Sadly, this turned out to be prescient this morning.
Laura Kuenssberg did give Nicola Sturgeon an uncomfortable time in their interview on her Sunday programme on BBC News, but when confronted with the one gaping open goal that Sturgeon has no answer for – and even when Sturgeon TWICE set it up on a plate for her – Kuenssberg failed to knock the ball into the empty net.
That doesn’t – by some distance – mean there was nothing of interest to note, though, so let’s take a walk through (the first instalment of) what was said.
Now that Nicola Sturgeon is finally free of her gruelling MSP workload, which could give her anything up to two extra hours of spare time a week, she might like to start making a proper dent in the contents of her fully-loaded bookshelves.
The multi-statement meltdown that has been the unravelling of Nicola Sturgeon this week has been quite something to behold. Last night, for example, we swear our Twitter feed presented these two tweets one after the other.
We’ll be honest with you, readers, if we were in a situation where a lawyer was issuing statements for us, this isn’t what we’d want to hear.
“If my client had been charged, she’d be in prison right now” is a worrying distance short of a vote of confidence in your client’s innocence.
But the statement Aamer Anwar put out for Nicola Sturgeon last night – her FOURTH in 48 hours, despite saying on Monday morning that she’d be making no further comment on the Peter Murrell case – had rather more wrong with it than even that.
So, having made a statement on Monday morning which asserted that she wouldn’t make any further statements, then making another statement on Monday afternoon, Nicola Sturgeon and her solicitor issued a third statement in 36 hours last night.
And while we acknowledge that this is a very high bar to clear, it contained one of the most troubling and blatant lies she’s ever told.
And as the Nicola Sturgeon Loyal, led by her most faithful of lieutenants, set out to try to take control of the post-conviction narrative, let’s take a look at just what a boatload of bare-faced bullshit the above is.
There will be no trial, no cross-examination, no explanation. The people of Scotland, the members and supporters of the SNP, the wider Yes movement, none of us will ever know what really happened. Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
Despite what you or we might think, in the eyes of the Scottish Football Association this ISN’T a pitch invasion. This is simply what a football match in progress looks like.
Because according to the absolutely extraordinary statement they’ve released this evening, that was game time. The clock was still running, nothing was being added to account for the fact that there were thousands of thugs rampaging across the field, and the game was still happening in that moment, until it was ended four seconds later.
The image below is a graph illustrating how many seats each party won in last week’s supposedly “proportional” Scottish Parliament election, compared to how many they would have won if the electoral system had been actually proportional.
The SNP and Greens are now over-represented by 37% and 50% respectively, while the Unionist parties are all under-represented compared to their vote share by (left to right) 26%, 19%, 20% and 23%.
The Additional Member System has failed very badly at its job, from either perspective. “Pro-indy” parties have 73 seats (57%) rather than the 52 seats that their 40.8% vote share should have earned, while Unionist parties have 56 seats (or 43%) when they should have 69 for their 56% of the vote.
(The other 4% of the vote was scattered among 24 other parties or independents, with 1.8% going to identifiably pro-independence candidates, increasing the total “pro-indy” vote to 42.6%, fully 10 points short of current polling for independence itself.)
It is, therefore, a little bit of a stretch – to put it mildly – to present the refusal of the UK government to grant a second independence referendum on the basis of the results as an outrage against “democracy”. Indeed, if any outrage against democracy has taken place, it happened last Thursday.
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The View From Row Z: “The 2021 accounts list no motor vehicles under expenditure, and the “miscellaneous” entries don’t include the campervan.” May 31, 17:12
Karen on The View From Row Z: “Oh yes, I meant to say, hubby pointed out flying AA down to London on a Sunday must have been…” May 31, 17:12
David Blake on Marvola The Memory Woman: “Small technical question? When someone is interviewed under auction,, arenythe defence entitled to a copy of the tape? Even if…” May 31, 17:10
Karen on The View From Row Z: “1. You’re retired? Wow, you produce error-free great stuff nearly every day! 2. Why is Laura wearing lavender? 3. At…” May 31, 17:08
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The View From Row Z: “I did pull him up on that 😀 https://x.com/WingsScotland/status/2060847209914999278” May 31, 17:08
Campbell Clansman on The View From Row Z: “With her lies Sturgeon climbed to the top of the (Holyrood) political heap. Lies have been the secret of her…” May 31, 17:00
Spartan 117 on The View From Row Z: “Dig, dig, dig. Nothing to see here. Look, over there, a squirrel, another indy ref! Some more red meat to…” May 31, 16:56
J Galt on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: ““The Demons” comes to mind – although that may give them more dignity than they deserve – a shame Dostoyevsky…” May 31, 16:38
Graham on The View From Row Z: “My wife teased me for buying salt & pepper grinders for just under £200 a couple of years ago, but,…” May 31, 16:37
Andy Wiltshire on The View From Row Z: “She claimed she didn’t even recognise them.” May 31, 16:35
Andy Wiltshire on The View From Row Z: “An interview was probably only granted on the proviso that it would be undertaken by a London bod who didn’t…” May 31, 16:32
alan_b on The View From Row Z: “The camper van is listed in the balance sheet as a fixed asset, presumably at current (second hand) value. The…” May 31, 16:31
GeoffC on The View From Row Z: “She loves the tax regime she helped introduce in Scotland, she’s decided to live in England…..” May 31, 16:30
robertkknight on The View From Row Z: “I’m afraid that the coffee went all over the keyboard the moment I read the contribution from Sam Taylor in…” May 31, 16:30
Nemisis Benn on The View From Row Z: “To be quite clear, I have no wish to even think of taking sides, be it this woman’s or her…” May 31, 16:29
Shibboleth on The View From Row Z: “I don’t know all the various financial positions in this squalid affair, but am I correct in assuming that Murrell…” May 31, 16:07
crazycat on The View From Row Z: “The National’s article from 28/10/20 claims that “the SNP has e-mailed all of its donors in a bid to “quash…” May 31, 16:03
Neil Mackenzie on The View From Row Z: “Have the books that so many people weren’t allowed to see been seen, yet?” May 31, 16:03
Jeremy Wickins on The View From Row Z: “The only thing I’m willing to cut Sturgeon some slack on is the cruet set – until the week, I…” May 31, 15:56
duncanio on The View From Row Z: “By 1. Signing off the accounts 2. Shutting down questioning and scrutiny of the books 3. Raising money for a…” May 31, 15:48
Cameron Lochiel on The View From Row Z: “It feels like she realises things are going drastically against her, so she’s desperately trying to throw everything she can…” May 31, 15:43
Black Joan on The View From Row Z: “Maybe time too change your pinned tweet, Rev? I mean: “Alert readers will have noticed we’ve been a bit short…” May 31, 15:40
Cynicus on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Very interesting, TURABDIN Of the 40 listed, I managed to recognise six: Chris Smith Alan Cumming Alan Carr David Hockney…” May 31, 15:13
Knuckle_Heid on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Couldn’t agree more Hatey – if only Big Eck was alive to see this…” May 31, 14:27
J Robertson on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “How on earth does she think this constant media engagement after the only statement ( of 3 was it ?)…” May 31, 13:39
Mark Beggan on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “Vivactive Inconsistency Pants! That will ensure a good nights sleep for the silent Churners.” May 31, 13:36
