Russell Findlay - @RussellFindlay1

FORMER chief constable Phil Gormley was warned there could be ‘ political problems ’ if a Scottish candidate was not hired as one of his deputies. The former head of Police Scotland claims that the order came from Andrew Flanagan, then chairman of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), during a discussion about a vacant post for a deputy chief constable. During the meeting last September, Gormley was allegedly told ‘ there would be major presentational and political problems if either of the two internal (Scottish) candidates were passed over given how this would impact on the proportion of senior officers who were of Scottish national origin ’. In a document seen by The Times newspaper, Gormley said: “ He [Flanagan] indicated that Scottish Government were party to these concerns. As a senior officer of English national origin myself, this concerned me. The national origin of any candidate (from within the United Kingdom) should have no bearing on the selection process. ...

HEALTH secretary Jeane Freeman has been urged to explain her ‘superhuman’ work record after she spent more days on quangos than there are in a year. The SNP politician has been dubbed Scotland’s ‘quango queen’ due to the large number of posts she held with public bodies before becoming an MSP. But she now faces questions over how much taxpayers’ money she received in the financial year 2013/14. Our probe found that she pocketed £57,000 as a member of the Scottish Police Authority which works out at £300 for 190 days. During the same period, she worked three days per week on the NHS National Waiting Time Centre board in Clydebank whose annual accounts show she received up to £25,000. She also served between 20 to 30 days with the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland at a rate of  £295 per day. If the public records are accurate, they suggest that Freeman spent up to 376 days on the public payroll during that year. In addition, she also ran her own pu...

TOP judges are accused of selling the reputation of Scottish justice by working for Middle East countries with toxic human rights records. Two judges are on the payroll of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where domestic violence against women is legal and where regime critics are tortured and jailed without trial. The most senior is Lord Hope of Craighead — Scotland’s former top judge, a member of the House of Lords and ex-deputy president of the UK Supreme Court. Our investigation found that Lord McGhie has been registered to sit in the UAE for the past two years while he was also dispensing justice at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: " It seems highly inappropriate for Scotland's previous top judge and former deputy president of the UK Supreme Court to work for the UAE given its poor human rights record. “He is giving legitimacy to the UAE's legal system which does not conform to international stan...