An open letter to Douglas Chapman
TO: Douglas Chapman MP, National Treasurer, SNP
DATE: 8 January 2021
Also sent by email
Dear Douglas,
Congratulations on your recent election as the SNP’s treasurer. You may or may not be aware that in October 2020 this site asked your predecessor in the role, Colin Beattie, some questions on the subject of the supposedly “ring-fenced” indyref fighting fund that was created by donations to two separate fundraisers in previous years – referred to collectively by the party as the Referendum Appeal Fund or RAF.
We did so on behalf of numerous SNP members and non-members who had donated to the two appeals and were concerned as to the whereabouts of the monies.
No meaningful reply was received either by Wings or several individual donors who also contacted Mr Beattie asking the same questions, and a number of those people (as well as some of your elected colleagues) have asked us to put the same questions to you publicly, now that you’ve had a few weeks to settle into your new position and are understood to be interested in finding the answers.
The first question is a simple one, and were the proposal it contains adopted it would render all the others moot and draw the matter to an immediate and highly satisfactory conclusion, so I hope this will only take a minute.
——————————–
(1) The SNP currently owns the old Yes Scotland brand, website and company, which is still live. It appears to be controlled by the party solicitor Scott Martin.
To avoid any future confusion, why doesn’t the SNP simply transfer the entire RAF to the account of Yes Scotland, and divert any future donations through the yes.scot website to the company’s account rather than the SNP’s?
This would provide a visible separation between referendum funds and SNP political funds. Anyone whose primary interest was independence could donate money to Yes Scotland through the yes.scot site for that purpose, while anyone chiefly motivated by Queer Theory, thoughtcrime, stopping people from getting two-for-one pizzas and imprisoning former First Ministers for crimes they didn’t commit could donate to the SNP through its own existing donations page, located here.
There would be no reason for any noticeable admin costs – Yes Scotland would have only one source of income (donations), no outgoings (until such times as the imminent second referendum, naturally), and Mr Martin’s only task would be to file a simple short statement of its account balance every year, which he has to do now anyway. It seems an obvious, elegant and complete solution.
——————————–
Should the above proposal be inexplicably rejected, the following questions arise:
(2) If the RAF is indeed ring-fenced and available for use “at a moment’s notice”, why does the SNP not simply denote it as such in the accounts and avoid all this confusion and bad feeling, as suggested by SNP councillor Chris McEleny?
(3) Why, for that matter, does it not publish it as a live running total on the yes.scot site, as it did with the 2017 ref.scot fundraiser? Is there a reason it should be secret? Surely it would boost the morale of the entire Yes movement to know beyond any doubt that it had a healthy fighting fund ready for instant deployment.
(4) How did the money in the RAF come to be “woven through” the accounts in various unexplained places, given that it all comes from only two sources – the 2017 ref.scot fundraiser and the 2019-present day yes.scot one – and the SNP apparently knows to the exact pound how much is in it? Why would all of those funds not be recorded under the same category?
(5) The yes.scot website used to state that all donations would be used to produce a book called “An Independent Scotland: Household Guide”, to be distributed to every household in Scotland. It now contains simply a generic statement that donations will be used to provide “Yes campaigners” with “materials”.
Which, if either, of these things is now the case?
(6) Are all donations through yes.scot still being directed to the RAF? If so, which area of the SNP’s accounts would they be included under? Donations? Prepayments? Some other? If they’re NOT being directed to the RAF, on what date did this change?
(7) What was the balance of the RAF on 31 December 2017, 31 December 2018, 31 December 2019 and 31 December 2020?
(8) The SNP’s total net current assets according to the 2019 accounts are just under £272,000. How then can the party claim to have a fund of almost £600,000 available to spend “at a moment’s notice”? Is it being held “off the books” in some way? Or is it in the form of some sort of loan or overdraft facility? And if the latter, what has the actual real money given by donors been spent on?
(9) Given that questions were being asked about this money as far back as January 2019, allowing the matter to have now festered damagingly for almost a year, can we hope for a more transparent approach from you than from your predecessor, and if so, how soon might we expect some answers? What actions have you taken so far?
On behalf of your concerned members and donors, I look forward to your response.
Regards,
Stuart Campbell
Editor
Wings Over Scotland
Love it! This is the kind of stufff I’ve had to do for years, re my LA and my disabled son. Paint them in to a corner. That is how it is done.
Nice one Rev Stuart ,
It’ll be interesting to see if yourself or the members will get an answer this time .
A big boy took it, spent it on frocks and financing lawyers to fight against Martin Keating.
I hope you’re not holding your breath Stu! ?
That will go down like a Scots bonnet pepper flavoured pizza. !!
There’s a very apt clip from ‘Jerry Maguire’ that could be put into this article:
“Show me the money!”
Thanks so much for this, Stuart. Your incisive, evidenced communications provide a spotlight into the murkiest of corners. I look forward to Mr Chapman’s response. In fact, my continued membership of the SNP depends upon Mr Chapman (and other newcomers to leadership roles in the Party) exhibiting courage, wisdom and integrity.
What’s the next step if the missing money can’t be located?
Legal action?
It actually is a brilliant idea to have the money sitting in the Yes Scotland account with the total posted in big numbers on the Yes Scotland home page. What could be more enticing, exciting and – to the Yoons – more threatening, than half a million quid ready for ‘instant deployment’ once the referendum gun’s fired?
I feel, though, that your letter will simply start people squirming at SNP HQ, wondering how they’re going to explain where the money went. Hope I’m very wrong, but…
For what it’s worth, as a member, I’m also going to write to Doug, asking him the same thing.
As for the booklet, that’s now Keith Brown’s responsibility, isn’t it? Isn’t he supposed to be indyref2 champion at the SNP? I might write to him as well!
It’s Friday night, it’s 5pm and it’s a Crackerjack from Stu.
Chapman did retweet Alex Salmond a few days ago. So presumably not a Sturgeonite ultra.
“We spent the money on weed; sorry” would be a more acceptable answer that some bullshit about it being woven through the accounts when anyone with eyes to see knows it isn’t accounted for in any meaningful sense.
1. Transparency.
2. Transparency.
3. Trans-parency.
4. …
The total funds were passed through the income statement, effectively making it income for the party. Unless they made an accrual in the financial statements for the full amount, then the money is gone. They may or may not have, at short notice, a loan facility.
Let’s just cut to the chase and ask how they are going to replace our money, with interest of course.
P says:
8 January, 2021 at 5:26 pm
What’s the next step if the missing money can’t be located?
Legal action?
Someone will be getting a call from the police I expect. That would be outright theft.
By the way, January 2019 is *two* years ago.
I believe Mr Chapman to be one of the good guys. But to stay a good guy you have to deal with the bad guys.
Honesty in all matters would be a good start. And for a middle Daddy bear could pay his own legal fees and costs. And for just desserts the NEC could start expelling the dishonest, the unsavoury and those wokeratti who repeatedly defame SNP members.
@Stoops says:
8 January, 2021 at 5:47 pm
“We spent the money on weed; sorry” would be a more acceptable answer”
That would explain a lot… 🙂
This letter is a reason to be cheerful:-) Thanks Wings
Good questions Rev.
Yes Mr Chapman, you can clear this matter up quite easily by answering where the monies are.
If you don’t answer where the monies are, then we, SNP supporters, who voted for you and your party will think that you’ve got something to hide, which will lead to bad feelings towards the party and it could affect our voting intentions come May.
Do the decent thing and tell the truth.
Like Mia and others IF the manifesto is NOT a plebiscite I and my family will NOT vote SNP for the election , We will vote ISP on the list if we have a candidate in Paisley
I emailed K Brown and Sturgeon to say the same thing and NOTHING from them
Sorry wrong thread
O/T.
Alex Salmond has taken the gloves off.
https://archive.is/b7ZPi
What faction of the party was Mr Chapman considered to be before his election?
If the new treasurer sent you a frank, honest reply it would look something like this:
There’s no longer any need for a Referendum Appeal Fund as there won’t be any referendum. A legal, binding referendum can only be held with permission from London. It’s clear to us that such permission will not be forthcoming anytime soon.
Thank you Stu – look forward to reply.
@Republicofscotland (6.14) –
Thanks for that link.
Roll on Tuesday 19th!
😉
Brilliant idea! Put the funds into YES Scotland and ask for on going donations to fight the battle and we will win the war – to quote (sort of) the Evans woman! I want to know where my £40 went! Well done Rev – hold their feet to the fire!
Colin Beattie produced that ludicrous statement about the money being “woven through” the accounts (copyright Father Ted) and said every donor was getting an e-mail explanation. As far as I know, few, if any, actually did? In which case economy with the truth also seems to be woven through NewSNP behaviour.
“… anyone chiefly motivated by Queer Theory, thoughtcrime, stopping people from getting two-for-one pizzas and imprisoning former First Ministers for crimes they didn’t commit could donate to the SNP through its own existing donations page, located here.”
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! ….. *breath in* … Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! …
O/T
republicofscotland @18:14
Gloves off? can this at last be time to set the records straight, lance the boil and get the wheels back on our indy bus.
Stu, The ball is now in the new SNP Treasurer’s court.
I hope he just comes clean on this.
Chapman has seemed a reliable guy in the past, and is not responsible for past practices.
The fact is though that future donations to the SNP will rely heavily on people’s confidence that their cash is spent for the stated purpose of fighting and winning the independence referendum.
@Republicofscotland 18:14
Thanks for that. A very significant development. Coupled with this excellent post, pincer pressure points for the SNP to contend with and not before time.
David says:
“What’s the next step if the missing money can’t be located?
Legal action?
Someone will be getting a call from the police I expect. That would be outright theft.”
Theft! Heaven forfend! It will simply have slipped down the back of the sofa in Bute House.
PS Theft is such a nasty word. Can’t we call it Misappropriation of Funds?
Nice one Rev. more of this please.
Well done Rev follow the money.Thanks also for the link Republivofscotland.
If Chapman had any intention of being transparent about this he would have addressed it immediately on his election as treasurer.
I won’t hold my breath for answers.
I just want to say thank you. Again. For standing up for what it true and factual.
Jings! For a terrible moment here I thought the SNP was giving money to bloody Biggles!
Hope there will finally be a decent response and explanation given to this matter.
Mr Chapman, as the new National Treasurer for the Party, would surely have been aware of this significant Indy Fund Monies situation prior to standing for selection, nomination, and being voted by delegates onto the NEC. Indeed it may have even been the motivating factor in standing for the Treasurer role.
So fingers crossed he knew this would require to be dealt with and there will be no shying away from resolving this matter.
No doubt he will face some resistance from some within the Party that deemed it ok to weave the funds when they were meant to be ringfenced, but I imagine doing the decent and honest thing would be supported and appreciated by many more people in the scheme of things.
Donations? Has anyone looked into just how few signatures yes.scot received in a year, or since hard Brexit?
It’s grim. Lower than you’d think, much, much lower.
Then again, there’s next to zero SNP types encouraging take up.
I continue to strongly suspect a combination of smug Daddy Alyn Smith’s penchant for opening his mouth before engaging his brain, and Richard Tice’s willingness to sue for libel (and successfully so), will play a big part in the obfuscation of these funds, allegedly
I would imagine that the money has been spent on inflated salaries for SNP HQ staff (once volunteers) and legal fees to protect Big Daddy and Mr Murrell.
I’m sure all of the money is there.
If not it’s called Embezzlement. Where a person or persons have control over property, in this case money and they steal it they are commonly charged with Embezzlement.
Maybe time to start looking for some forensic accountants.
@ David Whannel at 7:05 pm
I presume most sensible folk would not be donating until some clarity is obtained on just where the monies have been going!
Also unlikely SNP folk would be encouraging takeup as they would leave themselves open to, and draw attention to the matter this article is all about.
I think they’re a bunch of crooks. I hope I’m proved wrong.
Douglas Chapman is very definitely a Good Guy. How easily he will get the answers out of Murrell and crew is a diffent question. Remember the last National Treasurer told Kenny Macaskill he was not allowed to know Murrell’s salary.
To clarify, the National Treasurer was not allowed to know Murrell’s salary.
Is this why Colin Weir stopped contributing to the SNP?
Blair McDougall will have eaten all the popcorn in Scotland before you get a meaningful reply to that lot.
Caught on the pockle i fear.
I feel there’s now a good wind blowing behind us, succession is close enough to smell, and there’s only one obstacle in our way.
Do a deal with NS. Alex would need to agree.
Give her an ‘out’.
A good deal, but only if accepted tout de suite.
Panicky trapped animals don’t make good decisions. Instinct dominates.
And afterwards…
Murrell is toast without her.
The clique. See above.
Evans might want to investigate which countries eschew extradition treaties.
Watershed or Waterloo. Here’s hoping both.
Thanks Stuart, the money was donated for a purpose… and it’s trickled somewhere else.I hope all of your questions will receive an answer. It’s worrying tho’ to see the steady ebb of money out of the SNP with no accountability. Guess there will be more than just the FM leaving her post under a cloud.
Jason Smoothpiece (7.24pm)
More likely the money was spend on something it was not intended for as there has been no referendum and there is no money. The correct charge would be ” Misappropriation of Funds”. It occurs when someone who was entrusted to manage someone else’s money or property steals all or part of that money or property for their own personal gain. The offence occurs when an individual has legal access to another’s money or property, but not legal ownership of it and they abuse this authority. All officials involved can be debarred from holding office.
Hmm, interesting.
https://twitter.com/Grouse_Beater/status/1347562737262600198
https://twitter.com/Grouse_Beater/status/1347569560514424832
@Dan 8:10
Grousebeater got a hold of an embargoed piece? He seems confident he is onto something. Beginning to feel like an orchestrated manoeuvre.
First class Stuart. You have them on the ropes with a series of finely honed jabs and uppercuts. No-one quite knows from where or when the knock-out blow will come, but come it surely must.
You did have me laughing when you said, “while anyone chiefly motivated by Queer Theory, thoughtcrime, stopping people from getting two-for-one pizzas and imprisoning former First Ministers for crimes they didn’t commit could donate to the SNP through its own existing donations page.”
Richard Feynman sprang to mind until I realised it was “Queer Theory” and not “String Theory” you were referring to!
I hope none of these funds were diverted to the pursuit of Alex Salmond.
We could start a crowd fund to take legal action against the SNP’s misapropriation of funds. Going by their recent accounts,they are almost broke so they they won’t have the money to defend the case in court.
Twitter’s getting a bit lively. There is a rapidly increasing trend “Salmond”. No idea what could be causing it 🙂
There is no reason to suspect that Douglas Chapman will not disclose answers to your questions Rev.
And if it transpires that the money has gone then there are big questions to be answered. The donations were very many of us believe hypothecated donations not for the the coterie of control who burn through.
And so if the money has gone then it is fraud and two things should happen. Firstly our corrupt Police must investigate and take action.
Secondly, individuals who donated money for a specific purpose should sue for recovery of the funds. ( the proposal however to engather the ” woven ” funds and place them in a hypothecated Yes fund would however be a method that would redress this abuse for the vast majority, if not all of donors)
And in relation to other expenditure if Douglas Chapman establishes that Peter Murrell or A.N Other authorised funds to pay for Alyn Smith’s legal defence for defamation of Nigel Farage and or authorised damages payments to Farage, then Peter Murrell or whoever should be pursued for the reimbursement of this expenditure to the Party.
The SNP was not funded to be a bank to indemnify the personal liabilities incurred by individual SNP members. It is not a personal fiefdom whereby the lords and masters can spend members money on bailing out individual members.
Smith as an example is just another party member like 90,000 others. He should have been carrying insurance or maintaining a fund to defend or pay for any personal wrong doing. ( Or put another way, maybe Peter Murrell would be good enough to use SNP money to defend me against Drink Driving or Driving Dangerously, or Speeding or Breach of the Peace and then pay whatever penalty I may sustain. Sounds good Eh? – Mr Smith)
Anyway, good stuff Rev, you’ve asked some excellent questions and as I say I trust our new Treasurer will respond accurately and honestly. There is no reason to suspect he won’t.
Off this particular topic, but generally relevant; just heard on the radio news (6 music) that “Alex Salmond has accused Nicola Sturgeon of breaching the Ministerial Code…”. Are the gloves well and truly off, then?
AS has broken cover
A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said “he was trying to divert attention from the claims he faced”
Aunties radio says.
But skips the not guilty stuff.
Weak, illogical riposte from camp Nicky.
It’s going to be over soonest.
Hopefully he is a good guy as he is my MP and I am saddled with ‘The Invisible Woman’ at Holyrood. Possibly a typo in question 9 as Jan 2019 is now 2 years ago?
Derek, 6 music, with iggy at the controls. Aunties redeemer.
There are many really, in amongst the propaganda, and brain fuckery.
Toking away, working on my iggy voice.
Bit ot but Niall Aslen fae cairnbulg took a lot of time and effort to produce the great deception and the great obfuscation,shite at deein links so google awa ,he is an unsung hero
@ David Rodgers at 7:43 pm
“Is this why Colin Weir stopped contributing to the SNP?”
I believe it was part of the reason, I remember reading he was not please with the way money was spent,The Weirs virtually paid for The 2014 referendum. If you look at the SNP donors which is on the site somewhere. I think that what Mr Weir gave ,Mrs Weir matched
Brian Souter doesn’t seem to donate anymore. I always wonder if he donated because of AS running things.
I would think it would be most unlikely that Mr. Souter would back Sturgeon’s pro-trans right agenda
Great letter, Stuart.
That covers it.
He will have seen that the money was missing as soon as he was given access to the bank accounts. Something or someone has prevented him from making it public.
Said it before, when AS was acquitted is was great day for the independence movement in Scotland. New leader, new energy.
Godspeed to Alex if he has indeed decided to come out fighting.
Hugh Jarse, I think you’re forgetting that Nicola Sturgeon may be trying to identify as a man to deflect attention from herself.
Her statement should read:
A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said “(s)he was trying to divert attention from the claims (s)he is facing”!
A Prayer for our nation.
Please God, please may Nicola Sturgeon be forced to step down as First Minister and her husband from his position in the SNP to be replaced by true supporters of independence who believe in truth, honesty, justice and loyalty to the people of our nation. I do not pray for vengeance but if you see fit to have Nicola Sturgeon and her husband brought to account for their lies and malfeasance in public office then so be it.
Amen
@Hugh Jarse says:
8 January, 2021 at 8:44 pm
Derek, 6 music, with iggy at the controls. Aunties redeemer.
There are many really, in amongst the propaganda, and brain fuckery.
Toking away, working on my iggy voice.
Think you’d need to have been doing that – with a prodigious appetite – for the last 40 years to get anywhere near! And the rest…
Agreed, 6 definitely gets a pass.
Yeah, the latest Salmond stuff is braw news indeed.
Plenty of coverage on the twitter, including the FM’s people saying they dismiss ‘false conspiracy theories’.
Sloppy rubbish.
Quite a few of us here have had our differences over ‘conspiracy theories’ of one kind or another for a long time, but I believe even we would agree that the theories themselves are real enough – ‘false’ conspiracy theory is just taking it all a bit too far.
😉
O/T Surely it’s not a change in pan European injunction law after Brexit that has led to this information being released at midnight? To quote someone “there is not a scintilla of truth in it”. I sure picked a great January to go for a dry January!
Not especially related but have just seen on twitter that Salmond still being threatened by the crown office regarding his upcoming appearance at the Inquiry. Can a sympathetic SNP MP not take advantage of parliamentary privilege by getting the most delicate information out into the public domain?
Craig Murray says:
8 January, 2021 at 7:42 pm
“To clarify, the National Treasurer was not allowed to know Murrell’s salary.”
Hold the bus! The National Treasurer in not privy to the salaries of the staff? Does the treasurer not see the bank statements and note the deductions for salaries?
How are they paid? Are they handed a blank cheque and told to fill in what they like? Surely someone has to calculate the National Insurance and tax deductions? Who does this?
Or was the last treasurer fibbing?
Re Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
The next Meeting Date is on Tuesday 12 January 2021 : By video conference , The Committee will next meet on Tuesday 12 January at 11:00am when it will take evidence from the Permanent Secretary.
This meeting will be held virtually.
Public Papers for the above meeting ,
https://www.parliament.scot/HarassmentComplaintsCommittee/Meeting%20Papers/20210112SGHHCPublicPapers.pdf
From the public papers ,
1. Declaration of interests: Stuart McMillan will be invited to declare any relevant interests.
2. Decision on taking business in private: The Committee will decide whether to take item 5 in private.
3. Complaints Handling: The Committee will take evidence from— Leslie Evans, Permanent Secretary, Scottish Government.
4. Review of Evidence (in private): The Committee will review the evidence heard on the inquiry.
5. Work programme: The Committee will review its work programme.
.
The papers for this meeting are as follows—
Item 2 ,
Paper from the Clerk ,
.
Written submission from the former First Minister, Alex Salmond
.
Correspondence from Deputy First Minister – legal advice
.
Private paper
Item 5
.
Private paper
Good questions, Rev.
Is this the same Douglas Chapman who accompanied Stewart McDonald, Chris Law and Neal R Stewart (Integrity Initiative briefer) on a trip to the Ukraine in 2019? To date, I have not seen any information on who paid for the trip, which groups were met and who in the SNP approved the visit?
deer hill @ 9.19pm
I find that hard to believe too that a treasurer wouldn’t know all in and outs.
That’s a treasurers job
I have Derek, gravel drowning in mucus is as near as i can get.
The s’s fit snugly Saffron 🙂
With Eck’s opening gambit being the ‘breaking the ministerial code’ move, i forecast a resignation most probably before her or AS appearance at the committee, but possibly immediately after.
NS off to pastures new.
Others can clean up the mess/be fed to the public.
AS as interim party leader.
JC, with suitable deputy as prospective FM.
The dream team for indyref2.
PM. if not the pokey, more time to haunt the lavvies.
LE found smugged to death.
Alyn. Opens a spa, as a front for a hard core Wokist cult.
The Salmond and MacAskill statements sound like business!
Get the Murrells out and then we can get on with indy.
Sturgeon was never striving to get Scotland a seat at the United Nations, just preoccupied with getting herself a post there.
Re: Salmond; it’s on, things are happening, the house of cards is slowly coming down
What’s Grousebeater up to?!
*insert chin-stroking batman gif here*
@Ian Brotherhood says:
8 January, 2021 at 9:55 pm
What’s Grousebeater up to?!
He will be unvailing his latest classic purchase a Batmobile MK1 in unused condition.
Elmac, amen to your prayer for our nation.
One thing’s for sure – the Murrells won’t be missed.
Moshe parted the Red Sea to lead his people to freedom. The only thing Nicola Sturgeon can part is her hair!
@cynhicalHighlander –
That’ll probably be okay for most folk, so long as he doesn’t ask any of us to examine the big end.
Please, please, please can we rid ourselves of private education, millionaire privilege boy- humza useless and the stasi bill. As well.
Re the money,
I find it incredible that the ring fenced money can’t be found or won’t be found.
These accounts have been “signed off” I suppose, the auditors were handsomely paid. and the money can’t be found!!
The SNP are answerable to the members in the the account reporting
Can no fucker press the Print Audit Trail All Accounts Button? The previous dimwit was supposed to be an alleged accountant?
Someone mentioned the drop of membership as 50,000.
I would be thinking that could suggest where the 500,000 went, I appreciate it’s more than likely a coincidence
I had concerns over election costs the SNP have 425 councillors
How many were newbies?
How much in real money was spent on them,
And more importantly how many were in the SNP’s employ?
just take Minimum Wage
If the “Books” were found I would hazard a guess a forensic accountant would turn up a lot
If I can spot things aren’t right in five wards without a lot of effort, something is seriously wrong
Mr. Murrells departure will be tied in with Mrs. Murrells escape strategy. Like I said before, she’s bulletproof and going nowhere.
“Moshe parted the Red Sea to lead his people to freedom. The only thing Nicola Sturgeon can part is her hair!”
There’s an excellent Far Side cartoon regarding the parting of the hair…
First post, so be gentle…
Working in Inverness 2014, I had went in to conversation with a couple of lads at the reception of the hotel regarding the referendum.
I ended up taking away quite a few copies of the Wee Blue Book. I converted so many down here from, i’ll call it the party we always voted for being traditional working class, to, full support for Indy and the party i became a member of. The book was like someone had went to the end of the tunnel and switched a light on. Due to the AS affair I have left the party, my response was like, aye, thanks, no St Andrews card for you this year. I made a contribution to the YES campaign that has never got off the starting blocks and truly pissed off with the feeling you have been “made a cad ay” as my maw would say, so, thanks for not letting them off the hook.
I just want to flag up Stu that Douglas Chapman took part in an hour long interview on Barrhead Boy’s excellent Through a Scottish Prism podcast shortly before the NEC elections and undertook to establish and make public the answers about those funds should he be elected.
I believe Douglas to be an honorable man so I am confident we will get the answer and I agree it is important we do.
I’m very glad you have revived this issue Stu, as it was beginning to look like Control would simply brazen their way out of another wholly untenable situation.
There may be commenters on here with no knowledge of financial matters who think it’s complicated, and that they’re not qualified to pass judgement.
You don’t need to be an accountant. Anyone with a modicum of familiarity with company books can see, based on the information already in the public domain, that there is absolutely zero possibility that this money still exists in any legitimate form. You cannot take half a million quid in cash and “weave it into your accounts” such that it’s no longer visible.
If I had full access to the SNP’s books I’m quite certain I could see where the money went in no more than 15 minutes. The most likely explanation is that it was never set aside in any way; it was simply paid into the SNP’s general accounts and then frittered away on general expenditure that the party’s regular income couldn’t cover (plus a few extraordiinary items like the preening narcissist’s legal costs).
Douglas Chapman will be under massive pressure from Control to “Wheesht for Indy”. There is almost certainly fraud, but Police Scotland and COPFS are so corrupt that I doubt there will be any charges. But given the level of misconduct, once things are out in the open everybody involved in the misappropriation of funds will have to walk, and that will be most of the party and the political leadership.
.
Thank you Stuart,
Your words on the top of this thread may be part of the catalyst for Sturgeon, Hamza Orwell 1984 and all the McWokeists to be cleared out.
Return the SNP to the decent hard working SNP members.
The end of a dodgy leader can come very fast. This is analogous to the political downfall of Donald Trump. Six days and The Small Hand Groper Fake President is already orange toast looking at serious jail time. Though the word is he may resign at the final days in his bunker so that Vice President Pence can grant him a cast iron presidential pardon.
CNN are showing some horrendous videos that have emerged from that deranged orange windbag. There is a special programme being broadcast next week on CNN titled…
“Trumps Insurrection”
If Scotland has the spine to get rid of our dodgy Sturgeon leader with similar speed, we may still manage to recover the IndyRef2 and YES movements.
It is dissonant, but a possibility that the NEW SNP leadership might actually embrace the prospect of Scotland becoming independent.
We need someone like Alex Salmond as FM who has proven he can walk the walk rather than the Dreghorn Dissembler who only talked the talk and collect mandate after mandate on the same old dishonest spiel from the Murrell’s and their self-obsessed coterie of deranged Trans activists, and free speech killing nutt jobbies.
Stuart, just keep following the money
Sturgeon and Murrell spent money they had no right to. The word “woven” will go down in history as a new way of saying “a big boy nicked it and ran away”.
Hugh Jarse says:
8 January, 2021 at 9:37 pm
..
JC, with suitable deputy as prospective FM.
..
😯
Jeremy Corbyn ?!?
If the Party Treasurer is not allowed to know what the CEO’s salary is, then who does? For that matter who sets the CEO’s salary? Is Murrell allowed to set his own salary and sign the cheques to himself? The only people that can approve the salary of a CEO are the Board of Directors or whatever their equivalent is in the SNP and it needs to be recorded in the Board minutes. Likewise any extraordinary expenditure such as paying Alyn Smith’s legal bills and defamation payment ought to have been authorised by the Board of Directors. Otherwise it’s illegal.
To those people who think you can check the books in 15 minutes I can tell you as a former auditor that it ain’t as simple as portrayed on TV. An examination of the bank accounts will establish whether or not any of the accounts contain anywhere near that amount of funds. Don’t hold your breath, we all know they aren’t there. Chapman would then have to go back over all the transactions for the last several years to establish where the donations went. If I were in his shoes I’d also be taking a close look at the rest of the income and spending to see if there’s any other inappropriate transactions.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the money is gone. The Party HQ shows no ability to restrain its spending. It operates on a hand-to-mouth basis with whatever money coming in being spent more or less immediately. 25% of members’subscriptions is supposed to be paid over to the branches. They are 12 months in arrears, paying the branches’ share of 2019’s dues out of 2020 subscriptions. This robbing Peter to pay Paul seems to have been going on for years. Windfalls such as legacies from supporters’ estates are treated as ordinary income and used to fund day-to-day expenses. These donations are by definition one-off events and you cannot rely on supporters popping their clogs on schedule to fund your day-to-day expenses. The HQ’s expenditure should be tailored to it’s recurring income – members’ dues and small donations. I suspect that with the large surge in membership following the 2014 referendum they believed that happy days were here to stay and gave themselves big pay rises and put their pals on the payroll. Chapman will need to wield the axe to bring the expenditure down to a manageable level.
IMO large windfall donations should be allocated to a separate bank account as a fighting fund to pay for an independence referendum or pay for any shortfall from an unexpected snap election. I’d also hope to see a separate election fund being built up between elections so the Party can fight by-elections without going into debt or having to appeal to members.
@ StuartM
‘25% of members’subscriptions is supposed to be paid over to the branches. They are 12 months in arrears, paying the branches’ share of 2019’s dues out of 2020 subscriptions.’
Really bad state of affairs if that’s the case though as is stated the whole financial area now looked at has been allowed to be horrendously uncontrolled. As a former auditor it would be interesting to know your timescale, if not 15 mins how long on average?
‘IMO large windfall donations should be allocated to a separate bank account as a fighting fund to pay for an independence referendum or pay for any shortfall from an unexpected snap election. I’d also hope to see a separate election fund being built up between elections so the Party can fight by-elections without going into debt or having to appeal to members.’
Very sensible ideas.
Any response yet Stuart
“Any response yet Stuart”
I got a reply asking me to resend it to his SNP email as he’s not allowed to use the Parliamentary email for SNP business. (More than I got from Colin Beattie.) I have done so.
Thanks Stuart
Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
16 January, 2021 at 11:39 am
Aye. It’s not like he could have just forwarded your email on to his SNP email and answered you from that.
Any reply yet from his snp address?
Hi Stu,
Just reread your article to DC and was wondering if you ever recieved a reply to your valid questions ? (Now over 2 months)
“Just reread your article to DC and was wondering if you ever recieved a reply to your valid questions ? (Now over 2 months)”
As I said on Saturday, no. Nothing.