the UK is not a unitary state where there are commonalities across the board.
I recall Ian Davidson, when a Labour MP, going out of his way during the English riots to attempt to link Scotland to the events. This displayed a similar approach and way of thinking.
All in the cause of Unionism.

Socrates MacSporran

Liz g @ 3.59pm

I quite agree, it’s simply when I saw that bloody troll going on about it, the old Father Ted line came immediately to mind.

starlaw

rocky 11 3.09pm

Yippee I’m a rabid Winger noo. I always knew life held a special place for me awe…………..

Rocky II

Ronnie Anderson

I think you call that deflection

smithie

Starlaw i ken its hard but just “Breathe” lol

Haggishunter

I work with a Syrian.
He told me that the people of Aberdeen have been very kind to him and he loves the Scots, he even learnt to speak Doric, and greets us in the morning with fit like mannie?
He said his relatives in England get abuse all the time, including a case where a cousin was beaten senseless.
We have an Englishman work colleague who refused to shake hands with him when he started, the rest of us found this shocking.

smithie

Rocky 11…do you have family?//

velofello

The Scottish government are concerned that the UK DWP are behind schedule will not be able to hand over devolved Social Benefits powers by the scheduled 2020. So in steps Mundell and McVey curtesy of the Herald to divert away from the truth. Despicable.

Smallaxe

“I think you call that deflection”

Naw son, it’s called the hairy string section!

Rock

“and the Herald bangs the drum extra-hard this morning, with Anas Sarwar given lots of room to talk Scotland down while insisting that he’s not talking Scotland down, claiming that the idea of Scotland being “less intolerant than our neighbours” is a myth.”

Buy the fake “independence supporting” The National to keep its elder sisters The Herald and The Sunday Herald alive.

McDuff

Great piece once again Rev.

Brian Doonthetoon

Och, ‘not to be referred to’, gie it a break! Yir well sussed an’ a’ yir dain’ is hoggin’ the pages atween teatime and suppertime.

Awa’ an’ tak a wak ti clear yir haid.

D’yi wahnt independence, or jist ti hae yir twa ‘oors o’ gibberin’ braille ivry night?

Have you ever experienced ‘the great outdoors’?

Bobp

Haggishunter 7.54″ I would be making it clear that the Syrian was more welcome, and that your work colleague should f**k off back to where he came from.

Cubby

Boring boring paid to troll British Nationalists = Rock = Rocky11 = sensibledave = Colin Alexander = mad Unionist.

Get a decent job guys.

Chick McGregor

Rocky Ra**oon, *hite Album.

Fill in the missing ASCII’s

Clue: One of them is a space.

K1

From Rev’s twitter a few hours ago now, guy called George S Gordon tweeted to Rev:

‘Postscript to Leasky’s claim that you are dissing peer-reviewed research:

The book, which is the subject of the article, is a collection of essays presented at a conference in Sept 2014, i.e. no evidence of being peer-reviewed.
(no doubt I’ll be blocked)’

link to twitter.com

Leask really isn’t a journalist, so it’s rumoured.

DW

A preview of the book is available on Amazon.
The book “seeks to address” “complacency about racism in Scotland”, which sounds perfectly reasonable. However, a quick skim reveals that the “book” is in fact a collection of political essays.
Chapter 1, page 1: “The Scottish National Party and its leading figures routinely appropriate historical events and figures that suit their political needs and agenda”. Chapter 1 goes on, “the understanding of Scotland as a civic nation is not unproblematic”. Problematic because, apparently, only “a very specific history is drawn upon, while some – more sinister chapters – are forgotten”.
As an apparent example to back up this claim we read that “[Alex] Salmond contends that he is ‘happy to be the representative of a country whose most celebrated figure, Robert Burns – is not a soldier, but a poet’, he conveniently chooses never to mention that Burns came very close to moving to West Indies in order to take on a job as a book-keeper on a Jamaican plantation in 1786”.
The real theme of the book seems to be that Scotland isn’t any better than England.
As Carol Young puts it: “There’s a perception that Scotland has less of a problem with racism than other areas of the UK, perhaps best summed up by the phrase ‘we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns.’ But regardless of popular opinion, the statistics suggest otherwise.” According to the introduction, Carol Young’s essay focuses “on the difficulties of achieving racial equality in the public sector”. So, presumably, Scotland isn’t meeting public sector employment quotas, so we should forget all that Jock Tamson stuff.

Welsh Sion

England vs The Rest of the World (Celts NOT included).

Apologies for it being BBC an’ aw that …

link to bbc.co.uk

Famous15

Cheer up folks!

My favourite history professor was an expert on the decline and fall of the Soviet Union and his research concluded that the factor which hastened the demise of that Union most was the people stopped believing “their” media.

Benhope

That useless Scottish oil,Brent crude, now trading at more than $77 per barrel.

Much Scottish revenue flowing towards London again.No wonder they are so desperate to keep us prisoner!

Liz g

Famous 15 @ 8.31
You should if you can,repost this on the current Main Thread.
Sorely need I’d say..

Gary

Scotland doesn’t have to worry about racism, we have sectarianism!!

I was shocked, but not THAT surprised, when a colleague asked me on my first day in a Civil Service office in Glasgow ‘what team do you support?’ I told him I couldn’t be arsed with football. He asked again, I told him my local team was Morton, but I don’t go to games because I’m not interested. He said ‘Aye, but what TEAM do you support?’ Running out of ideas, and finally getting the drift, I told him that the Old Firm were fucking arseholes and although I wasn’t bothered about football I especially hated both of THOSE teams. He was silenced by this, unused to someone not prepared to take sides.

As long as halfwits like these walk the streets and are frankly encouraged by politicians in both Labour and Conservative parties we are doomed.

We had a brilliant piece of legislation to try and stop ‘football fans’ from spouting sectarian filth, but Labour made it a pledge to end it. Unforgivable. Football is where sectarianism is TAUGHT. It is not a natural thing, it has to be TAUGHT. It is Scotland’s great shame that we allow sectarianism to exist, be taught and allow sectarian organisations to promulgate this filth to our children.

We are not immune to racism either. But the same organisations teaching children to be sectarian are now also teaching them to be racist.

We have to stop turning a blind eye and allowing organisation like, but not limited to, the Orange Order, to call themselves religious organisations ‘promoting their culture’ when all they do is poison our children

Richard Hunter

There is nothing wrong with any country (not Scotland in particular) trying to create a self-image as a friendly and welcoming place. (Even if the statistics cast were to cast doubt on this, there is still the hope of creating a self fulfilling prophecy.)

The Scottish media must be the only media in the world in which any attempt to do this is met with scorn. It’s not wonder that the Scottish media is in decline when all it ever does is try and run the country down.

yesindyref2

OT
Jeez, who wants to be a millionaire. If you have a target set the safety net ONE BELOW so you get a free go at your target. It’s not rocket science. Two at least have failed because they did it too late.

[…] are supposed to be anti-English xenophobes; narrow, inward-looking chauvinists who think if you weren’t born in Scotland, then you’re not Scottish at all – […]


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