There’s no doubt police are stretched. But it’s hard to find any justification for the catastrophic failure to save Elizabeth Bowe’s life.
She was known to police as a domestic abuse victim and had called 999 in fear for her life. But the message fell on deaf ears at control HQ near Edinburgh.
In an insulting twist, the controller who rejected her call even left a message on her killer brother’s phone telling her off for dialling the 999 emergency number.
Elizabeth had managed to place the desperate call on Charles Gordon’s mobile – then died at his hands.
This is not the first time Scotland’s underfunded, overstretched police force have had to answer for major failures.
It raises yet more questions about the SNP’s centralising agenda and the ability of call handlers to properly deal with the public.
This latest disgrace should be the final time Justice Secretary Michael Matheson is allowed to resort to “thoughts and sympathies”.
And the hackneyed phrase “lessons will be learned” is becoming hollower by the day.
Matheson needs to promise it won’t happen again – or risk fatally undermining public confidence in our force.
Royal dodger
The fact that Prince Charles has joined his mother with investments in offshore tax havens is the latest hypocrisy exposed in the Paradise Papers.
It is a demonstration of how endemic the practice of offshoring is and how it is used by the elite without a thought for the money they are depriving the Treasury at home.
The scandal has also revealed how MPs’ pensions funds have been invested abroad.
Tax havens have facilitated the rise in global inequality. They prove what Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says is right – there really is one set of rules for the rich and another for the poor when it comes to tax.
Taxes pay for schools, roads and much else besides. Avoiding tax by hiding it offshore is wrong and morally indefensible.
More than a dozen nations changed their laws after last year’s Panama Papers. The revelations cost the leaders of Iceland and Pakistan their jobs and investigating them cost one journalist in Malta her life.
This latest data revelation may not be so shocking but it adds weight to the case for massive tax reform.
Gary’s cruel blow
Former Scots Guard Gary Jamieson lost three limbs in the service of his country.
The courage the married dad of three has shown since he was blown up by the Taliban is remarkable. So it is even more sickening that someone would steal his specially adapted car from outside his home.
Gary will deal with the setback as he has something the scumbags will never have – strength of character.
