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.
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Tags: Kenny MacAskill
Category
comment, corruption, history, scottish politics
When we saw this a few days ago, we wondered what they wanted to hide.
And now we know.
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comment, corruption, disturbing, eeww, history, investigation, scottish politics, scum, transcult
There’s literally nothing about this that isn’t toe-curlingly embarrassing:
The only challenge is knowing where to start.
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Category
analysis, comment, history, media, scottish politics, uk politics
For much of last year, this site advocated a rational but unpopular position – namely that the SNP, which at the time held the balance of power in the UK parliament, should offer to support Theresa May’s soft-Brexit deal in exchange for the transfer of powers to hold a second independence referendum.
The logic was clear – nothing was ever going to stop Brexit from happening, but passing May’s deal would save the UK from the catastrophe of a no-deal. Everyone would be a winner – England and Wales would get what they voted for, Remain-voting Northern Ireland would get special terms that kept it in the EU in all but name, and Scotland would get the chance to stay in the EU as an independent nation.
“But no!”, everyone screamed at us. “We can’t possibly do any sort of deal with the Tories or we’d be electorally crucified and lose the referendum, you idiots!”
Record scratch, jump-cut to the present day.
[Pause for long, weary sigh.]
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Tags: toldyouso
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analysis, history, scottish politics
From 2016 (and another classic in the “missing words” category).
We were keen to read the article, obviously.
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comment, history, scottish politics
Chilling indeed, 1992 Sunday Times. Chilling indeed.
Tags: from the archives
Category
culture, history, media, scottish politics, uk politics
We were looking for something else this afternoon, but accidentally found this:
Just two weeks before the last Holyrood election, widely-respected analysts Weber Shandwick had put together a prediction of how the results would pan out. Just for a bit of fun, let’s compare it to the reality.
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Tags: and finally
Category
analysis, comment, history, scottish politics, video
We were rummaging around semi-aimlessly in the vaults last night, readers, and we were rather startled to come across this:
Shows what YOU lot know, eh?
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Tags: from the archivespoll
Category
comment, history, scottish politics
BBC Scotland, then and now.
We’re pretty sure they used the same “separating rival groups” phrasing at Tianenmen Square too, but we’d have to go and check. Meanwhile, here’s what really happened.
Category
comment, history, media, scottish politics
We’ve noticed a fair few Unionists this week proudly claiming that an independent Scotland would have been too broke to survive the coronavirus pandemic. They might not listen to our many and comprehensive rebuttals, but maybe they’d heed the words of Tony Blair, from way back in October 1987:
The sliding doors of history, there, readers. When Unionists tell you Scotland is feeble, remember who made it that way, and never forget how it could have been.
Tags: from the archives
Category
comment, history, scottish politics, uk politics
We thought readers might be interested in a small update on yesterday’s post. As we told you, Graham Shields – the Head of Strategic Communications and Engagement at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service who fobbed off our complaint about newspapers enabling the identification of sexual assault accusers – was the editor of the Evening Times until he was let go in December 2017.
Which is just two months after this happened:
So you’d think that if anyone knew what jigsaw identification looked like, he would.
Category
comment, corruption, disturbing, history, investigation, scottish politics
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