A TEACHING union leader in Scotland has called for “vigilance” as far-right movements and social media turn some schools into a “battleground of blame and violence.”

David Anderson, speaking in Glasgow at his first conference as Scottish leader of NASUWT, issued the warning as delegates prepared to debate a motion on tackling the far-right threat from primary school onwards, through education on hate speech. 

Mr Anderson told the conference: “Abusive rhetoric by politicians is trickling down and facilitating increasingly abusive and hateful speech in social media, which in turn seems to be spurring rapid increases in the frequency of bias-motivated incidents of harassment, threats and violence – including rampant surges in hate crimes.