Tonight somebody’s sent us a copy of the SNP’s official Social Media Policy, which is exactly the sort of awful corporate wonk-drivel you’d probably expect it to be.
Our favourite part was this masterpiece of unrememberable gibberish in the vein of the Scottish Government’s hopeless “FACTS” slogan (honestly, without going and looking can you remember what ANY of the letters represent?) for the coronavirus :
And here’s a tweet from earlier today from a prospective SNP candidate:
We’re not sure which of the letters that conforms to.
Alert readers will have noticed by now that while we were at the dentist getting rid of all our excess money, the Fabiani inquiry has published Alex Salmond’s written evidence submission, ahead of his in-person appearance currently scheduled for next week.
We’re feeling a bit confused this morning, readers. Maybe someone can help.
Below is the key part of the letter sent by the Clerks of the Scottish Parliament, acting on behalf of the Fabiani committee, to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) a week and a half ago, requesting material for their investigation into the Scottish Government’s botched handling of false allegations against Alex Salmond.
As we’d told you at the time, the request was a sham, designed to produce nothing of any value, because it carefully excluded the only person whose communications with Sue Ruddick were actually of relevance – SNP chief executive Peter Murrell.
(Murrell being an employee of the party, NOT a member of the Scottish Government, a civil servant or a special adviser.)
Having never been part of a political party, an area where Wings lacks expertise is in understanding the nuts and bolts of their operation, and how a party’s rules can be used to usurp their members’ power. We’re delighted to have someone equipped to provide a valuable insight into how that’s happened to the SNP in the last two years.
The following line is still a definitive statement in the SNP constitution:
“National Conference is the supreme governing and policy-making body of the Party.”
But in practice it is no longer the case. The 2018 redraft of the constitution centralised power in the Leader and in the NEC. The party Leader has sole and total power over policy – both in the manifesto and in government – and the NEC has sole power over who represents the party and what they are allowed to say.
So in effect, since 2018 the party elite – not the membership – has ruled the SNP.
Something most people don’t know about the infamous Spanish Inquisition is that it was never the Catholic Church that actually executed heretics. Particularly if a prisoner had refused to confess their vile heresy even under torture, the Church instead handed them over to the “mercy” of the state to deliver their end.
So SNP MP Kirsty Blackman (or as we understand some are already calling her, “the Tiny Torquemada“) would have fitted right in with it.
Or more likely, they just wanted to try to bury all of their skeletons at once in a single giant avalanche of crookedness. But either way, enough is enough. Criminals accused of perjury don’t get to decide if they’ll answer for their lies or not.
The Fabiani committee has the power to compel witnesses to attend. They must now use that power without further delay, or they must call on the police to arrest the SNP’s chief executive immediately and drag him into an interview room by his ears if need be with a solicitor in attendance. (Doubtless also paid for by SNP members.)
Scotland is not GoodFellas. Nobody is above the law. Stop this damn rot now.
The reaction to it was absolutely explosive. Half of the Parliamentary SNP spent the whole night running around social media frantically firefighting their own members, who were absolutely furious about what they’d just discovered. Poisonous abuse from the party’s woke faction poured out like never before. We got called every kind of bigot under the sun by SNP officeholders.
(The article, of course, made no mention of any sort of bisexual people, Jewish people, trans people or women as a group, let alone actually being prejudiced against anyone. Ironically just about the only kind of prejudice that wasn’t alleged was ageism, possibly because it might have looked a smidge too ironic coming from a bunch of bedwetting children whose core ideological stance is that anyone over 29 is a Nazi.)
But there was one thing you DIDN’T read amid the torrents of hate.
You didn’t read anyone saying a single word of the post was untrue.
We don’t yet know what happened regarding the supposed definition of transphobia – our source thinks that it may have been postponed due to not being able to get the required 2/3 vote for an emergency agenda item.
But we know that something even madder DID happen.
Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “Oh, My God, AI Dan… that was one of the most interesting posts I’ve ever read in this place. There…” May 27, 15:23
Morgatron on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Camper Van!! you just couldn’t get a more apt name for a mode of transport for they two other than…” May 27, 15:12
Northcode on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “To be honest, and I rarely am, If I thought the English colonial state was protecting me in perpetuity from…” May 27, 15:07
Aidan on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “It is based on random figures because the figures you’ve provided are wrong, as I’ve pointed out before and as…” May 27, 14:42
prj on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Has Peter Murrell’s mother been interviewed by the police? Just curious because she can disprove or prove Sturgeon’s story.” May 27, 14:37
Mark Beggan on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “The Sex Pistols song ‘Liar’ is a more precise artistic understanding of the situation and its only one word. No…” May 27, 14:34
paul on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Nick, you clearly has never benn in loving,passionate wedlock” May 27, 14:32
paul on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “a slap on the wrist…and lot of dough, no mention of any recoveries.” May 27, 14:29
Mark Beggan on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Well done Rev. The carrion are circling. The hounds smell blood. The game is afoot. The ‘English media’ are foaming…” May 27, 14:25
Nick on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I feel like not enough is being made of Murrell loaning the SNP £107,000. Even then did it not occur…” May 27, 14:18
Alf Baird on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““pick random figures out of thin air” That it can be demonstrated that a resource-rich Scotland controlled by a poorer…” May 27, 14:16
Rev. Stuart Campbell on No Money Back, No Guarantee: ““Murrell & Sturgeon, as in Burke & Hare.” Today’s article was nearly called “Shopping With Burke & Hare” after the…” May 27, 14:04
Socrates MacSporran on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon: the Fred Astaire and Jane Powell of Scottish politics. I call them this because of…” May 27, 14:03
Rev. Stuart Campbell on All The Dirt From My Eyes: ““Not her role as First Minister. Arguably, that is not the role of the First Minister and she may be…” May 27, 14:03
Roland Watson on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “This is making me wonder about all those whatsapp messages that Sturgeon and others illegally deleted en masse at the…” May 27, 13:55
paul on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “…or give her a little podium. Getting her out of the interview room would then become the problem.” May 27, 13:55
Sarah Johnson on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “The most infuriating thing about Sturgeon getting off Scot-free is that there is now no chance she will be forced…” May 27, 13:53
Karen on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “AA can’t be a very good lawyer if he doesn’t know /understand the companies act. Also, he has a conflict…” May 27, 13:44
Campbell Clansman on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Murrell and Sturgeon looted Scotland. And (prediction) they’ll get away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Because…” May 27, 13:42
Ex President Xiden on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Mr Anwar should try some stand up if he thinks his claim that she insisted she would provide a written…” May 27, 13:35
Roy on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Not her role as First Minister. Arguably, that is not the role of the First Minister and she may be…” May 27, 13:35
Northcode on No Money Back, No Guarantee: “It looks like it’s time for a wee reminder… in Scots, tae. Ther scarce be a wird pit doun here…” May 27, 13:34
Dave Llewellyn on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “If the police wanted her to talk they should have put a TV cameraman behind the camera” May 27, 13:32
Bobo bunny on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Get tore into her. Burn her whole world down. Don’t stop until she is behind bars.” May 27, 13:32
paul on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “replace ambivalence with hostility and I’ll go right along” May 27, 13:31
Craig P on All The Dirt From My Eyes: ““it was not the role of the First Minister to sign off accounts that was for the party treasurer.” Classic…” May 27, 13:25
Sven on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “Whilst Ms Sturgeon will have been formally cautioned, I doubt that it will have been under the provisions of Pace,…” May 27, 13:20
AlMac on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “As has been said elsewhere, all this illustrates Sturgeon’s ambivalence to Independence. Large amounts of money that could have been…” May 27, 13:18
Al-Stuart on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “. Hi Stuart, It is a huge comfort knowing all of those hours and all of the corrupt efforts to…” May 27, 12:58
paul on All The Dirt From My Eyes: “I think you are being to cruel. As far as I can tell, her wedding night was her first encounter…” May 27, 12:50