Foulkes hits out at MSPs' failure to challenge officials

A LABOUR MSP has slammed the Scottish Parliament for failing to stand up to civil servants.

Lord George Foulkes, who is stepping down as a Lothians MSP next year, said that many of his colleagues at Holyrood were not "able to or willing to question and challenge officials".

The Labour MSP made the controversial comments about the Scottish Parliament's 11 years of existence in an article for a political magazine.

Lord Foulkes also used the piece to repeat earlier comments about what he claimed was the "arrogance" of Alex Salmond.

The Labour peer went on to describe the two types of MSPs - list and constituency - as a "negation of democracy."

Lord Foulkes also criticised the choice of the Holyrood location for the Scottish Parliament.

He said: "We should not have built a new building in a restricted site away from the centre of a city to a design of an architect from a country where it seldom rains. My own choice would have been to convert further the old Royal High School and link it underground to St Andrew's House." He added: "There is still far too much obsequiousness towards civil servants by MSPs some of whom are not able or willing to question and challenge officials. And it is in the chamber that the challenge to the executive is weakest."