It’s hard to keep up with developments in Scottish politics these days, readers. We told you January 2021 was going to be a pivotal and explosive month but there’s been more going on than even we expected, and that’s despite the fact that Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon’s appearances before the Fabiani committee now both look like being pushed back to February.
So our apologies if we have to give some things rather more cursory coverage than they might ordinarily merit, or cram several stories into one post. For example, we’re just going to link you to solicitor advocate Gordon Dangerfield’s appearance yesterday on the Tommy Sheridan podcast, even though he said this non-trivial thing on it:
Sky News had a breaking report tonight about a person they couldn’t name.
Was it The Woman Whose Name You Can’t Say? We couldn’t tell you even if we knew, readers. And we can’t tell you whether we do or not. Sky carefully avoided even saying what sex the person was, and you’d have to be quite an alert viewer to notice any of the hints they dropped in the piece. We’ve said enough. You’re on your own now.
As ever, please do not commit contempt of court in the comments.
This is definitely fine and not at all suspicious.
Geoff Aberdein is the man whose evidence could destroy the First Minister. We know he’s already told the High Court under oath that he had a meeting with Nicola Sturgeon on 29 March 2018 to discuss the Salmond affair.
Which of those accounts is correct will determine whether the First Minister was lying to Parliament deliberately and whether she has to resign under the Ministerial Code.
But now, not only will Aberdein – the single most important figure in the entire inquiry – NOT be called as a witness, but the public will not be allowed to see even a redacted version of his written testimony so that they can judge who’s telling the truth.
What conceivable reason could there be for that? How could either “The meeting was arranged in advance and we talked about the allegations” or “I was in visiting someone else and just popped my head round the door briefly to say hi” ever need to be a state secret the Scottish public mustn’t know? And yet it is.
No cover-up here, folks. All open and transparent and above board. There’s definitely nothing going on that the Scottish Government desperately wants to hide from you. It’s all fine. Ssssshhhh, now. Sssshhhh for Nicola like good little boys and girls. Write another of your nice wee blogs about how Boris Johnson will just give in for no reason and independence is inevitable. But no questions. Definitely no questions.
In addition to the Survation poll that was in the field last week and which we’ve been reporting on, there was also a Panelbase one going round at the same time.
(It’s as yet unpublished, and having been sent a few of the… interesting questions in it by some people who took the poll we’re very excited to find out who commissioned it. Our money is on either George Galloway’s furious new list party – which incidentally just had its registration refused again by the Electoral Commission – or the collection of anonymous hyper-Unionist nutters ironically calling themselves “The Majority”.)
But as the opportunity was there we slipped a couple of questions of our own in too, and the findings from one of them were pretty dramatic.
Because even although it’s part of a transparent attempt from the Record to deflect attention from the many shocking revelations of the last few days around the Salmond affair, it’s still unusual that a newspaper would make a front-page lead out of a claim it knows it can’t provide a single scrap of evidence for.
When we have a rare spare moment, readers, there’s nothing we enjoy more for a bit of fun and relaxation than to fire off a few Freedom Of Information requests.
And just for some variety, last month we sent a couple to the UK Parliament – mainly on behalf of our Number One fan, Pete Wishart MP.
On pain of a grisly death, we’re not allowed to tell our splendid cartoonist Chris Cairns what to draw cartoons about. Artists are funny that way. And it’s a shame, because if we were we’d have a great idea for this weekend’s toon.
Because what’s being demanded of Alex Salmond right now is extraordinary.
During today’s session of the Holyrood inquiry into the botched conspiracy against Alex Salmond, committee MSP Jackie Baillie gave the Permanent Secretary, Leslie Evans, an especially uncomfortable time with some persistent and forensic questions about the Scottish Government’s failure to uphold its legal “duty of candour” in respect of the disclosure of relevant documents to Lord Pentland’s judicial inquiry.
So we have our answer. According to press reports today (although we haven’t seen an actual official reply), John Swinney has refused to formally tell James Hamilton that his inquiry into possible breaches of the Ministerial Code by the First Minister over the Alex Salmond investigation ought to include the matter of whether she repeatedly lied to Parliament about what she knew and when.
Wave goodbye to justice, readers.
Because the First Minister and her deputy are now proven liars and cowards.
We know we’ve given you quite a lot to digest already this year, readers. But spare a thought for us – trying to keep on top of all the fast-moving developments in Scottish politics in the first 11 days of 2021 has been rather like trying to tunnel our way out of an avalanche while it was still happening.
We’ve had a bit of job even finding a spare moment to squeeze the cartoons in. But today’s task looked like one of the most challenging of all.
The freelance journalist, broadcaster and former SNP staffer Mark Hirst was last week acquitted at Jedburgh Sheriff Court, after a very short trial, of a charge of threatening behaviour against the anonymous complainers who made false allegations of sexual misconduct against the former First Minister, Alex Salmond.
Many hundreds of years ago a very different type of law used to operate in Jedburgh, or Jethart as it’s known locally. “Jethart Justice” was once meted out to the Reivers – the lawless cattle stealers and highwaymen who used to range freely in that part of the Borders – which was that the local prosecutors would hang suspects first, then try the dead men afterwards. Some believe it’s where the concept of lynching originated.
Anyone who thinks those days are over doesn’t know the Scottish media.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Poor Example: “Just came across an old paperback in a box of books in the loft. Following is an extract from ‘OUR…” May 11, 01:39
sam on A Poor Example: “https://www.legalfeminist.org.uk/” May 10, 21:17
Hatey McHateface on A Poor Example: “Sure. The white English come in for a lot of stick on here, some of it well deserved too. Defo…” May 10, 21:07
Scot Finlayson on A Poor Example: “The biggest immigrant population in Scotland is white English, nearly 500,000,mostly in Edinburgh,East Lothian and Fife coast, it`s like Spain`s…” May 10, 20:36
Alastair on A Poor Example: “Sorry but I have to challenge you. This is not a poor example… it an exact example of the absolute…” May 10, 20:29
Hatey McHateface on A Poor Example: “I see that nice poot boy has insisted he leads his country in providing an “indestructible barrier against Nazism, Russo…” May 10, 20:28
Hatey McHateface on A Poor Example: “It all starts to make sense if you imagine Mrs Humza is trans. That gets her a bye on all…” May 10, 20:14
Dan on A Poor Example: “Immigration you say? C’mon YS, thought you said you’d been keeping an eye on us lot. Just because you’ve rocked…” May 10, 18:15
Yoon Scum on A Poor Example: “That’s a very English attitude you are showing towards the glory of islam there If you’re a TRUE SCOT then…” May 10, 17:00
twathater on A Poor Example: “If you try to force me to adhere to the laws and regulations LAID DOWN and enforced????? in Scotland and…” May 10, 14:58
Yoon Scum on A Poor Example: “Should Scotland leave the union so we can have completely unlimited immigration? As the biggest driver behind the Reform vote…” May 10, 14:12
Yoon Scum on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “I’m glad to hear that you think we have brilliant apprentices Why aren’t as many interested WELL They can study…” May 10, 13:02
Captain Caveman on A Poor Example: “O/T @RevStu Just read your post over at BEEX, almost choked on my Bran Flakes! Bravo. Haven’t laughed like that…” May 10, 12:47
Dan on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “yoon scum says: at 5:40 am “your post pisses me off and annoys me” Well that’s a result! But most…” May 10, 12:35
Confused on A Poor Example: “relationship advice? this is un-islamic nonsense; I have 30 clerics opinions which tells me Humza can do what he likes,…” May 10, 12:34
Andrea on A Poor Example: “This is what I would have thought. As to discrimination to other men, I can discriminate, say, according to educational…” May 10, 12:26
Cuilean on A Poor Example: “Back to the Humzas original video pitch. The three responses are toe-curlingly sexist, as is the whole scenario depicted. To…” May 10, 12:11
Dave G on A Poor Example: “Many people with skin in the trans game don’t want to understand the ruling and think if they ignore it…” May 10, 11:58
Bilbo on A Poor Example: “It does feel that the only concrete outcome of the ruling has been safeguarding free speech and high profile activities…” May 10, 11:55
agent x on A Poor Example: “https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25146182.humza-yousaf-writes-india-pakistan-leaders-urge-restraint/ 7th May Former first minister Humza Yousaf and former Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar have written to the leaders of…” May 10, 11:46
Owen Mullions on A Poor Example: “Can a concerned neighbour please check on James Kelly on SGP as he seems to have suffered a complete mental…” May 10, 11:04
James Cheyne on A Poor Example: “And I wonder what would happen if 98-% of Scotland refused to vote at local and main elections. And the…” May 10, 10:36
Neil McKenzie on A Poor Example: “Kin hell, 3 answers to st Yer baws” May 10, 10:30
Vivian O’Blivion on A Poor Example: “Five, Westminster voting intention polls conducted with field work exclusively in May. Average results as follows: RefUK 29.8%, Lab 22%…” May 10, 10:21
A2 on A Poor Example: “nah, you just need to make sure it is.” May 10, 10:15
SilentMajority on A Poor Example: “There will no doubt be blatant attempts to ignore or circumvent the law. Hopefully those who have previously been pressured…” May 10, 10:15
aLurker on The Last Thing They’ll Expect: “Hi Stuart MacKay. This seems like an opportunity to ask you how does that ranking actually work? i.e. how do…” May 10, 10:11
James Cheyne on A Poor Example: “Turning the page by broadening the topic, not changing it. The trans topic of corse was not invented in Scotland,…” May 10, 09:02
Bilbo on A Poor Example: “Of course there has been action with highly visible things like women’s sport but it’s becoming plain to see that…” May 10, 08:17
