Police Scotland – Semper Vigilo – always watchful for first signs of terrorism.
Author: Jamie Mann in The Ferret
Far right extremism was the most common ideology of individuals in Scotland reported to the UK Government’s counter-terrorism programme, according to the latest Police Scotland data.
The figures, released on 26 January, show that nearly a third of the Scottish residents referred to the anti-terror Prevent programme in the year ending 31 March 2022 held right wing extremist beliefs – almost triple the amount attracted to Islamic extremism.
Referrals over far right concerns have greatly exceeded those relating to Islamic extremism for the fourth year running.
The Home Office’s Prevent programme aims to “stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism” and relies on being notified of individuals deemed vulnerable to being drawn into violent extremism.
Referrals come from local authorities, schools, colleges, universities, health bodies, prisons and other sources, although the police – followed by the education sector – typically make the most referrals.
Once individuals are referred, Police Scotland assesses whether they are suitable for Prevent Case Management (PCM) – an intervention scheme. Nearly two-thirds of those deemed suitable for PCM in 2021/22 held far right beliefs.
The Ferret recently reported that the government suggested that Police Scotland and Pursue – a strand of Prevent which aims “to stop terrorist attacks” – coordinate a meeting regarding PA and online.
We previously revealed that a leading figure in PA Scotland used a private chat group to recruit neo-Nazis who posed with weapons, shared a bomb-making manual, quoted a mass murderer, and said members should kill “for the greater good”.
Nearly a third reported over far right fears
The latest Prevent figures show that the number of Prevent referrals increased by 65 per cent compared with 2020/21. Police Scotland attributed the drop in the previous year to lockdowns and other Covid-19 restrictions.
Of the 91 referrals in 2021/22, 54 per cent had either a “mixed, unstable or unclear ideology”, 31 per cent held far right beliefs, while 11 per cent were linked to an Islamic extremist ideology.
The vast majority of Prevent referrals were for young men. Some 92 per cent were male, while more than two thirds were under 20 years old.
The proportion of all those referred without a clear ideology has more than doubled in five years, and rose by more than a fifth between 2020/21 and 2021/22 alone.
The proportion relating to right-wing extremism steadily rose before falling by 14 per cent between 2020/21 and 2021/22, while referrals relating to Islamist extremism have remained just above 10 per cent since 2019/20.
Police Scotland said the new data provided “visibility of the critical work that is being undertaken to protect both these vulnerable people and communities”.
“By working effectively together, we will help to safeguard individuals who have been identified as vulnerable to radicalisation or susceptible to being drawn into terrorism or violent extremism,” said assistant chief constable, Gary Ritchie.
“The Prevent strategy promotes early intervention and the adoption of a multi-agency approach to safeguard individuals and communities. We remain committed to building strong partnerships with communities and other stakeholders to address the underlying causes fuelling radicalisation.”
What a load of absolute rubbish.
Instead of Police Scotland worrying and focussing about the ultra right wing terror threats lurking in Dumbarton and the Vale how about them deploying resources to detect and deter the epidemic of ordinary crime that stalks or communities, drugs, assault, theft, vandalism, theft.
Quite frankly in all honestly can’t think why Police Scotland are spending all their time monitoring and dealing with alleged referrals come from local authorities, schools, colleges, universities, health bodies, prisons and other sources, about terrorists in our midst..
And education, the schools, claimed to be the biggest source of terrorism of all, with the most referrals, that is absolutely pure rubbish. Are they really saying that school children are the biggest threat to our well being.
Well James you make very cogent points.
It is becoming increasingly clear as to how the military and security services in combination with other agencies have been censoring the media and peddling an utterly false agenda. And you are right about all of this being diversionary tactics.
Indeed, and not even related to political interventions, it was revealed in the Mail on Saturday this weekend by an ex military whistle blower that the 77th Brigade were monitoring people who had substantial internet followers and who had been criticising the Covid lockdown restrictions. Censoring and interfering with web sites the 77th Brigade it seems were also co-ordinating false narratives and other propaganda on behalf of the government in London
Now when you look at how the establishment controls the media against independence, how the establishment tried to take out political opponents like Alex Salmond, Craig Murray, Mark Hirst, Narion Millar and others, how the SNP has rotted from within with crazy gender policies, then one realises exactly the type of country we live in.
Email, face-book, twitter, phone call monitoring, combined with surveilance of folks internet activity, through the use of brigade operatives and Artificial Intelligence is the reality.
And of course when trawling the brigade through GCHQ has access to all of the computer databases and the facial and car registration camera data throughout the UK. And yes, the Tax Office utilizes voice recognition software which apparent is as accurate as a finger print.
And then we wonder why politics doesn’t work for us, doesn’t deliver, whilst all the while the natural resources of our country gets stripped out as our populace gets poorer.
A bit of a tirade maybe. But do people not see what is going on around them as living standards plunge, as the NHS fails, as even the streets we drive on become ever more pockmarked, and the elites become wealthier.