Our latest investigation has found the financial rewards of Scotland’s energy transition are being unevenly distributed. The money earned by landowners often dwarfs the payments that wind farm developers make to local communities.
Conservative candidate Meghan Gallacher made the claim in a special education debate hosted by the BBC.
The Ferret did a deep dive into the Electoral Commission’s donation records to find out who was funding Scotland's political parties.
A senior member of the far right group Patriotic Alternative who gave a speech at an anti-asylum seeker protest in Erskine had a picture of Adolf Hitler in his home, a court was told.
Sam Melia, 33, is on trial this week in England accused of running a far right network called Hundred-Handers from his home in Pudsey, Leeds. He is also accused of using racist stickers to stir up racial hatred.
Melia denies the charges.
Leeds crown court heard, as reported by The Guardian, that the charges Melia faces related to racist stickers he allegedly designed and produced between 2019 and 2021. He is accused of posting them in public places and encouraging thousands of online followers to imitate.
The stickers bore slogans such as “Reject white guilt”, “Nationalism is nurture”, “We will be a minority in our homeland by 2066” and “Diversity – designed to fail, built to replace”.
On Telegram, where Hundred-Handers had 3,500 followers, Melia used racist slurs about black, Asian and Jewish people, the court was told.
The court also heard police found a book by Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, on Melia’s bedside table and a poster of him in his living room. Police also found posters depicting the Third Reich – the name given to Germany under the Nazis – in his home.
The Hundred-Handers was named after giant creatures from Greek mythology with 100 arms. The group was active in the UK and a number of other parts of the world, the court heard.
The trial continues.
Featured photograph thanks to iStock and Philip Openshaw. Photograph of Sam Melia thanks to Angela Catlin.
The Ferret did a deep dive into the Electoral Commission’s donation records to find out who was funding Scotland's political parties.
High end dinners are a fraction of over 29,000 lobbying meetings in the last parliamentary term. But campaigners argue that because the lobbying spend is not declared, their significance is underplayed.
Scotland's information watchdog has ordered the release of hidden details of Angus Robertson’s meeting with an Israeli diplomat after a lengthy freedom of information battle.
Women supporting refugees have been abused, followed and threatened by men in anti-immigration groups who claim they want to protect women. Now there are calls for big tech to do more.
