On the face of it, it is alarming that 202 Scots guilty of attempted murder or serious assault received jail sentences of less than 12 months last year. additionally, despite the crackdown on knife culture, 712 people were given similar sentences for carrying offensive weapons.  However, appearances can be deceptive and the spin put on the release of these figures by the Labour Party is designed to deceive. attempting to paint itself as the party of law and order ahead of the Holyrood elections, Labour is using these statistics to flail the SNP in the hope that its stance will pay electoral dividends. There are several reasons why such a blatantly populist strategy should fail.  The first is that these figures are only that, figures. They do not tell us the context in which the sentences they record were handed out. It would be wrong, of course, if sentences for serious crimes were too lenient, but there is little hard evidence of this. Indeed, according to the Scottish Government, the average length of custodial sentence in 2009-10 was at the highest level in the past ten years. There is also nothing in the figures which allows for any mitigating factors there may have been in the sentencing.  Furthermore, as we report today, nine out of the country's 14 closed prisons are overcrowded beyond their design capacity: there were 447 more prisoners behind bars than there were places designed to house them on 18 February. So even if prison was a deterrent, and there is a lot of evidence it is not, we do not have anywhere to put more prisoners.  So, as the party has raised the issue, we are entitled to ask what Labour would do it if takes power at Holyrood after May. Increase sentences? No. Richard Baker, the party's justice spokesman says only that they are thinking about setting up a sentencing "commission". ah, the commission, the last refuge of the political scoundrel anxious to head off a difficult decision. What about building more prisons? No again. all Labour will say is it needs to look at the books if it wins, the second last refuge of said scoundrels.  There is an obvious conclusion from all of this. Were Labour really concerned with crime, punishment and law and order it would hesitate before issuing more anti-SNP press releases and consider the root causes of crime in Scotland, where our society is still bedevilled by poverty, deprivation and dependency; a society over which, in many parts of the country, Labour politicians have presided for much of the post-war period.  One of Labour's most famous soundbites, coined by Gordon Brown but articulated by Tony Blair, was the party would be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime". Yes, it was slick and promised more than it delivered, but it contained an essential truth about how politicians should approach justice. Labour in Scotland appears to think just doing the "tough on crime" bit is enough to get them to May. If only it was that simple.  Scotland's unspoiled wilds get that shrinking feeling  among Scotland's most valuable assets, her breathtaking scenery and unspoilt landscapes must figure highly. They are our signature on the world and one of the key reasons why millions come to Scotland each year. So new research showing that Scotland's visually unspoiled wild land is fast diminishing is cause for concern. a report from Scottish Natural Heritage shows that the proportion of Scottish land which could be counted as being "without visual influence of built development" has shrunk from 31 per cent to 28 per cent in 2009. The loss is equivalent to an area 14 times the size of Glasgow, and it shows every sign of accelerating.  The reason is not hard to find. Wind turbines, power lines and giant pylons are the main