Hiroshima Non Amour
Alert readers will undoubtedly have noticed a number of, to put it mildly, explosive-sounding developments this evening regarding the ongoing inquiries into the Scottish Government’s misconduct over false allegations against Alex Salmond.
Several reports have quoted extracts from the former First Minister’s submission to James Hamilton, who’s investigating the current First Minister over possible breaches of the Ministerial Code relating to the investigation of the allegations.
The submission – delivered on Mr Salmond’s birthday – has been widely leaked to the media but only selectively reported, and like others Wings has obtained a full copy.
We are advised that its contents do not contain anything which breaches or potentially breaches Lady Dorrian’s court order protecting the identities of the complainers against Mr Salmond, and as such there are no barriers to us publishing the entire document in the public interest, because its contents make some extremely grave and disturbing allegations against the current First Minister.
We therefore do so below.
NOTE: the document is unedited except that this site has highlighted in red a few passages which readers may find to be of particular interest, and we have also made a single redaction as an extra precaution against any inadvertent identification.
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It’s been impossible not to notice on social media tonight a significant number of SNP supporters and activists loyal to Nicola Sturgeon expressing their fury at Mr Salmond’s submission (despite having read only a few paragraphs from it). It’s less clear on what grounds they’re angry.
The submission was provided at the repeated urging of James Hamilton, the officer charged with investigating the First Minister’s conduct. Was Mr Salmond supposed to obstruct this inquiry into the most serious matter imaginable by not complying with Mr Hamilton’s requests? Or was he supposed simply to lie, or to suffer a convenient lapse of memory like almost everyone who has appeared in front of the Holyrood inquiry, all to protect someone who’d tried to have him put in prison for crimes he didn’t commit and who issued the most disgraceful statement this evening when the story broke?
(Curiously the Times attributed the quote to a “spokesman” while the BBC cited it as coming from a “spokeswoman”. ITV went with both. Someone’s getting misgendered somewhere, which in Scotland is of course now the most heinous crime of all.)
Alex Salmond did not file malicious false allegations against himself. He also didn’t massively bungle an investigation into those allegations, nor instigate a vast police operation at enormous expense which culminated in his total acquittal on all charges. He did not establish either the James Hamilton inquiry or the Holyrood one, and he – seemingly alone – has not attempted to withhold evidence from them. We have reason to have absolute confidence that the submission can and will be corroborated beyond any possibility of doubt.
Telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is an old-fashioned approach. It is one this site endorses without reservation. Let the facts be revealed, and let the chips fall where they may.
Yikes!
I just got banned from Tesco’s for clearing the shelves of popcorn. Apparently, it’s not in the spirit of the current pandemic to be hoarding essentials!
To be fair Rev, you’ve been calling this for a long time.
It’s is going to put a bomb under the May election.
Yikes! Plus VAT @30%
What a nest of voters we once idolised! (Scotgov)
This is going to make that Parcel of Rogues mob look like real patriots.
I’m seeing the NS fans unable to accept that she did anything wrong and even one suggesting that Peter Murrell is the bad boy, not her.
You are going to have an interesting few months ahead of you Stu.
I would love to see Sturgeon fall over this. It is clear to all that Salmond will not be holding back.
Who’s kicked out of power first?….Trump or Sturgeon?
Man alive…
Ye can actually feel it.
Big Eck has had two years to weigh up all the probable moves.
And he has talented, committed, loyal people behind him who are as media-savvy as any. We can be sure this is all unfolding as it was meant to – sometimes you just want to sit back and observe something being done really really well, like gymnastics or knitting, that kind of thing…
Wow! That statement from the FM is an absolute disgrace. I’d like to say I’m shocked but I’m not.
Who’s kicked out of power first?….Trump or Sturgeon?
Anyone else think the timing is all geared to blow the SNP out of the water pre-May election and get a new party to vote for?
Or is that too optimistic?
Oh dear, I smell a rat or maybe a pile of BS
Sturgeon, in that statement, launches another vicious ad hominem against Salmond, instead of confining it to the question of whether she broke the ministerial code. Nae class and nae integrity.
I wonder when Mr Salmond is going to insist on, or instigate proceedings for, a proper legal, with full powers, judge-led inquiry? We need to stop pussy-footing round this crackpot – for let’s face it, she’s right beyond the edge of normality.
Oooft.
Best served cold, right enough.
Helicopter booked for the roof of Bute House?
P @10.27pm
“Peter Murrell is the bad boy”
I’m sure that has been investigated as a fall back position, however events are running away with them.
I wonder if the bags are being packed in Bute House as we speak?
“one suggesting that Peter Murrell is the bad boy”
Ah, the classic, “A big boy did it an’ ran away” defence…
An apprentice is no match for a master craftsman. Salmond retains his mantle of the best politician Scotland has ever produced. It’s in the detail. I just wish someone could persuade him to return to public life and sort this mess out.
Okay hands-up – who else sussed that the red bits were the dug’s rear wheels and skipped to them?!
My better half was asking why this was on the news only now when I’ve known about it for months…
Major bow to you Rev., I really do wish yourself and Alex would at some point be able to release all information you hold, let’s get this sorted
I’ve only skimmed through it Stuart, but this looks like it may well be the smoking gun we have all been hoping for.
I see a few mentions of the Daily Record. Let us see if we can join the dots:
Daily Record…Architect of the Vow…leaked information from high office…appointed as spin doctor to the SNP…
So she not only broke the ministerial code once but twice. she surely can’t survive this and if somehow she does then things are even worse than we thought.
It’s going to be a really interesting few months ahead.
Tossing, and turning at Bute house ce soir.
Turn the heating up Frank!
Another Frank had a catchphrase
“And there’s moar”
When you come to the King, you best not miss.
The roots of this issue lie in a p!ot to use complaints for political advantage and put Alex in jail for years. Discredited,shamed and unable to join politics.
Shameful. Indefensible and probably illegal.
She and her Chief of Staff must go now.
Liars.
Ah… Well… For me the worst part isn’t in red…it’s from #34
‘I did not know how the Scottish Government was dealing with the complaint, I did not know how the Scottish Government intended to deal with the complaint and I did not make any effort to find out how the Scottish Government was dealing with the complaint or to intervene in how the Scottish Government was dealing with the complaint.’
I think we now know every sentence of that to be untrue. The FM was in from the beginning of the new policy… Was informed by Ms Evans of its development… Was in touch with ScotGov throughout… A d sent messages to them regarding the intention of AS to take ScotGov to court.
It may still be possible to wrap your mind round this and come away thinking everything was done correctly… But I can’t see it myself.
Am very worried about the attack on the Yes movement… This is sheer genius.
Great to see WOS still at the top of its game doing what all the rest can only dream about, bringing us the truth warts and all.
THIS is the bang you get for your buck on Wings Over Scotland. Elsewhere? Crowdfunders for polls!
Jings
whit a belter
So have we in the Scottish Parliament that can replace her?
The timing may be in order to allow a fairly orderly transition so that the May election campaign concentrates on independence.
Something had to be done – I think a private threat of resignation by a handful of MSPs/MPs could have done the trick, allowing for an orderly, managed transition, but time is running out and it is clear that insufficient Parliamentarians were ready to do this.
So Mr Salmond has stepped up from a sense of loyalty and decency for the sake of Scotland and the bulk of the membership because the threat to our wellbeing is too great from the UK and from an increasingly incompetent Scottish Government.
I feel a weight off my shoulders. Someone has taken on the responsibility of trying to rescue us from evil.
This should up the blink rate (though not by much since it was already near the limit of what’s humanly possible).
Here’s one to ask a price for:
NS waits until AS gives his evidence, then refuses to appear (citing legal reasons which will take years to settle), then appeals to the nation to allow her to lead us through the final stages of this pandemic – she pledges not to remain as FM after the May election, but will leave her successor steady ground from which to launch the final bid to gain Scottish independence!
*crowd cheering wildly gif here*
That would give all existing SNP high-heid yins ample time for thought – a lot of chunky salaries and pensions on the line.
Before long, everyone who nears the Murrells will behave as if the First Minister and Her Husband had something a lot nastier than you-know-what.
Ian Brotherhood says: at 10:49 pm
“Helicopter booked for the roof of Bute House?”
Helicopter seems excessive… what with her imposing lockdown and not being allowed to leave your local authority area!
#TAXI
@ Saffron
Re. DR – This might interest you for another read.
link to wingsoverscotland.com
OOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFTTTTTT. Mr Salmond didnae miss.
I think I would advise a number of key holyrood staff to start having porridge for breakfast. To prepare them for the future.
We have no police action over prince Charles breaking covid rules
We have no police action over Tory doners breaking rules
We have police spending years investigating AS
We have police teams focusing on Keetings and Murray
We have police Scotland charging Ferries when the Met dropped it
What the F…. is police Scotland on Drugs???
Thanks for taking the decision to publish this statement from Alex, Stuart. The truth will always out!
35 is a CLASSIC. Aboot time the reign ay the twelve-grand-a-year-office-girl, anti-intellectual, wannabe-yank misandrists wis brought tae a permanent vengeful close. CANNAE WAIT. Dinnae miss these braindead clowns n hit the waw, Alex. OAN YERSEL BIG MAN. RED THE LOT AY THUM. THIR LONG OVERDUE IT.
Rev Stu,
Great stuff yet again. Just for the record, with the headline are you going with the Alcatrazz track or the Italian Goth band?
If Sturgeon’s been trying to read one of her precious novels the nicht I doubt she’s been able to concentrate on it.
For the First Minister, a lawyer to bring up charges which AS was completely exonerated on is unconscionable. Further I would be tempted to make a complaint to the law society that not accepting a court and jury jjudgement of innocence is unbecoming in a member of the legal profession.
Except I doubt she is still registered as a lawyer, precisely to avoid such regulation and embarrassment. I would be astonished to learn she still was on that basis. Not too astonished to then pen said complaint forthwith.
I don’t think many people understand the injustice or gravity of the situation that AS found himself in. They seem to believe that having been acquitted he should just shut up and go away as it damages Independence prospects.
What this highlights is that the judgement and, more importantly the motives, of, Nicola Sturgeon, in charge of making most of the important decisions in the SNP and Scottish Government, is questionable in many areas.
Yes, the meetings should have been recorded accurately and that is a substantive point that the Tories will latch on to but also what was what was said during those meetings, the ‘helpful’ suggestions, seem so duplicitous, para 27 in particular :
“She urged me to submit a substantive rebuttal of the specific complaints against me, suggested that the general complaints already answered were of little consequence and would be dismissed, and then assured me that my submission would be judged fairly” and this it transpires was meant to further trap him rather than help.
Thank God he recorded and followed everything up. Mark McDonald was not as lucky.
If you add in the Mark Hirst had no case to answer and very quickly at that a case may be argued that the justice system in Scotland is being misused to settle political scores. Or rather to attempt to settle them. So far the record has not been good for the authorities.
#ResignSturgeon now trending 3rd on Twitter Scotland.
Eck hooks himself a sturgeon and is now reeling it in.
@Oneliner says:
8 January, 2021 at 11:06 pm
Rev Stu,
Great stuff yet again. Just for the record, with the headline are you going with the Alcatrazz track or the Italian Goth band?
Or – with a slight misspelling – Ultravox!?
Ta Ta you silly woman, now lets hope we can get somebody decent to vote for, and a party worth voting at last
As my granny would say “” the suppurating boil has just been lanced “ LOL .
Here’s freedom to them that wad read,
Here’s freedom to them that wad write!
There’s nane ever fear’d that the truth should be heard,
But they whom the truth would indite.
Rabbie Burns
To quote one blog post. “He has shown himself to be a vindictive little shit”.
Actually he has shown he is the true master of his craft.
He has shown himself innocent.
He has shown Sturgeon for what she is.
There is no vindictiveness in Alex. Just a dangerous opponent to try and frame and walk away scot free.
Please, please, please can we rid ourselves of private education, millionaire privilege boy- humza useless and the stasi bill.
I said this on the previous thread. I see humza has taken nicola’s side and accused Salmond of lying. So it looks likely that he’s going to be toast. Hurrah !
I doubt anyone will be daft enough or have an ego big enough to resurrect his stasi bill. Double Hurrah!
Repeating the same smears and allegations in her retort. Absolutely scandalous. I want her gone ASAP.
Anybody that believes Alex Salmond is to blame for the predicament that Nicola Sturgeon and her entourage find themselves in needs their head examined by a mechanic with a massive spanner.
They have managed to create this clusterfuck all by themselves.
Now the Sturgeonistas have to blame Alex, Wings or anyone else or admit they’ve been bloody fools.
I’m guessing most will opt for the former rather than the latter.
Very sure there will be a huge write up about this in The National tomorrow – full details and loads of journalistic analysis. Pages and pages of it.
And comments open of course.
Aye right …
Hear hear Mr Salmond, hear hear.
“He has shown himself to be a vindictive little shit””
Which dicksplash was that?
I can smell toast…
Bob Mack, agreed. I believe AS has no legal representation for the Hamilton inquiry. So I assume the words above are entirely his own. It reads to me like something he really didn’t want to write. That man has been through so much and it seems he doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body. How many of us could say the same if we were in his shoes?
I have to agree that statement issued from camp Sturgeon is a fucking disgrace.
And with that goes Independence in everyone’s lifetime. The Unionists have won.
Let’s not forget –
Certain sectors of our progressive, right-on, PPP/PFI-loving society would’ve had actual house parties to celebrate the jailing of someone who they knew – for certain if not via tittle-tattle – was innocent.
Those people are, unfortunately, a part of ‘Scotland’, and it just so happens that they own and maintain each and every part which is of any monetary or strategic value.
They are being exposed, right now, but not everyone will see them. It’s our job to make sure what happens next is as well-documented as possible.
@ Rev: thank you, yet again, for exposing the truth, yet again.
Also.
Hear hear Mr Campbell, hear hear.
@ stephen: the Yes movement has always been bigger than the SNP and has always been kept at further than arms length by the SNP. A change in the “leadership” of the SNP can only be a good thing – the new people will be far more Yes oriented.
Stephen @ 11:32pm, why do you think the unionists have won? This has been a bloody awful period in Scotland’s history but now the citizens of Scotland who believe in independence have a chance to grasp the prize. That was never going to happen under a Sturgeon administration.
I’m not saying it will be easy. There are roadblocks, not least with Brexit fallout. But the chance is there and it is incumbent upon those who seek independence to shape a movement that will succeed.
@stu comments section wgd. I should have clarified.
It feels as though there’s something still missing from the big picture. I might be a bit slow in seeing what it is, it’s as though the Murrells decided one day to go full banzai on Salmond and to hell with the consequences. I don’t think it can be to do with him just potentially being future competition for the CEO role. Does it overlap with anything with the initials S.I. ?
Have to say, the response from the First Minister’s spokesperson/man/woman is the most telling thing. It’s weasel worded. That it accuses Salmond in his statement of trying to divert attention, is an irony which won’t be missed by many.
What a mess though. What an absolute abominable mess.
I forecast we will now find the my Party, Right or Wrong Brigade all in uproar of the timing of this forgetting it was them who have been resisting dealing with this since the day the trial finished.
It was them that have determined this timing. Equally the last few weeks have seen their defence move from Nobody did anything wrong to Ok, maybe there was a plot but it’s too near the election to do anything about it. That is the problem when you try to bury the truth, it becomes increasingly difficult to do and sooner or later the truth first leaks then explodes washing the spurious efforts to hide and deny the evil plot away.
Nicola’s statement gives the game away, another cheap shot at trying to discredit Alex Salmond, no attempt to defend the allegations in his submission just more smear against the man who had every allegation against him thrown out.
Stephen@11.32pm
Independence based on lies and putting a man in prison on trumped up charges?
Worthless.
If you set out to commit regicide, be very sure that you do not miss!
Dear Oh Dear.
I’m afraid someone has allowed their Identity Politics predilections to over-rule rational thought, and simple prudence.
Such a person is unfit for high office – or indeed, any office
That wee jolly to the US when a certain spad and a certaun journo allegedly hooked-up…..bet they wish we didnae jen aboot it ?
Bob Mack, you are guilty of spreading Fake News!!!!!!
The comment was actually “he shows himself up to be a petty vindicative little shit.” (Eilidh at 10:52pm today on WGD.)
I am now full of hope …….and beer.
Looking forward to grousebeaters essay at midnight.
Thank you Mr Salmond. Indyref2 has just moved forward a whole lot.
SNP posting. the old “when did you stop beating your wife” gambit.
Theyv. know now time is running out
The really curious, and daft, thing about this situation is that Alex Salmond bent over backwards in order to give Nicola ways out of the mess she was getting herself into. In order to prevent damage to the SNP and Scotland. One can only wonder what was going on in her head that she spurned those offers, the legal advice she was given, and common sense and made her government look vindictive, stupid and incompetent, costing the Scots taxpayers a fortune in the process. And despite all that, continued an obviously very flawed process, to further humiliation. And to top it all, she implies Salmond is still ‘guilty’ and trying to cover up something. He has been found not guilty, and therefore has nothing to cover up.
You can only wonder at the Greek tragedy of it all, overreach and hubris in someone who was in a very powerful position, unchallenged, yet chose an entirely unnecessary path which is leading to her destruction. All self-inflicted.
A check on the Holyrood Parliament website indicates there are seven current members of the Harassment Committee (three SNP, and four from other parties), plus the Convener (SNP) and Deputy Convener (Tory). Also listed are ‘Past Members in the Current Session’: Angela Constance (SNP) and Donald Cameron (Tory). (Not sure what ‘Past Members’ indicates; gone for good, or just leave of absence? And does it matter?) There is also a heading ‘Substitute Members’ but with no-one listed.
If the committee ultimately splits along party lines, and without abstentions or absences, the opposition parties have the numbers over any ultra-Nicola loyalists on the committee. Given what members of the committee already know, and have publicly aired opinions about, can the committee’s ultimate findings be in any doubt, even if just by simple majority?
But if the ‘look’ ultimately is bad enough for Nicola, isn’t it more likely that one or more SNP members could at least abstain on the final outcome?
So, assuming the committee accepts evidence of SNP and Scot Govt political corruption at the heart of all this, and that increasingly seems irrefutable, isn’t the outcome certain; Nicola’s days as FM are coming to a close ..?
The behaviour of Sturgeon is now being laid bare for everyone to see. What was suspicion, allegation, has now been laid bare.
Would anyone truly vote for someone like this.
Thank you Rev for publishing. The true spirit of those who support independence is coming through. People’s eyes have been opened to the foul corruption that sits at the heart of the treacherous who sit in government.
Let us clear the sty now and get on with what we need to do.
@Skipnc,
Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.
Years from now, veteran indy supporters will stay up late in the night, asking each other, ‘Where were you when Grousebeater’s essay was published?’
@ Ian Brotherhood 11.00pm
I’m thinking Alex will lace his evidence with a lot of information that would hurt Nicola if she didn’t respond.
I’m more interested in the fact that Alex would not choose to push this avenue personally if he did not think it time that Nicola should be resolved of the FM and SNP head post. I also think he would not push this avenue if he could not back it up fully.
Aherm!
#ResignSturgeon now trending No 2.
O)
If the Murrells are as passionate and committed to Scotland’s cause as Alex Salmond, they will of course both resign, offering diplomatic reasons to stymie any further damage or scandal, and let the SNP have a clean break with a new heirarchy in good time before the election. Nicola should resign and keep her public reputation intact, realising that is the best course of action for the far more important interests of Scotland and independence.
Am relieved that it is Mr. Salmond and not Ruth Davidson et al in the vanguard of the removal of Ms Sturgeon.
(New here and slow to comment; but fear all along has been that unionists get to be in charge of the timing, which would be a complete disaster in my view.)
When will or if Geoff Aberdein/Liz Lloyd give evidence? I haven’t seen them earmarked yet?
Lest anyone think colonial oppression is not the motivation for national liberation, this tale is highly illustrative. As Memmi noted: “A day necessarily comes when the colonized lifts his head and topples the always unstable equilibrium of colonization”. That day seems ever closer now.
Well done Rev Stu, and Alex Salmond.
stephen says:
8 January, 2021 at 11:32 pm
“And with that goes Independence in everyone’s lifetime. The Unionists have won.”
When you prune the dead leaves from a plant, the plant concentrates its energy on the healthy leaves and new growth.
‘Frank, get the door…!’
Sturgeon has to go. She is unfit to lead the SNP and she is unfit to be FM of Scotland.
Right on target Stuart.
As ever.
Ian b
Nothing doing yet!
He’s probably busy making a cuppa for the ‘Special duties’ officers who chapped earlier.
I’m not Defo sure
You can just imagine them frantically running around looking for a smother story or a crisis they can bring forward.
Maybe they’ll launch an independence campaign or something like that?
Very little in here that we didn’t know about before but this is nuclear, as I understand it;
“She urged me to submit a substantive rebuttal of the specific complaints against me, suggested that the general complaints already answered were of little consequence and would be dismissed, and then assured me that my submission would be judged fairly.
She told me I would receive a letter from the Permanent Secretary offering me further time to submit such a rebuttal which duly arrived later that day.”
The implications of this are huge and damning, not just for the FM but for the Permanent Sec. and civil service. For the first time in this case we have someone going on the record with testimony suggesting a conspiracy involving the FM, Government, and Civil Service.
@Stephen you obviously haven’t been paying much attention if you believe NS has/had any intention whatsoever of calling indyref2. She would have asked for an S30 post May. Johnson would have said “over my dead body” cue a shrug of the shoulders after much huffing and puffing. Rinse and repeat. She should be called the perpetual carrot.
That’s an excellent blog, Stuart.
“… I also think he would not push this avenue if he could not back it up fully…”
Of course not; he’s circumspect. I think that the ducks are now aligned, though…
Needs to be outed. Wont change a thing with my vote I’m yes don’t care what politician leading the SNP . Independence is all that matters
Liz Lloyds ‘s role in this must be scrutinized in every way possible.
Grousebeater’s post is up:
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
NS going will,boost our chances of independence. Nothing was ever going to change when she was leader. Things can move quickly now
I hope this is the end of the road for the Poundshop Ceaucescus. Good riddance.
“Telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is an old-fashioned approach.”
That is the most important line in the whole article.
It’s strange how words can have a ring of truth about them. Mr Salmond’s words chime with clarity, honesty and integrity.
Thanks a million for the full text Mr Wings: We all owe you …
@TruthForDummies says:
9 January, 2021 at 12:48 am
“NS going will, boost our chances of independence. Nothing was ever going to change when she was leader. Things can move quickly now”
I’d be careful about that assumption. No one knows how the voting public are going to react. I’d wait until the dust has settled down a bit to see how things are.
In a Procedure that she proudly and adamantly claimed to have no role in;
“27. On 18th July 2018 the First Minister phoned me at 13.05 to say that arbitration had been rejected and suggested that this was on the advice of the Law Officers. She urged me to submit a substantive rebuttal of the specific complaints against me, suggested that the general complaints already answered were of little consequence and would be dismissed, and then assured me that my submission would be judged fairly.
“She told me I would receive a letter from the Permanent Secretary offering me further time to submit such a rebuttal which duly arrived later that day.”
Some questions for the FM;
1) how did she know arbitration had been rejected if she wasn’t involved?
2) why did she suggest the complaints would be dismissed?
3) in what capacity and on what basis is she making assurances as to how submissions would be received?
4) how did she know the former first minister would soon receive a letter offering more time to submit a rebuttal?
I repeat, Sturgeon wasn’t supposed to be involved in any of this according to the new Procedure. It looks like she was very involved to me.
@ Tom at 11.50
Angela Constance had to stand down from the committee when she was made a minister recently (after Joe Fitzpatrick resigned/was sacked).
I have no idea why Donald Cameron departed.
I mean I want Nicola to go and most on this site seem to think this will be enough to make it happen (hopefully) but will it bareing in mind the corruption at the top of this administration.
In the event of breaching the ministerial code, resignation must be offered.
Must that offer be accepted?
Thanks for this rev.
Sturgeon should go to prison.
When the talk of charges being made against AS were first mooted, I – unusually for me- swore out loud. I then looked at a framed picture of AS and me, taken at some “,Asians For Independence” dinner in Glasgow’ Southside,which is on the wall behind my desk, in my office.
On my desk is a page-a-day calendar with a daily quote. That day’s epigram by the writer and environmentalist, Edward Abbey read:
‘A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
How true!
My modest contribution here: link to wp.me
Words you might hear shortly from Mr Hamilton, or a fair few other lips…
‘Given this new evidence ‘ and ‘in the public domain ‘.
One more push should get her going.
I know that a lot of fuckwits post on Twitter, but anyone who thinks this issue will be sorted cleanly better have a look at the trends “salmond” and “#resignSturgeon”.
Getting very, very messy.
I just noticed that letter from AS was dated 31st Dec. Happy New Year not Mrs Murrel.
Attn GROUSEBEATER.
Can you send me your email.
Iain
Alex isn’t holding back. Let’s get this boil lanced now, scrap the Murrells, Yousaf and the wokus dei and get reality and independence back on the front foot.
Spot on Beaker. If anyone on here thinks that NS will be gone, a new leader elected (with any profile whatsoever – with the best will in the world the general public have no idea who Cherry, Whitford etc are) and this matter put to bed in time to win the May election they are completely deluded. This could easily lead to an electoral disaster and at least 5 years of unionist government during which time any chance of Indy will be completely eliminated. I’m not saying the NS shouldn’t go over this however it really is a case of be careful what you wish for.
“Spot on Beaker. If anyone on here thinks that NS will be gone, a new leader elected (with any profile whatsoever – with the best will in the world the general public have no idea who Cherry, Whitford etc are) and this matter put to bed in time to win the May election they are completely deluded. This could easily lead to an electoral disaster and at least 5 years of unionist government during which time any chance of Indy will be completely eliminated. I’m not saying the NS shouldn’t go over this however it really is a case of be careful what you wish for.”
Don’t be daft. Stuff like this can damage a political party if it’s badly handled – and BOY is it being badly handled – but it can’t damage them to tune of 35 POINTS in the polls, which is how far ahead the SNP are.
Agree with that, Susan….
The Sturgeon statement above is, as Rev Stu suggests, utterly disgraceful. It’s the sort of disgraceful that demands you read it several times. Where do you start?
As for her handling of the pandemic, my God…
And I know there’s a sort of diabolical funny side to the ring-fenced funds scandal, but a lot of poor people put money into that fund, money that they worked hard for, money that they could have spent on their grand children, kids, etc…
Come on. This is mental.
Hatuey says:
9 January, 2021 at 3:01 am
Agree with that, Susan….
“The Sturgeon statement above is, as Rev Stu suggests, utterly disgraceful. It’s the sort of disgraceful that demands you read it several times. Where do you start?”
Hopefully with a set of handcuffs at some point.
She needs to go!
Let’s take the route of the stress of Covid has had an impact on her health
and she feels another now must lead the party to independence.
Hold hands with her hubby out the door and payroll.
I’m very suspicious of U.K. media who make mountains out of
Minuscule mole hills not plastering this everywhere.
Has she been compromised and in Westminster’s pocket?
Very foolish and inconceivable actions of her own doing.
The piper must be paid now or as soon as the vaccines show her Covid work is almost done.
stephen says:
8 January, 2021 at 11:32 pm
If you’re right, and I hope you’re not, there are specific individuals who are entirely to blame.
And AS ain’t one of them.
I propose shooting the messenger should become the new national sport for Scotland if the comments on social media are anything to go by. Just because you do not happen to like a person or a website does not make them wrong . Some are refusing to read the above submission in full because it is on the vile website of that nasty man who swears a lot. Talk about seekers of the truth. The above post and some of the recent Craig Murray information once again show what a corrupt mess the entire case against the former first minister was and the central role two of the alphabet sisters had in driving the bus.
Nicola and her proud boys are not painting a pretty picture. We are meant to abide by legal decisions, not hound the proven innocent.
My admiration for Alex Salmond has increased 50 fold. I would’ve pit the heid on her by now.
.
Well done Stuart.
Thankyou Alex.
For years it has been torture reading the intercinine wars on Wings Over Scotland as the genuinely loyal Sturgeon supporters were in denial. Even Stuart proclaimed he hoped the suspicions about Sturgeon were untrue.
Wings is now looking like getting clean of the McWokeist Sturgeonite shysters and dare I say it, get back to the pre-Sturgeon work of ensuring IndyRef2 happens.
A huge amount of time and energy has been consumed by the Odd Couple currently heading the McWoke SNP.
Soon Sturgeon will be gone. We just need to look at Donald Trump to see how far and fast powerful people fall when they are found out to be dissembling creeps who lie to the electorate for their own personal gain and the aggrandisement of office as First Minister whilst accepting vast amounts of Short Money from the Tory opposition in the manner of Cosy Feet Pete Wetfart.
Thank goodness Alex Salmond has now been able to speak truth to power and Stuart has now placed this crucial information into the public domain. Both very brave men.
As for the Dreghorn Disaster, in my opinion with credentials as a law officer and much training to arrest crooks and prepare solid cases for the procurators fiscal, we had particular training in studying the body language of an alleged lying miscreant.
Increased blink rate was major red flag to signal you may have a deceitful lying craphound in front of you.
If I were to ask YOU what name comes to mind when I mention politicians who appear on television with very noticeable increase in blink rate during an uncomfortable interview, what name comes into your mind?
Methinks Blinky McBlinkface is facing some serious questions, likely under police caution if she or Shitey McShitepants on fire don’t get better aleebees than they already have.
Yes they do need an alleeebee.
This oldie but goodie may bring a smile to your day today…
link to m.youtube.com
Alphabet Mother Nicola Sturgeon draws up her shitey court case just before it falls apart like tissue paper in the rain (Valeria Solanas was a radical feminist lunatic who shot Andy Warhol):
link to m.youtube.com
Thankyou for standing by Alex in his hour of need and for doing all that you do for the cause of indy.
I am always left thinking “How in gods name does he do it”
Words in the right order and context all provided with appropriate links. Bloody brilliant mate. Thankyou
That document confirms what we here, for the most part, had already concluded…
Sturgeon is either duplicitous or incompetent, but in either case is wholly unfit for office.
The sooner she is gone the better.
If James Hamilton declines, in the face of Salmond’s response, to broaden his initial remit as defined by Swinney then we’ll know exactly what sort of Scotland the SNP want to create, and I for one will have no part in it.
I haven’t spent nearly four decades trying to actively bring about the creation of a Banana Republic.
How grateful the FM must be for Covid. Her handling of the health crisis, or, at least, her communication of her handling of the health crisis, may allow her to go with a few remnants of her reputation intact. (Unlike her husband who has failed abysmally in his function as arse coverer.)
In my opinion if the net and principal result of anonymity for the complainers is the facilitation of perjury and the obfuscation of a conspiracy at the highest levels of government to commit serious wrong doing and to mislead parliament and the people there exists legitimate grounds for a challenge in the courts to the anonymity. I am actually surprised that there has not been a Peter Haines moment over it, which view is not intended to provoke one.
She was always the B side to Alex’s A ROCK Wrok
I guess Leslie Evans has by now made the phone call to her London handlers to say that like Daniel Defoe in 1708:
“My work here is done”.
@Derek @10h49
“A big boy did it an’ ran away”
Don’t think your man Murrell looks like much of a runner
Money and power can go to your head, she is also a dictator. Scotland best rid before she has any real power with Independence.
In these very dark times on Johnson’s Plague Island it is such an enormous relief to see some long-concealed truths emerge into the light. Thank you Rev, and AS.
But how long before the much reinforced “UK Government in Scotland” declares that everything: SNP, Civil Service, COPFS (malicious prosecutions & “no case to answer”), Police Scotland,SNHS, the whole economy, is under such Plague strain or so out of control and/or actually corrupt, that power simply has to be taken back at a time of national emergency?
They will claim Scotland is obviously not fit to govern itself, the Holyrood experiment has proved that. And the fact that the Westminster crime syndicate is far far worse can be ignored, because they have an 80-seat majority and do whatever they like.
If this is the Fall of the House of Murrell, how can independence be rescued from the ruins and from Westminster & Yoon party opportunism? What is the constitutional route to rebuilding in the midst of a lockdown emergency? Who is equal to (and enfranchised for) the task?
Just caught up and cannot let this go uncommented although I have nothing of substance to add.
Thank you Alex…I have been waiting a long time to see this, and I look forwards to the rest!
Thank you WoS and all its supporters.
Thanks for publishing this Stuart – I was struggling to find the source of the reports, a no wonder when it’s a ‘leak’.
Nice clear timeline from Mr Salmond, setting out who discussed what when, and who the witnesses were.
Looking at the response from Nicola Sturgeon, where it says ‘he continues to divert focus’ from the complaints themselves – honestly, everything that comes out of the Scottish Government these days just causes an extreme form of cognitive dissonance, it’s difficult to even comment on their output – but, let’s take this at face value, they are claiming that Alex Salmond directly addressing the issue of a ministerial code breach to a ministerial code inquiry is diverting attention. Eh?
I mean, Nicola Sturgeon referred herself to an inquiry, and it’s looking solely at her behaviour with regard to the ministerial code – what part of that is directly related to the complaints themselves? The FM has issued a statement that accuses Alex Salmond of doing something that they immediately do so within that statement (diverting focus from the ministerial code breach by mentioning the complaints,,,).
Do people really still trust the First Minister when this is the sort of stuff she comes out with? Really does leave a bad taste.
oh…and shame on you Nicola Sturgeon for the statement you released, still trying to condemn an innocent man.
Brilliant Stuart, as ever and heartfelt thanks and gratitude for all that you do, on our behalf. There it is again, from Nicola Sturgeon, in her spokesman’s response, the dictatorial command, the smugness and condescension that constitute the tone of every narcissist. She is a barefaced liar. Her disgraceful, vindictive and monstrous behaviour towards Alex Salmond is now there for all to see. Her attempts to stitch up Alex were and are indefensible.
Like many others, I am curious as to her motives. She doesn’t need one. She is a sociopath. She and her cabal of crooks and sycophants want power so badly they make a conscious choice to embrace evil. The stench is overwhelming. Their extreme sense of entitlement and utter disregard for Alex’s feelings and suffering says it all. Their blatant abuse of power has caused untold damage and distress and they have brought shame and disgrace to the office of First Minister and the Scottish Parliament. They have done so without reservation.
They have lost the battle and the war and are now unelectable for those of us fighting the good fight Bravo Stuart and Alex. You give me hope in these dark times.
I think there’s more to come from Alex. this is only his opening salvo.
Sturgeon knows she’s in trouble her response proves that, still clinging to to the Alex admitted to inappropriate behavior, and how poor St Nicola is fighting the pandemic mantra, it’s all shes got and it’s not gonna be enough, the sooner she stands down the better for everyone including herself.
Alex is due to appear at the Parliamentary committee next week, hopefully he’ll finish her off then
As for the FM’s Spokesgender’s appalling, malicious, diversionary attempt to find AS guilty yet again, BBC Radio last night went along with it at first, helping spread the defamatory implication, but seemed to become more circumspect as time went on. Maybe a lawyer had a word.
It never, never pays to lie.
Once you tell one lie, you’ll need to tell two more to corroborate the first.
And four more to hold up the other three.
And so on, in a spiral of deceit that entangles around your neck.
At some point, the whole house of cards falls down when one, just one, is exposed, and you hang from the noose.
I’ll say this again and again: in a strongly misogynistic realm like politics (sad, unacceptable but true), a woman making her way through the ranks is either an exceptional individual or a ruthless sociopath.
Or, what may be our case, an exceptional individual enthralled to and manipulated by a narcissistic sociopath.
Rev Stuart ,
As you say “ Telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is an old-fashioned approach. It is one this site endorses without reservation. Let the facts be revealed, and let the chips fall where they may. “
.
Thank you for all your honesty in reporting the truth .
.
With so much being reported last night I had posted this on the previous post but it may have been missed by some ,
Re Harassment and Complaints Committee ,
The next Meeting Date is on Tuesday 12 January 2021 : By video conference ,
The Committee will next meet on Tuesday 12 January at 11:00am when it will take evidence from the Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans .
This meeting will be held virtually.
Public Papers for this meeting ,
link to parliament.scot
.
I wonder if Leslie Evans will finally tell the truth at this meeting ? .
That counter-statement from a Sturgeon spokesperson is appalling.
The accusations against Salmond were exposed as a malicious conspiracy, undone in a jury trial, amongst other things by the conspirators own admissions on social media that the smear campaign was being wilfully orchestrated.
To ignore this, and pedal again, (because it’s not the first time), the explicit smear that Alex Salmond was actually guilty of a sexual offence, smears not only Alex Salmond, but also the Scottish Legal Process which tried him. Coming from Sturgeon, it exposes levels of denial, delusion, and obnoxious hubris that are quite genuinely on the same level as Donald Trump. It is only the brash presentation which differs.
Heartfelt thanks Rev, you’ve been on a roll the last couple of days.
Perhaps NS just needs to prepare a “substantive rebuttal” instead of continuing her smear tactics.
I despise, really despise the sturgeon loyalists as much now as I despise the unionists.
They are now working, knowingly or not , for the union.
I will Always admire What Alex has done for Scottish independence.
Aye, Maggie C, it will be interesting to hear Leslie Evans wriggle out of her own lies told in her first two appearances. I remember her first session where she repeatedly claimed she would not know about or be involved in the procedure – now it’s known she met the complainers before her decision report, directly instructed the contacting of the crown office to make charges (and here we have Nicola Richards also claiming not to know who contacted the police, when it was she herself), and of course was fully involved at every stage, was directing all actions let alone ‘not knowing’ about the detail as she claimed initially, etc.
I can’t see how Evans’ days are not numbered – I’ve no idea why she’s still in post ,,, oh, because the FM is keeping her there, not a good look – I would think it’s just about the extent to which she’ll be punished now, I hope.
As Contrary points out, how can she accuse Salmond of trying to distract from the substance of the complaints when;
A) the inquiry has made it clear a thousand times it isn’t interested in the substance of the complaints (which were dealt with in court anyway),
and
B) The inquiry couldn’t be more interested in the involvement of the FM in relation to the Ministerial Code; it’s remit couldn’t be more specific on this. Salmond’s submission here, therefore, in every detail, couldn’t be more appropriate and relevant to the stated focus of the Inquiry.
This post being up has delayed our usual Saturday treat – well, when he’s not on holiday – of a Chris Cairns cartoon.
For once, I am not bothered.
Interesting to see the seat-warmers coming out of the woodwork to support NS, though.
Big Tech tyranny is here (nobody is safe):
link to justthenews.com
It is quite a thing watching SNP MPs and journalists join the pile-on against the truth.
Everything we know about Sturgeon suggests she will try and brazen this out. Whether she suffers from sociopathy or a psychopathy is more open to question. The devastating critique delivered by Alex Salmond should serve as her political epitaph, but there is still the small matter of actually forcing her out.
The SNP – leadership and rank and file – now faces a choice. Do the right thing and force the liar Sturgeon and her accomplices out, or be seen as complicit.
A week may be a long time in politics, but nothing about Sturgeon’s character, her duplicitous behaviour on this issue, and the supine nature of the party hierarchy gives me any confidence that she will be politically defenestrated in the required timescale.
Morgatron
It’s the Same Old Story she thought she could out Foxx Alex but now she’s going to Reap the Wild Wind of retribution.
Pete Wishart doing his last ditch defence of Sturgeon on twitter. According to the piano man SNP bad bloggers are combining with Tories to have a go at his beloved leader.
Quit the battle now Pete if you have at least an iota of sense. Sturgeon and Murrell wouldn’t defend you to that last ditch.
Frank McChord says:
9 January, 2021 at 6:34 am
“Nicola and her proud boys are not painting a pretty picture.”
Proud girls surely?
Mind you boys will girls and girls will be boys – and anatomy doesn’t come into it – in Nic’s Wokeland!
Sturgeon is an out-of-control, Control Freak.
I remember when she threw the Drugs Minister under a bus last month, and said,
“I will personally oversee the running of this department to get it back on track”.
As if she was the great white saviour.
No wonder the Minister told her where to go.
Sturgeon wants to run the whole show.
She trusts no one.
It’s her way,,, or it’s the highway.
Sturgeon is getting harder to stomach by the day.
She is definitely an acquired taste.
Independence is dead in the water. We didn’t need the Unionists to kill it we did it ourselves. The Unionist parties will rule out any form of Federalism as they know the threat of Independence is gone. Time to move on and accept our fate.
Time to claim exhaustion and retire.
Fortunately a rake of amateurs are just not up to it once the professionals get the bit between their teeth.
Any potential damage to the SNP can be mitigated by the trickle, soon to become a stream, of Brexit’s adverse effects. Losing a leader might be considered unfortunate but it does nothing to show that independence is a bad idea – quite the contrary.
What is a risk is what fills the gap left by the departing leader and anybody else that gets taken down as a result. The upper echelons aren’t exactly stuffed with talent.
I have been trying, and so far failing, to find a transcript of Peter Murrell’s evidence to the Salmond inquiry. My possibly imperfect recollection is he testified that the meeting held at his and Nicola Sturgeon’s house in April 2018 with AS and others was about Scottish Government business. For that reason Ms Sturgeon told him she could not discuss with it. A position he accepted before getting on with making her tea or some other important activity.
If my recollection is correct then surely that’s set and match now, today, this minute. I must be mistaken because people better informed than me – including the Rev – would be all over it.
Do the voting public know anything about this? Some family members and friends havent a scoobie about whats happening, and the media certainly are’nt going to tell them. All i hear about is how she is head and shoulders above boris sh*te. And doing a wonderful job keeping us safe against covid.
dramfineday says:
9 January, 2021 at 10:32 am
Time to claim exhaustion and retire.
Been thinking that for a while – could use the strain of the Covid crisis and go gracefully causing much less harm to the party and the Indy cause – but I fear she is now too late.
Boaby says:
9 January, 2021 at 10:44 am
Probably not. I’ve seen folk blame Ales for the timing of this “announcement”. they seem oblivious to the fact there there is an enquiry going on at all. Can’t get through to them that their blessed leader has done sod all to get us nearer to indy and that she is no better than other leaders at coping with Covid. Seems being on the telly every day is enough to convince them that she is doing well.
“Don’t be daft. Stuff like this can damage a political party if it’s badly handled – and BOY is it being badly handled – but it can’t damage them to tune of 35 POINTS in the polls, which is how far ahead the SNP are.”
With an Independence Ref on the face of the manifesto unless the SNP get an outright majority we are pissing in the wind. With a new leader that’ll be difficult especially if that person isn’t in Holyrood.
“With an Independence Ref on the face of the manifesto unless the SNP get an outright majority we are pissing in the wind. With a new leader that’ll be difficult especially if that person isn’t in Holyrood.”
I presume you’re a Yes supporter. If the May election is a plebiscite on independence, will you vote No if the SNP has a new leader? Is your support for the principle of independence entirely conditional on who leads the SNP?
If you wouldn’t, why would anyone else?
Sturgeon loyalist Mhairi Hunter desperately trying to play the feminist card on twitter.
“Some people really don’t like women in power and we see you.”
To try that defence after GRA!
John Grant
You the new Saturday boy at 77th Brigade?
Alex Salmond: Boom!
Some of us were scratching our heads wondering: why lie about the 29th of March meeting, when Sturgeon admits the 2nd of April meeting.
What’s the difference in a few days? Probably, the difference between Sturgeon continuing as Scottish colonial administrator for the UK State and the end of Sturgeon’s political career in Scotland.
How?
The real reason for the meeting on the 29th was NOT a chance meeting. Which means Sturgeon lied to the colonial parliament when she told parliament she had just by chance bumped into an auld friend, had a wee gab, then forgot about it.
Has anyone not asked the question yet as to why the Unionist media are not pouncing on this open goal to attack a Nationalist First Minister? Imagine if Salmond, during his time as boss had so obviously told lies and been seen as clearly desperate to cover it up!? They would be going wild for weeks until he resigned!! Does that not then beg the question – who is Sturgeon really in bed with?
Re the meeting in her hoose on 2nd April on “SNP business”. Were Mr. Aberdein and Mr. Hamilton SNP members at that time? I can’t remember if Mr. Salmond had left by that time, or later. Can you clarify, Rev? If they were members did they hold positions of sufficient seniority in the party that would merit their attendance? Mr. Murrell, CEO of the SNP, has indicated he had absented himself, I believe, from his testimony given to the Committee.
This was a meeting about matters of the utmost gravity, alleged sexual assault and, I presume, about the potential impact on “the party”.
My conclusion? If those two men were not SNP members it cannot have been SNP business.
If they were, and it was SNP business, it is just impossible to believe the CEO would not have been in attendance. He would have, in any real world scenario, been expected to convene, chair and have it minuted.
This excuse is the biggest dose of bollocks since the last dose of bollocks to come out of the SNP on this matter.
“Were Mr. Aberdein and Mr. Hamilton SNP members at that time?”
I have no idea, sorry.
Stuart MacKay 10.44
“ Any potential damage to the SNP can be mitigated by the trickle, soon to become a stream, of Brexit’s adverse effects.”.
Stuart, like you I guess, I didn’t vote to leave the EU. However, we have left. I never agree with notion that we would fall apart post Brexit.
Be aware, that by now, Remoaners argued there would’ve queues of lorries from Dover back to the M25, food an medicine would be disappearing from shelves, companies would be fleeing to the continent, the city would be on its knees, etc.
If your hoping that a Brexit failure is somehow going to aid Scottish Independence or the Scottish government, then I think you need to think again.
link to twitter.com
“https://twitter.com/kirstysnp/status/1347833796910002176?s=21”
I really hope he sues her over that.
I hope you’re right Stu. Losing the 35% lead isn’t the risk though. If the SNP don’t get 45% and very close to majority there must be a real danger of the opposition unionists joining forces to form some sort of coalition just to kill off indy. They are all Tories as it is so they’d only be confirming this more formally. It’ll only take losing 10% for that to happen.
If I’m following things correctly the case for Sturgeon having to resign rests on being found to have breached the ministerial code within the remit that Jack Hamilton has been asked to review as per Rev Stu’s earlier article link to wingsoverscotland.com
Whilst Sturgeon has clearly breach other aspects of the ministerial code as highlighted by Salmond I don’t see that Hamilton can find her to have breached within his current remit.
I think Sturgeon’s hopes may rest on Hamilton returning a report saying she has no case to answer in terms of the orginal remit. This FOI link to gov.scot
seems to suggest its up to Hamilton to decide whats relevant to include in the report.
Call me a cynic but I wonder if we might get a report from Hamilton that says ‘No case to answer based on original remit. If SG wishes to widen the remit thats a matter for them but I’m more than happy to do that’ SG never widen the remit therefore Sturgeon does not have to offer her resignation?
Personally I think Sturgeon is just looking to get to May’s elections have a majority then resign citing stress due to Covid at or about the same time her Husband is removed from post.
“Hamilton has been asked to review as per Rev Stu’s earlier article”
Did you not see the followup article with the reply that said his brief covers the entire Code?
@John Grant
We don’t need an SNP majority.
We need a pro-indy majority.
Speaking as a former member, the more I see of the SNP, the less inclined I am to want them anywhere near majority power either now or in the future.
This has shown up the scale of incompetence and corruption in our politicians,civil servants,judiciary and media,
at least when Robert Bruce stabbed Comyn he had the sense to send in Kirkpatrick to make sure he was finished off,
unlike Comyn,Alex has survived the assasination attempt,
as referenced above,
“If you’re going to shoot the king, you’d better be god damn sure you kill him.”
those 15 jurors didn`t just save an inoccent man they might be the pivotal point that brings us independence.
Does anyone know if it’s possible to see the appendices referenced in Salmond’s submission?
not exactly a smoking bomb , fm nicola sturgeon will easily survive this
Katherine Hamilton,
The meeting attendees SNP membership status is irrelevant – the point is: the complaints and the procedure were government business, and the FM was the head of government, so any official meeting on the matter was government business and so had to be recorded as government business.
The FM has lied to parliament because she didn’t record the meeting(s) – or destroyed any references to them – and so knowingly broke the minesterial code (once by not recording the meeting on 2nd, or the 29th March one, and second by repeatedly lying to parliament about them). She compounded her mistakes by carrying on lying – if she’d come clean from the start, might she have weathered the storm of not recording government business (which it must have been if the 29th March meeting took place, as arranged by her Chief of Staff, in her parliamentary office)? Maybe, though it would have been awkward, being ‘open and transparent’ about it would have gone in her favour. This current situation is one entirely of her own making – the minesterial code gives a get-out clause of letting you off the hook if you quickly own up and fix things once caught. I guess the FM thinks she was not caught, and still seems to think so, a curious case of total denial.
Even if both of those meetings were purely SNP business – which they weren’t because it’s clearly stated here they were regarding the complaints & government procedure – the meeting on the 29th March broke the ministerial code because she was conducting party business on government premises.
There is no way out of it for NS, there is no excuse that can resolve into ‘she didn’t break the ministerial code’, it’s just a matter of how parliament will deal with it and how soon.
It’s not committed Yes supporters that are the risk. Much of the current polling is driven by middle of the road voters who believe NS has done a good job (at least better than Westminster). They are moving to support Yes and/or the SNP cause because of her. From a purely annecodatal point of view my wife and parents-in-law all voted No but have switched to both Yes and SNP in the last year due to the perceived competence of Sturgeon. If, for example, AS was back in charge there’s no chance of their support as, like many, they can’t stand him.
For the avoidance of doubt, none of this excuses the way AS (and others) have been treated. However it is the reality amongst the general public. Very few know anything about this whole debacle and even fewer care.
Thanks for that, Stuart. The stable must now be cleared out.
The First Minister’s spokeperson would have been well-advised to simply say it’s all a matter for the official enquiry. To accuse someone of doing what you, yourself, are doing tells us all we need to know. Nicola Sturgeon seems to have surrounded herself with compliant people, rather than seeking out the best even if they are better than you.
As has been said, the chief executive should have resigned as soon as his wife became leader, or even deputy leader, of the party. That he didn’t do that, could imply that he is part of a UK conspiracy against the the SNP and the wider movement.
Dynamite. Let’s count the blinks and obfuscation when NS appears in front of the inquiry. Re: Eck’s move, Gary Kasparov eat your heart out.
People like Sturgeon and Blackman who treat the legal and judicial systems, including jury members, with such disdain, simply are not fit to be in positions of political power.
Let’s cut to the chase. Who replaces NS once she goes either by resigning or being forced? I can see a number of different candidates throwing their hat in the ring, but from the Sturgeon side, all are unbelievably lightweight?
Blackford, Humza, Swinney can all be discounted for a variety of reasons. Angus Robertson would probably have been and still might be, depending on timing, the(ir) preferred candidate from the NS side, but it’s clear ( to me) that the only true heavyweight candidate would be Joanna Cherry. Serious, qualified, professional, and not to be messed with.
Perfect…
Re the Kirsty Blackman tweet which the Rev mentioned above.
I have never been impressed by the few times I have seen Ms Blackman on her feet in the HoC. Now she is still defending the Alphabet Sisters, whose version of events in the Salmond case was not believed by the jury, and is trying to further blacken AS.
I note she some time ago stepped down as the SNP’s Deputy Leader in Westminster. With this level of judgement, she should get out of public life altogether.
She is no asset to the SNP or the cause of Independence.
Duncan Hotdogstall has come out in favour of the first minster against the vile Salmond/Campbell axis of evil so we are now certain Nicola is toast.
@revstu
“Did you not see the followup article with the reply that said his brief covers the entire Code?”
Yes but I’m a bit cynical that Hamilton will find a form of words in his report to allow Sturgeon not to be formally found in breach. If you look at this tweet from Mandy Rhodes (one of the better jounalists) it would suggest Hamilton’s report will not neccisarly find a breach link to twitter.com
Hope I’m wrong as the boil need lanced sooner rather than later. The tweets of people like Kirsty Blackman show that the SNP is becoming more factionalised and the agenda is trying to be written as Salmondites are anti-women. Longer that last the more it will gain traction and we might see the SNP splinter.
I think the key political question is not neccasirly what happends to Sturgeon as her days look numbered but what does Salmond want to do? Does he want a return? If so is to the SNP or to a new party? If its to a new party I can see Salmond taking a fair chunk of the SNP vote. Conversely if its a return to the SNP I can see a chunk of the trans, woke, anti-Salmond membership heading to the greens or a new entity.
Do you know if he has a plan?
Hiroshima Non Amour;
Friends turned enemies?
Bill Mckay @11:00 am
Rev. Stuart Campbell @ 11:09 am
I’m sure you have noticed the tendency of Sturgeon apologists to introduce false equivalence into this affair.
They don’t seem to understand that this has nothing to do with Alex Salmond’s goodness/badness/indifference. It is about the First Minister’s inability to tell the truth and by extension, her inability to govern.
Laukat,
With this submission being made public – possibly the sole reason it was ‘leaked’ – it would be a very brave James Hamilton that wrote a report claiming no ministerial code breach, very brave.
Surely Sturgeon deliberately misleading parliament will see her gone due to breaking the Ministerial Code.
“I presume you’re a Yes supporter. If the May election is a plebiscite on independence, will you vote No if the SNP has a new leader? Is your support for the principle of independence entirely conditional on who leads the SNP?
If you wouldn’t, why would anyone else?”
I will always vote for Independence but it’s not about me. It’s about the people who voted No in 2014 and now more open to Yes but who are not firmly in the Yes camp. 45% isn’t enough. If we don’t get 50% plus why would a legal challenge be successful if less than half the electorate want Independence. I really like Cherry she is certainly more combative but does that attract the average older no voter.
If people looked at our history of “The Union” they would see it was the unaccountable politicians of Scotland that sold us out in the first place. Power corrupts.
A colonial administration Establishment needs to be corrupt to maintain the relationship of Imperial domination and colonial subservience: it must prevent accountability to the ordinary people – or it will fall.So, Sturgeon plays the Imperial game to the full, to the fools.
Salmond also played that game to get to the top but, he never sold out completely. He still wanted to establish the sovereignty of the people of Scotland, even though his attempt in 2014 failed. That made Alex Salmond a threat to the Scottish colonial Establishment and their Imperial masters.
If we had exercised sovereignty wisely we could have closed our air, land and sea borders to try and protect our citizens from Covid 19. This time it’s mainly our older people who are suffering as a result of Imperial and colonial misrule. Usually it’s our young people who are sacrificed for British Imperial wars.
Good Morning Contrary,
It’s not irrelevant. If they are SNP members she can argue it was SNP business. It can’t stand, of course, as the rest of my post indicates, on the grounds of credibility. If they’re not that is the smoking gun that PROVES she’s a liar. That’s what I was getting at.
As I noted, of course, it still remains a load of bollocks.
@Contrary
“With this submission being made public – possibly the sole reason it was ‘leaked’ – it would be a very brave James Hamilton that wrote a report claiming no ministerial code breach, very brave.”
I would agree it would be brave to write a report claiming no code breach but I suspect that he could find a form of words that says something like ‘no breach of original remit but other matter may need reviewed if SG would like to widden the brief I’ll be happy to review. Would SG like to widden the brief?’
As I said I’m a cynic and I hope I’m wrong.
Why I left the greens..
link to twitter.com
From The Spectator (referring to The Times): –
‘If the newspaper report is accurate, the former SNP First Minister is making accusations against the current SNP First Minister that, were they to be verified, would bring her down both as First Minister and as SNP leader.’
This might be an unpopular view but there seems to be much more in play here than just Sturgeon. I wonder if she actually knew as much as she is being accused of knowing. I agree she has misled parliament but I think that much more investigation is needed into the civil service shadows. I suspect if the whole truth came out the shock wave would reach all the way to London.
“I suspect if the whole truth came out the shock wave would reach all the way to London.”
No it wouldn’t.
@laukat says:
9 January, 2021 at 11:48 am
“Longer that last the more it will gain traction and we might see the SNP splinter.”
It appears to have already started, if Twitter is anything to go by, and that is the favourite platform for some elements of the SNP.
I see the yoon media are NOT going full pelt on this SNP baaaad story.
The evidence is clear that the FM broke the rules and lied to parliament.
The yoons are going with Salmond accuses…..type stories.
Do you think the yoons are now crying over their best hope of avoiding indyref2 – having to resign over her misdeeds ?
Apart from Kirsty Blackman (and I hope Mr Salmond sues her too) and Humza useless. I don’t see many other politicos rushing to her defence. Wonder why ?
If NS is reading this, just bite the bullet, make some polite excuses and leave quietly.
AS might even back off if you did. Don’t try to have your cake and eat it by hanging on and handing over your post to Angus. That’s how dictators operate. Just gie it up.
Go. Go now.
Gregor says: 9 January, 2021 at 10:03 am
Big Tech tyranny is here (nobody is safe):
link to justthenews.com
Not really. Apps can be installed manually on Android or as it’s termed ‘Sideloading’
The ironic thing that may come out of this is the American Republicans may end up using mobile phones made by a company that Trump had banned to get round this big (American) Tech tyranny:
link to bbc.com
Stu,
You are worth your weight in gold to the movement for sure. This is explosive stuff, she can’t continue now surely?
Has a quick look on Facebook and Twitter, her cult followers are having a melt down. Get the popcorn!
@John Grant
“I will always vote for Independence but it’s not about me. It’s about the people who voted No in 2014 and now more open to Yes but who are not firmly in the Yes camp. 45% isn’t enough. If we don’t get 50% plus why would a legal challenge be successful if less than half the electorate want Independence. I really like Cherry she is certainly more combative but does that attract the average older no voter.”
It will avail us nothing if, in pursuit of a few % of “shy No/Remain” voters, we jettison the support of a a few % of horrified Yessers who aren’t prepared to tolerate years of gradualism and a First Minister who appears to be (at best) a sociopath.
Working as though we live in the early days of a better nation has to mean more than slavish acceptance of “SNP right or wrong”.
SNP members, and those in the leadership opposed to the Sturgeonista cabal, bear a heavy responsibility. A large element of the current pro-indy majority is based not on personal approbation of the FM (even if people consider he a competent administrator, or feel she “comes across better than BoJo” which is hardly a high hurdle) but on the piss poor quality of the opposition, and the fact we have no realistic alternative vehicle for independence.
Don’t confuse dropping the pilot for giving up on reaching the destination.
Hate with a passion what hapened to Alex but a better plan might have been to put an apology, including full acknowledgement and acceptance of his part in the difficulties caused by his own legacy in the opening paragraph and supplement his letter with a flurry of tweets (assuming he is not another one to have been de-platformed) announcing his place on the ISP/ Wings/ Scotia future list, offering hearty congratulations to Mark Hirst, and assisting in a similar dismissal of Craig Murray’s case by making an unreserved personal apology to each of the complainants on whatsapp whilst publishing an unredacted transcript himself.
As it stands, ironically, the criticism of his prodigy at this particular point in time looks more like an integral part of a cunning plan to keep indy in the long grass.
All I can think of is the Classic “ Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.“
Nicola lost her way and ended up down a dark road and in a very dark place.
The scary thing now is folk willing fo say “och so what?..its no big deal!” In respect to Covid or Independence (i know!). If this isnt closed off as soon as possible then we become England Mk2 and anything is acceptable trom public officials. We will have no sighing at Boris or Patel for we will be just as bad if not worse for encouraging it.
Question is..who will step forward in the SNP to force her exit ala Thatcher and John Major suddenly developing toothache
To support my point :
“Alex Salmond has launched an extraordinary personal attack on Nicola Sturgeon, calling her testimony to the inquiry into sexual assault claims made against him “simply untrue”. ”
Andrew Neil.
Brillo-Heid wants the FM to stay.
She definitely has to go.
Salmond resigned from the SNP Aug 2018. I sill check Hamilton
Hi Sensibledave at 11:00 am.
You mentioned,
“I never agree with notion that we would fall apart post Brexit.
Be aware, that by now, Remoaners argued there would’ve queues of lorries from Dover back to the M25…”
Maybe you don’t get “the news where we are”, being fixated on the area around Dover?
Quote from the link below:
” The Scottish Seafood Association, which represents processors, says exports to the EU are already being hit by unnecessary delays.
The industry body says the problem is likely to get worse in the coming days as the pace of trade increases.
Some fishing and seafood companies have complained on social media that the export arrangements are a “shambles”.
Jimmy Buchan, chief executive of the association, said: “Trucks laden with fresh seafood are being held up in central Scotland due to problems with customs barcodes and lack of veterinary service capacity. “
and
” SB Fish, which is based at Troon in South Ayrshire, tweeted on Wednesday that none of their trucks bound for France had left a haulage hub.
They said: “Not one single Truck has left from our Hauliers/Hub. It’s now becoming a complete shambles.”
Lochfyne Sea Farms – based in Tarbert, Argyll and Bute – replied to the tweet, saying: “Shambles is an understatement taking 3 days to deliver live product to France is a joke, we warned against these problems and it’s worse than we imagined, business is no longer viable if we can’t get our product to market in time.””
link to thenational.scot
Sturgeon spokesperson says the FM entirely rejected Salmond’s claims that she has broken the Ministerial Code.
I thought it was already proven beyond any doubt that Sturgeon has broken the Ministerial Code.
The independence movement is far more important than any one person.
It would help, however, if the leading pro-indy politician gave independence top priority. It is more important, in my opinion, than the current health crisis.
The FM has failed to do this. For example, she has put gender issues above independence. She was too eager to, in her mind at least, proclaim Alex Salmond guilty before he was tried in court.
She has been, and still is, overly protective of and overly influenced by, senior british nationalist civil servants, appointed by Westminster, endlessly ensconsed in Holyrood.
If she truly wants Scotland to regain its independence she should go immediately allowing plenty of time for the SNP to elect a new leader, who, hopefully, puts independence above all else.
I doubt if the FM’s departure will hamper the independence movement. As I said before, the independence movement is far more important than any individual. The people of Scotland know this.
It is in fact an ideal opportunity to give the independence movement another tangible boost.
@Astonished says:
9 January, 2021 at 12:15 pm
“Apart from Kirsty Blackman (and I hope Mr Salmond sues her too) and Humza useless. I don’t see many other politicos rushing to her defence. Wonder why ?”
Pete Wishart has.
Kirsty Blackman is the SNP spokesperson on constitution. No wonder the party’s indy strategy is non-existant.
It’s all very sad.
I suspect a steady drip of poison from the Leslie Evans/Somerville/Peter Murrell and wokist cabal has led to this dreadful mess. They failed on every front and now have no idea how to get out of their self inflicted disaster. NS was not strong enough or independent enough to resist what has been a totally unnecessary and stupid failed coup against AS.
I suspect a resignation is on the way.
I vote for Independence, not the person, but this has undoubtedly damaged our chances and will lose votes.
However Joanna Cherry is the answer.
Oh Christ, I just had a terrible thought, what if Sturgeon tries to cling onto power until the last minute like Trump, claiming its all a fix against her.
If Sturgeon is going then a key concern is how she will go.
For Fuck Sake!
The unbelievable fascist rag the Daily Hail today-
Scottish Fish and sea food products being exported
to the EU are rotting due to delays with new Brexit processes.
Here it comes-
Scottish Office minister David Duguid suggests part of the blame lies
with the Scottish Government????
Over 18 months it’s they, and not Westminster, that has assured the fishing industry
that the systems they put in place would be adequate?
So please ignore that Brexit was England’s Tories fault.
That no destabilise of any sort of deal was available until the last days of December,
That Westminster controls the U.K. borders, that the fish are stuck in English ports, that
Tory boy Gove promised the fishermen would be better off and in full control and Tory boy
Boris promised a better future for them with an oven ready trade deal.
Absolutely unbelievable that this shite can be written, printed and sold without a Joke Warning across the front page.
Twitter and Facebook should be deleting the accounts of these ink sodden Jack Boot wearers!
Twitter is not Scotland or representative of mainstream Scottish opinion. I have always thought the average person in Scotland is reasonable and willing to hear the evidence and make their own judgement. On that basis mainstream opinion will call for her to go. And for those who say this situation is having little impact on the wider public. Think again, I have had a the number of communications this morning from people I wouldn’t describe as politicos.
Very interesting that many Brit Nat top players *chortle and their placemen and placewomen are springing to the FM’s defence. Doesn’t anyone find that very suspicious?
To all the NS faithful acolytes, why shouldn’t a man do all he can to tell the truth to protect his reputation. He has won a judicial review and a criminal case – time to accept that it’s the Scottish Government and SNP leadership that are corrupt. I am disgusted by the whole affair and have no faith in the inquiry. NS sycophants please open your eyes, let your ears hear and accept the spoken truth. I really hope this is the straw that breaks the camels back, truth and justice must prevail. And the dirty stables need mucked out.
Brian Doonthetoon
… of course there are some issues. Of course there are!
However, if that is what you are angling on to and willing more of, as some evidence of the failure o Brexit as a strategy to help the cause of Scottish gruel – then it pretty thin stuff.
Remainers were pointing to economic Armageddon . Melt down. Chaos. No free trade, tariffs. Empty shelves, people dying because of medicine shortages.
At the moment the issues seem to be confined to a few (important to those affected) issues that have little relevance to the general public.
As I keep saying, once the Scottish general election comes around (whenever that may be), the Yessers will indeed be able to claim that Scotland (those that voted Remain) have been dragged out of the EU against their will. However, the No camp will be able to show that little has actually changed … and argue why would Scotland want to take 10 years to try to join the EU (a trae area that takes 20% of Scottish exports … thus leaving a Union that currently takes 60% of its exports.
It’s not a shoe in Brian. Everything has changed now.
This “4.Mr Hamilton wrote to me on 8th September, 29th October, 16th November, 4th and 19th December. I replied on 6th and 17th October, 23rd November and 23rd December. I finally agreed under some protest to make this submission.” shows NS comments last night to be vindictive in the extreme and an attempt to overturn the verdict of the court in the eyes of the public.
Glad you published this Stu, thanks.
@Dan
Yes indeed, you beat me to it.Thanks.
*IF* NS does have to resign I would like to see Alex Neil, Angela Constance, Roseanna Cunningham or Ivan McKee as interim FM.
Reading Kirsty Blackman’s latest rant I find myself wondering if she had a letter during the Salmond trial or is just one of the inner circle having a good old fashioned meltdown.
@Sensibledave
Prophecies of societal meltdown after 31/12/20 due to the crap brexit deal were always hyperbolic, in much the same way that Project Fear predictions of what would happen if we voted Yes in 2014 were nonsense. Things may have been worse if it hadn’t been the Xmas break and the middle of a pandemic of course.
The thing is, whilst you are correct that most people won’t notice that big a difference in their lives other than some shortages in supermarkets, or rise in prices, or extra buggeration when they go abroad, hire a car, buy travel insurance etc. the fact remains that the brexit project taken in the round is likely to adversely affect our economic prospects. Of course, that’ll be difficult to prove objectively, because once we’re out, you’re trying to compare the “as is” situation with the “what if” of the road not travelled.
The issue for Scottish unionists and British nationalists more generally, is that brexit has fatally undermined their strongest weapon from the #indyref1 scare campaign. If brexit is a success, nationalists in Scotland will be able to say: “Well if the UK can leave the EU with little impact, Scotland can certainly leave the UK on the same basis”. However, if brexit turns out to cause more pain than if we’d stayed (particularly if the EU and Ireland/NI are seen to be relatively more successful going forward) then support for indy will increase on the basis that the pro-EU majority will point to that exampke as something to emulate.
The 60% of trade that goes to or through rump UK isn’t just going to disapparate. 76% of Canada’s exports go to the USA, and 52% of their imports are from the USA.
Post Holyrood 2021 – whatever happens with Sturgeon – it seems Scots will have a few years to both see how things develop, and to decide whether the carry on asking for permission to exercise their self determination, or just do what every other country has done and take it’s independence.
I agree it’s not a shoo in by any means, but in the end something’s gotta give for the broader Yes movement: either we ask and accept our destinies are not in our own hands, or we tell.
My money is on the latter, even if it takes a few more years.
Oh my goodness, over on WGD, between tea and scones, the faithful are doing their nut.
Petra is a scorned woman who gave her life and money to Alex Salmond, she LOVED him and he BETRAYED her (and his wife Moira) and she will NEVER forgive him if he brings down her new love, Nicola. Yes Petra is putting herself in the same position as his wife. Petra you will remember took her banishment from this site in the same calm fashion.
Elsewhere Kirsty of the big scarf, who has never stuck at anything in her life, is crying MISOGYNY. Well if she actually knew what a woman was she might be able to make a coherent point. What that point is depends on where you stand, of course. Does being a woman excuse you from breaking the ministerial code? Yes, says Kirsty. There are some surprisingly emotional less than rational defences by many others who should know better, looking at you Prof McHarg.
How dare Alex Salmond try to defend himself! He was allowed to defend himself once don’t you know? He won that time, they cannot let that happen again, can they?
Funny with young Ms Blackman’s claims it is all nasty men trying to bring down Nicola because she is a woman this old ejaculator hopes to replace Nicola with another woman who works for Indy in Joanna Cherry. The sex of the first minister and party leader does not matter but we need a leader with ability and a more than passing interest in getting out of the UK.
Rev Stu,
fact 1 Nicola Sturgeon is the best leader the SNP has had.
fact 2 Nicola is the most popular leader with voters.
fact 3 Under Nicola the SNP have a 30+% lead over other parties.
fact 4 Nicola has led Yes to over 50% for over a year.
So my question is how does all this stuff and nonsense help us win indy for Scotland? I can only see it as one thing only sadly, self-defeating.
@Robert the truth,
Its almost as if they expect Alex to accept the fact that people lied to imprison him and just walk away in the interests of ,not the party, but Nicola. They think he is yesterdays man with only an interest in sabotaging Independence which they still believe, is just around the corner.
I wonder how many of them would accept what Alex has endured without reply.
They are no better than Trump worshippers. I think worship of Nicola has overtaken worship of Independence and forced them to put all reason aside to maintain that position.
The cult of personality only usually ends one way, and its seldom positive.
Beaker says:
9 January, 2021 at 12:09 pm
@laukat says:
9 January, 2021 at 11:48 am
“Longer that last the more it will gain traction and we might see the SNP splinter.”
It appears to have already started, if Twitter is anything to go by, and that is the favourite platform for some elements of the SNP.
Why wasn’t there talk of “splintering the movement” when Sturgeon and Co decided to waltz on by Scotland’s Remain Mandate, arbitrarily overrule the democratic will of Scotland’s sovereign people, arbitrarily decide to abandon the defence of Scotland’s interests in order to interfere with England’s mandate for Brexit, and again, arbitrarily, decide that a Constitutional Backstop (which secured International support and essentially kept Northern Ireland in Europe), wasn’t good enough for Scotland?
Sturgeon is inept and incompetent, and frankly the type of strategic incompetence which:-
Hands Theresa May a free reign to negotiate her own flavour of hard Brexit after declaring that Scotland would be doing absolutely nothing, no IndyRef or Constitutional dispute, until Sturgeon knew the final details of Brexit…
Hands Boris Johnson a Section 30 veto over Scotland’s Constitutional sovereignty and the democratic will of the Scottish People, and then arbitrarily declares all other routes to Independence unlawful….
Waits until Brexit has become a material reality, (ergo she finally knows the final details of Brexit), AND THEN CAPITULATES like a coward because Brexit already been done…
Does nothing to temper or address the highly toxic and divisive infiltration of the Wokeratti to the extent that Transactivists are openly vetting their own ‘kind’ to positions of authority and candidacy, maligning others like the rising Joanna Cherry to name only one, while for 18 Months the NEC didn’t even discuss Scottish Independence….
… as I was saying, that level of strategic incompetence makes the malicious accusations against Alex Salmond and the orchestrated conspiracy to destroy him, not only resonate as grotesque possibility, but actually look like parr for the course for an thoroughly abysmal strategist who can barely grasp the rudimentary laws of cause and effect.
Yet because Alex Salmond has written down his account of the smear campaign against him, as he was required to do by the Inquiry Committee, a detailed account which points out verifiable lies told in the midst of an orchestrated conspiracy to destroy him and see him jailed as a sex offender on false charges, suddenly it’s Alex Salmond who is the villain of the piece??? No. Not having it.
This is rampant misogyny blurts our Kirsty Blackman??? Oh do fk off you cretin, and taken the other cretin Pete Wishart with you. Sturgeon herself once declared Alex Salmond hadn’t a sexist bone in his body. Truth be known, this orchestrated conspiracy to smear Alex Salmond is as far from misogyny as it’s possible to be, because the definition of misogyny is a prejudice against women, when the malicious prejudice has all been contrived, made up, and / or luridly embellished to see an innocent man, yes, innocent man, branded a sex offender by false conspiracy of women.
If the price of the SNP “not” splintering is for us to turn a blind eye to this litany of hopeless shenanigans, grubby smears and conspiracy, lip service paid to Scottish Independence, and self serving rogues who do nothing beyond condemn the tired exasperation of the YES movement they themselves have abandoned, then frankly, I care not one jot if the SNP splits.
Let true supporters of Scottish Independence be judged, and counted, for their support of Scottish Independence, NOT their misguided allegiance or rotten affinity with what looks increasingly like a good Party gone rotten, mad or both.
Let’s see in due course how much of that support for Scottish Independence evaporates when Sturgeon and her crooks are flushed away, because whether the % rises or falls, the morale of true Independence supporters will enjoy a shot in the arm to see the back of this train wreck under Sturgeon… Only Sturgeon’s strategic genius could contrive a train wreck when the engine has never yet made it out of the station.
“The first minister is fighting the pandemic”.
How convenient. One wonders if this is the reason why she has been so desperate to hog the tv screen so much over this issue for the past year. I would well imagine she would have rugby tackled Jeane Freeman rather than let her get to the podium.
On a completely side issue, do you remember how the entirely blameless Michelle Thomson, a victim of solely unionist rag lies, was made to resign the whip? So why did N.S. not resign the party whip months ago over this matter?
The hypocrisy is amazing. The duplicity. We have all seen this for so long, especially over a referendum, over Brexit. The deviousness. What is it that makes a very few individuals in history act so? Stalin was like that, Mao also. Hitler too. There are so few examples of *such* twistedness and evil that I have not found any examples in English politics, American or French either, try as hard as I could. Nor in ancient times.
To my mind, this is all worse than anything England or the unionists have ever done to Scotland. And it all comes at such a crucial time in our history and constitution (Brexit). I have said all along that this is reason alone for the SNP to be formally wound up as party and a going concern. You simply do not conspire to put someone in prison falsely. End of story.
[Also, on the theme of “something is rotten in the state of Scotland”…. where are the perjury charges against the alphabet women? Or is Scotland the only spot on earth where this crime does not exist? Can I maybe accuse my neighbour whom I have never liked of stabbing a child in the vague hope that the jury will believe the case and it will stick to him/her?]
According Blackman we should be ostracising Salmond, even thought he was found not guilty by a jury of his peers made up mostly of women.
link to twitter.com
Clwyd Griffiths says:
9 January, 2021 at 1:47 pm
Rev Stu,
fact 1 Nicola Sturgeon is the best leader the SNP has had…
Stop there Clwyd… you are deluded.
@C Griffiths,
Mussolini was once Italy’s most popular leader. Hitler too.
Hirohito. Trump. Ceacescu. Stalin.
Leadership popularity is a moveable feast and eventually they usually kill themselves.
I try to imagine a free Scotland under an all powerful Nicola.
It scares me to be honest. There was a time her popularity could have been harnessed the good of all rzthdr than her chosen projects and allies, but she alienated herself by choice from the yes movement.
Blame nobody else but Nicola.
I don’t think she will go quietly. She will have to be dragged away kicking and screaming like a petulant child having its favourite toy taken away. Thankfully the police have handcuffs at their disposal!
She is very much like Trump in her desperation to cling on to power. The difference is Trump and his supporters are armed and dangerous. Sturgeon and her supporters can only throw tantrums and shoot blanks!
Regarding succession: Could Alex become the CEO and Joanna Cherry the leader of the SNP? And if not Joanna Cherry then another one of the good guys that others above have mentioned?
Black Joan, the UK government is in no position to throw stones. The SNP government under Nicola Sturgeon is every bit as corrupt and demented as the Tories under Boris Johnson. We can only hope good governance, justice and sanity prevails in both countries. That is what we are fighting for. Justice and equality for all. And in our case, the small matter of freedom too!
And the unholy one can no longer cling to the comfort blanket of Covid-19. She is a complete failure in that respect too. She has turned the whole nation into a giant penal colony in cahoots with Johnson. We are only allowed out for food and exercise.
And Stuart, at this rate you’ll be due a free drink in every pub in Scotland. That’s when they are open again of course!
JDC
So your family are only interested in Scotland becoming independent if NS is in charge.
It follows then that they couldn’t care less about freeing our country from this stinking union but just prefer to be led by a lying FM.
Perhaps we neede something like the Alex Salmond trial to make us truly aware of how depraved the SNP leadership had become. Under the old system of governance Nicola would have been the figurehead and the NEC would set the agenda the party would follow following conference.
This of course was all changed and has led us to where we are
Alex has helped bring that ugliness into the light of day though he suffered grievously doing it. He tried to protect the party but they were not having it. They wanted him out at any cost.
They have found the cost is much greater tban they expected.
Kirsty Blackman who wants men (the patriachy)to have free access to female safe spaces accusing others of Patriachy and Misogyny,
i take it she does not own a mirror.
If, as I suspect could happen. NS is all over the Sunday morning political talk shows, being given an easy ride by Marr, Peston & Co; or, if they try to get AS on and he either refuses, or gets the full “hair dryer” treatment – then we will know, the British Establishment wants NS to remain in-charge.
If the mainstream media does not go big on this tomorrow, or, if they ignore the story completely – then we will know, The British Establishment wants NS to remain in-charge of Scotland.
Then, we should ask two questions:
Why?
When will they turn their fire on her?
Twitter is awash today with Indy supporters no less aghast that anyone would wish to see corruption brought into the open simply because support for indy is riding high in the polls.
Mud is being thrown at not only Wings (as usual) Grousebeater and even Alex Salmond himself for daring to speak the truth.
They fail to see that an innocent man could have been today sitting in a jail where he would have remained for the rest of his life but for the fact that those involved in this collusion were not as clever as they believed they were.
Even if the enquiry proves that the FM breached the ministerial code which could prove difficult seeing as Swinney has made the remit so tight, unless at some point collusion is proved Alex Salmond will have to live with a stain on his reputation and even a belief of guilt by many, some of whom have made their opinions known on Twitter today and who hold positions within the SNP. the poisonous Kirsty Black to name but one.
Had Nicola Sturgeon held any respect and honour for the party she inherited from the man she tried to destroy she would have stood down as soon as Alex Salmond was acquitted, that she didn’t tells me she will cling on as long as she possibly can caring not a jot for the damage being reaped on the party or the cause.
There are a couple and Kirsty Black is one of them I hope Alex Salmond is paying attention to today, I’d have thought there was a case for liable there.
There are many who also owe you an apology Stu though I doubt many will be forthcoming.
these are the same people who believe support for indy wouldn’t be where it is today if not for Saint Nicola, they fail to notice that Boris and Brexit is what has brought us to where we are today in the polls.
It’s like talking to Labour supporters in many cases.
Great article though and all my best wishes lie with Alex Salmond during this hellish period in his life.
Contrary @ 9:53 am ,
“it will be interesting to hear Leslie Evans wriggle out of her own lies told in her first two appearances. “
.
This will be Leslie Evans fourth appearance at the Committee , she previously gave evidence on 18th August , 8th September and 17th November. .
Link to 2020 Meeting Papers and Official Reports ,
link to parliament.scot
link to twitter.com
Ffs Sensibledave,
You have been on here for years pretending that you don’t have an opinion on Scottish independence (when you clearly do) and that you are more than happy with what the majority of Scots think (as long as it aligns with your views).
You have always been a transparently disingenuous voice btl and I doubt however that will change anytime soon.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with England seeking alternative ways to trade with the outside world, good luck to them. It is completely unsatisfactory from a majority Scottish viewpoint to be dragged along as an equivalent of some sort of human shield.
Before you say this is a British Brexit, it was from start to finish completely made in England.
When the nations of the U.K. meet politically, we know who the Senedd represents, we know who Stormont represents, we know who Holyrood represents but some people seem to forget that it is Westminster that represents England.
Whatever England wants in this pitiful Union, England gets.
It is well past time we parted ways.
I feel sick!
@Breeks I thought Alex Salmond was a fantastic First Minister, and still is a force to be reckoned with. But Nicola reaches those voters Alex couldn’t for some reason.
@BobMack with all due respect, your comment is ludicrous.
Does anyone ever update Kirsty Blackman on the outcome of the Salmond trial?
It’s as if it has passed her by.
Or are we just getting a blinkered, bias opinion from a bitter lesbian?
And what is her opinion on a man slipping on the wife’s dress and go and sit in the middle of the female changing rooms down at the local gym, all completely within the law.
@C Griffiths,
I feel your pain. Nicola made a mistake. Accept it and it becomes easier.
From this piece, Rev, we see that were several opportunities for the SNPG and FM to take action and mitigate the worst of this, but, on each occasion, a clear kick at an open goal was not taken, for whatever reason. Furthermore, sheer intransigence appeared to be the motivating factor. I can’t speak for anyone else, but it seems evident that Mr Salmond posed some kind of threat above and beyond any allegations of inappropriate behaviour – allegedly. Whatever it was, it was political – allegedly.
Part of me feels that, had the FM gone for a definite statement of intent and policy to go for independence immediately after an election win, with the majority of Scottish MSPs (to augment the majority of Scottish MPs), Mr Salmond might have stayed his hand in the interests of the country, the SNP and the SG. I could be wrong, of course, but it would be in character. Now, that opportunity has been lost, likes many others, and this is going to descend into ignominy just before the election.
Andrew Learmouth of the National and Shona Craven are both pretty fair.
Scot Finlayson says:
“Kirsty Blackman who wants men (the patriachy) to have free access to female safe spaces accusing others of patriachy and misogyny.”
“I take it she does not own a mirror.”
Scot, vampyres don’t have a reflection!
For the First Minister it is all about “her” and “me”. Until she is caught out that is and then it is all about “him” and “them”! Let us think now, who else has a habit of swapping their pronouns about?!
@Bob Mack
A bit late but apposite nevertheless:
link to twitter.com
John Grant says:
9 January, 2021 at 10:26 am
“Independence is dead in the water. We didn’t need the Unionists to kill it we did it ourselves. The Unionist parties will rule out any form of Federalism as they know the threat of Independence is gone. Time to move on and accept our fate.”
I guess you are a Sturgeon cultist.
Helen Yates @ 2:09 pm
“…these are the same people who believe support for indy wouldn’t be where it is today if not for Saint Nicola, they fail to notice that Boris and Brexit is what has brought us to where we are today in the polls.”
Not to mention the largely pro-union elderly gradually shuffling off their mortal coils to be replaced by the pro-indy young.
And the cult think it’s great that Yes is at 58%??? We should be at 68!
Nicola is not a bad leader like those in history?
Willing to remove the rights if over 50% of the population to satisfy her pet project of trans. (o.5%).
Hate Crime bill to shut everybody up from complaining about it.
Lying to parliament and trying to put Alex in prison because SHE BELIEVED the allegations against him.
Nicola better than other leaders of history? I think not.
Opportunity knocks if this plays out and the fm position becomes untenable, but at what price ,will you just get another NS clone and carry on with a weaker looking inderpendence movement.Is anyone going to realign the SNP to push for a plan B and do you think that the views of the vast majority of the Rev and the sites followers will be allowed back into the mainstream inderpence movement .At best all this has done is helped kick the can down the road but as it was a can that wasnt amounting to much anyway maybe in a while after some carnage and public in fighting a more focused inderpedence movement may emerge .Thats if there is still a desire for it from the general electorate
3
If this revelation isn’t quite enough to shift the blockage around the bend, then another push is almost certain to.
The legal advice given, and now hidden ,is caustic, obviously.
Pushing for it to come out/leak will finish the jobby.
Bob Mack,
What you say is true but I’m not sure she believed the allegations. I think she concocted them and her plausibility (as it was) came from wanting to believe them so that her concoction would work.
“Fair is foul, and fouls is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
Hugh Jarse,
It will finish the jobby…and flush her away!!!
“Political smears aimed at FM aren’t going to wash with the public. The reason they trust her more than any other political leader is they know she is honest and upfront. I know she will be relishing her appearance before Committee so the facts can be established.”
Humza smears poorly, and doesn’t seem to know his relish from a pickle.
3/10
Bye bye Mr Yousaf. You can expect a chap at the door from plod, in the fullness of time.
“Politics is the art of looking for troubles, finding them everywhere, diagnosing them incorrectly, then applying the wrong remedies”. Groucho Marx.
Sums up the situation nicely I think.
Rev Stu, whole Salmond affair, allegations, the court trail and being found not guilty on all count, needs to be investigated thoroughly. But why can’t all that wait until after the election in May, or if I was Alex Salmond I would wait until after we win indy for the a thorough, transparent inquiry into the shoddy way e was treated. Just wait after a successful Yes vote.
People need to remember, look at the big picture.
@C Griffiths,
Its a Holyrood Inquiry. Alex has to respond because he has been asked to by Holyrood. An Inquiry the FM asked for.
What don’t you get here?
read a history of the troubles, some interesting little scraps –
when you make a petrol bomb, the most important thing to remember is that the stopper is tight, really tight.
why??
– well, when you go to throw it, and pull it behind your ear, if the stopper is loose and falls out,
you get burning petrol all down your back, and in 2 seconds you will be a flaming torch
I think our FM … “forgot to tighten the stopper”
– shame, really; a talented politician, much admired in general, could have been the first President of an independent Scotland.
somewhere down the line, I think she will get a “stoat coat”.
So once again, Scotland is going to self combust on the cusp of achieving independence by infighting, the oppositions which has been trying to divide us has won; job is done. If he cared about Scotland it at all, he would wait until after the election.
“If he cared about Scotland it at all, he would wait until after the election.”
Listen, you fucking idiot: IT’S NOT UP TO HIM WHEN THE INQUIRY HAPPENS. THE INQUIRY IS OBLIGED TO DELIVER ITS VERDICT BEFORE THE ELECTION. THEREFORE WHEN IT ASKS HIM FOR EVIDENCE HE CAN’T HOLD IT BACK UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION.
Clwyd Griffiths says:
9 January, 2021 at 3:15 pm
People need to remember, look at the big picture…
Not picking on you Clwyd, but this Inquiry, however much Sturgeon and Co are trying to gaslight people, is NOT about Alex Salmond, who was tried, and acquitted by a jury in the High Court.
The Inquiry is not a retrial of Alex Salmond, nor is it a review or appeal of his acquittal. It is an investigation into the farcical way the Scottish Government mishandled the whole affair, took bizarre and unfathomable decisions, it seems they apparently lied, perhaps even to the extent it was all an unhinged but orchestrated witch-hunt conspiracy designed to discredit Alex Salmond which may have sent an innocent man to jail branded as a sex offender, and has cost the Scottish taxpayer millions.
It’s not so much seeing the whole picture, (which, it must be said, the Scottish Government is trying to delay, obfuscate and keep hidden), but seeing events from an accurate perspective.
And why need we wait on a YES vote IF the whole Conspiracy and fives years of a complete shambles of an Independence strategy, which has already compromised Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty and seen Scotland subjugated? What if the Conspiracy actually has the deliberate intention of making sure there never is an opportunity for Scotland to even hold a referendum?
It is the errant Sturgeon government dragging it’s heels and drawing this out, which suggests to contrary cynic like me that we redouble our efforts to get to the truth even faster.
@Clwyd Griffiths
Patience my arse. We need to stake gradualism through its black heart to have any hope of independence. Having no Plan B and relying on the SNP as currently (mis)led will not result in a referendum this decade, however hard #cosyfeetPete and his true believers wish upon a star.
At least with British nationalists we know they are our political enemies: no better can be expected of them but to insist that we aren’t “allowed” to vote, no matter how big a majority or how many mandates we have.
What we really have to look out for in the short term are those who, while purporting to support the fight for self determination, are content to see it kicked into the long grass by a bunch of principle voids like the current gradualist leadership and their nauseating Twitler Youth outriders.
It seems you have picked your side.
I doubt you’ll get much traction with your “eyes on the prize” snake-oil pitch here.
@AndyEllis, I agree with you on a need for a plan B. Which is why I shared Joanna Cherry’s excellent article yesterday about this issue.
Maggie C, re Leslie Evans 4th appearance – thanks! I’ve totally lost track of how many times she’s appeared, and in fact it seems she’s already appeared 4 times – very useful page you link to btw – and it was twice in sepember. So this will be her fifth appearance!
@ Bob Mack at 2.46pm
Ha ha, for some reason I am minded of a certain Gerry Cinnamon song…
She is a belter
Different from the rest
Diamonds on her finger
And she always looks her best
She is a gangster
With a hundred mile stare
When she walks
Her feet don’t touch the flair
She is a belter
link to youtube.com
Bill Craig @ 11:30
“The stable must now be cleared out.”
Are you referring to SNP parliamentarians loyal to the FM, or to Scotland’s dominant colonial meritocracy more generally?
What I’m not clear aBout is why she lied about the earlier meeting with Aberdein and Liz Lloyd and the meeting at her house. Why didn’t she just make them government business and minute them.
They didn’t help nor hinder the conspiracy, so why lie.
Odd that false rape accusers granted anonymity but not the innocent. It would be awful if their names were published abroad.
“Are you referring to SNP parliamentarians loyal to the FM, or to Scotland’s dominant colonial meritocracy more generally?”
Are they not the same thing?
Socrates MacSporran says:
9 January, 2021 at 2:08 pm
When will they turn their fire on her?
At their leisure, a grouse does not know its fate.
Clwyd Griffiths @ 3.15
“People need to remember, look at the big picture.”
Plaid leader Adam Price in his book ‘Wales the First and Last Colony’ appears to have no qualms whatsoever about the ‘big picture’ in Wales – its either independence or continued colonial domination by England as far as he is concerned.
Don’t you think us Scots are languishing in the same colonial boat?
@Alf Baird
Sadly it appears Adam Price and much of Plaid are part of the woke Wahhabi tendency. Any organisation which is content to spout such absurdities is, like the Scottish Greens, unfit for office.
It will avail Scotland and Wales nothing if they replace their pseudo-colonial status for the rule of unreasoning, a-scientific gender-woo extremists.
link to twitter.com
Mia @ 5.28
The (mostly daeless) SNP parliamentary groups are incomparable to a nation’s vast meritocratic elite who form its ‘establishment’, i.e. its elite structures, and who make and implement most of the decisions on behalf of the people and their elected representatives, much as we see in the current Holyrood enquiry for example. It is worth noting that very few of the ‘meritocratic elite’ involved in that unlawful decision making process and thus far giving evidence to the Committee are actually politicians, albeit they may have been guided by one. If anything this reinforces the ‘power’ of what passes for Scotland’s meritocratic elite, which in a colonial situation tends to be rather one-sided, i.e. anti-independence.
Sturgeon, what a lying stinker.
She’s a schemer, not a thinker.
*Thanks for publishing this, to WoS.*
*And ‘Neat job of filleting!’ to AS.*
“…..aspects of which he has conceded” is beyond the pale for me. Making it very hard to maintain a balanced view of proceedings. To not see Sturgeon as an alien being.
I’m concerned about the perennial male female gender divide becoming a major fault line in Independence politics. The attraction of the Sturgeon leadership to women voters has encouraged more and moderate women to come over to the cause, and maintained their support, whereas many wouldn’t have trusted Salmond an inch. It would be a pity if this momentum was lost if what ensues gets portrayed as the old men taking back control.
However, the sorry looking lot needs flushed out. Murrell turned upside down and his pockets shaken out including last 2 years salary. I had no idea until 6 months ago what his position was. Parasite.Reminds me of Dennis Thatcher. Rent a Mob civil servants to qualify for deportation.
Proper planning for the first days and years of a better country is overdue.
In my appreciation of the above, one minor point struck me as a possible typo – re dates – or am I missing something?
”
“34. The First Minister additionally informed Parliament (Official Report 10th January 2018) that ‘I did not know how the Scottish Government was .. dealing with the complaint.’
..She did initially offer to intervene, in the presence of all those at the First Minister’s house on the 2nd April 2018..”
Should that Official Report date possibly be 10th January 2019, not 2018? I don’t see how a denial can refer to a later event.
“Annie McIndoe says:
9 January, 2021 at 3:49 pm
So once again, Scotland is going to self combust on the cusp of achieving independence by infighting, the oppositions which has been trying to divide us has won; job is done. If he cared about Scotland it at all, he would wait until after the election.”
The FM plotted with the others to cause ( I just noted that I used the word plotted – I think it apt) the downfall of Alex Salmond. I am certain Alex Salmond cares a great deal about Scottish independence. Unlike the FM he actually obtained a referendum.
The FM has not discussed, allowed others to publicly discuss ,considered or planned a second referendum. She has plotted and planned genderwoowoo, anti-brexit, stasi-thought crime and other political positions. She has given the English prime minister a veto over the sovereign will of the people of Scotland. She has spectacularly failed to advance independence in any way since 2014.
Polls don’t change things .Campaigns do.
The FM should resign immediately to lessen the disaster for the SNP (the party I have supported all my life).
She has only herself to blame
@alfbaird you can’t really compare where Scotland is to where Wales is, Scotland are well ahead of us, they’ve have cast off the dead hand of Labour and the Tories. We still hang on to it sadly.
Clwyd Griffiths
On the contrary, the SNP parliamentary elite are full of ex Labour careerists. If the SNP elite were really nationalists Scotland would have been independent after the first SNP Scotland majority in 2015.
Aye. Evita is being exposed for the fake empath and careerist shyster she actually is. And some people still labour under the illusion she’s for the people.
I’ll be glad to see the back of her and her Neoliberal gang of chancers.
Let’s get people back in charge who actually give a fuck about making Scotland an independent land that values it’s people rather than the same old British fucking turd with a saltire plonked on the top!
“Couldn’t care less.
Politicians lie, including Salmond.
We’re about to have our rights, freedoms, protections, environments wrecked by another nation and its voters so you won’t mind if I/we prioritise that over any he said/she said pish thanks.”
Oh and before you talk about integrity moving into any iScotland, we can vote for who the f we like then. If you had sense you’d realise the cost/benefit analysis of supporting the downfall of Nicola sturgeon is beyond stupid.
Reading the comments above I’m at a loss. It’s almost as bad as the Yooniverse.
Imagine if the Nicola groupies had been around in Germany in the 1930s:
“Stop going on about the concentration camps and the euthanasia of the disabled. Look at the wonderful job Adolph is doing on unemployment.”
Aye right. Waiting until later to deal with a dishonest manipulative psychopath of a leader isn’t an option.
Alf Baird says:
9 January, 2021 at 5:01 pm
Bill Craig @ 11:30
“The stable must now be cleared out.”
Are you referring to SNP parliamentarians loyal to the FM, or to Scotland’s dominant colonial meritocracy more generally?
Alf,
Sorry for the late response, I’ve had my head in a book. I was speaking generally, but primarily about the SNP. The colonial meritocracy will take a bit longer to be dealt with.
Is the article anywhere to be found? or has it completely gone?