NO observer of the UK political scene would have been taken aback in recent days with regards the depth and nature of corruption in the Conservative Party and government. Some may be surprised at the behaviour on display, which is undoubtedly only the tip of a very large iceberg of nefarious misdemeanours, and – as if to verify just how endemic and institutionalised the level of dishonesty is – we are now presented with the chastened, apologetic babbling of the Scottish Tory leader.
Mr Ross – a Tory drone of no fixed moral compass, like the rest of his unfortunate colleagues – has informed BBC Scotland – well-known apologists for himself and his MSPs – that he failed to declare earnings from two of his three jobs and that this was simply an error committed unknowingly.
READ MORE: 'I don't know why I did that': Douglas Ross on failing to declare £28,000
This Jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none approach to his professional life has apparently left the one-dimensional Mr Ross financially confused, if we are being kindly euphemistic about his dubious deed. He is apparently disappointed at committing such an error, but it is difficult to separate his financial amnesia from the enormous, Westminster-shaped elephant in the room.
I am reminded of the lyrics to When I Was A Lad from Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. Perhaps we can adapt them to accommodate Douglas “three jobs” Ross: “I grew so rich that I was sent by the people of Moray into parliament, I always voted at my party’s call, and I never thought of thinking for myself at all ... I thought so little, they rewarded me by making me the ruler of the Scottish Toreees”.
For how much longer will Mr Ross have three jobs, I wonder?
Owen Kelly
Stirling
SUNG to the tune of a well-known macaroon bar advert, the new Wastemonster anthem shall be: “Sleaze, sleaze, more if you please. For Tory donors and their friends too, it’s ermine for me and ermine for you.”
M Ross
Aviemore
DID Douglas Ross take a calculated risk by not declaring his outwith-Westminster earnings of £28,000+?
His credibility has fallen so low since his list selection to the Holyrood parliament that he felt he needed to make something happen to retrieve face. So how about a show of fake honesty and grovelling? That should do it.
READ MORE: Revealed: The 20 Scots MPs making up to £23,000 on the side
Let’s pretend to forget extra earnings and then suddenly remember the fact. Next is to plead an apoplectic apology with a certain amount of grovel thrown in for good measure. Better still, do it publicly via the media. Yeah, that should secure my political standing again. Boris will be impressed with my Scottish canniness.
Aye right, Mr D Ross. Johnson might well might be impressed but Scotland is no longer fooled.
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
RONA Mackay MSP is reported in the Sunday National as describing the income that Douglas Ross MP/ MSP/Fifa forgot to declare as “significantly more than a year’s pay for the average Scot”.
Let’s not forget that average income in Scotland does not sit somewhere in the middle but is vastly inflated by the earnings of a few very wealthy people. The significant majority of our population earn only a fraction of the average income. This inequality will surely be addressed by the government of an independent Scotland.
READ MORE: Andrew Tickell: The rich and powerful can't stop playing the victim
It is patently obvious that Mr Ross’s opposition to independence has nothing to do with the interests of the working class. The same must certainly be true of the rest of the party that he leads. Let’s grasp our independence and rid our country of the blight of the toxic Union.
Ni Holmes
St Andrews
AS I watched the Remembrance ceremony yesterday I could almost feel the sincerity and depth of feeling on so many faces. Many must have been thinking of the young lives needlessly wasted since WWII in so many pointless wars of political aggrandisement.
To see there the high priest of insincerity, hypocrisy and self-aggrandisement, who has never in his life given a thought to those he considers beneath him, I felt demeaned the occasion, shamed our four nations of the UK and brought me to the point of tears.
L McGregor
Falkirk
DREW Reid’s letter in Friday’s National sums up the current situation admirably. I have no doubt the SNP MPs are now comfortably within the Westminster bubble, as Peter Wishart’s position as a vice-chairman of the Westminster Beer Club demonstrates.
N M Shaw
Edinburgh
BORIS: free holidays, free flat renovations, donations for peerages. Cox: jobs on the side earning millions. Mogg: firm moving investment funds to Ireland before Brexit. DRoss: £28,000 in “oh, I forgot!” earnings. One thing in common: corrupt from top to bottom Tories!!
Resignations overdue? Let’s resign them to history.
Iain McEwan
Troon
WHEN I worked in the public service for a central government, I could only take a second job with permission of my department. In addition, after retirement I could not take any job which benefitted from the knowledge I had gained as a civil servant for two years without prior authority. These sensible rules were designed to ensure public servants were free from influence and were totally impartial. If these rules were good enough for us, why are they not suitable for our MPs and House of Lords members?
Pete Rowberry
Duns
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