Bath, readers – which some of you may be aware isn’t even in Scotland – is a pretty darn pleasant place to while away your days, all things considered. Packed from head to foot with gorgeous Georgian architecture the colour of set honey and nestling amid a clutch of lush green hills, it’s like a miniature version of Edinburgh in sandstone.
It’s big enough to be lively and have plenty of culture, with theatres and museums and venues and galleries and cinemas both multiplex and arthouse. Countless movies and TV shows have been shot here, from contemporary episodes of Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected to a whole string of period costume dramas, and the “Little Theatre” cinema seen in Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr Fox” is based on our real one.
It’s also very handily placed. Situated on or close to two main railway lines, you can hop on a train and ten minutes later be in Bristol, an ugly and unlikeable but still vibrant and eventful city. 30 minutes takes you to the classic English seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare, or the unfairly-maligned Swindon. Stretch it to an hour and you can be in a whole other country, in Barry Island or the impressive Welsh capital of Cardiff. 90 minutes gets you to London, and a couple of hours will see you in any of a bunch of places on the south coast (my personal favourite is Weymouth), all direct. You can even get straight to Edinburgh or Glasgow with only a single change of train at Bristol.
Having a car unlocks lots of other magical and fascinating places that are well within daytrip distance, like the ghost villages of Tyneham and Imber, the striking Cheddar Gorge, Longleat safari park and the world’s greatest museum ever, the batshit-mad Oakham Treasures, as well as Lacock, a quaint 13th-century townlet entirely owned by the National Trust, which gets invaded by Nazis every year.
(If you love a stately or historic home, you can join the Trust and visit somewhere new within 40 minutes’ drive just about every week for a year. Then you run out.)
It’s the second sunny day in Bath since last September, readers, so we’re going to go out and feed the wildlife, but we thought you’d enjoy a quick roundup of some of the distractions the Sturgeonite elements of the Scottish media are punting today in a desperate attempt to avoid dealing with the devastating contents of Alex Salmond’s epic evidence session at the Fabiani inquiry on Friday.
Iain Lawson’s fine blog today reveals that Nicola Sturgeon has already taken it upon herself to answer Jim Sillars’ complaint from Thursday – which was sent to Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans, not to the First Minister – about her breaking the Ministerial Code by casting doubt on the jury’s verdicts in the Alex Salmond trial.
It’s certainly an innovative approach to justice – we presume that if we were to murder someone tomorrow the police would now simply forward the allegations to us and allow us to find ourselves not guilty without any external input.
But it was the precise nature of Nicola Sturgeon’s self-acquittal that really left us with an uneasy feeling about the current state of Scotland.
In the end the four-hour session ran for almost exactly six hours, and Alex Salmond looked like he could have done another six standing on his head. Now, it would be only fair to acknowledge that this site was on his side before the start, but by any rational objective assessment the former First Minister delivered the performance of his life.
(We use “performance” there in the Lionel Messi sense, not the Laurence Olivier one.)
The contrast with every other witness who’s appeared before the committee was night and day. With Salmond there was no evasion, no hesitation, no forgetting, no “I’ll get back to you on that in writing”. (We recommend the Twitter feed of Scotland Speaks for some choice clips.)
Every question was answered fully, directly, fluently and immediately, without recourse to notes, and the content was never less than devastating from his opening statement to the final surprise bombshell. We were exhausted just watching it.
His words, tone and body language all absolutely radiated candour, solemnity and honesty. When the SNP members tried to trip him up on some arcane point or other, he was on them like an extremely calm hawk, methodically tearing their assertions to ribbons with the correct fact or quote at his fingertips, and ice in his veins.
Salmond came across like a man who’d been planning this day for almost a year and wasn’t going to mess it up. And he didn’t. Heavens, how he didn’t.
From 12.30 this afternoon, Alex Salmond will attempt to tell the people of Scotland the truth about what happened to him in the last two years – a grave injustice which saw an innocent man have his reputation dragged through the gutter, be placed under incredible personal stress, be left greatly impoverished by proving his innocence, and then have the jury’s verdict endlessly traduced by the media and a gang of criminal conspirators protected from the consequences of their lies by lifelong anonymity.
His job will be a difficult one. Every single person in the room will be bitterly hostile to him – the four Unionist committee members because he’s Alex Salmond, and the others because he represents a deadly threat to the First Minister.
The inquiry’s convener – a woman sacked by Salmond years ago – will attempt to prevent him from presenting large swathes of evidence, despite having made him swear to tell “the whole truth”. The SNP members will try to run down the four-hour session with questions designed to only deflect from the real issue – the actions and behaviour of the Scottish Government. Andy Wightman will probably just cry.
We’ll be extremely surprised if there aren’t some attempts to slyly re-try Mr Salmond and paint him as a guilty man who cheated justice, and to drag up salacious details of the allegations in an effort to smear him in front of the cameras.
We believe Alex Salmond will be more than equal to the task.
When the Faculty Of Advocates – the most senior body of lawyers/QCs in the country – is handing out barely-veiled smackdowns like this to the First Minister, then you know you’re in some pretty uncharted jungle.
Is the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of Scotland institutionally corrupt? I don’t believe so, but it’s certainly a troubled organisation.
The cost and reputational damage to it from the Rangers FC case are of a magnitude never seen before, and the actions in the Alex Salmond case and related actions by the Lord Advocate and Crown Agent have called its independence into question.
There must be structural change and individuals must be held to account.
I had hoped that Stewart Stevenson, the new National Secretary and convener of the Conferences Committee, would be similarly inclined.
In summary, my endeavours have been ignored.
In the three months since our election (supposedly more than halfway towards a spring conference), and despite repeated emails, documents and requests for meetings, the Conferences Committee has never been convened.
As a result I have resigned from both the committee and the SNP, and the reasons for my doing so are outlined below.
For the record, we thought you should see what the Scottish Parliament considers to be the appropriate treatment of an “Urgent Question”.
For a little over eight minutes, the Lord Advocate was allowed to ignore and avoid a series of questions put to him regarding the abjectly corrupt Crown Office’s recent interference with the work of the Fabiani inquiry by redacting evidence which in no way identified anyone as a complainer in the trial of Alex Salmond.
By the committee’s rules, if it’s not on the committee website then it doesn’t exist, and the redacted parts are – belatedly – no longer on the website. (As far as we can make out the unredacted version was finally removed around midnight last night.)
Farcically, she also denied even knowing that this question from James Matthews of Sky News was about Geoff Aberdein, who is the subject of all the redacted sections, which are all about the meeting Matthews was asking her about.
The First Minister is a liar and has all but given up on even the most token pretence otherwise. She is a disgrace to Scotland.
agent x on The Jokers: “I never take notice of opinion polls – maybe they should not be given prominence in future on here?” Jun 6, 16:26
Chris Downie on The Jokers: “The biggest failure of the SNP since 2015, apart from the obvious one – not delivering independence – is allowing…” Jun 6, 16:14
Big Jock on The Jokers: “There are still the delusional hordes musing on other sites. That Swinney the Grim Reaper will save the SNP. The…” Jun 6, 16:06
TURABDIN on The Jokers: “THE JOKE’S ON US ALL, given that the real power on the planet is in the hands of unaccountable sociopathic…” Jun 6, 16:04
Jontoscot21 on The Jokers: “Davy was a throwback from Labour’s usual Lego haircut wimmin or bum fluff say boy teachers. He was actually more…” Jun 6, 15:54
Campbell Clansman on The Jokers: “Unionist parties 2-1 over (nominally) Indy parties is in line with the national polls. This aspect of the Hamilton result…” Jun 6, 13:57
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Jokers: ““I posted yesterday (although my comment seems to have failed to pass moderation)” You’ve changed your email so you were…” Jun 6, 13:08
David on The Jokers: “The migrants invading Britain is upsetting to so many working class men wanting housing but can’t get on the ladder.…” Jun 6, 12:38
David on The Jokers: “Katy Louden voted against funding for Hamilton town centre! She got what she deserved – a big massive rejection from…” Jun 6, 12:29
Daniel Souter on The Jokers: “The voters in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse won’t be worried much about it, because when this Labour “pig with a…” Jun 6, 12:23
Skip_NC on The Jokers: “Effijy, I think this character is going to set a world record for points of order. “Eh, um Presiding Officer,…” Jun 6, 12:14
Heather McLean on The Jokers: “It wouldn’t matter which of the current crop of SNP MSPs they put in his place they are all toxic…” Jun 6, 11:40
Captain Caveman on The Jokers: “The guy thinks he’s Shakespeare.” Jun 6, 11:22
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Jokers: “Alba can’t BUY press coverage since electing a non-MSP as leader. They really needed the exposure.” Jun 6, 11:20
Kelpie on The Jokers: “I posted yesterday (although my comment seems to have failed to pass moderation) that while the SNP may have been…” Jun 6, 11:17
Politically Homeless on The Jokers: “Well what a surprise. It turns out the majority of voters don’t care about anything political, indeed, not least “wanging…” Jun 6, 11:11
Hatey McHateface on The Jokers: “@Northcode says: 6 June, 2025 at 10:34 am Vote for Scotland – stay at home. Work for Scotland – stay…” Jun 6, 10:52
Allison on The Jokers: “It’s a by-election – different to a full election – with media attention for a small party who desperately need…” Jun 6, 10:45
Ronnie on The Jokers: “In the name of God, Swinney, just go.” Jun 6, 10:37
Northcode on The Jokers: “The Colonial News (edited in London – capital of the ’empire’) Latest news from our Scotland colony: Hooray! The Colonials…” Jun 6, 10:34
Rev. Stuart Campbell on The Jokers: “It’s Larkhall ffs.” Jun 6, 10:30
desimond on The Jokers: “Look forward to the “Well its disappointing but lets not forget…” pish from Swinney. How long before Stephen Flynn has…” Jun 6, 09:56
agent x on The Jokers: “Labour wins the only poll that matters. Well done.” Jun 6, 09:53
Tony Little on The Jokers: “Whether anyone likes it or not, an absentee voter is still a vote – it’s a vote to abdicate the…” Jun 6, 09:51
Sally Hughes on The Jokers: “The voters have chosen… better the useless f..k wit you know, than a new one. The results for Reform will…” Jun 6, 09:39
June on The Jokers: “Both ALBA leadership candidates promised to reverse Salmond’s election strategy for 2026. Salmond would have stood candidates in constituencies. Repeating…” Jun 6, 09:35
Antoine Roquentin on The Jokers: “Masochism is hardly a new phenomenon amongst the Scottish electorate.” Jun 6, 09:26
Captain Caveman on The Jokers: “The BBC can hardly contain their glee… I still can’t quite believe this was a by-election FFS. What an utterly…” Jun 6, 09:21
Doug on The Jokers: “Expect the same result next year if Swinney remains FM.” Jun 6, 09:08
Neutral Observer on The Jokers: ““It’s going to take a while to unpick quite what the heck just happened, but one stat did jump out…” Jun 6, 09:07
