Republicans doubt Real IRA claim over MI5 informant's killing
Donegal dissident held in Scottish prison could yet face charges
Although claimed by the Real IRA and an arrest warrant issued for a dissident suspect, few in republican circles believe the group murdered Denis Donaldson on its own.
They took responsibility for the killing three years after he was shot dead in April 2006 at a cottage in Donegal. The attack came five months after Donaldson (55) outed himself as an MI5 spy at the heart of Sinn Fein.
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Glasgow Times
34 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
'Scotland faces a new blade epidemic driven by teenagers'
But that hard work appears to be at risk, as Scotland faces a new blade epidemic driven by teenagers. There have already been two under-18s killed by stabbing in the past three months, including the tragic death of 15-year-old Amen Teklay in Glasgow earlier this year. And today it has been reported that police caught 91 children in possession of knives across the country throughout 2024 using stop-and-search tactics – the equivalent of one every four days. The issue has dominated the political scene, and even forced Jo Farrell, the chief constable, into the admission that she's worried about weapons in and around schools. And yet it wasn't that long ago that Glasgow was being held up as a beacon of how to reduce violent crime. Dedicated teams from London visited the city on a number of occasions to see what could be replicated there in the hope of having a similar effect. Policy leaders from across the world read up on the violence reduction work going on here, on education, and on the targeted interventions that were required to turn the tide in Glasgow, which once had the reputation as one of the most violent cities in the western world. But the new crisis we are facing is such that we clearly need something similar for the whole country, especially involving young people. Now when police find a knife on a person through a positive stop-and-search, there is a 30 per cent chance this will be a teenager. As the Scottish Police Federation say, these are young people who are making a conscious decision to pick up or acquire a blade, conceal it, and then take it out with them onto the streets. Maybe they have no intention of using it, and they see it merely as a deterrent. But they must realise the consequences, one of which is that it could be taken and used against them. The justice system of course has a part to play. The Scottish Government have been too soft for too long, especially on those under 25 who get an easy ride through the courts because it is deemed their brain isn't sufficiently developed yet to be a full-blown criminal. That has to change – slapping these offenders on the wrist isn't just an insult to victims and society, it doesn't do the offenders themselves any good either, as they go straight back onto the streets and continue in their reckless ways. However, we need to go further. Funding for youth clubs and community initiatives – so many of which have been allowed to close under successive governments – must be prioritised. We also need to get police back into schools and into the places where young people are to build relations. Savage cuts to the frontline have limited the opportunity for community officers to help get through to kids before they embark on a life of crime. Nothing can replace the bonds that can be formed in these moments. Glasgow has shown that it can come up with ways to tackle lethal violence in the past. Now the city should lead the charge again to help Scotland as a whole turn this brutal trend around.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
‘Truly shocking': Dozens of teens found with knives
In 2024, Scottish police found 91 people aged 18 and under in possession of a bladed weapon, including a 10-year-old. More than a dozen children aged 13 – including two girls – were found to have such items when searched. The statistics, analysed by 1919 magazine, indicate that teenagers accounted for almost a third of positive knife searches across all age groups in Scotland. The Scottish Police Federation's chairman, David Threadgold, expressed concern over an emerging societal trend among younger people, saying the statistics are 'truly shocking'. Scottish Labour 's justice spokesperson, Pauline McNeill, described the figures as a sign of a 'youth violence epidemic' and called for early intervention schemes to address the root causes.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Holyrood's elite has created conditions for rise of great Reform con
Among those who rushed to condemn her for belonging to a church that believes marriage is a sacrament reserved for a man and a woman was John Swinney, her SNP colleague of long standing. Yet Mr Swinney is happy to bring up his children in the Catholic tradition, having had his first marriage annulled so that he could marry again in the Catholic Church. I have questions. Doesn't Mr Swinney know that the Catholic Church also teaches that marriage is reserved for the union of a man and a woman? Feminists who, in the course of many decades, had fought for women's rights, found that they too were branded Fascists and bigots because they opposed biological men gaining access to their private spaces. The five Supreme Court judges who have now clarified this position in law are also bigots, according to Holyrood's Deputy Convenor of its Equalities committee, as is the European Human Rights Commission who endorsed the judges' ruling. She remains in her post. Read more It's not enough now merely to disagree or criticise: only Fascism will do. For, once you've been so labelled it becomes easier to remove you from your post if you work in Scotland's public omni-sector. For the record, I don't believe anyone in Scottish public life is a Fascist. I don't see people who believe in a one-party state or who are in favour of establishing a quasi-military police force reinforced by extra-judicial powers. What I have seen in the devolved era is a civic belief system that's been established by stealth and carefully nurtured by special interest groups which work against the interests and traditions of a majority of Scottish people, especially those belonging to working-class communities. I believe also that the SNP, Scotland's eternal party of government, has been gate-crashed by groups and individuals who care little for independence, except as providing cover for their own illiberal agendas. These range from the policy of placing violent men in women's prisons and imposing pronouns in the workplace to backing the NATO military alliance whose ruinous diplomacy has brought us to the brink of war with Russia. It includes indulging the Scottish Greens, whose clumsy attempts to impose climatism on the population has cost us many millions of pounds and speak of an underlying loathing for working class people who insist on clinging to their old, unsustainable ways. What's much more worrying is what has emerged in the course of devolved era. This is the emergence of a sprawling, a-political class who proceed on a gaseous and shape-shifting suite of values and ethics. They swirl and churn endlessly in a vortex of slogans, mission statements and labels, but never land. Kate Forbes received criticism for her deeply-held religious views (Image: Jeff J Mitchell) They don't believe in anything substantial beyond a collective credo of no-belief and no-value. The Scottish National Party no longer believes in independence; the Scottish Greens have subordinated stewardship of the natural environment to identity politics; the Labour Party are softening up the populace to prepare for global war by spending billions on more weapons of mass destruction and the Liberal Democrats have a leader who was last seen getting heated about Holyrood's toilet arrangements. Devolution has delivered a class of politicians who, quite literally, stand for nothing more than getting elected again. For an all-consuming void like this to have settled on the highest offices in the land, two major mechanisms are required. One is the establishment of a system of patronage so vast that its machinery reaches in to every public office in the land. It's why a country with a population of 5.5m is governed by an administration employing almost 30 ministers with a portfolio of 32 local authorities. We have become a panjandrum nation. These are reinforced by a vast lobbying sector that didn't exist before 1999. Their task has been to create a civic/entrepreneurial organism kept alive by fat public contracts. Experience, skill and cost-effectiveness count for little in this sector unless you agree to sign up to Holyrood's cultural agenda. Even so, this in itself wouldn't be sufficient for such a metastasis to have occurred. For that, you require slowly to eliminate dissenting voices and monitor the smart people and their smart thoughts. For 20 years or so, this was easily concealed and public trust was maintained. In the Sturgeon/Swinney era though, there's been a quickening, so that cabinet posts are now occupied by a cohort of barely-literate fools promoted well beyond their paltry abilities on the proviso that they keep their mouths and their minds shut. Read more The great Holyrood toilet debate was one of those rare occasions when we got to glimpse the full reality. This is what happens when you pursue an internal policy of forcibly removing talent and replacing them with mediocrity. It's the political equivalent of consanguinity. Most recently it's been evident in a multi-million-pound recovery mega-structure formed by a handful of superannuated public agencies. Their task has been to sell the lie that the political elites give a single flying toss about poor people dying in their thousands, not of addiction, but raw, grinding poverty. For the first time, I sense that this is cutting through to the Scottish public, a development that the political elite have worked hard to prevent. When this happens it's inevitable that a party proclaiming fake everyman values such as Reform would come to exploit the situation. No matter what happens at the Hamilton, Stonehouse and Larkhall by-election on Thursday, Scotland will be the losers. Kevin McKenna is a Herald writer and columnist and Scottish Feature Writer of the Year.
