The Ferret

Three-quarters of 'sustainable' salmon farms broke environmental rules. None lost their accreditation.

Daniel Shailer — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 06:00:32 GMT

More than three quarters of Scottish salmon farms certified as “sustainable” broke the environmental rules of the certifying body last year without losing their accreditation, The Ferret can reveal.

We examined inspection reports published by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) — which certifies “highest standard” farms with a public-facing ‘green tick’ — and found there have been breaches of its rules at dozens of fish farms.

Some sites suffered months-long lice infestations and misdeclared death tolls while others were found to have overused chemicals and deployed unsafe, unauthorised equipment. No farms had their 'green tick' accreditations removed, unless voluntarily.

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The ASC works at arm's length from seafood producers. But the company it contracts to inspect Scottish farms, Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), employs the majority of its Scottish inspectors from former roles in the aquaculture industry, The Ferret can also reveal.

LRQA was also responsible for certifying Uygur labour in Chinese seafood processing plants as socially responsible, despite known human rights abuses.

In Scotland, LRQA’s head inspector worked in fish farming for three decades and another prominent inspector appeared to work for a fish farming company and LRQA simultaneously.

Environmental campaigners described the system as “woefully lax” and accused it of misleading consumers who chose products “believing that this certification is far more robust than it is in reality”.

One former auditor from another sustainability certification body described our findings as “the norm” within a system where “the people getting inspected are the people paying for a service”.

ASC said helping fish farms find and fix rule-breaking is “a core part” of its “continuous improvement approach” and that suggesting farms should lose their sustainable accreditation for breaking rules “misunderstands how an independent certification system works”.

Salmon Scotland, a trade body for the farmed fish industry, said ASC helps aquaculture companies “strengthen performance”. LRQAdid not respond to requests for comment.

'Environmental' accreditation

The ASC awards site-by-site 'green tick' certifications to recognise "environmentally and socially responsible" farmed seafood around the world.

The ticks are used in marketing to retail and wholesale consumers, to help companies meet sustainability targets and to secure "green" bonds for future investments.

Farms which apply for the certification are judged against a set of environmental and social criteria, and subject to annual inspections. In 2025, these revealed regular breaches of certain rules — like accurate counting of dead fish and environmentally safe numbers of sea lice — as well as more unusual rule-breaks and violations.

One Mowi farm in Loch Etive, near Oban, was found using an unauthorised piece of equipment to remove dead salmon which staff called “the Reaper”. Inspectors saw this “sucking up” and killing living wrasse fish which had been placed in pens to clean salmon.

Mowi staff explained that the cleanerfish were new so staff were not trained to deal with them, according to the inspection report. The issue was resolved remotely after the company sent LRQA a “snap shot” of its training.

Across a number of Bakkafrost farms inspectors found either that the number of dead fish reported was incorrect, or that their cause of death had been recorded incorrectly. Accurate mortality counting should allow regulators to close farms with high death tolls, a recent parliamentary enquiry concluded.

At some sites dead fish were too disfigured -- by jellyfish stings or rotting underwater -- for staff to identify a cause of death. At Gravir farm, off the Isle of Lewis, a staffer simply “called out the wrong number” of dead fish without categorising them at all.

The most common rule-breaking concerned acceptable lice counts. Recent academic studies cited in government aquaculture regulations have found that lice from salmon farms kill juvenile wild fish migrating near pens and hinder the recovery of wild populations at large.

Bakkafrost blamed “occasional breaches” at nine of its farms on the fact that its fleet of boats used to treat lice infestations were too busy at other sites “where the issue is greater”. At three Mowi sites staff said fish were either too sick to treat for lice, or that their organic status restricted them from using chemicals to help.

Bakkafrost staff also questioned the ASC’s thresholds (which were raised fivefold in 2023), arguing that their fish were big enough to safely support more lice.

Abigail Penny, executive director of animal welfare campaign group Animal Equality UK, asked how accepting so many breaches is “supposed to deter bad practice”.

"What a cosy little arrangement these farms find themselves in. They can go about their business, causing untold suffering to animals and wreaking havoc on the environment, mostly without any real risk of repercussion,” she said. “Consumers are being sorely misled into believing that this certification is something far more robust than it is in reality."

Bakkafrost and Mowi are the only two Scottish fish farmers which currently apply to the ASC for accreditation. Replying on behalf of both, Salmon Scotland first asked for a list of sites which had broken rules.

When The Ferret provided one, the industry group did not respond to any specific breaches. Instead, a spokesperson touted £1bn investment in “responsible farming” and celebrated survival rates and lice levels.

“ASC certification provides an additional layer of independent scrutiny and is designed to drive continuous improvement through transparent reporting,” the spokesperson added. “Its audit process identifies opportunities to strengthen performance and ensures any issues are addressed.”

ASC’s global press and media manager, Sophia Balod, rejected the idea that rule-breaking (a “non-conformity” in the council’s vocabulary) undermined a farm’s certification.

“The suggestion that any non-conformity should automatically result in a farm losing its ASC certification misunderstands how an independent certification system works,” she told The Ferret in a written statement, which added that breaches are identified and addressed in order for a site to keep its tick.

“The fact that a nonconformity is identified and publicly reported demonstrates that the audit process is identifying issues that require attention; it does not in itself mean that a farm should immediately lose certification.”

The Ferret identified a number of farms which identified the same non-conformity in repeat years without losing their certification.

In inspection reports for more than a dozen individual farms, non-conformities are described as “systemic” or “repeat” breaches from the year before. This included farms suffering months-long lice infestations which breached ASC thresholds, and inaccurate counts of dead fish multiple years in a row.

Balod says that repeat rule-breaking “does not, on its own, indicate a lack of improvement; the circumstances, evidence and corrective actions must be considered.”

Revolving Door

The Ferret identified a number of LRQA’s inspectors with close ties to the aquaculture industry, according to their own professional social media profiles.

The senior auditor responsible for signing off on most of ASC’s certified Scottish farms in 2025 worked for fish farming companies for three decades before joining LRQA under its previous name, Food Certification International.

Another "technical expert” joined LRQA directly from fish farming company Scottish Sea Farms (SSF). Their LinkedIn profile shows the inspector working for both SSF and LRQA for an overlapping seven months. They did not respond to our request for a comment.

Another technical auditor approved Scottish farms from Chile, after working for seven years as chief of certifications for Cooke’s latin american office.

LRQA did not respond to requests for comment.

ASC’s Balod said that evidence of an inspector working for a company while certifying the same company “would clearly warrant examination” but that “relevant professional experience within the aquaculture sector does not in itself constitute a conflict of interest”. She added that ASC contracts a third company, ASI, to oversee subcontractors like LRQA.

Mark Borthwick worked as an auditor with another certification body, the Soil Association, before becoming an animal welfare researcher.

“What you’ve identified is the norm across the industry,” he said. “These schemes place a downwards pressure on standards and practice: the government offloads health and welfare to these schemes, but the schemes have every incentive to be lax.”

He cited both the turnover of staff between farming companies and inspectors, and the royalties ASC earns on products sold with their ticks. ASC said outsourcing audits maintains the integrity of its certifications from financial incentives. Borthwick said this “diffuses the responsibility” for holding farms to account.

“Anyone could tell you the incentive structure places a downward pressure on welfare, but it's always someone else’s problem in the chain,” he said. “There’s no need for a formal conspiracy when everyone’s incentives point in the same direction.”

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Just three per cent of Scotland’s most fragile natural environments are monitored by the agency charged with protecting them

Karin Goodwin — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:21:49 GMT

Only a tiny percentage of Scotland’s most fragile natural environments are being monitored by the national agency tasked with protecting them, The Ferret can reveal, with the number of inspections on the decline.

Just 54 protected sites, which include national parks, mountains, wetlands, forests, ancient woods and peatlands, were monitored in 2025 by NatureScot, according to details released under freedom of information legislation.

The figure makes up less than three per cent of protected sites, which often support diverse and endangered flora and fauna.

The new data reveals that the extent of monitoring has declined to almost half what it was in 2021, when 97 sites – just over five per cent of the network – were monitored.

According to Scottish Environment LINK, which obtained the figures and is today launching its nature protection scorecard scheme, the lack of monitoring means authorities could be missing threats to the ecological health of our most pristine environments.

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Campaigners are calling for “a gear change” in terms of monitoring, with opposition politicians warning “Scotland’s nature is too important to be trashed or discarded”.

NatureScot said it was in the process of reforming its approach to protected area monitoring, with a new system due to be introduced next year. It recognised that it was falling behind targets that aim to protect 30 per cent of Scotland’s natural environment by 2030.

There are almost 2,000 existing protected areas in Scotland. They include the Cairngorms National Park, which is home to a quarter of the UK’s rare and endangered species, Glen Affric with its ancient pinewoods, and the Nevis network, which includes Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest summit, and rare species including golden eagles, red squirrels and Atlantic salmon.

Others include parts of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, which aims to protect species such as the white-fronted geese and native oakwoods species.

While some sites, such as Ben Nevis, have been subject to recent and regular monitoring, many have not. The most recent monitoring carried out in Edinburgh’s volcanic Arthur’s Seat was in 2016. The site supports rare flora including the maiden pink wildflower, and bird species such as kestrels and fulmars.

Forest of Clunie in Perth and Kinross, which supports many important bird species, was assessed for black grouse in 2017. However, monitoring has not considered hen harriers since 2010, or osprey since 2011, despite both species being last assessed as “declining” in Scotland. Some other sites haven’t been assessed since 2007, according to research by Scottish Environment LINK.

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Monitoring allows important issues such as the encroachment of invasive species, including rhododendron, to be highlighted, or the degradation of important habitats. Environmental groups argue this allows for targeted support to be enacted before it is too late.

The global biodiversity framework goal, which the Scottish Government is committed to, is built on the premise that 30 per cent of a habitat in a landscape usually provides enough space and connection between patches of habitat for wildlife to survive and travel.

Dan Paris, director of policy and engagement of Scottish Environment LINK said: “Protected sites include many of our most important sites for nature. Without sufficient monitoring we can never have a full picture of the ecological health of these sites.

“We know from site monitoring that invasive non-native species, overgrazing from deer, and water management are among the biggest pressures. The stronger the data, the better placed we are to target an effective response, not just on individual sites but nationally.”

He claimed that the additional threats posed by climate change required more rather than less monitoring and called for a “gear change”. Scottish Environment LINK’s scorecard data showed, Paris added, that “while there are some signs of progress in areas like peatland restoration” there was a “worrying lack of capacity to get the basics right”.

“With public sector reform likely to be the dominant issue of this parliament, we must make sure that our environmental agencies are given the people and resources they need to halt and reverse the decline of our environment,” he said.

Ailis Watt, senior policy officer at RSPB Scotland, said: “As well as taking better care of the protected areas we already have, we need the Scottish Government to expand Scotland's network of protected areas. With the right ambition, we can meet the 30 by 30 target – but we need a real gear change now.”

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Mark Ruskell MSP for the Scottish Greens agreed that more monitoring was urgently needed. “You can’t protect what you don’t properly monitor,” he told The Ferret. “These protected sites are supposed to safeguard our most important nature, but that can’t happen if the number of sites is small and declining.

“Our nature is too important to be trashed or discarded. We all rely on clean water and air and a thriving natural environment. LINK is right to call for a gear change. We need to have a proper picture of the ecological health of these sites and can put effective remedies in place before damage becomes irreversible.”

Claire Baker, Scottish Labour environment spokesperson, claimed the low level of monitoring was “unacceptable” and called for the Scottish Government to “get serious about protecting ecology and promoting biodiversity in Scotland.”

A NatureScot spokesperson agreed that monitoring was “vital so that we understand the health of these sites, the pressures affecting them and the management underway or needed to ensure that they can most effectively protect and restore nature”.

They added: “NatureScot is in the process of reforming our approach to protected area monitoring. We recognise that a monitoring gear change is absolutely necessary to achieve the commitment to have at least 30 per cent of Scotland safeguarded by 2030, and to ensure that these areas will be effectively managed and will deliver great things for nature.”

The new system – monitoring to deliver healthy ecosystems – is due to start next year. It will be “more effective and efficient” and “consider land and seascape-scale threats” like invasive species, claimed the spokesperson. This, they said, was “a critical step if we are to halt the loss of nature by 2030”.

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What makes a data centre 'green'? One major developer has lobbied for its own definition

Paul Dobson — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:00:13 GMT

A developer has been lobbying the Scottish Government to publicly endorse its definition of a ‘green’ data centre, according to documents obtained by The Ferret.

The Scottish Government has backed the development of so-called ‘green’ data centres since 2021 and in 2023 gave them special, streamlined status under planning policy.

But ministers have never clearly defined what a ‘green’ data centre is, despite growing concern about the environmental impact of new ‘hyperscale’ facilities needed to support artificial intelligence (AI).

Alongside concerns about water use, noise and air pollution, critics say these require huge amounts of energy, which could increase reliance on fossil fuels and jeopardise climate targets.

Councils are currently left to decide whether projects in their area – many of which are marketed as ‘green’ – meet the description, often amid vocal opposition from grassroots campaigns.

Any national definition could affect which data centre plans go ahead and the Scottish Government said in June it is considering issuing planning guidance on the facilities.

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The Ferret has found that in the months leading up to that announcement officials had discussed the definition with Apatura, which is behind more Scottish data centre proposals than any other firm. Correspondence between the company and officials on the issue appears to have started at a networking drinks event at Glasgow’s plush Corinthian Club in April.

In follow-up emails, the firm repeatedly asked the Scottish Government to publicly support a ‘green data centre charter’ it had drawn up with other industry groups. Apatura said the document could help with policy and planning decisions on data centre projects.

The Scottish Government ultimately decided not to endorse the charter, Apatura told The Ferret. But emails and meeting minutes released under freedom of information (FoI) law show it was circulated across government and considered in detail.

One working group on AI discussed the “suitability” of backing it, with an official saying it appeared “broadly consistent” with the Scottish Government’s approach.

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The Scottish Government says the move was needed to tackle the “burden” caused by the growth in AI-assisted objections to energy projects. Critics say it is a way to mute public opposition.

Meanwhile, while one part of the Scottish Government was considering supporting the document, another was asking Apatura to appear on a panel event it was organising at a London investment summit to help “showcase Scotland as a leading investment opportunity for data centres”.

Campaigners said this was evidence of the government “cosying up” to Apatura and giving it a “preferential hearing” on the definition of a ‘green’ data centre despite what they described as the developer’s “huge conflict of interests” on the issue.

They warned that companies must not be allowed to “write the rules” used to judge their own planning applications and claimed the charter shared by Apatura was “vague” and “riddled with loopholes”.

Apatura argued its relationship with the Scottish Government was “entirely professional” and the correspondence “was a normal and important part of developing informed policy, particularly in an emerging sector”.

The firm claimed its charter contained “practical and measurable principles” and was developed to “address the gap” caused by the lack of a clear definition of ‘green’ data centres. It rejected any claims it asked the government to adopt it as policy or “sought preferential treatment for our projects”.

Data centres house the physical infrastructure needed to power the internet. They are not new, but the ‘hyperscale’ facilities proposed to support growing demand for AI are far bigger than most existing sites and require a huge amount of power.

It has been estimated that if all the data centres proposed across Scotland went ahead, they would more than double the country’s demand for electricity.

The industry argues they can be powered by Scotland’s growing renewable energy sector, but opponents point out they will need constant power, including when the weather means wind and solar farms are producing less, potentially increasing reliance on fossil fuels.

Critics have also raised concerns about the diesel backup generators they have on site and their water requirements for cooling.

As a result of these issues any description of data centres as ‘green’ is highly controversial.

NPF4 – Scotland’s national strategy on planning – designated ‘green’ data centres as ‘national developments’. They still require planning permission, but the fundamental need for them has already been established and does not need to be considered.

NPF4 was published in 2023, but much of the work done on it was reportedly carried out in 2022, before the launch of technologies such as ChatGPT and the global rush to build much bigger data centres for AI.

Holyrood researchers say the rapid growth of data centre applications in Scotland has outpaced planning policy, and there have been growing calls for the Scottish Government to clarify what the ‘green’ data centre designation means.

Pressed on the issue at first minister’s questions on 25 June, John Swinney said his government was giving “active consideration” to providing planning guidance to balance the “rapid” expansion of hyperscale data centres with climate and energy targets.

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FoI responses to The Ferret and the office of the Green MSP Mark Ruskell, shared with us, show that weeks before that on 5 May, a Scottish Government official wrote to a representative of the company noting that they had discussed work Apatura was doing “around [the] definition of green data centres” at its Data Centre Club networking event at the Corinthian on 30 April.

The official asked Apatura to share what it had “developed to date” and said it would be “very useful” to see the company’s position.

Apatura responded on 6 May sharing its charter and saying it would “very much welcome Scottish Government involvement with a short supportive quote”.

The charter itself calls for data centres to maximise the use of green energy, be built to high energy-efficiency standards, minimise water use, use excess heat in district heating schemes, and work with local communities to ensure their benefits are “maximised locally”.

The firm chased the Scottish Government later in May about the endorsement, with officials responding they were unable to comment ”at this point” because ministers had not been allocated after Holyrood elections and the definition was an “extremely live point of policy discussion”.

But in the weeks that followed the document seems to have been sent across departments. The FoI responses show one cross-government working group on green data centres and AI had set up a shared online document to gather feedback.

A meeting of the group on 17 June discussed the “suitability” of endorsing the charter with one individual noting it was "broadly consistent with our approach to developing” green data centres.

Others commented that it lacked “quantified standards” and that they would prefer to endorse a document from a wider trade body, rather than just one firm.

As the document was being considered, another part of the Scottish Government was asking Apatura to help it promote the country as a “leading investment destination for data centres and renewables”.

On 8 May – two days after the company requested an endorsement for its charter – a government official invited it to take part in an investment summit in London, which would highlight “Scotland’s strengths in relation to data centres and renewable energy” to the city’s “investor community”.

The event – held at the Royal Society – appears to have gone ahead on 8 June and included Apatura’s chief strategy officer David Wildash and Richard Woodfield of fellow Scottish data centre developer, Data Vita.

Dr Kat Jones, the director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland, said this was evidence that Apatura had “the ear of government” on data centres.

Jones said: “The Scottish Government haven’t invited any environmental charities to give their opinions on what a ‘green’ data centre is, despite the expertise they have in environment, climate, biodiversity and planning so why should a data centre developer get a preferential hearing?

“There is obviously a huge conflict of interests when a developer, which has proposed nearly half the hyperscale data centres in the planning system, is also writing their own set of rules, and trying to get the government to agree to them.”

Scottish Greens MSP Patrick Harvie said: “This kind of cosy relationship with big tech companies is particularly concerning when it comes at the same time as the government claims to be writing guidelines on planning rules which could determine the long-term success of these very businesses.

“We can’t allow these companies to write the rules by which their planning applications will be judged. We all know that profit-hungry developers will put their shareholders' pockets before the needs of local communities and nature.”

Ben Christman, the principal solicitor and legal director at the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, said the correspondence we obtained was “very concerning” because it indicated that civil servants were “cosying up to the data centre industry”.

Christman added: “If the Scottish Government’s definition of ‘green data centre’ bears any resemblance to Apatura’s charter, then it will be vague, riddled with loopholes and will likely result in proposals for data centres being granted planning permission, which are about as sustainable as the diesel generators that are a prominent feature of Apatura’s data centre plans.”

An Apatura spokesperson said its charter was “developed to help support the responsible growth of data centres in Scotland, with clear principles around renewable energy, energy efficiency, responsible water use, heat recovery and meaningful community benefit.”

They added: “With no agreed definition of a ‘green data centre’, we worked with organisations across Scotland to set out what good development could look like in practice, and to contribute constructively to the wider discussion around future national guidance.

“We believe that is a positive thing for Scotland. Clear and consistent standards can help protect the environment, deliver benefits for communities and give responsible developers greater certainty about what is expected of them.”

The Scottish Government’s public finance minister, Hannah Mary Goodlad, said: “It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on any specific development proposals in the planning system, however we have been clear that the voices of communities that will be affected by these kinds of development must be central to any considerations.

“Ministers are giving active consideration as to whether the Scottish Government should provide planning guidance to balance the interest in developing hyperscale data centres with national energy and climate goals, which are vital to our future prosperity.”

Last week Goodlad released a planning direction to tighten ministerial oversight of data centre proposals. Councils must now notify the Scottish Government within seven days of validating a data centre application of more than 50MW.

The intervention also said environmental impact assessments were required for two proposed data centres, including Apatura’s development at Wester Hermiston near Edinburgh. Ministers will also take over the final decision on a separate data centre in the capital, near the Gyle shopping centre.

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Loyalist terrorist and neo-Nazi flags displayed at Edinburgh anti-immigration protest

Billy Briggs — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 06:00:56 GMT

The flag of banned loyalist terrorist groups and a neo-Nazi banner were displayed at a protest in Edinburgh organised by a far right group called the Scottish Defence League.

The anti-immigration demonstration took place on 15 August in the centre of Scotland’s capital on Princes Street during its busiest month of the year for tourism.

Flags on display included one with the logos of both the Ulster Freedom Fighters and Ulster Defence Association – paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland banned under terror laws.

Another flag on display had the names of two neo-Nazi groups – “Combat 18” and “Blood and Honour”, the latter of which was sanctioned by the UK government last year due to suspected terrorist activities.

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Showing public support for proscribed organisations is a criminal offence in the UK and anyone found guilty of the crime could face a 10 year prison sentence.

Section 13 of the Terrorism Act makes it an offence to wear, carry or display an item in public in a way that arouses “reasonable suspicion” that a person is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation.

The Scottish Greens urged Police Scotland to investigate the incident while an expert on far right extremism who testifies at terrorism trials said the public display of support for terrorism was “alarming”.

The Scottish Defence League said: "Those flags were not SDL members flags and we do not support them in anyway, and they are not welcome to come again to any of our protests. We are not interested in terrorist behaviour nor do we support [it]."

Police Scotland said it is investigating the incident.

Human rights campaigners have already expressed concern this summer that far right groups appear to be increasingly emboldened and willing to publicly promote racist ideologies.

The Scottish Defence League, which formed around 2009, re-emerged recently after years of apparent inactivity, at least publicly.

It was an offshoot of the far right English Defence League, which opposed Islam and caused violence in English cities for years. The SDL also opposed Islam and refugees but claimed not to be racist.

Critics argued that it acted as a front for neo-Nazis, religious bigots and football hooligans intent on causing violence and sectarian divisions.

A loyalist paramilitary flag. Photo by a Ferret source.

In 2018 SDL member Peter Morgan was jailed for 12 years for terror offences. His Edinburgh flat was deemed a bomb factory by police who also found a Ku Klux Klan application form and an al-Qaeda terrorism manual.

The protest in Edinburgh was also attended by anti-immigration activists from England who support a group called the “North West Infidels”.

The Ulster Freedom Fighters was responsible for hundreds of deaths and proscribed as a terrorist organisation in 1973. It was closely linked to the UDA which was banned in 1992. The group often claimed responsibility for sectarian murders by using the cover name, the Ulster Freedom Fighters.

Notorious attacks by the group included the shooting dead of five Catholics at a Belfast bookmakers shop in 1992 and the Greysteel massacre the following year, when gunmen entered a rural pub and opened fire, leaving eight people dead.

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Loyalist terrorists had links to neo-Nazis including Blood and Honour, initially a skinhead movement that takes its name from a Nazi slogan and promotes white power ideology, often through secretive music festivals. “Blood & Honour” (Blut und Ehre) was written on the personal knives of Hitler Youth.

In 2025 Blood and Honour became the first extreme right-wing group to have financial sanctions imposed by the UK government because it was suspected of “being involved in terrorist activities through promoting and encouraging terrorism”.

Combat 18 originally served as security for Blood and Honour and ended up controlling one of its factions. Its name is code for Combat-Adolf Hitler ( numbers 1 and 8 in the alphabet).

In April, The Ferret revealed there have been 66 alleged offences in Scotland regarding support for banned loyalist paramilitary groups since the Terrorism Act 2000 came into force.

Crimes included a man successfully prosecuted after being caught with an Ulster Volunteer Force flag (UVF) on an orange walk in Glasgow in 2023, while a Livingston woman was fined for hanging a UVF flag on her house while singing sectarian songs in support of the outlawed terror group.

Professor Matthew Feldman, an expert on far right extremism who has testified at more than 24 trials, mostly terrorism related, said: “The extremist UDA umbrella has been proscribed in Britain for more than 30 years. It has the blood of hundreds on its hands. These are violent, extremist groups.”

He added: “The SDL is not like other 'patriotic' groups that mushroomed under the English Defence League after its emergence in 2009. The group is far more radical and also, in my view, openly white supremacist. This isn’t a far-right group, but extreme right.”

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Maggie Chapman MSP, the Scottish Greens’ justice spokesperson, said: “The display of Nazi and far-right symbols at a demonstration in Edinburgh is utterly abhorrent.” She added that the symbols of Combat 18, and Blood & Honour were not “harmless provocations” but “symbols associated with racist, fascist and sectarian violence, hate and intimidation”. Their aim, she claimed, was to frighten people.

Chapman continued: “There is no place for fascist intimidation on our streets. People have a right to protest and to express political views. They do not have a right to terrorise their neighbours or threaten communities with symbols of violence and hatred.

"I urge Police Scotland to investigate whether offences have been committed and use every available power to hold those responsible to account. And where existing law is inadequate, governments must have the courage to strengthen it.”

Salmon farms broke the law by letting fish suffer, say government regulators

Rob Edwards — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 06:00:43 GMT

Government watchdogs have accused three Highland salmon farms of breaching animal welfare law by causing “unnecessary suffering” and allowing fish to suffocate to death, The Ferret can reveal.

Warning letters released after appeals under freedom of information law reveal that the UK government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) reprimanded the Faroese company, Bakkafrost, for animal cruelty at two salmon farms in 2025 and 2023.

Highland Council also censured the Norwegian multinational, Mowi, for using an “inadequate technique” for killing salmon at a certified organic farm in 2025. The investigations by APHA and the council were prompted by secretly filmed videos of the farms posted online by campaign groups.

Campaigners welcomed the release of the warning letters, but condemned them as an inadequate response to the “welfare nightmare” of salmon farming. “These shameful offences would never have come to light without the use of covert cameras,” they said.

Bakkafrost and Mowi both said they had implemented the improvements requested by the regulators and insisted they were committed to the “highest standards” of fish welfare.

The Ferret reported in February 2026 that APHA had issued two warning letters after investigating 104 complaints about salmon farms between 2020 and 2025. But the agency refused to say to which farms the letters were sent.

We then reported in April that APHA had named the two farms after an internal review under freedom of information law. But the agency still refused to release copies of the warning letters.

Now, after another internal review, APHA has provided The Ferret with the letters. For the first time, they disclose the accusations levelled against the salmon farms, and the improvements recommended.

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Investigations into allegations of poor fish welfare at salmon farms by the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency have risen by more than ten times in six years, while site inspections have decreased.

APHA launched an investigation into practices at Bakkafrost’s Quarry Point salmon farm on Loch Fyne after the campaign group, Animal Equality, released covert video footage and made a complaint in June 2025.

The agency sent a formal warning letter on 4 November 2025, accusing the company of breaching the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 by failing to prevent "unnecessary suffering”.

The letter described how the video showed two members of staff putting “dead or moribund” salmon into a large plastic bin. ”At no point during the footage is there an assessment to check if fish are still alive and, if so, no attempt to humanely euthanise any of them,” said APHA. “Thus, they are left to asphyxiate.”

The agency urged Bakkafrost to improve training to ensure that staff comply with company procedures, and warned that breaches must not be repeated. "We will continue to inspect operations at Bakkafrost sites and may attend future operations to verify that these corrective actions have been effectively implemented,” APHA added.

“Inspections may be unannounced. This letter is without prejudice to any further enforcement or other action, which may be taken at a later date.”

"These shameful offences would never have come to light without the use of covert cameras" - Abigail Penny, Animal Equality

Animal Equality found it “encouraging” that APHA had at last publicly acknowledged that the breaches of animal welfare law were unacceptable. “But a warning letter is nowhere near an adequate response,” said the group’s executive director, Abigail Penny.

“These animals suffered terribly and needlessly under Bakkafrost’s watch, and these shameful offences would never have come to light without the use of covert cameras. The punishment simply does not fit the crime.”

APHA also investigated Bakkafrost’s salmon farm at West Strome on Loch Carron in 2023, following a complaint and video footage from the anti-salmon farming campaigners, Don Staniford and Jamie Moyes.

In a warning letter sent in December 2023, the agency said the video showed a few “struggling” salmon that staff members failed to kill. “No action was taken so these few individuals suffered unnecessarily until death occurred,” APHA added.

“By acting on the company protocols, the operatives could and should have prevented this unnecessary suffering from happening. It is reasonable to expect that action should have been taken.”

Don Staniford, director of Scottish Salmon Watch, has been filming salmon farms and filing complaints to APHA since 2018. “I am normally stonewalled,” he said.

“It is encouraging to hear that Bakkafrost was warned over welfare breaches in West Strome, but it would have been nice to be notified. Salmon farming is a welfare nightmare with millions of farmed salmon suffering in silence.”

Bakkafrost Scotland described warning letters as “a standard regulatory tool” used by APHA following investigations into complaints. "APHA carried out investigations and subsequently confirmed that appropriate measures had been implemented,” a company spokesperson told The Ferret.

"We remain committed to the highest standards of fish welfare and continuous improvement across all our operations."

A fish farm breached animal welfare rules. The regulator still took firms there on a PR tour

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council monitors standards at Scottish fish farms to help consumers choose “environmentally and socially responsible” farmed seafood. But it showcased a farm that had breached its rules on sea lice 11 times.

Highland Council investigated Mowi’s Loch Harport salmon farm on the Isle of Skye after the Green Britain Foundation, founded by the green entrepreneur Dale Vince, published video footage and made a complaint in May 2025.

In its warning letter on 16 June 2025, the council said animal welfare law had been breached. The video showed “insufficient practices” during the euthanasia of farmed salmon, including “prolonged time spent out of water”, “ineffective restraint” and “inadequate technique”, it stated.

“There was also footage of a fish being thrown by a Mowi employee at another Mowi employee, which then lands on the floor and is returned to the pen."

The council listed 10 measures that had been agreed by Mowi to prevent a recurrence. It warned that, along with APHA, it would make future visits, “which may be unannounced”.

The council said: “If any allegations of this nature are received in the future a report may be put to the Procurator Fiscal for their consideration.”

Loch Harport salmon farm is certified as organic by the Soil Association, meaning that it should uphold “the highest possible standards of animal welfare, environmental and wildlife protection”.

“There is no such thing as organic factory farming" - Rupert Evelyn, Green Britain Foundation.

But according to the Green Britain Foundation, salmon farms were “factory farming” and could not be organic. Organic was “the label you buy when you want to believe the fish had a decent life”, said the group’s campaign director, Rupert Evelyn.

“There is no such thing as organic factory farming. There is just factory farming with a better logo, and shoppers paying a premium for a reassurance nobody was in a position to give them.”

The Soil Association is currently reviewing whether it will continue to certify salmon farms as organic. “We were deeply saddened to see this footage 15 months ago, which showed a standard of euthanasia not tolerated by Soil Association organic standards,” said a spokesperson.

“We required swift corrective actions and long-term plans to prevent reoccurrence. Corrective actions, rather than removal of certification, can often be the best outcome for the animals.”

But if breaches occurred again, the association warned it would review the matter. "Further actions can include removing organic status from the fish or the site,” it said.

Mowi Scotland said it had implemented all 10 measures outlined in the letter from Highland Council, and that the Loch Harport farm was still certified as organic. Subsequent visits by the council, APHA and other animal welfare groups had found “no further concerns”, a spokesperson added.

“The welfare of our fish is at the heart of what we do. It is also our business model. Healthy fish that grow to optimum levels are highly sought after all over the world and Scotland’s salmon farmers work to the highest welfare standards of anywhere in the world.”

APHA declined to comment on individual cases. "We treat all reports of suspected cases of poor welfare at salmon farms very seriously and we will not hesitate to take further action if we find evidence of cruelty or neglect,” said a spokesperson.

Highland Council also said it took animal welfare complaints seriously, and investigated alongside APHA.

At Scotland’s major summer music festivals, four in five headliners are men

Alice Austin — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:00:56 GMT

The majority of Scotland's leading summer festivals – including TRNSMT, Eden and Belladrum – have given no headline slots to solo female artists in the last two years, The Ferret has found.

In total just five solo women headlined main stages this summer according to our exclusive analysis.

Only three had headliner slots on main stages in 2025. The summer festival circuit, which is now drawing to a close, brings hundreds of thousands of people together every year and is estimated to contribute hundreds of millions to the economy.

Due to rising costs the industry has been under growing pressure, with several big events cancelled this year. But festivals have also been subject to long-standing criticism about the lack of prominent female artists on their bills.

We found that some progress had been made in terms of gender equality. Several Scottish festivals had around 40 per cent women, non-binary and trans artists on their line-ups in 2025 and 2026, and some female musicians told us they feel better supported and welcomed.

But others told us that while gender balances on summer line-ups were improving, the industry still had “a way to go”. Every Scottish summer festival analysed had more men on the line-up than women, except one festival in 2025.

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The majority of festivals did not respond to requests for comment. But some admitted that the issue was a concern and said action was being taken to drive progress. One claimed it had to balance the desire for diverse bills with the need to book big names that would sell tickets.

The Ferret looked at the 2025 and 2026 programmes for 11 music festivals across Scotland including TRNSMT, Belladrum, Eden Festival, Kelburn Garden Party, Back Doune the Rabbit Hole, The Reeling, Sky Live Festival, Party at the Palace, Terminal V, FLY Festival, and Hebridean Celtic Festival (HebCelt).

We found gender representation was varied.

Only eight per cent of artists at Back Doune the Rabbit Hole were women-only in 2025. However at HebCelt that year, almost half were women (46 per cent). Male solo artists made up 50 per cent or more of the programme at more than half of festivals with the rest of the programme being mixed bands or female artists.

Solo women, on the other hand, did not make 50 per cent or over at any Scottish summer festival. But it was in headline slots that women were particularly absent.

TRNSMT has attracted controversy over the years for its consistently all-male headliners. The last two years were no exception with 50 Cent, Biffy Clyro and Snow Patrol headlining in 2025 and Richard Ashcroft, Kasabian and Lewis Capaldi topping the bill in 2026.

No women topped the bill in either year. Since launching in 2017, only one woman has been part of a headline act at TRNSMT – Pulp's keyboard player Candida Doyle in 2023.

But they were not the only festival to programme all male headline line-ups. In total almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of the festivals we looked at had no solo women artists closing the night in 2026 though some had mixed gender bands.

TRNSMT, Eden and Party at the Palace booked only solo male acts to top the bill. In 2025 nine out of 11 festivals we analysed had no solo female artists headlining.

We also found that the vast majority of festival directors and lead programmers were men, with those roles held by women at only two festivals.

Those who replied to The Ferret’s requests for comment, such as Kelburn Garden Party, said their teams were well balanced, or even skewed in favour of women. Women, Kelburn added, were also booked as guest curators.

Kelburn’s Chris Knight, said the festival thought hard about diversity in terms of gender, race and sexuality. He added: “Our festival management team has a balance of four females and five males. Our artistic production, crew coordination, box office, artist liaison managers are all female."

Chay Woodman, the press officer for Eden Festival, and one of the bookers for Back Doune the Rabbit Hole, said in his experience that “most of the festival background team are women”. He also said the Doune stage he curated last month “was pretty much all women including a female stage manager and engineer with his female cousins acting as “stand-in artist liaisons”.

The headliner on the stage, however, was male. Female and non-binary artists who spoke to The Ferret claimed some were scared to speak up about festival organisers who failed to take the issue seriously because they were afraid of the impact it might have on their careers.

One claimed “nepotism” in the industry had led senior men to hire too many others who were similar in outlook and “looked like them”, known as affinity bias.

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Scottish singer Tamara Schlesinger, chief executive of the Hen Hoose music collective, has previously spoken out against the lack of headliners at TRNSMT, which is run by DF Concerts, telling the BBC she was "deeply disappointed, though not surprised" to see no women or non-binary artists among the headliners this summer.

She said then that DF Concerts initiatives, such as Girls Girls Girls, which gives acts the opportunity to perform at King Tut's in Glasgow, could risk "feeling tokenistic when they are not backed by systemic, measurable commitment to equity at the highest levels".

She told The Ferret: “When we spoke up about DF, a lot of people [messaged] us saying: ‘Thank you so much. I can't say anything because I'm so afraid for my career.'”

Schlesinger also claimed the promoter had a huge influence on the sector. As well as running TRNSMT and owning King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, it programmes the Summer Sessions in Glasgow’s Bellahouston park and Country to Country at the city’s Hydro, Scotland’s largest music venue. It claims to book 46 per cent of gigs there and is owned by global giant Live Nation.

A recent exposé about the practices of DF Concerts by The Glasgow Bell, featured testimony by bands who claimed they are expected to promote their own gigs and sell the tickets, sometimes making as little as £30 between all their members. Its chief executive, Geoff Ellis, commented on its Instagram page: “Pathetic, poorly researched piece of utter pish (as well you know!) You should rename this bollox The Glasgow Bellend.”

DF has not signed The Keychange 50:50 pledge, an international initiative encouraging festivals, venues and organisations to commit to working towards an equal gender balance in their programming, staffing and operations. “Actually, all they’re signing up for is to try for an equal lineup,” Shlesinger said. “So if they’re not even willing to sign up to try, then that's quite a strong message.”

DF did not respond to our request for comment.

Of the festivals we looked at, Skye Live, the Reeling and HebCelt had all signed. Other Scottish signatories include Celtic Connections and Glasgow International Jazz Festival.

Many festivals did not respond to requests for comment about why they had not signed up. But Kelburn Garden Party’s Chris Knight said there were no plans to sign "because our programming approach at Kelburn is led first and foremost by artistic style and merit”. He added: “Within this we aim to achieve as best a balance as possible, but putting an official target as the headline goal would complicate an already difficult and time-consuming task."

Some said the fact that fewer women featured on line-ups meant it was difficult to develop or build audiences, which helped explain the lack of female headline acts at Scottish festivals.

Michelle Shields, HebCelt’s director and artistic programmer, said: “Headliner slots are sought after by artists as a sign of success and a following. From a festival point of view, many of your audience may decide to buy tickets based on a headliner.”

In 2025, despite their near-equal line-up, two out of three headliners were male solo acts. In 2026 two headliners were solo male acts, and the third was a band with one female member.

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“Musically, it takes time to build your audience to make it to those much sought after headline spots,” Shields added. “We need to do all we can as an industry to encourage diversity in order to break those habits.”

Yet she believes change is coming. “We certainly have a much more diverse industry than we had 20 years ago and this can only improve,” Shields said. “The line I always come back to is ‘you cannot be what you cannot see’. An equal, diverse and inclusive line up will inspire future generations and progress our industry in a positive way.”

Some claimed it’s still too often left up to female-led collectives to find gender inclusive acts. Polka Dot Disco Club is a FLINTA club night – a German term meaning (Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans, and Agender) used by many in the industry.

It was founded by Glasgow-based DJ and producer Frankie Elyse, who hosts takeovers at clubs and festivals across Scotland, exclusively booking women, non-binary and trans artists. She said that while there was still work to do the scene was increasingly inclusive. “I’ve seen women DJs get headline slots on a local level, which they wouldn’t necessarily have got 10 years ago,” Elyse added.

Kelburn Garden Party is one of the more inclusive festivals we analysed, with women, non-binary and trans artists making up 37 per cent of 2026’s line-up, while men and mixed acts made up the remaining 63 per cent.

This year, they invited Polka Dot Disco Club to take over the Saloon Stage with a line-up of six FLINTA acts, but it took place on the first night when the festival was only partially open.

Kelburn’s Chris Knight said: “We consider ourselves to be among the industry leaders in this regard, on a nationwide level. Overall we feel we have made good progress in recent years, but know there is always more to be done.”

Trad music has long been criticised for its lack of representation but Rising Trad band Dàna said there have been positive changes. "I personally would say it's a lot better than it used to be,” pianist Alex Wotherspoon told The Ferret. “But there's always going to be work that needs done.”

“There are so many women behind the scenes,” added Eleanor Tout, the band's whistle player. “Having these people and platforms that celebrate women in Trad is so nice to have."

Katie Goh, manager of Engender’s equal media and culture centre, said she was “disappointed” by The Ferret’s findings. “While it is positive that some progress has been made, the continuing lack of women in headline slots points to a systemic, gendered problem. Women’s contribution to Scottish music is being severely undervalued.”

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Highland trout firm accused of animal welfare abuses

Billy Briggs — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 05:00:03 GMT

A trout abattoir has been accused of animal welfare abuses for the second time in less than a year following covert filming at the Highland site.

The Ferret published footage last October of farmed trout apparently suffocating, haemorrhaging, and being beaten with batons at a slaughterhouse in Ardnish, Loch Ailort. The site is operated by Loch Alba Trout, a company based in Stornoway.

The video was obtained by Animal Equality UK which lodged an official complaint at the time with a government regulator.

The charity has now obtained new footage allegedly showing fish left to “slowly suffocate after ineffective stunning” at the site.

It claims the video once again “raises serious questions” about compliance with animal welfare law and “whether animals are being spared avoidable pain and suffering”.

A fresh complaint has been submitted to the Animal and Plant Health Agency Scotland (APHA) by Animal Equality, which alleges breaches of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

RSPCA Assured, the animal welfare food labelling scheme, is also examining the new footage. Last year it issued a “formal warning with strict sanctions” – including two unannounced visits to the site – after seeing the initial footage.

Abigail Penny, executive director of Animal Equality UK, claimed the regulatory system is “dismally failing farmed fish” due to “too few inspections, weak legal guidance and a lack of meaningful enforcement”.

Footage of trout being clubbed and slaughtered prompts complaint to regulator – The Ferret

Footage of farmed trout suffocating, haemorrhaging, and being beaten with batons in a slaughterhouse has prompted an official complaint to a government regulator.

She told The Ferret: “In just a matter of minutes, we documented animals showing unmistakable signs of consciousness after attempted stunning, thrashing desperately in ice and, in one case, being punched by a worker.”

RSPCA Assured confirmed it was looking into the latest allegation and said the welfare of farmed animals is an “absolute priority”. A spokesperson added: “We take all concerns about poor welfare or breaches of the RSPCA’s standards extremely seriously. Anyone concerned about the welfare of a farmed animal should contact us immediately so we can take appropriate action as quickly as possible.”

A spokesperson for the Animal and Plant Health Agency Scotland said: "We treat all reports of suspected cases of poor welfare at salmon farms very seriously and we will not hesitate to take further action if we find evidence of cruelty or neglect."

Loch Alba Trout has been asked to comment. Last year, when it operated under its previous name, SeaQureFarming Group, the company told The Ferret it takes fish welfare “extremely seriously” and would take “any necessary action” to improve its operations.

“We are always keen to make continual improvements to all our operations and support a beyond compliance approach,” a spokesperson told The Ferret last October.

Families are being left without support after a suicide – and it’s causing more deaths

Karin Goodwin — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 05:30:10 GMT

“It was like a domino effect,” says Fiona Ford. We’re speaking on text because, given everything Fiona has been through, she finds it easier that way. In just six years she has lost two of her daughters and her husband to suicide.

Her eldest, the bright and bubbly Rhiannon, who “didn’t take anyone’s nonsense”, was just 19 years old when she died in 2019. At the time her younger sister Taylor - “shy but with the kindest heart” - was just 11 years old. “She kept a lot to herself,” says Fiona. “But I knew she was devastated.”

She took her own life four years after her sister. And then last June, Fiona’s partner Barry - who had struggled for many years with his mental health - also died by suicide. “The impact the girls’ deaths had on us all contributed,” she says. “But when Barry begged for help, he didn’t get it.”

Fiona’s situation is particularly tragic. But with research showing that people who’ve lost someone to suicide have a significantly increased risk of taking their own life, campaigners say it’s crucial families get proper support to help save lives.

In real terms the current budget is less than half the annual national spend 20 years ago. More funding, charities insist, must be found to pay for it. In 2024, the most recent data available, 704 probable suicides were recorded in Scotland, an encouraging decrease of 11 per cent. But despite positive progress, the rate is still higher than in England and statisticians warn there is no room for complacency. Figures for 2025 are due to be released in coming weeks.

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The Scottish Government acknowledges the additional risk for those bereaved by suicide. In 2022 it published ‘Creating Hope Together’, a “highly ambitious” 10 year suicide prevention strategy for Scotland, which promised “access to high quality, compassionate, appropriate and timely support” for anyone affected by suicide, including family members.But mental health charities say the level of funding isn’t sufficient to meet the ambitions.

The Ferret heard from multiple families who said the reality fell short. They struggled to get the psychological help they needed for themselves or their children following the suicide of a loved one.

One mother said her daughter waited more than three years for bereavement counselling which was only offered for six weeks. “It was just enough to rip the plaster off,” she told us, claiming that her daughter later ended up self-harming. Others said they had to use savings for private counselling because nothing else was available.

Natalie Dakhil, who in June told The Ferret about the loss of her father, Michael Byrne, in February 2024, waited for more than nine months for psychological support, offered through occupational health because she works for the NHS. Her GP had told her she would wait for two years through general services.

She and her husband Anton were “shocked” at how difficult it was to access anything other than crisis support services and horrified that follow-up with those who had been bereaved as a prevention strategy - known as suicide postvention - often seemed like an afterthought.

Their response was A Place Called Here, a voluntary peer support group that people could access for free whenever they needed it. Now some of its members have agreed to meet me, to explain why Scotland must make its strategy a reality.

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Since it was set-up nearly two years ago, the group - where people can share their experiences, learn techniques like grounding and meditation and receive complimentary therapies – has helped over 100 people. Each Wednesday up to 45 people come along to the community hall in Balornock, Glasgow, where it now meets.

“We have been totally honest and transparent from the get go,” says Natalie. “People could just relate to that. You could physically see the relief that they were in a place where they felt welcomed because of the stigma that comes with suicide.”

Grief following suicide is complex, she says, and there’s lots to deal with. “I’m now two years down the line and the investigation into my dad’s death still hasn’t concluded - that’s the case for a lot of people. Sometimes the police don’t release suicide notes for weeks or months and families are sitting waiting.

“Maybe they’ve had to speak to the procurator fiscal as much as two years later, or had a difficult meeting with the NHS. And where do you go with that?”

For Paul, coming to the group gave him an immediate sense of belonging, and “of being in a room with people who understand me”. His dad took his life almost three decades ago, when he was only 17.

Back then there was no support. “I was screaming out for someone to listen,” he says. “I went to psychiatrists and psychologists but I felt like I didn’t find any human empathy there. And then I walked in [to A Place Called Here] and it felt so comfortable. When we sit together on a Wednesday night there’s a power in the room that the pain has created - it’s like electricity.”

"Spending on suicide prevention is simply too low to have the intended impact.” — Alex Cumming, Scottish Action for Mental Health

Counselling, he says, “peeled off the top layer” of his trauma, leaving him feeling raw so the group helped him move past that. “I used to walk past where my dad died and I had to turn away. Now I look and tune into the happy memories that a combination of the counselling and coming to the group unlocked.”

For Annie, who lost her 38-year-old partner to suicide only last year, remembering the good times is still more difficult. “In terms of accessing immediate support I was actually able to do that very quickly,” she remembers. “I think people were really concerned about me.”

She got a referral to Distress Brief Intervention (DBI), a Scottish Government funded service introduced ten years ago providing community-based help as well as wellbeing support and signposting. “I think that saved my life,” she says. “I was never suicidal exactly - I never wanted to die but sometimes I didn’t want to be here either.”

Normally the service is capped at three weeks but they saw Annie for six. After that though she was told she would have to wait six months for bereavement counselling. “But I couldn’t wait that long,” she says. To fill the terrifying gap opening up in front of her, a work friend sent her a flyer for A Place Called Here.

Cruse, the charity which provides bereavement services, says help should always be on offer before the six month point but acknowledges that demand is high and waiting times can vary across the country.

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At the first meeting Annie could barely say her name. “I was just crying all the time,” she remembers. “Sometimes people would say how their relative had died and I was so shocked but also so relieved because I couldn’t speak to anyone in my life about the mad, intrusive thoughts I was having. “I was getting flashbacks. I was so scared because I was thinking all the time that it might happen to me too. People were saying to me - “Annie, tell me what you are thinking” and I couldn’t say. I worried I would traumatise them.”

At the group she could be honest and open and started to feel better. Now she’s had lots of other support, including weekly counselling from the Manda Centre.

Everyone has a different reason to be here. There’s Shona, who lost her mum to suicide in September 2020 but only finally came to the group in January this year after suppressing her trauma in oder to look after her children with additional needs.

Then there's Siobhan, who lost her dad last year and believes his life could have been saved if services had provided the help he needed and asked for. It left her feeling full of anger and guilt. “It takes everyone talking together to realise it’s not our fault,” she says. “For a long time I felt guilty for laughing.”

For Frank, who will never forget finding his 23-year-old daughter Chloe after she died, it saved his life. “There’s been suicide in my family - one about 40 years ago, then one 16 years ago and then Chloe. I felt as if I was doomed. My pain was so fierce at times, all I wanted was to be with her. Thank God for these people in my life. It was because of them that I went to get help from the crisis team when I needed it. If I hadn’t, I’m not sure I’d still be here.

“I lost both my parents, quite suddenly, through different illnesses, and I grieve for them. But suicide is a different kind of grief. I still miss my parents dearly. But Chloe,” he trails off. “That almost broke me completely.”

This group offers a place to heal and also to remember their loved ones. On anniversaries they can choose to lead the sessions, inviting family members, bringing photos and playing their favourite songs.

“Peer support doesn’t replace statutory services but it provides something different. Everyone should have the option to access both.” — Natalie Dakhil

Setting up the group, Natalie says, was a way of transforming her pain into something purposeful. “You get so consumed with what happened,” she says. “And that’s where your mental health deteriorates.” Too often, she says, people are left on waiting lists and expected to cope.

Mental health charities such as PETAL Support across Scotland told The Ferret that demand for their services was increasing. Yet funding to provide them is often not.

Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH) is campaigning for the suicide prevention budget to be doubled form £3m to £6m. It points out 20 years ago spending by the then Scottish Executive on its Choose Life strategy was £4m per year. In real terms that would be over £7m per year today.

The Scottish Government’s mental wellbeing minister Maree Todd said she was "determined that anyone who needs it has timely access to the right mental health support" and noted that suicide prevention funding had "increased to at least £3m in 2026–27, up from £2.8m". This was supported by "broader mental health funding” which included £30m for community-based support.

Alex Cumming, executive director of delivery and service development at the national charity says: "Spending on suicide prevention is simply too low to have the intended impact.”

Access to suicide bereavement support should be a fundamental part of what’s on offer, he insists. “Funding should be ring-fenced locally so that communities can develop support based on local need and deliver effective interventions to support people affected by suicide.”

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Natalie wishes this was already a reality. “To this day every penny we have spent has come through donations and fundraising,” she says. “Nothing comes from statutory services. I think charities like us should be recognised.”

A spokesperson for Suicide Prevention Scotland recently visited the group, describing it as a “powerful experience “. They acknowledged the additional risk for those bereaved by suicide. “This is why bereavement support is a key action in Creating Hope Together, Scotland’s suicide prevention strategy and action plan,” they added.

“We are currently working on an approach to postvention which will make sure that anyone bereaved by suicide in Scotland has access to the support they need. It is important that as we do this, we involve people who have experienced suicide loss.”

Meanwhile for Fiona Ford, the struggle to recover from the loss of her three family members continues. She is no longer looking for NHS help - she’s lost faith in the services that she believes let her loved ones down so badly.

That is far from atypical, says Natalie: “The people here have tried to access services for our loved ones before they died. And then after they die we try to access services for ourselves.”

Too often, she says, they have been let down. “We’ve had to rely on each other. Peer support doesn’t replace statutory services but it provides something different. Everyone should have the option to access both.”

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AI flooded the Scottish Government with wind farm objections. So they stopped accepting emails

Paul Dobson — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 05:00:02 GMT

Artificial intelligence has fuelled a “significant” surge in objections to some of Scotland’s biggest planning applications and prompted the Scottish Government to stop accepting public responses by email.

The rules for consultations on major energy projects were changed in January after an increase in the use of AI in submissions, a freedom of information response to The Ferret shows.

The Energy Consents Unit (ECU) – the team within the Scottish Government which handles applications for projects such as wind farms and pylon lines – now only accepts objections from the public through its own online portal or by post.

The change was made following what the ECU described in internal correspondence as a “significant rise in the use of AI in emailed representations”, each of which had to be “processed manually with no verification of sender identity”.

Dealing with this had created a “significant administrative burden” and made it harder to distinguish “genuine individual concerns from bulk automated content”, one official wrote.

The new system would ensure “protection against fraud” and maintain “the integrity of the consultation process”, the Scottish Government argued.

But the move sparked a backlash in some quarters, with critics claiming it could stop people from legitimately participating in Scotland’s planning process and that AI could help people navigate the complex planning system.

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It comes amid wider concern that a deluge of objections generated with AI could see the UK’s planning system “grind to a halt”.

One application for new homes in the English midlands was reportedly the subject of more than 500 email objections from one local resident, including a 160-page report full of errors and hallucinations (when AI generates false, misleading or fabricated information).

The ECU is not the only Scottish body which says it has come under strain. The Scottish Information Commissioner had to limit the number of appeals to his office under freedom of information law after an “influx” of “machine-generated AI appeals”.

The ban on email submissions has had a particular impact on ObjectNow, a service which generates objection letters to planning applications with the help of AI.

The freedom of information response shows it wrote to the Scottish Government to protest on 20 January, days after the change was made, arguing that it had “never sought to overload the system or generate artificial volumes of representations”.

According to its website, the group – which says it is not-for-profit and run by volunteers whose identities are not public – helped 50,000 people across the UK submit objections in 2025.

These were mainly made by opponents of wind farms, battery sites and pylons, but ObjectNow says its service can also be used to oppose housing developments and infrastructure projects.

Local groups can set up a campaign against a project on the ObjectNow platform, which then allows individuals to produce detailed objections for free in three minutes from “start to sent”.

ObjectNow said no local campaign groups had approached it for help opposing a Scottish energy project handled by the ECU since the email ban came into force.

A spokesperson said calling its objection letters "written by AI" did a "disservice to volunteers who give their time to draft the strong foundational letters" used by the system. The group said those letters are based on extensive analysis of planning documents.

“At no point has ObjectNow allowed AI to generate a letter and submit it without human involvement,” they said, adding that every objection is checked to ensure that it comes from a “real person with real concerns”.

ObjectNow described the ECU’s decision to scrap email responses as “a means of muting the true scale of public opposition” to energy developments and “avoid headlines” such as the over 10,000 objections made to the Kintore to Tealing pylon line.

“A publicly funded department of the Scottish Government should have the technology, staffing and capacity to process any number of objections or representations submitted, regardless of how they are prepared or delivered,” the spokesperson added.

A Scottish Government spokesperson told The Ferret: “Our planning and consenting system ensures that local communities can always have their say – and any objections and material considerations are carefully balanced when determining applications.

“Due to the volume of emailed representations received in previous years, the Scottish Government invested in the Energy Consents Unit’s online portal to ensure public representations are now made directly to Scottish ministers.

“This ensures protection against misrepresentations and maintains the integrity of the consultation process.”

Read the full freedom of information response here.

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Scotland’s wind industry is booming. China and Wall Street are cashing in

Paul Dobson — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 05:00:28 GMT

China’s government and an investment vehicle based in the Cayman Islands are among a group of foreign owners whose Scottish wind farms have paid out more than £1bn to shareholders in recent years.

The figures come from a Ferret examination of five years of dividend payments reported in the annual accounts of some of Scotland’s biggest onshore wind projects.

They have been branded “extraordinary” by critics who claim wealth from our natural resources is "filling the pockets of distant private shareholders or other countries’ treasuries” while Scots miss out.

As we reported this year some communities across the country feel they are being short-changed by local wind farms, which are large infrastructure projects which can alter treasured landscapes for decades and cause disruption while being built.

But the renewable sector said it is a major contributor to the economy – supporting over “47,000 jobs” – and the overseas investment it attracted to the country was “delivering lasting value to the Scottish people”.

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Our analysis identified 37 projects ultimately owned outside the UK which reported paying £1.15bn in dividends over five years. One of the biggest potential winners identified is IIF International Holdings LP, a Cayman Islands fund managed by the Wall Street banking giant, JP Morgan.

Fifteen wind farms we analysed listed the fund – which owns them through an Edinburgh-based subsidiary called Nadara – as their ultimate parent company.

Together they reported paying more than £450m in dividends over the five-year period. The biggest contributor was the 40-turbine Farr wind farm south of Inverness, which reported paying out almost £110m. Nadara is exploring plans to expand the site with another 10 turbines.

The identities of the investors in the IIF International fund are not made public because of rules in the Caymans, which is considered a corporate tax and secrecy haven. But they reportedly include investors from the US, the Middle East and Japan.

Nadara told The Ferret it has created “strong, lasting relationships” with communities near its turbines and increased its community benefit payments in 2025, alongside offering “shared ownership schemes”. “Nadara adopts a full-lifetime approach to community engagement to create long-term value for our communities as well as for our business,” a spokesperson said.

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The tiny Danish island of Bornholm was the site of one of the world’s first offshore wind turbines back in the 1940s. Now its citizens are fighting to build one of the largest community wind farms ever, and raise the benchmark of what’s possible for locally owned energy.

Developments owned by overseas governments also reported more than £400m in dividends during the five-year period.

Two wind farms owned or part-owned by the French state energy company EDF – Dorenell in Moray and Fallago Rig in the Borders, which it has a stake in alongside US investor Federated Hermes – paid out more than £250m.

Projects owned by Norway’s state-owned renewable company, Statkraft, reported £131m in dividends, while Sweden’s state-owned Vattenfall was in line to receive almost £13m from Clashindarroch in Aberdeenshire.

The Afton wind farm in East Ayrshire, owned by the Chinese government’s State Development and Investment Corporation, reported £26m in dividends. The same organisation ultimately owns the Benbrack wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway, which began generating electricity last year.

Communities were promised a share of Scotland’s wind boom. Some are being sold short

More than 20 wind farms are failing to pay an agreed amount to locals. That could cost Scottish communities over £50m.

Calls for greater Scottish stake

Our analysis does not cover every major onshore wind farm in Scotland, because some do not publish separate company accounts. This includes those owned by major developers such as SSE, and ScottishPower – itself a subsidiary of the Spanish utility company Iberdrola.

Not all the cash paid out by individual projects will necessarily reach the ultimate shareholders. It often first passes through layers of holding companies, which may decide to reinvest it or use it to repay debt.

But the findings provide a snapshot of the money being generated by the onshore wind sector – and where some of it could be ending up – at a time when there are renewed calls for Scotland to take a much bigger stake in its renewable energy industry.

In May, a coalition of campaign groups and think tanks launched the Our Power campaign, which is calling for action to keep more of the money generated by wind, solar and hydro power locally.

Liam Hainey, a spokesperson for the group, said Scots were currently being “shortchanged” with “too much wealth filling either the pockets of distant private shareholders or other countries’ treasuries”.

“If we stick to business as usual and an economy of extraction then we will look back in 20 years filled with regrets.” – Kristopher Leask MSP, Scottish Greens

He added: “We urgently need action to ensure that more of the profits from the renewable sector stay in Scotland and benefit our communities which is why we’re calling on the Scottish Government to take a public stake in future projects and to do everything it can to support council and community ownership.”

The Scottish Government has supported community energy through its CARES scheme, which provides funding and advice to groups seeking to develop or have a stake in renewable projects.

It also launched a pilot scheme last year giving communities the first opportunity to lease and repower 10 wind farms on publicly owned land. Repowering involves replacing a project’s turbines at the end of their operational life.

Meanwhile, the UK Government’s clean energy investment company, GB Energy, published its Local Power Plan this year, which said it “refused to accept that the days when Britain owned things are in the past”.

It committed up to £1bn over three years to help more communities own local energy projects, which it claimed could become a “long-term engine for local economic growth and community wealth building”.

Wealthy landowners are making millions from Scottish wind farms. You’re subsidising them

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.

Part of the rationale for the plan was that community-owned energy projects have been found to deliver more for communities than the current model of ‘community benefit’ payments – where developers make voluntary payments to support local initiatives near their turbines.

The industry points out that community benefits are a “unique feature” of the renewable sector and claims “no other industry has chosen to take such a positive role in our society”.

Communities receive £55m from community benefits from all Scottish onshore renewable projects per year. The Farr wind farm, ultimately owned by the IIF fund, paid out nearly £95m in 2023 alone.

One 2021 study found community-owned projects provide 34 times more money to communities than the average community benefit package. GB Energy also pointed to evidence that public support for the transition to cleaner energy increases when local people own projects and see their economic benefits firsthand.

But currently only around one per cent of Scotland’s onshore wind capacity is owned by communities. That lags far behind countries like Denmark, where, since 2008, developers have been required to offer communities at least a 20 per cent stake in new wind farms. In Germany, one study estimated that 40 per cent of renewable capacity is citizen-owned.

“The UK squandered our oil and gas wealth – we cannot repeat the same mistake with renewables.” – Laurie Macfarlane, Future Economy Scotland

“There is nothing inevitable about a system where Scotland’s natural assets are controlled by overseas governments and multinational corporations,” the Scottish Greens MSP for the Highlands and Islands, Kristopher Leask, told The Ferret.

Leask, who worked for the charity Community Energy Scotland before being elected to parliament in May, added: “Scotland has an enormous renewable energy potential, but too often our communities are seeing the disruption without sharing in the rewards.

“If we stick to business as usual and an economy of extraction then we will look back in 20 years filled with regrets.”

That view was shared by Laurie Macfarlane, the co-director of think tank Future Economy Scotland. “The UK squandered our oil and gas wealth – we cannot repeat the same mistake with renewables,” he said. Macfarlane claimed it was “extraordinary” that £400m in dividends had flowed from projects owned by the French, Chinese, Swedish and Norwegian governments, “while the Scottish exchequer has received nothing”.

He added: “If the Scottish Government is serious about delivering a just transition, it must take bold steps to expand both public and community ownership of our renewable resources. The people of Scotland deserve a real stake in our energy future.”

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But a spokesperson for Scottish Renewables, the body that represents the whole of the country’s green energy sector, argued it continued to attract “significant inward investment, delivering lasting value for the Scottish people, the economy and energy security”.

"Renewable energy supports more than 47,000 jobs in Scotland, creating opportunities for businesses and workers while helping to grow a strong domestic supply chain. These benefits are felt far beyond individual projects, bringing investment, skills and opportunities to communities across the country,” they continued.

"Continued investment in the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) and other support programmes, alongside the significant funding delivered locally by renewable energy projects [in community benefits], will help more communities and local authorities capture the benefits of Scotland's renewable energy industry."

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Loyalist killer and former Ulster Volunteer Force member attended Glasgow anti-immigration protest

Billy Briggs — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:00:04 GMT

A loyalist killer from Northern Ireland and a former member of the banned terror group the Ulster Volunteer Force attended an anti-immigration demonstration in Glasgow that turned violent, The Ferret can reveal.

Scotland’s first minister John Swinney and other politicians condemned the violence, which started in Glasgow Green and spread to the city centre.

Anti-racists gathered at Glasgow Green on 25 July 2026 to oppose a demonstration by anti-immigration protesters. Clips on social media showed attendees performing Nazi salutes and mounted police drew batons to separate rival groups.

Those attending the protest included Glen Kane - on the left in the above photograph - from Northern Ireland who was jailed for nine years for being part of a mob which killed a Catholic man during a sectarian riot in 1992.

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He was in Glasgow last weekend with convicted armed robber and former Ulster Volunteer Force member Mark Sinclair, who calls himself ‘Freedom Dad’ on Youtube where he posts videos.

Kane, aka ‘Mr X’, is a former member of the British National Party, a racist organisation. In June he appeared at Laganside Courthouse, Northern Ireland, on a race-hate charge. He denies the charge and the case is due to be heard in September.

Mark Sinclair was jailed for 18 years in 2003 for a series of bank robberies in Scotland. He had travelled over from his native Northern Ireland and targeted Clydesdale bank branches in Troon, Stewarton and Dalbeattie, netting almost £13,000.

Sinclair, a Rangers football club fan, opposes multi-culturalism and says he regularly visits Glasgow. In a recent video posted while travelling by boat back to Northern Ireland, he said: “It was a bit of an eye opener for us in Northern Ireland to see Glasgow in such a state. It was spot the white man unfortunately and that’s the way it’s going and it’s not going to get any better.

“Nobody’s being removed and they’re going to be here to stay, and they’re going to have children, and their children are going to outbreed us, and Scottish people, especially Glasgow people, will be a minority,” he added. “This is where we’re at today. It’s facts, it’s not misinformation. We aren’t far right racists to love our country, to love our traditions, and to love our cultures, and not want to see changes.

Reform UK activist claimed to know that Northern Ireland migrants would be targeted

Concerns have been raised after a Reform UK campaigner claimed he knew in advance that migrants in Belfast would be targeted following the heinous attack on Stephen Ogilvie. Reform UK said it has “repeatedly and unequivocally condemned violence, intimidation and criminal damage”.

“We’re not going to lie down and let these people, or the government destroy what we know as our culture and traditions in Ulster, Northern Ireland. The bottom line is we’re a white Christian country.”

Following the protest in Glasgow last Saturday, Sinclair posted a video claiming five people had travelled from Belfast, as well as others from Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and Hull.

He described the protest as “pretty eventful” and said “it was really dangerous coming into the demo” because a group called the Green Brigade, which supports Celtic football club, were there.

In the same clip, Kane accused anti-racists of causing trouble in Glasgow. He said police questioned and photographed him at the protest while he was kettled with other anti-immigration protestors. He also admitted being a former member of the BNP but denied being a far right leader in Scotland when this was put to him by Sinclair. “I just wanted to come over and observe the right wing,” he said. “I had a good day.”

Last June Sinclair attended anti-immigrant protest rallies in Dublin and Limerick.

The ex-BNP ‘Christian patriot’ raising international funding for Scottish ‘vigilante’ night patrols

Far right organisation Knights Templar International, whose frontman Jim Dowson has a long history of involvement with extremist groups, is now supporting Scotland’s new wave of night patrols.

Ex-BNP member and loyalist preacher Jim Dowson was also in Glasgow during the weekend of the protest. The Ferret revealed yesterday he was helping to fundraise for Scottish “vigilante” patrol groups, who have been criticised for targeting migrants.

Hope not hate claimed both Kane and Sinclair are “well established members of the Northern Irish far right scene”, adding: “The events in Glasgow last weekend are evidence of a growing issue whereby overtly racialised rhetoric, including ethnonationalism and neo-Nazism, is becoming less taboo.”

Holly Bruce MSP, the Greens’ shadow cabinet secretary for social justice, said: “The violence and intimidation we saw in Glasgow at the weekend was appalling. The reported involvement of people with histories in loyalist paramilitarism, racist politics and serious violence is deeply alarming and cannot be dismissed as a ‘protest’.”

Sinclair has been asked to comment. We were unable to contact Kane.

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The ex-BNP ‘Christian patriot’ raising international funding for Scottish ‘vigilante’ night patrols

Karin Goodwin — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 06:00:56 GMT

The frontman of a right wing, nationalist Christian group is raising funds from across the UK, Europe and the United States to buy equipment for Scottish "night patrols" accused of targeting migrants.

Britain First co-founder Jim Dowson, who is originally from Airdrie but now based in Northern Ireland, fronts Knights Templar International (KTI), a militant Christian nationalist organisation, which promotes itself by evoking the 10th century crusades. He was dubbed “the invisible man of Britain's far right” by the BBC, who ran an investigation into his activities in 2018.

Dowson posted videos revealing his financial support for the Glasgow groups to followers of KTI’s TikTok account this weekend, prior to the start of what organisers Unite the Clans claimed was Scotland’s “largest anti-migrant rally” in Glasgow.

Organisations KTI is funding include “night patrol” group Scots Active, providing them with stab vests, cameras and high visibility security jackets. The Ferret, which is co-publishing this story with The Detail, previously reported on this and other groups, who have been accused of having links to the far right and targeting migrants.

KTI claims to have members in the UK, Eastern Europe, Canada and the United States, whom Dowson thanked for “their generosity” in financial support for the Scottish volunteer groups. Dowson stood down from Britain First in 2014, claiming he opposed its “raids” on Mosques.

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A fervent Ulster loyalist, he has also been using the phrase “unite the clans” in recent months, inferring that Protestant and Catholic groups should come together to fight the common “enemy” of migration from Muslim and other “third world countries”. In online sermons he expresses the view that getting rid of “illegals” is “not enough”. Nick Griffin, former leader of the British National Party, is also involved in the organisation and appears in several of their videos.

Glasgow rally

On Saturday, 25 July, about four or five hundred anti-migration protestors gathered in Glasgow Green to hear from speakers including Josh Fernie of the Homeland Party and Richard McFarlane of Patriotic Alternative who both called for re-migration of all people of colour and led chants of “send them back”. Later some protestors were filmed abusing people of colour passing by, both verbally and in one instance, throwing a traffic cone at a fast food delivery man.

Police Scotland made 15 arrests over “significant disorder" and warned it expected to make others.

Several people at the Glasgow Green event were spotted wearing Dowson’s Knights Templar insignia including one draped in a cape bearing its logo. His organisation is named after The Knights Templar, which was a military order of the Catholic faith founded in 1118 to defend pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. Various groups using similar names continue to evoke their historic iconography.

Some “night patrols” including Glasgow based Scots Active and a group called Scottish Crusade, supported the rally. As The Ferret has previously reported, these groups claim to be peaceful activists seeking to protect women and children.

Critics argue some have anti-immigration agendas, are using the issue to fuel far right narratives and have targeted innocent people. The patrol groups have been highly visible at protests in local communities across Scotland in recent weeks, some in response to the presence of convicted or suspected child abusers.

In 2025-26, violence against women and girls has risen significantly in Scotland, including in Glasgow. Local protests have taken place after several serious assaults, including those by migrant men.

Ahead of Saturday’s event, several thousand counter protesters, organised by Stand Up to Racism, Women Against the Far Right and others, gathered at the gates of Glasgow Green to show vocal opposition to fascist and racist ideologies.

But beforehand, Dowson filmed himself on the green in TikTok videos that appear to be targeted at US supporters. In one video, filmed beside the doulton fountain, Dowson says he is in Glasgow “because there are four different groups here that we’re going to try and help”.

The groups, he says, are involved in Christian patrols and “keeping the people safe” and he references meeting up with them later in the day. In the video he claims that authorities are “filling the houses” in Calton, the area to the east of the city on the edge of Glasgow Green, “with Africans” and “undocumented males from all over the world”.

He claims the green was “teeming with Africans” on the night before the march. He thanks Templar groups for their financial support, and asks them to “keep it coming” so that people in Glasgow can “keep their women and children safe”.

He signed off with the phrase “deus vult”, a Latin phrase which means “God wills it” and has become associated with far right, white supremacist movements, especially in the United States where it was seen during the 2017 Unite the Right protest in the Charlottesville along with crusader crosses. This rally became infamous after counter-protester Heather Heyer was murdered by a white supremacist.

In a second video, Dowson encourages supporters to visit the Templeton carpet factory building on the green “if you ever get the chance to come to Glasgow” claiming he is “now off to meet some of the patrol groups”. In a different video he refers to Glasgow's poorer areas as “the projects”, using language to appeal to a US audience.

'Community safety'

Another online clip features Scots Active, who have thanked him for donations including walkie talkies, stab vests and cameras. In the video Dowson claims that Scots Active are keeping women and girls safe because neither the authorities or the police are doing so.

Police Scotland has previously told The Ferret that it does “not endorse, condone or encourage any group's activity”.

Darren Docherty, who co-founded Scots Active, confirmed Dowson got in touch over social media and said he had long been a fan of the Knights Templar. He claimed that while he agrees with Dowson about illegal migrants, he does not agree with everything he stands for. “I am a Rangers fan but I don’t agree with everything my football club does,” he argued. “So just because I am a fan of the people in question doesn’t mean I agree with everything they say.”

He condemned the violence following the protest claiming “everyone should be able to state their point of view without being attacked” and said no-one should be ever be attacked “over their skin colour”.

But he added: “Put it this way and it makes things simple - if you go to Poland you want to see Polish people, yes? Same goes for Japan or Jamaica so why when we want the same for Scotland are we branded racist?

“All we want is our native people to be around in our native land without foreign threats coming here and committing horrendous acts on our women and children who walk around with targets on their backs. If that makes me racist for wanting my native people to have a homeland then I must be racist.”

Dowson confirmed to The Ferret that, as he expresses in online sermons, he is not content with the remigration only of "illegals" but with all new migrants “flooding to Scotland”.

The BBC has previously exposed KTI for buying paramilitary equipment, sent to Northern Kosovo where British troops were stationed to keep the peace between the Muslim Kosovo Albanian community and Orthodox Christian Serbians. In 2017, Dowson was expelled from Hungary due to concern about his activities. He told The Ferret he was used by its government as a right wing fall guy to detract from criticism.

"Templars in history are seen as elite, chivalrous knights and we were brought up with these stories. You are not a skinhead thug anymore, you are a knight, protecting women." - Rory MacLellan, researcher

Rory MacLellan, post doctoral researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London, who has been researching the organisation since 2016, said Dowson’s group was the most recent to tap into Templar mythology to market its ideology.

In KTI's merchandise store website it advertises “the full knight package” for $890, which includes various knight associated regalia.

“Templars in history are seen as elite, chivalrous knights and we were brought up with these stories,” MacLellan said. “So this is about a rebranding of the old right. You are not a skinhead thug anymore, you are a knight, protecting women.”

He claimed that while KTI claimed to have money, images of a chapel renovation project appeared "shoddy" while some videos had AI backgrounds. “So you have to question how successful it is,” he added. “Regardless, this is a group using militant, supremacist and racist language. It is a far right group by any measure and the fact that they are funding Scottish community groups is concerning.”

A spokesperson from Women Against the Far-Right Scotland said the patrols emerging around the country "do nothing to keep women safe”. “Those involved are weaponising the very serious issue of violence against women and girls to spread their racist ideology and are a method to intimidate migrants, Muslims and people of colour,” they added.

“But they do not care about women; in recent reports many of the men involved in far-right organising have previously been reported for domestic abuse.”

Jim Dowson, who spoke to The Ferret yesterday from Northern Ireland, claimed that his visit to Glasgow last weekend was his first to the city for 20 years. “I didn’t recognise it,” he said, claiming that the number of foreigners on the streets was “unbelievable”.

Glasgow is Scotland’s most ethnically diverse city, with 19 per cent of its population from a non-White minority ethnic group, according to the most recent figures. Only four per cent of Scotland is non-White.

“There are far too many people in Glasgow who come from other cultures that are incompatible with ours,” Dowson claimed. “They are unvetted and they are dangerous.”

Migrants were being housed in working class areas, he said, with “balloons” from the suburbs unable to understand the impact on communities. But his issue is not only with "illegal migrants" but with all migrants “who are flooding over here” including those who do so legally.

He clarified that he had “no problem” with migrants with specialist skills where there were shortages including doctors and engineers. “I don’t object to a wee Filipino nurse,” he said.

“I object to useless migrants, whether or not they are legal. It’s not just Muslims - people are coming here from third world countries and many of them have very different views on how we treat women."

Asked about his views on white abusers he said: “I’m biblical and the bible is very clear, if you are an abuser you should be executed regardless of where you come from – you should be put to death.”

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This Russian depot supplies Putin’s war in Ukraine. Its boss has a Scottish property portfolio

Jamie Mann — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:37:36 GMT

A Russian investment boss’s firm owns commercial property in Glasgow, raising questions about the checks made on who is able to buy Scottish assets, claims a new report.

The study, published today, highlights how Russia is exploiting weaknesses in UK and European sanctions and security controls to import military goods for the frontline, sell and export stolen commodities from occupied Ukraine, and ship oil via its ‘shadow fleet’.

The research is part of the Serious Organised Crime / Anti-Corruption Evidence project, which is funded by the UK Government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

One focus is Russia’s Kavkaz Port, which is connected to Crimea by a bridge and ferries. The report claims it is important for supplies of explosives, fuel and other goods to the war’s frontline, and for shipping pillaged grain from Moscow-occupied territories.

In 2024, the port’s main cargo terminal was acquired by RWM Capital, an investment group chaired by oligarch Sergey Orlov. A decade earlier, in 2015, RWM bought a portfolio of seven Glasgow properties on West George Street, Hope Street, and West George Lane, months after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Properties on Glasgow's West George Street are owned by a company belonging to the head of an investment firm behind a Russian shipping hub. Image credit: Google

The property was bought for £8.7m by Tenoma Limited in Cyprus. While it still owns the properties, control of the Cypriot firm was transferred to two individuals in October 2024, according to Cypriot corporate records.

One shareholder, Feliks Blinov is RWM’s chief executive, while the other, Vlada Velogodskaya, is Orlov’s ex-wife, according to Russian news reports.

Tenoma also took on a loan for more than half of the value of the property from Russian Commercial Bank in Cyprus, which was shut down due to its Kremlin ties.

“...given RWM Capital and its CEO’s high-profile political affiliations, additional due diligence may have been warranted when the firm acquired the property in 2015 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea,” the report says.

“The ongoing ownership of the property through two associates of RWM Capital and its CEO continues to raise similar concerns.”

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According to the Scottish Assessors Association, the seven properties are mostly occupied by Tenoma, while its tenants include IT, legal and consultancy firms.

The estate agent Savills is currently advertising one of the West George Street properties to let, and a title deed shows that Scottish Power took on an existing 60-year lease to house an electricity substation on the basement floor of one of buildings until 2051.

The report said the presence of the substation indicated that the property “may also be critical infrastructure”. There is no suggestion that Savills, Scottish Power or any tenants were aware of Tenoma's Russian links.

A spokesperson for Scottish Power Energy Networks said: “A secure substation has been located on this site for decades – going right back to the 1960s – and is subject to a token annual rent.”

Western sanctions’ weaknesses

The report says that despite Western sanctions and Ukrainian attacks, Russia’s trade through Black Sea ports increased every year from 2022 to 2025.

“This highlights the limitations of current sanctions policy, which has insufficiently considered the critical touchpoints of UK and European business with Russia's war-related illicit trade,” it claims. The “entanglement” between such trade and UK and European financial systems is “a mutual vulnerability”, says the report.

“EU and UK policymakers can either work to freeze, sanction and restrict these networks’ operations, or they will continue to infiltrate and undermine the security of Europe and the UK,” it adds.

RWM Capital and Savills were approached for comment. Vlada Velogodskaya and Vladimir Yakunin could not be reached.

Non-native trees dominate Scotland’s national woodlands. Experts are concerned

Jamie Mann — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 05:00:33 GMT

Less than a quarter of Scotland’s public forests and woodlands are made up of native trees that scientists say are crucial to protect wildlife and the environment, The Ferret can reveal.

Scots pine, birch, oak, rowan, alder and other types of indigenous tree species make up just 23 per cent of Scotland’s nearly 356,000-hectare national forest estate.

Non-native trees such as North American Sitka spruce, Douglas fir and lodgepole pine, as well as Norway spruce and Japanese larch, cover 71 per cent. The specific species that make up the remainder have not been recorded.

Meanwhile, the presence of Scots pine has continued to decline, with coverage of Scotland’s national tree having fallen by 1,000 hectares in the last five years.

The exclusive data, which the Royal Society of Edinburgh told The Ferret was “deeply troubling”, was obtained via freedom of information from Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS).

Campaigners argued that FLS, which looks after around a third of the nation’s woodland on behalf of the public, should “do far more” than produce timber, and urged it to plant many more native trees to help tackle the climate and nature crises.

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FLS highlighted that its predecessor was established in 1919 to secure post-war timber shortages. It said non-native trees are essential to sustainably meet a growing demand for timber without relying on imports, and that they store carbon and can support many native species.

According to NatureScot, forests have been planned “with greater sensitivity since the mid-1980s” in order to support biodiversity and rural development. It says there has been “a dramatic move from timber plantations to more diverse tree cover”.

However, the new data casts doubt on the claim. Research has repeatedly shown indigenous trees are typically better for native wildlife as they have co-evolved together over thousands of years, and can support thousands of species including many plants, animals, and the wider ecosystem they rely on to survive.

Commercial forests can also support native species if they are actively managed and include enough space and light. But several types of Scotland’s specialist species cannot survive in them, and experts question their overall carbon capturing capabilities.

What makes up our woodlands?

FLS data shows more than half of Scotland’s public woodland hosts Sitka spruce, a fast-growing timber crop from Alaska. It covers double the area of all native species combined. Sitka was first planted in Scotland in the early 1800s and has thrived in our climate and soils.

But if left unmanaged, it can reportedly crowd out and kill native species, and spread into peat bogs – which make up a fifth of our land – risking the release of vast amounts of stored carbon.

Scientists have also warned that during planting more carbon may be released by disturbing soils than the trees can absorb for decades, while many uses of timber mean carbon is not stored long enough to support net zero. Forestry bodies say Sitka absorbs carbon quickly, is key to woodland growth, supports 25,000 jobs, and adds £1bn to the economy.

Just under an eighth of the national forest estate is covered by the iconic Scots pine, which can live for up to 300 years. However, coverage of Scotland's national tree has fallen by 1,000 fewer hectares compared to 2022.

A recent study led by Scotland’s James Hutton Institute found that 23 tree species would be needed to support much of the variety of life that is bolstered by Scots pine. The tree supports nearly 1,600 species, almost 200 of which depend on it exclusively for survival. These include hundreds of plants and fungi, and dozens of birds and mammals.

‘Invasive’ Sitka spruce threaten Scottish species and habitats, say experts

A North American tree that kills native species and threatens protected habitats vital to fight climate change now makes up nearly half of Scotland’s forests, The Ferret can reveal. Our analysis of official forestry data shows that Sitka spruce makes up 43 per cent of Scotland’s woodlands, more

Other common tree species in Scotland include North American lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, Norway spruce, and Japanese larch – all key timber crops – as well as native downy and silver birch.

The two birch species, along with two types of oak and European beech – all native – were found by the Hutton Institute to be “the most promising alternative species” to Scots pine. They support 15 per cent of the biodiversity associated with Scotland’s national tree.

Oaks once made up a third of Britain’s tree coverage and the two types native to Scotland can support 2,300 species including mammals and birds – more than any other native tree. They also have an 800-year lifespan. A recent UK study suggests that trees can also absorb more carbon as they age. But oaks make up just one per cent of our public woodlands.

Rowan, which came second to Scots pine in the running for our national tree, makes up less than one per cent, although its coverage has doubled since 2022.

The indigenous balance in Scotland's national forestry estate has marginally improved since 2022, with the area of non-native trees having fallen by more than 10,000 hectares (ha), and native tree cover having grown by about 7,000ha .

However, the overall size of the national forest estate dropped by 4,000ha.

Non-native trees dominate Galloway forest at centre of would-be national park

At least 86 per cent of trees in Galloway forest park are non-native, The Ferret can reveal, prompting calls to diversify woodland in what could be Scotland’s third national park. The 77,300 hectare Galloway Forest Park makes up a large swath of the area proposed to be

Non-native dominance ‘deeply troubling’

Professor Ian Wall of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) chaired a 2024 tree planting enquiry that called for the Scottish Government’s forestry agencies to stop the spread of “invasive” species like Sitka spruce and foster more diverse plantations.

The Ferret previously calculated that, as of 2023, Sitka spruce made up 43 per cent of Scotland’s woodlands – both public and private.

In March this year, NatureScot published an action plan to tackle the threats of some non-native invasive species. But Wall claims it failed “to acknowledge the massive extent and adverse impacts of non-native tree species on biodiversity”.

“It is deeply troubling to see such a prevalence of non-native species” in public woodlands, he told The Ferret. “There is growing and acute concern regarding the unchecked spread of non-native Sitka spruce onto peatland habitats, torpedoing their carbon capturing capabilities.”

Revealed: Politicians, billionaires and offshore firms’ taxpayer forestry handouts

The King, J.K. Rowling, billionaires and politicians are among those who have been given tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer forestry subsidies, The Ferret can reveal, prompting claims that wealthy landowners are prioritised over rural communities. Nearly 2,000 recipients, including estates, investment firms and timber giants, were

He added: “Sitka also supports a much lower diversity of other woodland species when compared to native species such as Scots pine or oak. This means significant public funds are required for the restoration of already damaged peatlands and could result in a cost to the public purse of close to £1bn.”

Richard Bunting, of Trees for Life, added that only fragments of the once vast Caledonian forest survive, citing “artificially large numbers of deer grazing on young saplings, rhododendron choking life away, and Sitka spruce trees crowding out native Scots pines”.

He stressed that Scotland is one of Europe’s least wooded countries, with tree coverage in the average European Union member state sitting at 39 per cent. The Scottish Government aims to expand our woodlands from around 19 per cent today, to 21 per cent by 2032.

Trees for Life wants native woodland to be doubled, mostly via natural regeneration, “and for nature recovery to become the primary purpose of Scotland’s national parks”.

A silver birch standing in autumnal colour. Image: espy3008/iStock

Public forests should ‘lead the way’

Woodland Trust Scotland’s Simon Ritchie acknowledged the importance of timber produced by non-native trees. But he argued that public woodlands must “do far more” than produce it. “We need far more native woodland to benefit nature and natural processes to address the deepening challenges of nature loss and climate breakdown,” he argued.

Willie McGhee of the Forest Policy Group think-tank, agreed. FLS “should be leading the way” in tackling the twin crises, he said.

“Moving public land to being more species mixed, less Sitka spruce-dominated, would imbue more climate change resilience in the face of warmer, drier, windier weather; encouraging more biodiversity, with an emphasis on growing more mixed, native species-dominated forests.

“And if FLS actively managed our forests, with an emphasis on local employment, greater economic and social benefits would accrue to local communities,” he added.

“We need far more native woodland to benefit nature.” – Simon Ritchie, Woodland Trust Scotland

NatureScot, the Scottish Government’s wildlife agency, said: "Of all new woodlands that are currently created in Scotland, 40% are native species. While our native wildlife is generally better able to use native than non-native woodland, some – especially birds and mammals – depend on woodland conditions as much as the trees themselves, and are able to survive, and even thrive, in non-native plantations.”

They claimed Norway spruce offers “a seed-rich habitat for red squirrels when it's part of a diverse tree planting mix”. “However, many of Scotland’s internationally important specialist species, [including animals and plants], are much more restricted, and unable to use the non-native conifers grown in most commercial plantations."

The wildlife agency acknowledged the importance of Sitka spruce for timber production, “carbon and nature”, but also the “negative impacts” it can have on water systems, soil chemistry and some species when it self-seeds in nearby habitats.

NatureScot works with FLS and others to advise on any potential harms caused by non-native species, and on how to promote recovery, the spokesperson added.

Non-native trees essential for timber

FLS highlighted that its predecessor was established over a century ago to secure home-grown timber after the first world war, and to reduce reliance on overseas supplies.

“In an extremely volatile economic and political world, that directive is more relevant than ever,” a spokesperson stressed, with global demand for timber “set to increase substantially over the next 30 years”.

Scotland’s “fast-growing commercial forests” reduce the carbon emissions, and woodland and biodiversity loss overseas associated with imports, they argued.

“We have for many years been planting native species and continue to adapt our forests, changing the make-up of species and age-classes within them.

“However, productive timber will continue to be fundamental to our rural economy, to Scotland’s climate emergency response and to long-term efforts to the conservation of species such as pine marten, red squirrel and raptors such as goshawks.”

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Scottish Government accused of courting “genocide-profiteers” at Farnborough Airshow

Billy Briggs — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 11:20:49 GMT

The Scottish Government has been accused of courting “genocide-profiteers” less than a year after Holyrood voted to boycott Israel and companies who supply its military.

‘Team Scotland’ - as the coalition of government officials and quangos dubbed itself – attended the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire this week, alongside arms firms allegedly “complicit in the Israeli genocide in Palestine” and states accused of internal repression.

Farnborough is renowned for its spectacular flying displays but it is also a trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries, including those selling weapons used in current international conflicts.

Over 50 countries and territories were expected to attend this week including nations with poor human rights records like Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Dozens of groups called for it to be boycotted due to concerns over human rights.

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Campaign Against Arms Trade criticised the government’s presence at Farnborough, claiming Scotland needed “more than bold progressive statements to the public one day then quiet handshakes and dealings with death merchants the next”.

In reply the Scottish Government said it has consistently called for peace in Gaza but that supporting the defence industry is important to protect jobs, the economy and national security.

The Scottish Government and business agencies Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise were in Farnborough under the banner of ‘Team Scotland’.

Officials attended despite MSPs voting last September to “immediately impose a package of boycotts, divestment and sanctions” on Israel and companies allegedly “complicit in its military operations and its occupation of Palestine.”

Most members of the current Scottish Government supported the motion, put forward by former SNP MSP and minister Angus Robertson. He controversially met an Israeli diplomat as external affairs secretary in 2024 while Gaza was bombed, to discuss Scotland as a destination for Israeli businesses.

Did Scottish ministers “rewrite history” over Israel meeting?

The Scottish Government changed key parts of the official record of Angus Robertson’s controversial Israel meeting after a backlash, raising questions about government secrecy.

The event at Farnborough, which takes place every two years, featured over 1,000 companies including some whose products have been used in attacks in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, as well as Gaza and the West Bank.

Exhibitors included Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company. Farnborough’s principal sponsor, Barclays, is a primary dealer of Israeli government bonds and it also invests or lends to companies involved in supplying weapons to Israel, including BAE Systems.

Other arms firms represented included the Italian multinational, Leonardo, and US firms Lockheed Martin and RTX Raytheon. They all have operations in Scotland and contribute to the F-35 fighter jet which has been dubbed the “genocide jet” by critics for its role for Israel in Gaza.

Angus Robertson’s motion last year called on the Scottish and UK governments to impose a “package of boycotts, divestment and sanctions” targeted at Israel and companies “complicit in its military operations and its occupation of Palestine”.

It also called on the Scottish Government to update parliament on the “due diligence checks carried out by Scottish Enterprise during investment decision processes to ensure that defence products are not used in breaches of humanitarian law in Gaza or elsewhere”.

“The rhetoric is there, but the action is not. Our commitment to human rights has to mean more than speeches and carefully worded statements.” — Patrick Harvie MSP, Scottish Greens

65 MSPs out of 129 voted in favour of the motion, including first minister John Swinney, while 24 opposed it.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) spokesperson Emma Cockburn accused the government of “empty promises” and said: “While hiding under the banner of ‘Team Scotland’ the Scottish government and Scottish Enterprise have completely disregarded the campaign to boycott this event to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

She added: “With so few actionable steps taken by the new Scottish government on its boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) commitments it’s not surprising to see them rubbing shoulders with the likes of BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin within the safe confines of the Farnborough Horror Show.”

Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens MSP, said: “When the Scottish Parliament voted to support boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel it certainly wasn’t meant to be a greenlight to line up with Israel’s arms dealers at trade shows.” He accused the Scottish Government of being “evasive and weak” and added: “The rhetoric is there, but the action is not. Our commitment to human rights has to mean more than speeches and carefully worded statements.”

Arms firms selling weapons to Israel received nearly £10m in Scottish Enterprise grants

Arms firms in Scotland who sell weapons to Israel received nearly £10m in grants from Scottish Enterprise, prompting concerns taxpayers’ money may be contributing to human rights abuses and prolonging the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Weapons provided to Israel by arms firms with sites in Scotland include rocket launchers, bombs and

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said it has been a “clear and consistent advocate for peace, justice and human rights in Gaza and other conflicts”, and that it takes a “principled stance on providing no public money to defence companies whose products or services are provided to countries where there is plausible evidence of genocide being committed”.

“Ministers will continue to raise the profile of Scotland’s world-class sectors such as space to a global audience,” the spokesperson added.

Israel has been accused of perpetrating genocide in Gaza by the UN, Amnesty International, and the Israeli human rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

Israel strenuously rejects accusations of genocide in Gaza.

The above firms were all asked to comment.

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