It seems fair to say that the SNP’s shady, ugly coup d’etwats yesterday hasn’t gone down massively well. Social media was awash in pictures of cut-up membership cards and resignation letters, and some of the most moderate voices in the commentariat also decried the stitch-ups of Joanna Cherry and James Dornan.
The NEC meeting which forced through the new rules was held in secret and nobody knows who was present or who voted for what. Indeed, even the identities of the NEC’s members are largely not public knowledge.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new World Speed-Reading Champion:
Almost 1200 words in 15 seconds is mighty impressive going in anyone’s book. (Either that or it’s REALLY slow for a 12-word tweet.) But we wondered if there might be any other reason why Mrs Angus Robertson wouldn’t want people reading that article.
We’ve just been out for our evening constitutional in the relatively cool night air (Bath sweltered at an oppressive 30C today and Bear Patrol was pretty gruelling), and we thought readers might be interested in what we saw.
The city has observed lockdown with great diligence, as we’ve previously documented, and to be honest we’re not sufficiently familiar with the latest rules to say it wasn’t still doing so tonight. But a nearby park, around 9.30pm, was a disconcerting scene.
We’ve often said on Wings Over Scotland that we really don’t mind if journalists are biased. Everyone is biased, including us – we’d just rather people stopped pretending to be impartial when they weren’t. But what we do really hate about the Scottish media is just how astonishingly bad at its job it is.
A particularly striking example arose recently.
Pretty much every newspaper and broadcaster in the country carried the sad story of former Labour MP Paul Sweeney‘s fall from besuited lawmaker to skint benefits claimant. And yet not a single one of them asked the question that literally every single reader of the story would have been shouting at their screen.
We’ve been fobbed off again with another generic response from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, which again wholly fails to answer our simple and legitimate journalistic question, and to which nobody has been prepared to sign their name.
(We should also note in passing that not a single Scottish newspaper appears to have followed up on the story in that last link except the Sunday National, btw.)
But this one is considerably more disturbing. You can read it below if you want to know what shameless, transparent corruption sounds like.
Our ongoing quest to discover just who is actually willing to take responsibility for the actions of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) with regard to the trial of Alex Salmond and its aftermath took another diversion yesterday when we received a reply from HM Inspectorate of Prosecutions in Scotland.
It had sounded like a promising lead. After all, HMIPS’ apparent purpose is to “inspect the operation” of COPFS, “improve the way COPFS serves the public” and “make COPFS more accountable”, all of which are exactly what we were after.
We’ve received a response from the Scottish Government to our follow-up letter of last week regarding the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. It’s attached below.
With commendable swiftness, we’ve received a reply to our letter of earlier this week to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice. You can read it in full below (click to enlarge).
Sadly, however, it’s precisely the sort of evasion we expected, and it is not acceptable.
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.
It’s now more than a month since this site revealed the widespread breach by a number of Scottish journalists/newspapers – the most prominent being Dani Garavelli of Scotland On Sunday and Tortoise Media – of the legally-protected anonymity of one of the accusers in the Alex Salmond trial.
Until last week we’d had no response from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) beyond an initial acknowledgement, and no action of any kind had apparently been taken against any of the perpetrators, even though the pro-Salmond blogger Craig Murray has been cited for prosecution for allegedly similar breaches.
Alarmingly, all of the information identifying the woman was (and at the time of writing this article is) still publicly available in their articles, exposing her to possible danger. So last week we got in touch with the COPFS to seek clarification.
Andrew Morton on A Long Hard Think: “Obvious, innit? The items in her possession are presumably the ones removed from the charge sheet. As they aren’t the…” Sep 12, 00:28
Lorncal on A Long Hard Think: “Must admit that this is something that I did think about initially, but, now, I don’t care. All I want…” Sep 11, 23:14
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: ““That is the UK Gov taking action because the Scottish Gov will not!” Correct. By far the most significant development…” Sep 11, 21:45
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Michty Fearghas! You’re remarkably hale, hearty and spry for somebody who’s been riddled with bullets. But to be serious for…” Sep 11, 21:34
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on A Long Hard Think: “« Did we dodge a bullet or did we dodge a bullet in 2014. » No, we invited the hail…” Sep 11, 20:57
Chas on A Long Hard Think: “It did not take too long before the crank professor mounted his hobby horse! I said some years ago that,…” Sep 11, 20:24
Alf Baird on A Long Hard Think: ““We’ll be honest with you, readers, we’re at something of a loss for words at this point.” In the Manichaean…” Sep 11, 19:48
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “As things stand, willie, there appears to be £700,000 unaccounted for. In addition, there appears to be items bought with…” Sep 11, 19:14
Frank Gillougley on A Long Hard Think: “Reasoning and law are redundant when used against straightforward brazen and ‘unanswerable to anyone’ corruption. Even this is a waste…” Sep 11, 18:41
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: ““They are busy locking up thousands of pensioners with cardboard signs” Naw. They’re not. You’re busy either lying or fantasising.” Sep 11, 18:38
willie on A Long Hard Think: “Quite honestly can anyone have any faith in the police. As this response shows Police Scotland are absolutely rotten to…” Sep 11, 18:34
PhilM on A Long Hard Think: “The information may not be held by Police Scotland but is it the kind of information that ought to be…” Sep 11, 18:20
Morgatron on A Long Hard Think: “Just bamboozled! Who says crime doesn’t pay. Obviously not her.” Sep 11, 18:19
robertkknight on A Long Hard Think: “Unlike Rev Stu, I am not at a loss for words, namely… Corruption. This sorry excuse for a country, governed…” Sep 11, 17:56
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “For many years many people, myself included, have accused Sturgeon and the SNP of being a Cult who’s agenda is…” Sep 11, 17:55
Spartan 117 on A Long Hard Think: “Anyone surprised? Nope, me neither. This state is rotten.” Sep 11, 17:49
ALANM on A Long Hard Think: ““We broke the law so we’d like to apologise for the inconvenience caused.” All crooks wanting to obtain a get…” Sep 11, 17:44
Ronnie on A Long Hard Think: “Don’t know about the rest of you, but I cannot even look at her anymore.” Sep 11, 17:29
Andy Wiltshire on A Long Hard Think: “Is the image at the top the entirety of what they sent you, Rev? If so it looks like it’s…” Sep 11, 17:25
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “From the perspective of a Right wing fascist who knows the whole barrel is rotten one can only quote a…” Sep 11, 17:21
Ian Smith on A Long Hard Think: “Has any member of the SNP asked the police to track down the items and return them? Can any member…” Sep 11, 17:13
Colin Hope on A Long Hard Think: “Please dont give up on this. Their replies are are getting weaker. If ever there was a need for a…” Sep 11, 17:07
Effijy on A Long Hard Think: “Their next letter will simply state “Computer Says No”. Can the police force become any more pathetic? They don’t know…” Sep 11, 17:06
agentx on A Long Hard Think: ““On Thursday, it emerged that MPs will launch an inquiry into party political funding following the fraud within the SNP.…” Sep 11, 17:03
100%Yes on A Long Hard Think: “Legal hearing on recovering £400k embezzled by Peter Murrell pushed back three months.” Sep 11, 17:01
100%Yes on A Long Hard Think: “We know Peter Murrell was stealing before 2014. Sturgeon met Theresa May and I believe Sturgeon was given two options…” Sep 11, 16:58
100%Yes on A Long Hard Think: “Nicola is being protected why? Because she saved the union, so what John Swinney’s roll in all of this? He’s…” Sep 11, 16:48
agentx on A Long Hard Think: ““if she was half way decent she’d want to divest herself of everything possibly tainted by Murrell’s crimes.” ——————————————– I…” Sep 11, 16:47
gm on A Long Hard Think: “Did the polis recover any of that?” Sep 11, 16:44
