Sunday Times - Scottish Regiments - Page 1

No 9,792 MAY 13, 2012

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Robin Hammond, a Sunday Timesphotographer, is welcomed home byhis girlfriend Aude Barbera in Paris

yesterday after being held in twoZimbabwean jails for more than threeweeks. He was shackled, paraded naked

and forced to share a cell with 38 others.He said he felt “as if I was in one of myown photographs”. Full story, page 3

FREED FROM ZIMBABWEAN HELL-HOLEDWAYNE SENIOR

THE Queen’s cousin PrinceMichael of Kent has receivedpayments of at least £320,000from a Russian oligarch.The 56 payments — varying

from £5,000 to £15,000 andspread over a period of six years— were made to the prince bya fund controlled by BorisBerezovsky, the exiled multi-millionaire. They supplemen-

ted financial help given to theprince by the Queen.Documents disclosed in a

forthcoming High Court casereveal that the money wasfunnelled between 2002 and2008 through offshorecompanies into a familybusiness owned by Michael’sprivate secretary.The disclosure of such large

cashpayments could raise ques-tions about the prince’s judg-

ment, as Berezovsky is one ofthe most controversial foreignbusinessmen living in Britain.The bearded prince, a fluent

Russian speaker, is a distantrelation of Nicholas II, the lasttsar — whom he resembles —and is well known in Russia.Berezovsky, who made a

fortune from oil during theRussian privatisations of the1990s, has been an arch criticof President Vladimir Putin

since obtaining asylum inBritain in 2003.The Russian government

unsuccessfully tried to extra-dite him to Moscow where acourt found him guilty inabsentia of embezzling £4.4mfrom Aeroflot, the airline towhich he has been linkedfinancially.Berezovsky said his Kremlin

enemies had trumped up thecharge. Sources close to him

and Michael gave conflictingaccounts of the purpose of thepayments.One said the money may

havehelped to pay for expensesrelated to the running ofMichael’s grace-and-favourapartment in KensingtonPalace. Another claimed itwent to cover the cost of staffin the prince’s private office.In a statement the oligarch

said the payments were

designed to help the prince,who has often struggled finan-cially. The first payment coin-cided with a political row in2002 after it emerged thatMichael and his wife were pay-ing rent of £69 a week for theirKensington Palace apartment.MPs ruled that the taxpayer

should not have to pick upthe bill and demanded thecouple’s eviction from the five-bedroom home that they had

occupied as a perk since theirmarriage in 1978. The Queenresponded by agreeing to paythe market equivalent rent of£100,000 a year.Mark Hastings, Berezovsky’s

solicitor, said this weekendthat the Russian “has neversought or obtained any benefitor service from his friendshipwith PrinceMichael”.

Secret cash funnelled topauper prince, page 13

SCOTLAND’S historic regimentnames will be saved if Scotsvote for independence, the SNPhas pledged.The nationalists have prom-

ised to keep iconic titles such asthe Black Watch which theWestminster governmentwants to replace with battalionnumbers. The commitmentcould boost the chances of a Yesvote in the 2014 independencereferendum given the deepconnections between manyScottish communities and theregiments.

David Cameron has beenunder growingpressure to over-rule Philip Hammond, thedefence secretary, who isbehind the cost-cutting plans,first disclosed by The SundayTimes in February.Angus Robertson, the SNP’s

Westminster leader anddefence spokesman, warnedthat scrapping the regimentalnames would be “the ultimatebetrayal of Scotland’s historicunits” and go against previousTory promises to reinstate Scot-tish army units.He said: “The decimation

of Scotland’s conventionaldefence capacity under succes-

siveWestminster governmentscannot go unchallenged —enough is enough.“With independence, we

will keep the current unitnames and tradition — andshould the worst happen andthese units be scrapped bythe Tories, an SNP governmentin an independent Scotlandwill reinstate them as part ofa modern, properly equipped,conventional Scottish defenceforce.”Robertson added: “Instead

of the anti-independenceparties scrapping Scotland’sregimental tradition anddumping Trident on Scotland,

with independence we willkeep the historic units and getrid of Trident.”Jeff Duncan, who managed

the 2005 campaign to savethreatened Scottish regiments,said that the issue hadundermined the case for main-taining the union.Duncan, who is at the heart

of the restarted campaign, said:“I think Alex Salmond is theonly politician who doesn’tcome out of this badly.“Hispartyhavealways cham-

pioned Scottish issues. Theunionist parties have shownthat there is no union dividend

ONEof Scotland’s best knownentrepre-neurshaswarned that thenationmustovercome its dependency on welfare,claiming that benefits are corruptingthe nation’s work ethic.Sir TomHunter argues that an over-

reliance on benefits has made manyScots “pampered” people who “expectwhat others strive and graft hard for”.While Scotland’s first home-grown

billionaire stresses that welfare mustalways be available to themost vulner-able, he writes in The Sunday Timesthat “the pendulum of support hasswung too far”.In a wide-ranging article Hunter

also urges opponents of Scottish inde-pendence to stop scaremongering,claiming it makes Scots more likely tosecede from the UK.He also criticised Alex Salmond’s

opponents for seeking to bring forwardthe timetable for the independence ref-erendum, warning that rushing thevote without proper debate “doesn’tsuit democracy”.Hunter’s welfare warning came

after it emerged that an area ofGlasgow’s east end is the benefits cap-ital of Britain, with almost nine out of10 working–age adults claiming someform of welfare payment.Glasgow East has the highest bene-

fits cost per person of any constituencyin Britain, with unemployment, sick-ness and child benefit payments nowamounting to £5 a day for every adultand child.

Iain Duncan Smith, the work andpensions secretary, has taken a closeinterest in the city’s plight. It helpedinspire his welfare reforms which aimto use benefits as a safety net to helppeople back to work rather than apoverty trap encouraging them to stayat home.Last month, it was disclosed that

more than half of those on sicknessbenefits across parts of Scotland arebeing told they are fit to work as thecoalition attempts to cut £16 billionfrom Britain’s benefits bill.“The fact is the welfare state has

simply enabled us to become pam-pered, dependent people who expectwhat others strive and graft hard for,”said Hunter, who is chairman of WestCoast Capital.“Recently I returned from a trip to

China where the palpable ambitionand confidence of its people just aboutfloored me — instead of gloom theysaw boom, opportunity at everycorner. Asked what they feared most,the response was unremitting — thecorrupting influence of the welfarestate on ambition and the work ethic.In China they graft to pay their way —there is no other route.”Hunter, whose philanthropic foun-

dation works to alleviate poverty andraise educational standards, added:“Before anyone has me confined as aright-wing zealot, I am not advocatingfor one moment that we do not needthe welfare state.“For those most vulnerable, most in

Prince gifted £320,000 by Russianoligarch

SCOTTISH consumers are to becharged up to 25% more for alcoholthan they would have pay in Eng-land under plans to curb bingedrinking,writes Jason Allardyce.Nicola Sturgeon, the healthmin-

ister, is to announce a 50p per unitminimum price tomorrow, her-alding an end to cheap and loss-leading drink offers.It is in response to evidence that

the bill for the crime, health costs

and absenteeism that are linked toexcessive drinking is costing Scots£3.6 billion a year.Ministers, who believe Scot-

land’s problems with alcohol areworse than other parts of Britain,have been particularly concernedthat shops can sell super-strengthbeer and lager for less than the priceof water.A 50p unit price is backed by

health professionals but will be

firmly resisted by some drinksmanufacturers, who may mount alegal challenge to the policy,claiming it will hit poorest drinkersthe hardest.It could double the cost of a £10

pack of lager and of a bottle of vodkato £20. The minimum price for abottle of wine will become £4.50.Scottish ministers initially

floated the idea of a 40p minimumunit price, which remains the pref-

erence of David Cameron’s govern-ment. However, critics claim thatwould be too low to have muchimpact, allowing beer and lager tocontinue to be available in super-markets at “pocketmoney” prices.Campaigners believe a 50p per

unit minimum could save manymore lives by arresting alcohol-related death rates, which havedoubled in Scotland in the periodsince the early 1990s.

End to cheap booze with 50p unit

WESTERN intelligence agen-cies believe doctors workingwith Al-Qaeda in Yemen havebeen trained to plant explo-sives inside the bodies ofsuicide bombers.The medics can place

explosive compounds in theabdomens and breasts of sui-cide bombers to evade airportsecurity and bring downpassenger aircraft.A doctor who had devised

procedures to plant explosivesinside terrorists was killed bya CIA drone earlier this year.

He is believed to have workedwith Ibrahim al-Asiri, the topbomb maker of Al-Qaeda intheArabianPeninsula (AQAP).Intelligence officials

believe a small number ofother doctors are workingwith Asiri. The CIA wants toidentify and hunt them down.“This is a transferable skill andthere is still some concern,”said a western security officialwho spoke anonymously.Experts say explosive com-

pounds such as PETN (penta-erythritol tetranitrate) couldbe implanted into a would-besuicide bomber and thewounds allowed to heal. The

body scanner used in mostinternational airports wouldnot be able to detect thedevice, which can be deto-nated by injection.With the destruction of Al-

Qaeda’s core leadership inAfghanistan and Pakistan,AQAP is said by MI6 and theCIA to pose the most dan-gerous threat to theWest.Last week it emerged

western agencies had planteda double agent inside AQAP.The group gave him a newtype of bomb, which the agentpassed to western handlers.

The most dangerous manin the world, Focus, page 17

Bombs ‘inside terrorists’ SNP pledge on regiment names

Tycoon:Scots areaddictedto welfare

Continued on page 3 W W

David Leppard

David Leppardand DipeshGadher

Isabel Oakeshottand JasonAllardyce

Continued on page 2 W W

JasonAllardyce

1S