Douglas Ross ‘directed taxpayer’s money to a friend’

What a mess Douglas Ross has made for himself - Euan McColm | The Scotsman
Image: Scotsman

From SNP Media today:

The SNP has accused Scottish Tory Leader Douglas Ross of being “engulfed in Tory cronyism” – after admitting to directing thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to a personal friend when he was an MSP.

In an interview with the Herald, Douglas Ross confirmed he used Holyrood expenses – footed by the taxpayer – to cover £7,000 worth of rent on an Edinburgh flat which was half-owned by a refereeing colleague. 

The property in question – valued at £265,000 – was initially bought by Ross’ referee chum Hugh Dallas and another individual in December 2016. 

The revelation comes amid an ongoing scandal engulfing the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who reportedly failed to declare payments for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat.

Commenting, SNP candidate for Paisley, George Adam, said: 

“While the SNP is focussed on getting Scotland through and out of the pandemic, with immediate plans to support the NHS, protect jobs and help our young people, the Tories cannot escape the stench of sleaze around them.

“Douglas Ross now finds himself engulfed in the Tory sleaze scandal that he hoped to dodge, using taxpayers’ money to pay rent to a close friend whose property appears to have been rented out just as Douglas Ross got elected. 

“The sleaze pouring out of the Tories right now shows that the Nasty Party is back – and they cannot be trusted to hold public office.

“Whether it’s COVID contract for cronies, donations for decorating, texts for tax breaks, or renting from referees – a culture of sleaze has consumed the Tories.

“Scotland deserves better than this. On 6th May, Scotland has the option to choose a different path – a path that doesn’t involve Tory sleaze and cronyism.

“It is only with Both Votes SNP that Scotland’s future can be in Scotland’s hands.”



Notes to Editors:

‘Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross accused of being ‘mired in cronyism’ over rent with friend’ – https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19266067.scottish-tory-douglas-ross-accused-mired-cronyism-rent-deal-friend/

9 thoughts on “Douglas Ross ‘directed taxpayer’s money to a friend’”

  1. I’ll not comment in detail on anything that could become a subject of official or criminal inquiry, but I do know a bit about how to support transparency and accountability in government. Which includes insight into the philosophy of information, the cognitive sciences, administrative law and stuff. Not that I’m stroking my ego in public, I’m rising to the occasion. 🙂

    Transparency and mistrust: Who or what should be made transparent?
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gove.12402

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    1. “… how to support transparency and accountability in government.”

      On this topic, one can only marvel at the brazenness of the BBC! Today on the BBC News website, the BBC’s ‘Reality Check’ unit has an article entitled: ‘President Biden’s first 100 days as president fact-checked’.

      In its introductory paragraphs, it explains: “We’ve fact-checked some of the claims he made during this speech and his first months in office.”

      This editorial decision was made whilst in the nation-state that finances the BBC’s operations we have Peter Stefanovic (and others) publishing detailed evidence of a Prime Minister lying to parliament and the people time after time after time. And still Mr Stefanovic is finding it necessary – many weeks after his evidence was made available in a video now seen by c. 13.5 million people – to tweet this today:

      @PeterStefanovi2 “@BBCNews @bbclaurak @BBCBreakfast refuse to broadcast, report or comment on it but everyone is still talking about it. You can’t look the other way forever”

      He has been calling out the BBC on social media daily for ages now.

      But yes it can go on looking the other way – it’s THE BBC after all! Bias by omission is a well practiced core competence within the state broadcaster as we in Scotland know only too well!

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  3. £150,000 expenses, salary + perks. Looking for another place at Holyrood to milk the system. Three jobs Tories. The Tories illegally mismanaged and appropriating public monies. Cameron Greensill total corruption reported to cost taxpayers £5Billion. The Tories are starving and killing people. Life expectancy going down in the south.

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    1. thesnpleftme
      You ask do bears shite in the woods
      Answer
      Oh yes they do and as long the woods are not vital to them
      If you go down to the woods you are in for a big surprise
      Be prepared for piles of bodies reaching the tree tops
      And the putrid stink

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  7. OT a bit, but this is how this mentalist likes to poke fun at the Tories and the DUP. 🙂

    On the Behavioral Economics of Crime
    https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1884280/116649_379315(dot)pdf

    “This paper examines the implications of the brain sciences’ mechanistic model of human behavior for our understanding of crime. The standard rational-choice crime model is refined by a behavioral approach, which proposes a decision model comprising cognitive and emotional decision systems.

    According to the behavioral approach, a criminal is not irrational but rather ‘ecologically rational,’ outfitted with evolutionarily conserved decision modules adapted for survival in the human ancestral environment. Several important cognitive as well as emotional factors for criminal behavior are discussed and formalized, using tax evasion as a running example. The behavioral crime model leads to new perspectives on criminal policy-making.”

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