How not to do it
Posted on
March 16, 2021 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Dunlop Review into the Scottish Government’s conduct of an investigation of false harassment allegations against Alex Salmond was published today. It is an extremely damning report, which basically boils down to “You got absolutely everything possible wrong, never do anything that way again, you incompetent idiots”.
You can check out the whole 78-page document here, but we’ve included its 10 key recommendations as to how such investigations should be carried out in future, along with a note of whether these recommendations were followed in the Salmond case.
(Click to enlarge.)
It’s always nice when the grown-ups finally arrive in the room.
This is interesting. Hopefully the Hamilton one will be just as scathing on the points within its remit that Fabiani’s nodding dogs are steamrollering over in the Parliamentary Inquiry.
I didn’t realise there was a Dunlop Review.
Will make the Fabiani farce look even more like a cover up if there is no condemnation of the FM, SG, various civil servants
Pity it has come out the same day that lockdown restrictions lifting dates are announced.
Anyone would think they did it on purpose …
It won’t make any difference , Nicla the apologists and sycophants will ignore any recommendations because ONLY Nicla is to be believed and anyway Nicla has NEARLY PROMISED us a referendum , she is EVEN preparing a DRAFT bill to show she really, really ,really means it this time
You wouldn’t expect recommendations to do anything other than address the shortfalls found. Thus, it’s no surprise they didn’t happen in the AS investigation.
The real tell will be what else is in the report, if anything.
Absolutely unbelievable that the author of the procedure is still in a job.
Nowhere else in society or industry would survive this AND the best is yet to come.
I use the word “best” loosely.
I really mean damning.
This is an interesting bit. Remember the FM and others telling the committee that despite chucking the case they had good grounds for winning arguments that were not heard
“8.51 As I have already observed, whether these were arguments which rendered the application of the procedure to the petitioner invalid was not tested in court, and the concession of the case on an agreed basis leaves the question unanswered. But if the aim is to maintain a process for dealing with complaints against former Ministers, it would be prudent to strengthen that process against these criticisms.”
Sounds like damning lawyer speak to me.
And furthermore, he was innocent – the whole thing little more than a shabby fit-up befitting the work of useless, lazy bastards or drunkards – these people are promising indy ref again.
Wolffe gets in the neck, and rightly so.
“QC and Labour peer Lord Falconer has accused Scotland’s Lord Advocate of being “corrupted by politics” in relation to the advice given to government in the Alex Salmond affair.”
https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,lord-falconer-wolffe-has-been-corrupted-by-politics-16951
Fabulous journalism once again from WoS. What newspaper would have the gumption to put this together so succinctly?
One word of caution for Mia, before she starts….no evidence whatsoever of British State involvement here. This is a uniquely Scottish fandango.
Someone made a comment about Trump it could have even been him that made it anyway
The comment was he could walk down broadway shoot someone in the head and he would get away with it , supporters of Princess Nicola are so bloody blind and stupid she would probably get the benefit of the doubt even if caught stabbing their granny by the cenotaph in George Square ,
How much information , how many times does it need to be pointed out to them
YOU AINT GETTING A REFERENDUM not this year, not next year , you will all be fkn DEAD just pop into William Hill see what odds they give you on Indyref2 being held in the next 5 years .
I’ll await the report which simply states: “Don’t try and stitch decent people up on ridiculous, fabricated nonsense while covering up for the real sex pests.” I realise I may be waiting some time.
Every person who was involved in this should be clearing their desks right now and going tonight with no payout and they should also lose all their pension rights .
MaggieC says:
Not enough, a forced labour camp for 25years to set an example. I suggest internment in Cultybraggan, it was good enough for former Nazis, SS and Scottish squadies so good enough for them.
The main players are going down a very dangerous path. There are nutters out there who may not take kindly to being let down, lied to,bullshitted and robbed for years. When the penny drops there could be trouble which I am NOT advocating.
“no evidence whatsoever of British State involvement here”
I see a lot of evidence proving the British state involvement. We can start by the a crown agent and the UK civil service being right at the core of this. We can continue with the fact that the lengths the MSM and broadcasters have gone to present the corrupt to the core Sturgeon in a good light while like vultures undermining the ruling of the jury and openly demonising the victim in this case that is Mr Salmond even after he was declared non guilty. We can continue with the lengths the staunchly anti-independence opposition parties have gone to look the other way while helping to suppress by not actively demanding it that evidence so they are protecting Sturgeon’s arse, that of Swinney after refusing to abide by 2 parliamentary votes, that of the alleged perjurers, that of the most incompetent and unprincipled UK civil servants and Lord Advocate ever seen in Scotland’s history, that of the plants in the SNP and COPFS and that of her chosen successor.
The other source of evidence is of course the lengths the opposition parties have gone to tolerate a buffoon like Fabiani acting as a gatekeeper of what information the committee receives and that some of the civil servants were allowed to be excused from the questioning under oath on rather dodgy grounds and allowed to get away with sending a statement.
If all those opposition parties were not actively trying to protect the fingers and the strings of the british state in all this, those parties, their headquarters down in England and the entire MSM would have pulverised to ashes this government and the SNP long time ago.
Do you hear a peep from the England party leaders regarding this?
I don’t. Why missing the best opportunity those parties could ever have to score a massive goal against Sturgeon and the SNP?
Because it is imperative to protect the fingers of the British state from view in case the electorate in Scotland sees them and the whole operation backfires.
Now, where is the evidence you claim proves there was not involvement from the British state?
Captain Yossarian says:
One word of caution for Mia, before she starts….no evidence whatsoever of British State involvement here. This is a uniquely Scottish fandango.
Reply
It could be argued that the British State spotted a way to manipulate Nicola Sturgeon.
Back then she was obsessed with women as victims/MeeToo.
“British State” helped & encouraged her to agree to the creation of a complaints procedure that included former ministers.
Now if you wanted to manipulate her it would have to be something to do with trans rights.
This is her current weakness.
Rather than employing a QC to make recommendations for handling complaints would it not be better if the Scottish Civil service HR staff went back to HR training school either that or got booted out and properly trained staff were employed.
Was this the report mentioned on the BBC Six O’Clock News? They made it sound as though it was just a lawyer passing comment on the case, although they did say, for the first time I’ve seen it in the MSM that the Scottish Government admitted its procedure was illegal.
One of the traits of the Sturgeon cabal is that they always have back up plans.
The complaints procedure, the criminal case, the leak to the Daily Record. They destroyed Alex’s career. It didn’t matter which attack did the damage.
Scottish oligarchy look like incompetent version of the British one. Can’t even do a coup.
@Ruby:
The only problem with your theory about the involvement of the British Govt on the back of #MeToo is: we know the Cabinet Office told Evans & Co that they should NOT be pursuing former ministers, and they went ahead and did it anyway.
I’m afraid this festival of spite and mendacity has been entirely homegrown.
David Davis says he has been passed documents by whistleblower regarding Alex Salmond investigation? According to Nick Eardley on Twitter.
David Davis now bringinging it up in parliament. The SNP are toast.
This report is not important news. BBC Scotland leads with a headline about hairdressers being able to re-open on April 5th. Now, that’s what you call NEWS! STOP PRESS!
Who cares about all that stuff about Alex Salmon’ when the really important thing today is that everyone will be able to get a haircut in three weeks’ time.
Even Nicola, I suppose, instead of having to submit herself to all these ‘Do-It-Yourself’ jobs she has been going on about during lockdown.
‘The population needs to get its priorities right’, says oor auld Auntie.
Oh good a whistleblower. Can sturgeon be prosecuted or does she have immunity like in the EU?
David Davis is good friends with Alex Salmond. The door could be about to get blown off.
And Mia… seriously. You aren’t doing yourself any favours.
Former Cabinet minister David Davis using adjournment debate in Commons to raise concerns about process surrounding @AlexSalmond investigation. On @BBCParliament now.
David Davis speaking in HoC now. Civil servant removed an e-mail from a bundle of documents approved by counsel to hand over to court of session in Salmond case, a summary dismissal offence – devastating. Davis tearing into Scottish government.
One of the things I took from Peter Wright’s Spycatcher was the impression that only those old enough to be in receipt of a Government State Pension could be said to be ‘former’ employees of the UK’s intelligence agencies.
Perhaps those suggesting no involvement on the part of the British State in all this mess might do well to remember that.
AnneDon says:
16 March, 2021 at 7:26 pm
@Ruby:
The only problem with your theory about the involvement of the British Govt on the back of #MeToo is: we know the Cabinet Office told Evans & Co that they should NOT be pursuing former ministers, and they went ahead and did it anyway.
I’m afraid this festival of spite and mendacity has been entirely homegrown.
Reply
It’s just a theory!
You’ve got to admit that Sturgeon appears to be someone who is easily manipulated.
Maybe they didn’t manipulate her but they could very easily.
What’s to say the Cabinet Office didn’t say to Evans & Co. that they should NOT be pursuing former ministers, but when it comes to that ******* Salmond we wish you the best of luck!
I love David Davis 🙂
@Mia – the only folk on the Fabiani Committee who asked pertinent questions of Sturgeon were the Unionist parties…Margaret Mitchel, Murdo Frazer and the MSP fae Dumberton. They tried.
Lord Falconer said earlier today the the Lord Advocate in Scotland is a political tool. I’m sure the Directors of Duff and Phelps would put it more strongly than that.
It’s about time he and the rest of the SNP removed their grotesque faces from the Scottish psyche for the next 5-years.
The Unionists tried to have the balding gangster Swinney removed by VoNC last week and it was voted down by the Green hobgoblin. 0.4% of folk voted Green and yet he sets the political agenda in this broken land.
None of these reports or committees are going to give consideration to the idea that there was an attempt made to frame an innocent man and put him in jail.
And, yet, that’s what most people who have taken more than a passing interest in the matter think.
This isn’t even about Salmond. It’s about using state power to persecute private citizens, the sort of crime we see and condemn regularly in third world countries.
It’s actually the sort of case that Amnesty International gets involved in and I wonder if Salmond has considered contacting them. Someone should.
This is not about botched handling, badly implemented procedures, clumsiness or carelessness. It’s about a crime that seems to have taken place. Until that specific issue is investigated and addressed, this will never be over.
Mia @ 7.14pm – Bang on. ?
Bozo & co. must be calculating if they can shut down Holyrood on the basis that the SNP, the Murrels and the Scottish legal establishment are so corrupt, stupid and incompetent that they are not fit to be left in charge of Scotland. You can bet your life that all this crap will be all over the Yoon media on the run up to the election.
For anyone who was just watching BBC Parliament, we’ll have video up just as soon as we can upload it.
Captain Yossarian says:
16 March, 2021 at 6:38 pm
One word of caution for Mia, before she starts….no evidence whatsoever of British State involvement here. This is a uniquely Scottish fandango.
Absolutely correct Herr Kapitan.
Wolff’s sidekick the Crown Agent, David Harvie (who brought in the police against the will of the complainers), is not now, more ever has been an MI5 agent – and the Brit State has absolutely no interest if fostering a complete fuck-up by the SNP, Scottish Government, the Brit Civil Service in St Andrews House, with the SNPs most prominent leaders at each others’ throats.
Oh no.
At the risk of being mistaken for a Russian Bot, I just ask:
Cui Bono?
How much damning criticism has to come out before the Queen of Scots does the decent thing? Ah but I forgot, Sturgeon would never do the decent thing. Scotland fast becoming a failed state. A laughing stock.
https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/67a700ab-4500-4fdb-802b-f2e06854f6e1
David Davis at 19.26
After what David Davis has just read out surely Murrell, McCann, Ruddick, Lloyd and Wolfe have to go.
Lloyd, McCann and Ruddick should surely be subject to a criminal investigation for tampering with an ongoing investigation?
The text showing Lloyd’s awareness of the invetsigation on the 28th February is absolutely shocking.
@ Rev Stu
I thought this kind of bombshell moment always happened when you were on bear patrol or at the dentist…?!
What is the world coming to…? 🙂
A political party on the verge of breaking up Britain and the security services are not involved.
Aye right – and I believe in the Tooth Fairy.
Something i would never have believed in my puff.. David Davis a TORY !!! doing more for Scottish Independence than that useless bunch of SNP MPs have ever done, The wurld turned up-side down
Mia,
I’m with you. There are too many players involved in the Smearing of Alec, too much money wasted, too many resources allocated in my opinion for this to be completely homegrown. Is it possible that the Smear was not designed to put Alec in Jail but undermine the Scottish government, the civil service and the crown office making Scotland seem totally corrupt and incompetent at managing it’s own affairs? The mud sticking to Alec was enough to damage his reputation making it unlikely he’d ever return to politics. Win, win.
The timing of the HCB and GRA leading into Brexit when the Union was at its weakest is also a huge indicator. The media silence on the missing indy fighting fund, Peter Murrell’s undisclosed salary, the blocking of JC for Edinburgh and the parachuting in of AR as the establishments choice should Sturgeon fall also makes me suspicious. Any pro-union newspaper would be all over these in a heartbeat to discredit the SNP if it wasn’t part of the plan.
Yes Sturgeon is a sociopath, potentially a psychopath but that doesn’t mean she’s not getting help from outside or is not being blackmailed to destroy the movement from within. The marriage of convenience secured years ago makes the latter less likely in my opinion.
@Garavelli Princip – No-one cares two hoots who James Wolffe’s assistant is. James Wolffe is in charge and he has been politically got-at. Lord Falconer said as much a couple of hours ago. A crap bricklayer cannot blame his labourer….and thus it is too for the Lord Advocate.
Captain Yossarian says:
16 March, 2021 at 6:38 pm
One word of caution for Mia, before she starts….no evidence whatsoever of British State involvement here. This is a uniquely Scottish fandango.
Pre-emptive strike there, Mr Catch 22.
So you win if the British State uses hidden powers to prevent further investigation?
“Trebles all round!!!”
You’ve got to laugh, or bury your head in the cold wet sand, or demand change (that’s why MSP’s have email addresses).
Ken whuh?
Eh’m scunnirt.
The party I have been supporting since 1967 has become toxic.
As others have typed, the raison d’etre of the party has been forgotten. Personal ego seems to have become “the thing”.
Not the kind of party I want to see negotiating Scottish Independence.
Where do we go from here?
I think David Davis has asked and provided the most powerfiul argument for more powers to be devolved to Scotland in the last 40 minutes than Sturgeon’s cohort have in the last 7 years!
Just go Sturgeon, leave now, take teh rest of your pals with you
John Cleary says: No Sir….it is the Scottish Government that do that….prevent further investigation. They have experience at sticking together come what may and closing down all avenues of investigation. An hour ago in the HoC, it was David Davis, an old friend of Alex Salmond, who stood-up to defend him. None of that at Holyrood.
Predict Stu’s next headline. I’ll go for KA-BOOM!.
Do people here think that the British state does not keep a close eye on everything that is going on in the devolved governments. Very quietly, sure, but also very closely. Yes, we know that there is evidence of written advice not to go after former Ministers, but how persistently did the agents of the British state insist on the point?
Were they really disappointed – or to the contrary, delighted? – when the Scottish Government ignored their advice? Wouldn’t they have thought that this was too god to be true – they had covered their own backs with that piece of advice, and at the same time the Scots were going to shoot themselves in the foot by going after Alex Salmond themselves?
Just because there is one email or whatever – one solitary piece of evidence – advising against pursuing Salmond or any other ex-Minister, it does not necessarily tell us the whole story. Why was there only one effort to stop it? Why not more? Why did they suddenly desist, and let the thing carry on anyway? And just because only one piece of written evidence remains does not mean that there could not have been follow-ups of a less traceable kind – phone calls, private conversations, a nod and a wink here and there – that contradicted that piece of evidence, and went in the opposite direction.
Besides ‘sins of commission’ there are also ‘sins of omission’. The British agents might not have had to engineer the whole sorry business, but you could imagine that they were fully cognizant with it at every stage – they are not inefficient – and just let it happen. It suited their purposes to do so, and in that case maybe they gave it a nudge forward here and there, without anyone realising where that nudge was coming from, whenever it seemed to them appropriate.
That doesn’t prove that anything like that happened. Nothing can disprove it either. It is certainly possible. The question everyone can ask themselves is whether it sounds probable, or improbable – more likely or less likely.
I don’t think what Mia is saying has to be be dismissed out of hand just because of one solitary e-mail, or whatever it was. If they were so concerned about the issue, why wasn’t there more than one such piece of evidence indicating their concern? Why did they never press the matter further (because if they had, we would surely have heard about it)? Pushing the boat out a little further, why did they soft-peddle on the matter and, as far as we can see from the evidence (or lack thereof), fail to pursue it with a bit more vigour?
Mia is being her usual cogent self here. Nobody has to agree, and it is certainly possible to imagine the whole thing otherwise if that’s what you prefer. What we can’t do is prove Mia wrong. These are alternative possibilities – but, as in deciding alternative historical scenarios of almost any kind, the question is which sounds more probable, taking into account all the admittedly scant evidence available. How do you imagine the gaps in that evidence, and how do you propose to fill them?
Maybe David Davis is saying, or has said something which will help us out on this and related questions. How is he doing? The jigsaw has many pieces missing, not just the identities of the Alphabet Women which matters not at all to me personally. The other missing pieces might be a lot more important than that – if only we can find down the back of someone’s sofa in Bute House or somewhere or other. Come on David, give us a helping hand …
Watched the viseo. Davis has just provided all the ammo that the Yoons could wish for in the next election. There won’t be enough popcorn in the whole world.
“Captain Yossarian says:
16 March, 2021 at 8:06 pm
@Garavelli Princip – No-one cares two hoots who James Wolffe’s assistant is. James Wolffe is in charge and he has been politically got-at.”
Point missed entirely – either deliberately or otherwise. The formal relationship between Wollfe and Harvie is irrelevant. In the Brit outpost of the Crown Office, the MI5 man calls the shots.
The simpering fool that is Wolffe diz whit he’s telt!
This game is working swimmingly for our Brit masters.
Why weren’t the SNP MPs/MSPs speaking out,weeks/months ago?
I’ve voted SNP at all elections and I now feel ashamed, [yes ashamed, truly ashamed!] that it took a Tory of impeccable credentials, in a silent House of Commons to partially expose the rot at the top of Sturgeon’s SNP Party, her Senior Civil Service and the Office of her Lord Advocate among many others…
Mr Davis left a lot unsaid…
If only half of what he is saying, the muck in Scotland’s Seats of Power needs cleaning out ASAP including the great Conspirator herself!
Tomorrow for starters!
The saddest aspect of this disgraceful affair is that some will still try and defend Sturgeon and her acolytes. SNP blown out of the water.
“Is it possible that the Smear was not designed to put Alec in Jail but undermine the Scottish government”
Personally I do not think the criminal court case was in the cards as the first option, but considering the speed at which it was called upon when the things started to go awry for Sturgeon’s team of rogues and considering that they had complainants in stand by (“we will sit on this and hope we don’t have to deploy it), it is my personal opinion that this was already part of a complex pre-designed strategic plan that included contingencies and damage limitation avenues.
I am convinced these people were following a script that somebody out of the Sgov and possibly out of Scotland had designed for them. There is no way that with the stupendous level of stupidity displayed by those plants in the SNP, the bluntness of the Lord Advocate, even the way the crown agent approached the police for the investigation, the incompetence of those civil servants and their dodgy interaction with the police , and even Sturgeon herself in the obvios way she attempted to detach herself from the whole thing, they actually came up with anything like a decent strategic plan. These people were leaving massive footprints and fingerprints everywhere. They were not exactly subtle. These are soldiers executing a plan, not generals, never mind thinkers designing one as the went along.
I am of the opinion it was the British State who started it all at some point in 2017. I have never believed that Mr Salmond simply lost the seat and that other tory idiot, half the politician Mr Salmond is, just waltzed in by his own means.
I have always been convinced that the reason why Theresa May called the GE in 2017 was not to get a bigger majority as we were led to believe, but rather to get rid of some inconvenient elements, Mr Salmond among them, from the HoC at a time when very rough brexit seas were ahead particularly when it came to stealing Scotland’s assets and the backstop.
2017 was the first point at which the fraud set us back. She did not campaign for independence and she took advantage of her losing so many seats to push the yes movement back. Very convenient, don’t you think?
If you look at 2017, around the November 2017 and even sooner, an awful lot of tory and labour politicians down south were ousted as being involved in sexual harassment complaints. All of them at the same time. Same modus operandi. A coincidence? I doubt it. As a result of this fishing expedition two men ended up taking their own lives which was real tragedy, both labour politicians, one in England and another in Wales. Bizarrely, and as a way to cover this tragic end up, and exactly the same as they are doing now with Mr Salmond, the families of those poor men, clearly victims in all this, were insulted even further with the faux cry “and what about the women?” referring to those who put the complaints. Even without ever been proved if those complaints had even been true, suddenly these women were made the victims instead of the deceased men and their families. Exactly the same as with Mr Salmond, there was a massive rush and urgency to protect the identity of these women. Again, let me repeat, even that those accusations were never even proven nor would ever be. With Mr Salmond it is even worse. The accusations were proven to have been false in most cases, but the identity of perjurers takes priority over common sense, justice and fairness to the public that has been paying for all this charade.
So, did this fishing expedition and wave of harassment complaints emerged from the metoo crap nonsense that Sturgeon and Evans are trying to sell us as their motivation? I doubt it very much. I am inclined to think that the wave of harassment complaints had much more to do with a demand of 100% compliance with the new EU withdrawal bill that the UK gov was planning to pass through parliament, how many times was that, four and that finally passed in December 2017.
By November 2017 Mr Salmond was in line to get editorial rights for the Scotsman. That combined with the possibility of him coming back, I think that spook them big time. But his RT programme actually sent them into meltdown. There were mentioning this everywhere, the press, the radio, broadcasters, even in the HoC when he was already a private citizen and free to do what he wanted within the law!
I honestly think at that point the British state realised of its terrible mistake: at least in the HoC and under Sturgeon, they had him under certain kind of leash. But out of the HoC, out of Holyrood and on course to take editorial control of a reasonably popular at the time newspaper and with a programme in a broadcaster the British state could not stick its fingers in to control the narrative, made Mr Salmond in the view of the british state a very dangerous and unpredictable loose cannon. And what was worse, a dangerous and unpredictable loose cannon still part of the SNP and with a great influence in its policies and overshadowing the actual leader, which had very large boots to fill.
The coincidence of the dates in all this is astonishing. That Sky news got hold of the airport story that had happened 8 years earlier right at that time tells you that somebody had to have leaked it to them. Who leaked it to them? Didn’t Mr Murray published in one of his articles that MI5 had investigated this “incident” in the past but could not get anywhere with it?
This clearly did not stick in the way they hoped, so the next stage in the plan is the fabrication of the complaints procedure in line with what was happening all over the UK to stitch up all those other politicians.
In my view the idea behind this was to spook him into resigning from the SNP and exiting RT. If he had done so, I would bet my right arm that the whole thing would have ended right there and then and we would hear about it for a couple of weeks in the press and that would be it.
But it did not work out like that. Mr Salmond got himself legal advice and fought back. Well, that was clearly not in the plan. The complaints procedure, as Evans said, was a HR tool, and a dodgy and rushed one at that, not a serious one made to withstand legal scrutiny. At this point they knew they would lose, so what is the next thing?
The police investigation to force him to abandon the judicial review. Again, I am convinced that if he had abandoned it for lack of funds or whatever, the whole thing would have stopped there. But it didn’t. So it went to the end.
Again, the result did not pan out as they hoped. He was declared no guilty and at that point, he emerged as the wronged victim an with even more popularity that before. That could not do, so here comes the smear campaign through the MSM, broadcasters, the crocodile tears letters from the perjurers, and the continuous pumping of propaganda from the government subsidised outlets.
There was only one thing left: the inquiry. The inquiry had to be transformed from a proper government inquiry into a whitewash designed to finish the smearing job on Salmond. This is where we have been since the Fabiani’s Farce started and you can tell that the inquiry has not done the job because there are already “reporters” with “programs” in the oven and ready to be released to finish what the inquiry has failed to do: finish Mr Salmond’s reputation.
Along this you can see what is going on:
you can see that there is a relentless attempt to push Mr Salmond out of the SNP and out of politics. There is an urgency to it, judging by the ridiculous speed the complaints procedure was designed from scratch. Even now, the whole thing, and I mean the whole political, judicial, COPFS, police etc machinery is in one mission mode: to stop Mr Salmond leading a party and transforming the election into a plebiscite.
From the beginning what you can see is a ramping up of the tools that have become more and more desperate, blunt and intense as the time goes. They are desperate. And their desperation tells us that there still is time to have that plebiscite.
There are some similarities here with the case of that Wales’ politician that took his own life. The complaints procedure was also well dodgy and like with Mr Salmond, the biggest rush was to make the result public, even before the man himself had the time to know what went wrong. The family of the Wales’ man took the Wales’ gov to court. They settle out of court. Everything rather than exposing the unlawfulness of the procedure in a court of law. And they are still expecting us to believe the complaints procedure in Scotland was a separate thing? Yeah, right.
I am convinced this was a manoeuvre from the British state to remove Mr Salmond out of the political scene at the most difficult and delicate time for the UK. What all this proves to me beyond doubt is that Sturgeon is a British state stooge that simply follows orders and that the British state has no fear of at all. What I think the British state feared is that the UK would have not survived brexit had Mr Salmond been still in the SNP and in the HoC or Holyrood.
Let’s remember that it is only after Mr Salmond left the SNP that the fraud started to disembowel the party allowing the trojan horse masquerading as genderwoowoo to take over. The remit with regards to the SNP was in my view very clear:
1. To neuter the SNP as a pro indy vehicle
2. To remove from the party the only person that could have driven that vehicle to independence.
3. To stop any real pro indy potential leader, particularly Cherry to get anywhere near the driving seat.
But that is of course just my opinion.
@Mia says 16 March, 2021 at 7:14 pm
no evidence whatsoever of British State involvement here
“I see a lot of evidence proving the British state involvement”
————————————————————–
There is no such “evidence” or “proof” , whether you just make it all deliberately up or you are just clueless i don’t know.
The people involved are NOT UK Civil Service they are all to a person “Scottish Government” civil service and all directly answerable to Nicola Sturgeon.
I’m not even going to go down the rabbit hole of most of the rest of your feckwittery.
Leslie Evans worked for the Scottish Government for many years before being getting Her new Job by Nicola Sturgeons choice alone NOT the UK Governments. Leslie Evans Husband is an SNP Activist FFS and yet you are trying to suggest she works for UK Gov ? Are you mad ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Evans#Career
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16602169.alex-salmond-probe-conspiracy-theory-mi5-debunked/
https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/nicola-sturgeon-appoints-leslie-evans-as-new-scottish-government-permanent-secretary
@ Mia says:16 March, 2021 at 9:38 pm
“I am convinced these people were following a script that somebody out of the Sgov and possibly out of Scotland had designed for them.”
Christ Almighty another inane rant , have you ever tried Lithium ?
“The people involved are NOT UK Civil Service they are all to a person “Scottish Government” civil service and all directly answerable to Nicola Sturgeon”
Well I think Mark Sedwill might have something to say about that. Although thinking about that, at this moment in time he may want to put as much land and space as he can between him and the fiasco in Scotland.
As a matter of fact, Mr Sedwill had a say in the extension of Ms Evans’ contract until 2022 and Mr Douglas Ross, manager of the England Tory branch in Scotland did not write to Sturgeon demanding Evans to be sacked for breaching the civil service code. He wrote in August 2020 to Mark Sedwill, at the time the highest ranking Civil Servant in the UK.
Clearly, like me, Mr Ross does not believe for a second either that Nicola Sturgeon was ever Evans’ boss.
Isn’t it a fascinating coincidence that at at time when the sht is starting to hit the fan, when the real scale of the fiasco at the hands of the UK civil Service in Scotland is starting to be apparent, at a time when even the unionist parties are demanding Evans to resign, Mr Sedwill, under whom all those civil servants worked in the unlawful complaints procedure, was suddenly in SEptember 2020, less than a month after Mr Ross wrote to him demanding the sacking of Evans for breaking the code, catapulted to the HoL, and out of the way to avoid more light from Scotland coming into the Uk cabinet office and its links with the fiasco?
The timeline of events has its own story to tell, don’t you agree?
Complaints of this sort should be dealt with by a neutral panel. There always seemed to be too much interference from within, disregarding of legal advice, disregarding of Whitehall civil service advice, etc. A half-baked approach to serious business by a bunch of amateurs. It is to be hoped that the SNPG will adopt the recommendations of the review. A little humility would not go amiss.
@ Mia says:16 March, 2021 at 10:06 pm
“Clearly, like me, Mr Ross does not believe for a second either that Nicola Sturgeon was ever Evans’ boss.”
Your lack of understanding is the issue i’m afraid , I suggest you ask Mhiari Hunter who Leslie Evans works for, who does her appraisals , who it is that signs off Her expenses and Leave etc 🙂
@ Pete Roberts 16 March, 2021 at 8:26 pm
“Watched the viseo. Davis has just provided all the ammo that the Yoons could wish for in the next election. There won’t be enough popcorn in the whole world”
Well its nice that you clearly prefer a corrupt Government than to hold one to proper account.
Mia says,
“I see a lot of evidence proving the British state involvement. We can start by the a crown agent and the UK civil service being right at the core of this.”
No Mia, Sturgeon was right at the core of it, not the British state.
The UK civil service had advised against the illegal procedure.
Leslie Evans went ahead with it on Sturgeon’s instructions and was handsomely rewarded for it by the extension of her contract and a big pay rise, after the loss in the judicial review.
Leslie Evans, in the pocket of Sturgeon, sent the file to the crown agent, who was under her command.
If it was the British state, why are you not voting against the unionists with your constituency vote and in favour of a pro indy party on the list vote?
I might watch fmqs tomorrow. I’ve quite taken to Moothie Ruthie asking nicophant awkward questions lol…the gammonosity will be overflowing tomorrow lolz
The Fabiani committee asked for a witness statement to be forwarded to them from Angus Robertson. He is involved in Alex’s stitch up.
Anybody that votes for him should hang their head in shame. They will be playing along with Nicolas plan in implementing him as your FM. God he will be worse than she is.
If only you guys knew how deeply the Robertson’s are involved.
Kieilassie – I live in Edinburgh Central and will not be voting for AR.
Ann Rayner says:
17 March, 2021 at 9:21 am
Kieilassie – I live in Edinburgh Central and will not be voting for AR.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Scotland deserves better than this.
Don says:
16 March, 2021 at 9:39 pm
@Mia says 16 March, 2021 at 7:14 pm
no evidence whatsoever of British State involvement here
“I see a lot of evidence proving the British state involvement”
————————————————————–
There is no such “evidence” or “proof” , whether you just make it all deliberately up or you are just clueless i don’t know.
There is, but it is prevented from publication, by all means available.
Leslie Evans Husband is an SNP Activist FFS and yet you are trying to suggest she works for UK Gov ? Are you mad ?
Ha ha, please provide evidence of the actions of his activism.