The Standards Commission for Scotland and its Code of Conduct is inconsistent and too easy to weaponise and abuse, says Herald columnist and former councillor John McLellan

As the dust seems to have settled and been swept away after the curious case of Edinburgh’s former leader Cammy Day, the strange case of Glasgow councillor Fiona Higgins is raising new questions about the role of the Ethical Standards Commissioner (ESC) in controlling councillor behaviour.

There is no doubt Cllr Day was put through the grinder, to borrow a phrase, resigning from Edinburgh’s top elected job in December last year after lurid allegations of sexual harassment, and police involvement which ultimately went nowhere. With over 2,700 complaints last year, the ESC seemed somewhat swift to conclude there was not enough evidence for it to get involved.

Perhaps it was the absence of witnesses prepared to give evidence, but there were whistleblower accounts and the commission had nothing to say about circumstances which led to such a high-profile resignation, plunged the Labour administration into crisis and continue to prevent his return to a senior promoted post.

The Ethical Standards system was heavily referenced in the report into the affair by Kevin Dunion, himself a former convener of the Standards Commission for Scotland, and his findings in June pointed to an “egregious breach” of the Councillors Code of Conduct by an unnamed councillor who had ignored........

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