WE don't need sociologists to tell us that the most peaceful areas in Britain are also the most affluent.

 

The nation's leafy suburbs only rarely are visited by serious violence, the kind that inevitably prompts startled residents to tell TV news crews: "You don't expect such things to happen round here".

Such surprised local reaction is never heard on News at Ten when bloodshed erupts among the UK's inner-city tenements or vast, desert-like housing schemes.

A culture of violence and gang membership is ingrained there and it's a vicious cycle that has affected generations in Glasgow more deeply than any other Brits.

In 2014, it is surely outrageous that this supposedly great city still tolerates an underclass.

A social history of urban deprivation, dysfunctional family life, poor education, unemployment, depression, despair, alcohol and drug abuse is a toxic mix hell bent on crime and violence, and it has existed here since long before I was a boy.

There has been a perceived wicked indifference among successive administrations. As long as the locals were stabbing and robbing only one another they could be ignored.

To many outsiders Glasgow remains No Mean City, that disturbing novel about 1930s slum life among the Gorbals razor gangs.

And who can blame them, given our booze and blades history? Along with our perennial tag of Sick Man of Europe, we have at various times been named as Europe's knife and/or murder capital.

Last June, 24 hours after the People Make Glasgow campaign launch, the UK Peace Index named The Dear Green Black and Blue Place as Britain's most violent urban centre.

And you could be forgiven for thinking it's getting worse.

Last week, the day after Scotland's homicide tally was revealed to have fallen by 5% in a year, we learned Greater Glasgow had seen 10 murders in the six months to September 30 - up from seven and an increase of 42.8%.

The police claim a 100% detection rate on those 10 killings, which is excellent.

A 100% conviction rate would be even better.

But those figures, while concerning, hide considerable progress.

In 2002, Glasgow became Europe's Murder Capital with 71 killings in ONE year.

In 2013-14, we've had 60 murders - in the whole of Scotland. It's the lowest since figures were first recorded in 1976.

Across Greater Glasgow, attempted murders are down by 60%, violent crime 8.8%, offences for carrying weapons are also down, and overall crime has dropped by 3.8%.

Glasgow is getting safer, which is the least we should expect with billions spent on our justice system.

It may even silence some protests over Police Scotland boss Sir Stephen House's zeal for stop and search.

But it's a never-ending battle, boosted by improved police tactics, extra patrols in anti-social behaviour hotspots, and increased sentences for blade carriers, who also surrender fingerprints and DNA.

We even have a gangs task force to go with the alcohol and domestic abuse task forces, and we should applaud the Violence Reduction Unit for doing exactly what it says on their tin.

The VRU was launched in 2005, when Scotland's murder total was 134. It pioneered face-to-face engagement with hundreds of the 3,500 kids in 170 Strathclyde gangs, their ages ranging from 11 to 23.

The most impressive stat is that Easterhouse, once a byword for brutality, has had no significant gang-related trouble since 2010.

The expertise of Glasgow medics is also credited with keeping the death toll down. Years of dealing with stabbings and slashings have produced world-class trauma surgeons. We even have prosthetic experts who every year make dozens of ears, eyes and noses to replace those sliced or very often bitten off.

The vast majority of A&E clients displaying such wounds are boozed up, but alcohol consumption is falling in Scotland.

That violence and boozing are down is very encouraging, but both remain higher than anywhere else in Britain.

Some of those sociologists believe the recession is having an effect on the figures, with folk having less disposable income to spend on drink, especially in the city centre.

But how do they square current lower figures with their own early predictions that the economic crash would cause a big increase in violence?

Austerity may indeed help keep the city more peaceful, but those TV news crews are also finding fewer reasons to visit the schemes. Long may it continue.

I REMEMBER an austerity rant about UK taxpayers contributing £80m, courtesy of Brussels mandarins, to upgrade Turkey's sewers.

Well, our own drains need cash, because Christmas turkeys beckon.

Scottish Water, which spent more than £7m clearing 40,000 blockages last year, is warning us not to pour festive cooking fat down the drain, because a city sewer is already blocked by a huge fatberg.

Will festive Weegies listen? Fat chance, I suspect.