This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.
Being chauffeured in a car paid for by the taxpayer to watch your favourite football team is all part of the job of a politician. Or so they tell us.
Once again, we're back discussing the issue of politicians accepting freebies.
Aberdeen fan Neil Gray - the health secretary - was driven to Hampden in his ministerial car to watch major cup ties against Celtic, Rangers and Hibs on three separate occasions.
Now as a football fan, I think I speak for most of us when I say that we would be more than happy to accept VIP tickets to watch our team play in major matches.
But only a select few have the privilege of being chauffeured there in a ministerial car funded by the public.
READ MORE:
- Health Secretary chauffeured to Hampden in ministerial car
- Tories demand statement from Neil Gray over minister car to football
- Was John Swinney 'f***ing stupid' to have endorsed Kamala Harris?
- 'Fear for women across the world' under Donald Trump's presidency
- Taylor Swift and more: What is Keir Starmer paying back?
- 'I was in the queue' Gray admits Oasis ticket hunt
It's not just Gray who has done this. Remember Keir Starmer's first few months as Prime Minister was plagued with news of freebies to Taylor Swift gigs and Arsenal football games, and of course, designer suits donated by a Labour peer.
There is no wrongdoing in this. Politicians are able to accept gifts for these types of excursions as long as they are openly declared, which in both Starmer and Gray's case, has been done.
But what kind of work is being done at these events? And is it essential, as the Scottish Government tell us it is?
In registering these gifts, Gray listed the work as discussing the "social impact investment in sport", and on another occasion simply "sport".
![Health Secretary Neil Gray]()
Health Secretary Neil Gray (Image: PA)
Watching your team play football is definitely covered by "sport" - but what "essential" government business did he discuss with the Scottish Football Association, who gifted him the tickets?
Official minutes, if there are any, were not released.
His ministerial colleague, Gillian Martin, came out in defence of the health secretary. He was, she understands, just "doing his job" as cabinet secretary for health and sport.
"He would use a ministerial car to get somewhere where he was doing a ministerial event and that's pretty standard," she told the BBC.
Presumably during the 90 minutes of the football game, very little government business would have been discussed.
Get Scotland's top politics newsletter straight to your inbox
Unless official notes or ministers are published to show the "essential" business, the public will rightly be outraged.
It comes at a time when budgets are massively strained and when people have having to make cutbacks in the own lives because of the cost of living crisis.
Health stats also show concern over the future of the NHS, with little signs of improvement.
Politicians, like us all, deserve to watch the sports they enjoy. That's not up for debate.
But the bigger question, and the reason for the uproar, is around the issue of public money being used to facilitate this.
Taxpayers will want their money to go to solving these crises, not chauffeuring politicians around to football matches at Hampden.
Gray is one of the most senior ministers in Scotland, on a salary of £126,452. There is no doubt he could have afforded a train ticket or even a taxi out of his own pocket.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel