Euan McColm: SNP failure to act properly in MSP 'bugging' case is matter of serious concern for us all

There are hugely serious questions to be answered here. Why was he doing what he was doing? Whose confidences were broken when he recorded his boss? Who benefited from his actions?

Given the SNP’s propensity for cover-ups, of course the party was going to pretend none of it had happened.

But what does surprise me is that the staffer in question went on, after being caught red-handed doing a number on his boss, to work for another SNP politician. Even now, he’s an office bearer in his local constituency.

This, I think, marks a new stage in the degradation of standards in public life under the SNP. It’s don’t-give-a-f*** nihilism, bred in a party where accountability is an alien concept.

Being caught bugging the boss should be career ending for anyone, never mind a political aide

Instead, this guy breezed into another political job.

After the first report of an MSP being secretly recorded by a member of staff, it was reported that two more SNP politicians had faced a similar situation.

There are deeply troubling aspects to all of this. One significant issue of concern is the safety of anyone working in or visiting the Scottish Parliament.

Those using the Holyrood building were entitled to know, when the MSP at the centre of this case became aware that she had been secretly recorded, about what this individual – with whom many of them, from all parties and none, had spent time – had done.

For very good reasons of independence and confidentiality, MSPs’ dealings with their employees have no oversight by Scottish Parliamentary authorities.

The downside to this necessary arrangement is that, if wrongdoing which might impact on others is discovered by an MSP, we must trust them to do the right thing.

Neither the MSP in question nor the SNP did this right thing in this instance.

Instead, they tried to cover up a scandal which, when details of it broke, left other parliament users worried about their own privacy.

Not only have the parliament and staff been failed by the SNP, in this instance, the rest of us have, too.

Every day, members of the Scottish Parliament deal with the most sensitive private matters. We are all entitled to believe that, should we be required to make contact with an MSP, the details of our interactions will remain confidential.

The bugging of an office in which constituents’ cases are routinely discussed is horrifying.

Secretly recording a colleague is creepy, weird behaviour. Red flags flutter on top of the case for police involvement in this matter.

The First Minister described the secret recording incident as “completely and utterly unacceptable”.

But, as is so often the case with SNP First Ministers, he was “not familiar with all of the details”.

If John Swinney truly knew nothing of this case (of this case in which the office of one of his colleagues was bugged by an employee) then he has even less control of his party than I thought.

At the same time as the SNP ignores the actions of a man who secretly recorded a female MSP, Holyrood has been invited to support the punishment of a woman who dared speak her mind.

Members of the Scottish Parliament’s Standards Committee – the sort of people who provide the answer “yes” to the question “could Scotland have a Stasi?” – have decided to recommend a two-day ban from Holyrood for Independent MSP Ash Regan.

Regan’s offence was to have posted online an image of a letter she sent to the presiding officer complaining about remarks made by Green MSP Maggie Chapman after a Supreme Court ruling on gender.

Chapman, an unblinking crank, had accused the judges behind the ruling, which determined that, so far as the law is concerned, sex is a matter of biology, not feelings, of “bigotry, prejudice and hatred”.

Regan was absolutely right to complain about Chapman’s outburst. Hers was a disgraceful smear which drew condemnation from politicians, the dean of the faculty of advocates, and women’s rights campaigners.

But the rules for MSPs say they’re not to comment publicly on such complaints

With the support of the SNP, Chapman survived an attempt to remove her from her position on the Equalities committee.

MSPs could, of course, vote to reject the committee’s proposal to strap Ash Regan to the ducking stool.

I doubt they will.

When others lined up behind Nicola Sturgeon in support of new gender recognition laws which erased women’s sex-based rights and shattered basic safeguarding principles, Regan quit her ministerial role and voted against.

Since then, Regan – sitting as an independent after quitting the SNP and spending some time as Alba’s leader at Holyrood – has been subjected to death threats and abuse for her “transphobic” views.

MSPs – the majority of whom voted in favour of the now scrapped plan to legalise self-ID for trans people – have now been invited to humiliate one of the few people in the Holyrood chamber not to go along with their nonsense. Can you imagine them not taking the opportunity to exact their revenge?

Our politics is in a mess. Real and serious breaches of trust, like the bugging of an MSP by an aide, are ignored by an amoral political class that’s about to punish a woman for stepping out of line.

The small print got Ash Regan. The small people will decide her fate.