Lord Fraser Esquire.

Mr Smith noticed the recent coverage about the fact that Lord Fraser's Inquiry into the construction of the Scottish Parliament building cost £700,000.

Mr Smith also noticed that Lord Fraser himself was one of the biggest expenditures in the Inquiry, "Following the announcement commissioning an investigation into the Holyrood project, Lord Fraser was appointed by the First Minister in August 2003, to lead the enquiry. At the outset of the investigation it was agreed that Lord Fraser's fees would be capped at £150,000, inclusive of VAT and other expenses." In the end he came in at a more modest cost of £127,659.

Nice work if you can get it. Inquiry anyone?

Peer-less.

Mr Smith reads the latest "expense" disclosures for some of the Scottish members of the House of Lords.

"LORD Foulkes, the bombastic Labour peer and MSP, has clocked up £62,509 in tax-free expenses as an "unpaid" member of the House of Lords. The former Scotland Office minister and government loyalist said most of his expenses were down to high travel costs. Although Lord Foulkes of Cumnock is now an MSP, the expenses for the House of Lords are until April 2007; a month before his election to the Scottish Parliament ... Lord Watson, since his early release from jail in May last year for arson, has managed to bill £31,932 in expenses. It is almost three years since the then Labour MSP set alight the curtains at a hotel in Edinburgh ... Since his release, he has voted in just 18 per cent of divisions - lower than average. Also billing a hefty sum in expenses was Lord Elder, formerly known as Murray Elder, former chief of staff to John Smith. He picked up £52,563 in expenses for his 128-day attendance. His voting record of 74 per cent, however, was much higher than most peers. The man in charge of probing the overspend on the new Scottish Parliament - Lord Fraser of Carmyllie - himself managed to spend £49,113. His office costs of £10,209 for 124 days exceeded the daily limit of £69. His fellow Tory peer, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, attended for just 99 days and claimed £32,957 in expenses. He managed to speak in 53 debates, however, more than most peers. Lord Steel of Aikwood, the former presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, has cost taxpayers £50,035."

And all tax-free. Good to have sight of the information for a change though.

The "renegade" Lord.

Now Mr Smith spends a lot of his time pointing out the contradictions in the public positions of our elected and not so elected representatives. So, it is great to be able to report a real moment of political conviction from a perhaps unexpected source.

Speaking during a Debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday 25th July 2007, Scottish Conservative peer Lord Fraser of Carmyllie spoke with great fervour, even rage, in rejecting government plans for increasing the length of detention of terrorist suspects to 56 days saying:

“My Lords, I regard this as the greatest civil liberties outrage in modern times. It is quite outrageous. Whatever conciliatory noises my own Front Bench makes, I shall be a renegade on this. There is absolutely no way that I regard even 28 days as appropriate. Seven days is, in its own way, far too long. What is wrong with hours rather than days? I cannot believe that this will lead to anything other than sloppy and bad policing. I am in favour of good policing. If you allow the police 56 days to agree what should be done, I cannot believe that they will do anything for 55 days other than sit on their hands. That is simply wrong. I do not believe that day one is day one. What will the noble Baroness (Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the President of the Council) do, or am I simply alone in believing that 56 days is an outrage, and that she ought to be ashamed of herself?”

Is it naïve of Mr Smith to expect that just because Lord Fraser can draw on experience of having held the two most senior Scottish legal positions in government, namely Lord Advocate and Solicitor General, that the current government might take his objections on board and amend its proposals? Sadly, it is very naïve.