It’s Grim Down South: A Scottish take on the ‘English Riots’

As the worst urban disorder in a generation played itself out across English cities, one issue preoccupied politicians, journalists and academics north of the Border: why had there been no riots in Scotland? The First Minister Alex Salmond was quick to make the point that Scotland was unaffected by the riots and continued to be ‘open for business’. Salmond and others pointed towards socio-cultural differences between the nations of the United Kingdom as partly explaining the differential spread of the disorder. Scotland also has distinct institutions with particular ways of doing things. Our Police respondents were quick to note that they ‘do things differently’ in Scotland. This paper takes these claims as its point of departure and offers an analysis of the ‘English riots’, the Scottish police and the extent to which Scotland is immune to the disorder south of the border.