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.
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.
If we can somehow find the time amid the relentless blizzard of current Scottish political activity, we’re going to put together a list of all the legitimate and important questions that Alex Salmond’s lawyers have asked the Fabiani inquiry which haven’t even had the courtesy of a reply, let alone a satisfactory one.
We fully anticipate that the contents of the letter below, sent today, will be on that list.
It really can’t be overstated what extraordinary tweets these are.
That’s the editor of the conservative, ultra-establishment Spectator openly linking to a document that the Crown Office – the agent of the Queen herself – has threatened to prosecute the Scottish Parliament for publishing, and which has officially been deleted but is for some reason actually still available on the Parliament’s website.
The Spectator is giving the Queen the finger. And that’s not even the mad bit.
Alf Baird on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Yes Hatey, Arran is even more beautiful now that an efficient catamaran ferry serves the community, and I was pleased…” Aug 17, 21:30
Angus on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “I trust that there are still means left to hold the rotten to the core Crown Office and its utterly…” Aug 17, 21:27
Young Lochinvar on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “AX @ 8.48 Paid by the hour lackeys for hire? Morals guaranteed left at the door..” Aug 17, 21:18
agentx on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““What is the Victims’ Right to Review? If you are the victim in a case reported to us, you have…” Aug 17, 20:53
agentx on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “It’s lucky they eventually found a firm in the dreaded England to do their accounts.” Aug 17, 20:48
Ex President Biden on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Translation: We understand what you are saying and we did in fact report the circumstances you allude to, to the…” Aug 17, 20:36
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Sorry Frank. Curacao had the world’s largest oil refinery at one time, processing exports from the enormous reserves pumped by…” Aug 17, 20:34
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “It is, but also pretty wet at the moment! When I jumped on the plane in London the other day…” Aug 17, 20:30
Frank Gillougley on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Mentioning bananas and republics. At this juncture it is worth pointing out just for a bit of perspective, that both…” Aug 17, 20:18
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Arran is beautiful now the heather is coming into bloom.” Aug 17, 20:17
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Thinko’s who work their what? I assume they work whatever it is off, but please confirm.” Aug 17, 20:13
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Yes – they resigned for what are very clear and understandable reasons. But equally the accounts were signed off in…” Aug 17, 20:11
Northcode on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““…the auditors would not sign off the accounts.” The headline at the time was, “Firm which audits SNP finances has…” Aug 17, 20:05
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““Where do you go once discovered that there is no official crown office in Scotland due to the treaty of…” Aug 17, 20:02
Northcode on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““…the auditors would not sign off the accounts.” But the SNP’s auditors of ten years wouldn’t sign off on the…” Aug 17, 20:00
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “In other words, why take any responsibility for anything, ever, in any situation, when you can misapply texts on 1950’s…” Aug 17, 19:56
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Even if every single word you post is gospel, Northy, (and it’s not), there’s still £600,000 and more, plus a…” Aug 17, 19:44
Insider on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Fergus, Have you discussed this with Alf Baird yet? I’m pretty sure Dooyeward and Memmi disagree on this matter……….” Aug 17, 19:35
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “I’m sorry Northcode, that’s bollocks, and I hope you don’t find yourself in a position of responsibility in any organisation…” Aug 17, 19:29
David Wardrope on The Giant: “As I read this again now, it strikes home how his presence is sorely and utterly missed. And how the…” Aug 17, 19:28
Elmac on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “The Police bemoan lack of public support and assistance. This nonsense encapsulates exactly why they are not trusted by the…” Aug 17, 19:08
Northcode on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““Police Scotland would definitely have the information on who made each payment and who authorised it.” Apart from this being…” Aug 17, 18:51
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “If you can print that on 100 L T-shirts and 100 XL T-shirts, I’m in the market, if the price…” Aug 17, 18:49
John Traynor on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “I’m aware there’s a certain irony to this given Wings opinion of Hillsborough but often getting justice is sometimes a…” Aug 17, 18:42
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Even the treaty of union states the people of Scotland are Sovereign in that they have their own private rights…” Aug 17, 18:22
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “The realisation of what you know and what is legal in Scotland. The devolved parliament and those who claim they…” Aug 17, 18:08
Alf Baird on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““this has the British state all over it” Indeed, and Frantz Fanon explained the inner workings of a colonial justice…” Aug 17, 18:03
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “And in Scotland the devolved parliament is not a Sovereign entity nor those that sail under that banner, The people…” Aug 17, 17:54
