In his evidence to a Holyrood inquiry today, having been asked about some troubling WhatsApp messages concerning the case from 2018 which appeared to suggest the possibility of a conspiracy against the former First Minister, Murrell told members of the committee “I’m not on WhatsApp, it’s not a social media platform I use”.
Alert readers will have noticed a very careful use of the present tense there.
We’ve now filed a formal complaint with the Scottish Information Commissioner about this, because what we’d forgotten last week was that our original request was actually sent in September and it’s now been almost 60 working days with no sign of a proper response, not the 20 it’s supposed to take.
Because for some reason the Scottish Government REALLY doesn’t want you to know what the First Minister and Geoff Aberdein talked about in March 2018, and we think that you probably should.
We don’t normally like to devote much time on Wings to things that have been more than adequately covered elsewhere in the media, which is why you haven’t read much here about eg the Internal Market Bill. Unlike some we don’t see much point spending our limited human resources telling people stuff they already know and agree with.
But we’re going to make an exception for this next thing, which was already covered pretty well by Susan Dalgety in last week’s Scotsman, because (a) a lot of our readers, quite reasonably, will have an instinctively adverse reaction to either anything printed in the Scotsman or anything written by Susan Dalgety, and (b) a number of people have asked us to amplify this issue because it’s so important and so awful.
Alert readers will recall the deranged open letter released by a group of transactivists last Friday, in a nakedly transparent attempt to influence the SNP’s NEC elections that weekend which backfired on them horribly (and amusingly) when the party’s members instead kicked out three-quarters of the committee’s woke faction and replaced them with feminists, socialists and above all advocates of actually achieving independence.
If you don’t have the time to read Alyn Smith’s astonishing response to the SNP NEC election results in today’s National, we’ve edited it down to 10 seconds for you.
We had, we think it’s only fair to say, extremely low expectations of Nicola Sturgeon’s keynote speech this afternoon to the SNP’s soporific, strangled 2020 non-conference. It seems that members felt the same, because 15 seconds before the speech began only 1,166 of them were logged in to watch it.
The speech she just delivered, though, limboed under those expectations in platform shoes and a stovepipe hat without even grazing the underside of the bar.
In a post last month we referenced a ZX Spectrum computer game from 1984 called “Worse Things Happen At Sea”. Today as we watched the First Minister on the Andrew Marr Show, we were put in mind of another nautical-disaster-themed one from a great deal nearer to the end of the Speccy’s life.
Andouillette on Nicola’s Summer Reading List: “I prefer the KJV: “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.” “As the partridge sitteth on eggs,…” May 31, 18:51
Willie on The View From Row Z: “The Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service is rotten to the core. They traduce the prosecution service to what you would…” May 31, 18:43
Marie on The View From Row Z: “She claims to be serving a sentence. Nope – that sentence starts when she’s in a prison cell. Best place…” May 31, 18:25
David Lindsay on The View From Row Z: “If Nicola Sturgeon is “serving a sentence for a crime [she] did not commit,” then is she serving it on…” May 31, 18:16
Jon Drummond on The View From Row Z: “Regarding the pepper grinder I can assure everyone that Sturgeon has never had a “sausage” supper in her life. Maybe…” May 31, 18:14
The Friendly Sassenach on The View From Row Z: “John Crace in the guardian put it like this… https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/31/nicola-sturgeon-interview-peter-murrell-snp-politics-sketch” May 31, 18:06
Peter S on The View From Row Z: “A word to the wise, hen – when you’re in a hole, for goodness’ sake stop digging !” May 31, 18:05
James on The View From Row Z: “Blamed for a crime I haven’t committed But it was ok to try and get Salmond sent down? I can’t…” May 31, 18:04
Victor Clements on The View From Row Z: “The really obvious missed opportunity today was when Sturgeon said words to the effect that “at that point, the people…” May 31, 17:48
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
