WAS there ever a worse Scotland Secretary than Alister Jack? Oozing arrogance and condescension, Jack utterly traduced his post.

He shamelessly and brazenly transformed the Scotland Office from being Scotland's representation in the British Government into a colonial office, the representation of the British Government in its uppity northern province. Jack never respected the status of Scotland as a constituent nation of the UK and a kingdom in its own right.

During his time in office Jack crossed the constitutional Rubicon, triggering the hitherto unused Section 35 of the Scotland Act, unilaterally vetoing the Gender Recognition Reform Bill passed by Holyrood with a substantial cross-party majority, the first time that devolved legislation had been struck down in this way.

In doing so, Jack opened the door for future Scotland Secretaries to veto any Scottish Government legislation not to the liking of a British Government, hollowing out and neutering the entire devolution settlement.

Jack cynically employed a culture war wedge issue to achieve this goal. Don't kid yourself on that a man representing a party which introduced the two-child benefit cap with its odious rape clause gives two hoots about the rights of women or trans people.

Jack is not standing at this election, depriving Scotland of the opportunity to humiliate him at the ballot box. Instead, he's off to the House of Lords, a reward for his efforts to undermine democracy in Scotland.

He will join those other disgraces to Scotland like George Foulkes and Michael Forsyth, continuing to plot to thwart the democratic will of the people of Scotland from the safety of the Lords where he will never again need to trouble his aristocratic head with the thought that the plebs might vote him out.

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Amid public anger over the Tory betting scandal, Jack gave a final two fingers to the people just before he slinks off to his appointment with an ermine robe, announcing that he had won over £2000 betting on the date of the general election.

Jack denied that he had placed any bets in May, the period which the Gambling Commission is focusing on, and insisted he had done nothing wrong, arrogantly adding that he would be making no further comment. Accountability is for the little people, not for him.

However, Jack's patrician pronouncement may not after all be the end of the matter. David Wilson, the SNP candidate in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, has written to the chair of the House of Lords Appointments Commission to ask whether Jack is being investigated before being handed a seat in the upper chamber. He has insisted that an investigation must take place immediately as it is a "matter of serious public interest".

There are natural suspicions that Jack leveraged privileged insider information when placing his bets. £2000 might be loose change to a millionaire like Jack but it is a substantial sum of money to people on low incomes struggling with the Tory created cost of living crisis.

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Professor Dan Hough, the director of the Sussex Centre for the Study of Corruption (SCSC), suggested last week that bets on the date of the election from top Tories like Jack could constitute a “criminal offence” due to the likelihood that they were placed with insider knowledge.

First Minister John Swinney last week said Jack should be barred from getting a peerage for his “completely and utterly unethical” behaviour.

As the anger grew, Jack then said that his claim of winning £2000 was a “joke”, so we can add comedy to democracy and accountability in the list of things that Alister Jack doesn't do.

Eventually Jack was forced to admit that he had placed three bets on the General Election and won £100. However, he maintained he had not broken any rules and was not being investigated by the Gambling Commission.

Sunak's honours list is due to be published on Thursday evening after the polls have closed and it is widely expected that it will include a peerage for Jack.

No matter how appalling a politician is, under the Westminster system we can never be rid of them, their pals will simply reward them with a cushy seat for life in the House of Lords. Alister Jack will continue to besmirch Scottish public life for as long as Scotland remains a part of this dysfunctional undemocratic British state.

BBC speaks over SNP once again

It has long been a complaint that BBC presenters are far more prone to interrupt and talk over SNP politicians than they do with those from other parties.

Nigel Farage in particular is typically treated as though he's an absolute god-king holding court than a politician with a history of lying and racist dog whistling who needs to be held to account.

Fiona Bruce's disgraceful treatment of deputy First Minister Kate Forbes during a recent edition of Question Time is a case in point.

Another BBC presenter who is regularly accused of scarcely bothering to hide her anti-SNP sympathies is BBC Radio Scotland host Kaye Adams.

The First Minister appeared on BBC Radio Scotland on Tuesday morning, whereupon Adams asked him what people "have to do to tell you that they don't want independence" – not a loaded question at all, oh no, carrying with it the implicit and unfounded assumptions that people in Scotland don't want independence, and that the SNP isn't listening to them.

It's a question reeking with the false sense of victimhood so beloved of British nationalists in Scotland.

Of course, Adams was not going to allow the First Minister to answer because the purpose of the question was never to elicit a response but rather to allow Adams to platform her British nationalist outrage. His attempts at a response were repeatedly interrupted.

Eventually he cut in: "Well, wait a minute, Kaye. We’re not going to get very far if you’re just interrupting me all the time."

Adams retorted that she had seen people interrupting each other in leaders’ debates and that "seems to be the way to do it".

It's certainly the way to do it when you're a BBC presenter determined to defend the British status quo.