ACCORDING to Douglas Ross, forgetting is not an acceptable excuse for politicians who break the rules. In fact in his resignation letter from his job as Under Secretary of State for Scotland he made it clear there are no excuses, mitigating circumstances or sympathetic ears for political figures who do not follow the rules to the letter.
He resigned because a senior prime ministerial advisor had not been sacked after breaking the rules on travel during the Covid lockdown.
READ MORE: Douglas Ross failure to declare earnings 'stunning hypocrisy' say SNP
He showed no empathy with the advisor, who admitted that he had panicked when he believed that his wife had caught Covid; he put her and their son in the car in London and drove non-stop for several hundred miles.
Over time, Douglas Ross has also made clear that the First Minister and Prime Minister should resign if they had even inadvertently broken rules.
Did he really consider all the immediate and long-term effects of his decision as he claimed in his letter?
Now that he has discovered that he himself has broken the rules, we will discover if he really has such high standards.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
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