When I heard that a civil service insider had made bullying allegations against Scotland’s deputy first minister, Jenny Gilruth, I was not surprised. I’ve been at the receiving end of her ire myself. Gilruth taught modern studies – politics mixed with sociology – at my Edinburgh comprehensive school. She had a reputation for being a bit of a meanie and not someone you wanted to disappoint; she was certainly a disciplinarian. Those traits seem to have stayed with her as she climbed Edinburgh’s greasy public-sector pole, leaving teaching after a stint at Education Scotland before becoming an MSP and eventually John Swinney’s deputy.

This weekend it emerged that, among other things, she allegedly sent a ‘cruel’ email which ‘named and shamed’ useless officials she’d inherited from her predecessor. The email was ‘mistakenly’ sent to everyone in the department – including the useless officials – resulting in great ‘fury and upset’. ‘Everybody is terrified of her – because she’s a bully. She was bad before this, but she is even worse now,’ one source told the Scottish Sun.

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Gilruth’s hit list – the existence of which is denied by the Scottish government – allegedly included each member of the civil service team she’d inherited from the previous DFM, Kate Forbes, along with reasons why she didn’t like them. When she was told that civil service managers make staffing decisions, rather than her, she ‘went into a huff’.

And, boy, can she huff. My first........

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