Crime in Glasgow no longer occupies the margins of our newspapers. It dominates the national conversation. The scale and frequency of violent incidents, particularly those involving young people, would once have been unthinkable. Yet after years of SNP mismanagement, Scotland finds itself in a position where public safety can no longer be taken for granted.
The warning signs have been visible for some time. Police Scotland is currently consulting on the closure of 35 sites across the country as part of its Estates masterplan. In the past two years, 18 police stations have already been earmarked for closure, including key community bases in Glasgow such as Saracen Street and Castlemilk. Over the same period, only 13 new premises have opened nationally. Most of these are desks inside shared buildings rather than standalone stations.
The result is a city where local policing has thinned to the point that communities feel increasingly exposed. Officers quietly acknowledge that they cannot maintain the visibility required to prevent crime, reassure communities or deter the kind of youth offending now dominating headlines. In Glasgow, the decline in frontline presence is unmistakable and young people are growing up in neighbourhoods where the blue light is seldom seen, and the absence of authority is keenly felt.
At the same time, youth violence has risen to levels that should trouble every policymaker in Scotland. According to the Scottish Police Authority, between April and June there were 17 attempted murders involving 20 children. This means that almost a quarter of all attempted murders with an identified suspect involved a minor. This is not a marginal shift. It is a profound change in the landscape of Scottish crime.
Weapons are now turning up in schools with alarming regularity. In the most recent quarter, 52 weapons offences were recorded in schools across Scotland, up from 43 in the same period last year. Eleven of these incidents took place in primary schools. Teachers report that violence and intimidation in classrooms are rising, even as their authority has been weakened by years of poorly judged SNP policy decisions.
The picture is no better in our prisons. Scotland’s prison population reached a record 8,441 this month. This is more than 600 prisoners above the system’s capacity. Barlinnie, operating at roughly 140% of its intended capacity, is the starkest example of a system stretched to breaking point. The Scottish Government’s response has not been to expand capacity or deliver long-promised replacements. Instead, ministers have turned to the mass early release of prisoners. Nearly 1,000 inmates will be released early, including 139 in the first wave alone. Under the new rules, short-term offenders can be released after serving only 40% of their sentence.
As a grandmother to two young boys, both only three years old, these statistics take on a deeply personal meaning. I find myself wondering what their first day at school will be like in a city where weapons are being discovered in primary classrooms. I wonder what their first walk to the park on their own will feel like in a community where police patrols have become rare and criminals know the chances of being stopped are lower than ever. Parenting is harder
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today not because society has changed but because the structures that once supported families have been allowed to crumble.
State support, which should strengthen families and protect children, increasingly feels focused on excusing behaviour rather than confronting it. Scotland’s young people are growing up observing a justice system that is lenient to offenders, slow to act and unwilling to enforce meaningful deterrents. They see police stations closing. They see classrooms losing control. They see offenders walking free long before their sentences are complete. They draw the obvious conclusion that authority is weak and consequences are limited.
This is the reality of nearly two decades of SNP rule. A justice system without capacity, without direction and without seriousness. Glasgow, more than any other Scottish city, is bearing the brunt of these failures.
But this trajectory is not inevitable. With firm sentencing, genuine local policing, properly supported teachers and a justice system that puts victims before offenders, Scotland can restore the order and confidence it has lost. It requires leadership that is prepared to confront difficult truths rather than retreat into ideological comfort.
My grandchildren, and every child in Glasgow, deserve a city where safety is the norm and authority is respected. To deliver that, Scotland must finally move beyond the soft-touch policies that have defined the SNP years and begin rebuilding a justice system that works for families and communities
