Scottish anti-nuclear groups were spied upon by the British state in the 1970s and 1980s, according to documents released by police to the spycops inquiry, according to investigative reporter Billy Briggs in The Ferret.

Previously secret papers reveal that undercover police officers, known as spycops, claimed to have “penetrated” the Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace (SCRAM), Friends of the Earth and the Torness Alliance during protests against the building of a nuclear power station at Torness in East Lothian.

Activists involved with the protests told The Ferret that spycop units had been a “threat to democracy”. One said anti-nuclear campaigners had been wrongly branded by police as a terror threat “second only to the IRA”, while Friends of the Earth said it was “shocking” that  spies inflitrated peaceful groups, which almost certainly included peace campers at Faslane, outside the submarine base at HM Naval Naval Base Clyde.

The full story is on The Ferret website at: The Ferret <support@theferret.scot>