Limping to the line
Scotland’s two main political parties have published their 2024 accounts. The SNP’s can be found here, and Scottish Labour’s here. Neither tells a massively inspiring tale.
(Click pics to enlarge.)
The SNP lost £445,000 despite being boosted by donations totalling almost £940,000 from just FOUR individuals. Scottish Labour made a profit of £350,000 but only because it was bailed out to the tune of £777,000 by the UK party, otherwise it would have made a very similar loss to the SNP’s (specifically £428,000).
Neither of those things are surprising, since 2024 was a UK general election year and those are when parties spend big. But the devil, as always, is in the details.
First, though, let’s look at a couple of lines from the image above. SNP supporters have sneered at the size of UK Labour’s contribution as being a “subsidy” from south of the border, but in fact it’s nearly £100,000 smaller than the “Miscellaneous” figure for the SNP, which the party deliberately disguises under such a vague heading because it comes from… the UK government.
(Labour is of course in receipt of similar funds, but because the Scottish “party” is in fact a branch office, it goes to Scottish Labour via the UK party rather than directly. But the source of the money is ultimately the same for both.)
It’s hard not to raise an eyebrow at the gulf in membership income for the two parties. Wings has remarked in previous years about the remarkable resilience of the SNP’s membership income even as its actual membership plummets, with remaining members squeezed ever tighter to keep income around the same level.
The party had under 59,000 members at the end of 2024, a drop of over 20% from the previous year (and down a whopping 54% from its peak in 2019), but income fell by just 13%.
At just over £1.83 million, though, it still dwarfed Scottish Labour’s extraordinarily measly £73,000. If membership fees were equal, that would suggest Scottish Labour had just 2,360 paying members. (Their accounts do not disclose a figure, and as far as we can tell the last published one was 16,500 in 2021.)
In reality it’s more likely that membership fees are included in the contribution from UK Labour, but with the figures kept secret there’s no way to be sure. However, we do know that the UK party has shed almost 40% of its members since 2020, so a fair estimate for the Scottish branch, irrespective of the income stats, might be somewhere around the 10,000 mark.
Those are two spectacular declines in the space of just a single Parliamentary term. Voters are abandoning both the SNP and Labour in something close to a stampede, yet there’s little doubt this pair of lame ducks battling to go down the toilet fastest will still be the two biggest parties at next year’s election.
Both have hapless leaders with track records of failure, both are significantly at war with their own members and supporters (whether it be over gender ideology, independence, welfare or Palestine), far more so than they have any actual political differences with each other, and both of them are essentially bankrupt organisations being bailed out by taxpayers and the dead. Take your pick, you lucky voters.
The SNP are probably in the most trouble, though. For one thing, they can’t rely on rich benefactors like Estelle Brownrig to keep dying.
South African-born Ms Brownrig, who only spent six years of her life in Scotland, has remarkably bequeathed around £620,000 to the party in four separate donations since her death seven and a half years ago. We’re not sure at this point if there are any more instalments yet to come, but it’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the demise of a single foreign pensioner has kept the SNP afloat for much of the last half-decade.
We’re also not sure if it’s just a coincidence that the “Alexander Adams” who donated £250,000 last year has such a similar name to Alexander Adam, a property tycoon who was at the centre of a storm over SNP donations and lucrative government contracts back in 2015.
Adams (with an S) appears to be still alive according to various media reports, but we haven’t been able to identify him. The only living Alexander Adamses we’ve been able to find with a public profile are an English artist and writer with no discernible interest in Scotland, and, intriguingly, this one:
But we do know that Thomas McCann (who kicked in £230,000) and Robert Benzie (£256,000) have, like Estelle Brownrig, departed this mortal coil, according to the Daily Express and Scottish Sun respectively, and are therefore unlikely to make many more contributions to the coffers.
The SNP’s spending at last year’s election was dramatically lower than previous years.
Even including the shoestring 2010 UK contest (with just £316,000 spent) the party averages £1.2m per election, but last year spent a third less than that. With its balance sheet now in the red, it’s very hard to see where it’s going to find the £1.5m it typically spends on a Holyrood GE, or even a fraction of it.
(Of the infamous £600,000 Referendum Appeal Fund, which is both ringfenced AND “woven through” the accounts, and available to spend at a moment’s notice should a second indyref ever be granted, there is of course no sign.)
Despite the parlous political state of Labour and a Conservative vote decimated by Reform, if it cheaps out on spending like it did in 2024, it could still risk a catastrophe. Labour, meanwhile, has millions in the bank and can afford to chuck some of it at Scotland in a desperate bid to revive its ailing fortunes with some kind of win – it splashed £1.3m on Anas Sarwar and his team eight months ago, outspending the SNP by half a million with spectacular results.
It would certainly help the SNP if they could stop throwing away manifestly absurd amounts of money every year. The logic of continuing to hire a 15,000-capacity area to host a conference for around 800 delegates escapes us, as does the blowing of £165,000 on mysterious unspecified “audio visual” at it.
Conference at least almost pays for itself, bringing in £443,000 from sponsors and attendees to offset its costs of £475,000. But the SNP’s spending on IT, which we’ve highlighted in previous years, continues to astound.
For an organisation of around 20 staff to be spending £10,000 per year per employee on infotech is simply staggering. There is no pertinent software whose annual licence approaches such levels, and nobody needs a new laptop or iPad every year. If we were on the SNP NEC we’d be tabling some urgent requests for a breakdown of such figures, and we’d have been doing it for quite a few years now.
The SNP’s staff costs themselves were astronomical, coming in at around £56,000 a head compared to £21,000 a head for Scottish Labour. The ditching of more than a third of its employees this year will slash that in future, particularly after dumping high-ticket items like COO Sue Ruddick, although it cost dearly in redundancy payoffs.
And £259,000 in fundraising costs to raise £274,000 in receipts? Well, it IS a profit, we suppose, but you’d have made around 20 times the return by just putting it into Bitcoin over the same period.
60% depreciation for a vehicle that’s only got about 200 miles on the clock from being driven from the dealership to Peter Murrell’s mum’s house is quite a hit. We are SO doing a crowdfunder for the police auction on that if Murrell is found guilty. Although since the Herald today suggested he won’t be put on trial for another TWO YEARS, they’ll practically be giving it away by then.
And lastly, we’re quite curious as to what these are for:
“Professional fees” is a terribly vague term that could cover a whole multitude of sins. Limousine drivers to take Neil Gray to the football, maybe? Replacement scooters for Humza Yousaf? And there may be a story in why the accountancy fee has almost tripled while the audit fee has fallen by £30,000 but that’s a dark and bewildering world to us so we’ll wait and see if someone who understands it can explain.
But the upshot of it all is that next year’s election is going to be fought between a couple of rotten old nags fit only for the knacker’s yard. Neither the SNP nor Scottish Labour are capable of sustaining themselves without massive regular bailouts from either the taxpayer or the dead.
(The SNP is circling the drain more closely, since it’s running out of options. As well as hefty redundancies it’s already cannibalised its branches’ funding repeatedly, and that well is running dry, and losing most of its MPs in 2024 will continue to take a heavy toll in both Short money and MP levies. Unlike Scottish Labour it has no “lender of last resort” in the form of a UK big brother.)
At some point a dynamic new contender is going to appear and barge them both aside. We doubt that’ll be in 2026, but hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later, because we can’t go on like this. Scotland deserves better.
The depreciation of Mein Kampfervan is just on the books a straight line depreciation / accounting trick.
Its real value given the market for campers will still be roughly the same as the purchase price although the are starting to drop a bit now after the Covid surge.
The depreciation of the css as Moët am is not an accounting trick. It complies with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the UK and with centuries of good accounting practice throughout the world.
css as Moët am = campervan.
Obviously.
Unless it’s been regularly maintained then it’s likely to be rotting from not having been used. I would be very careful and have it checked out before buying.
So SNP are not only morally bankrupt but will be financially bankrupt too.
Couldn’t have asked for a better outcome after Nicola’s reign.
There’s only one thing to say: neither one of them could run a menauge, far less a country.
They are gangsters. An organised crime syndicate.
Meanwhile the Leftwing ponce around in T shirts acting out their second childhood.
“Scottish Labour made a profit of £350,000 but only because it was bailed out to the tune of £777,000 by the UK party, otherwise it would have made a very similar loss to the SNP’s (specifically £428,000)”.
By the same token, the SNP made a loss of £455,000 but only because it was bailed out to the tune of £600,000 by Independence supporters, thinking they were donating to an Indyref2 campaign fund, otherwise it would have made an even bigger loss (specifically £1,055,000).
I asked this on the twitter thread when Stu posted this out, but I supposed there’s no harm in asking any learned individuals here …
I know this isn’t directly related to the main thrust of the article, but does anyone know why an individual’s estate would bequeath an amount over several tax years after death, rather than a lump sum? If IHT was paid on the estate.I wouldn’t have thought there would be any tax benefit for the recipient in doing this?
I have a bit of a nerdy interest in tax rules and all that stuff, so was just curious.
Maybe South Africa still has restrictions on how much cash can be extracted from the country each year?
Aye, but she’d lived in this country for 6 years prior to her death 7.5 years ago . . . and before that she lived in Canada, London, Brussels and South Africa with her husband, so we don’t know where her estate/assets were consolidated, but very odd that her estate is the gift that keeps on giving 🙂
I’m curious too.
A total guess on my part but I wondered about how the dead lady’s estate was held and the process of realising assets after death. If, for example, there were some investments and some properties, these may have been disposed of and become available as transferable cash at different times according to how long it took a particular property to be sold, or holding off on an asset sale (such as shares) until optimum market conditions.
That said, I would consider it more usual for the executors to wait until everything had been resolved (assets and any liabilities that may have attached to the estate) before disbursing any funds, so as I say, just a guess.
Could it be a Trust fund that they’ve left in their will that keeps collecting interest & paying out it’s annual interest as donations to their chosen charities?
It might be that the money is tied up in property. As the properties sell, the party gets the money. Some of the bequest may be principal and interest/dividends on investments.
A quick google search reveals that South Africa does, indeed, have exchange controls.
That last wee caveat about reasons for SNP membership decline did make me smile
“they can’t rely on rich benefactors like Estelle Brownrig to keep dying.”
That’s hilarious.
But can’t a deficit self identify as a profit and everything will be well?
You may find this article of some use as it limits her estate at approximately £1.35 million split between a bequest, the SNP and three other charities. It doesn’t explain why the payments have been made over three years.
“For an organisation of around 20 staff to be spending £10,000 per year per employee on infotech is simply staggering.”
Yes, especially when deleting messages on Whatsapp is free 😉
Obviously, no one has yet considered that Ms Brownrig possibly wanted to keep Scotland’s neck under the jackboot of our imperial masters.
And she concluded that the best way to do that was to donate to Sturgeon’s SNP.
Or, possibly, Ms Brownrig may have just liked the cut of Humza’s jib.
I would really like to know a bit more about her.
“possibly, Ms Brownrig may have just liked the cut of Humza’s jib”
And why not? The voting members of the SNP did when they elected him SNP leader.
And so did a majority of the MSPs in Hollyrood when they elected him First Minister of Scotland.
More than enough of the Scots who counted in Scotland at the time liked the cut of his jib. Let’s not try to re-write history here.
I wonder if Ms Browning has been birling in her grave over the past years of sturgeons mismanagement and incompetence or if she is thinking I wish tae fuck I had donated my inheritance tae the Cardonald dug and cat home, at least I would know that it did some good instead of supporting a shower of deviants and perverts
No helicopter for Swinney then!
SNP SCUM, Scum no longer belongs to the Tories the SNP deserves it.
The SNP won’t have the money to fight an election and other thing will the general public be willing to donate to crowd funds SNP candidates knowing the SNP is bull shiting again on Independence, I think not any way no one has any money with the cost of living.
Next years john Swinney can walk away knowing he’s won the election even if he loses and the SNP is out of government he’s won because he’s stopped Independence and if the SNP folds as a party he’s won either way Scotland is in the union until 2031 that’s been John Swinneys plan all along.
Will anyone in the SNP stop john NAW there all to scared.
Believe in Scotland under the theme “end London rule I’m pretty sure it not about ending London rule, its about finding money for the poor wee SNP.
I’d rather go to an orange lodge meeting with a Celtic top on
“At some point a dynamic new contender is going to appear”
Is this a coded reference to the dynamic duo of Jezza and the Sun Dried Fruit?
“Scotland deserves better”
Maybes naw. If a country gets the leaders it deserves, as has often been claimed, then Scotland and the SNP are truly a marriage made in heaven.
“At some point a dynamic new contender is going to appear”
As postcolonial theory confirms, there will be plenty of genuine nationalist candidates promising to liberate Scotland who will be standing for election in 2026:
link to liberatescotland.scot
Fielding candidates is one thing Alf, actually electing them is another thing. We’ve just seen the SNP polling 25% in a E. Renfrewahire council election, losing to Scottish Labour who polled 42%.
We know that support for independence is at or above 50% at present…so what happened to the other 25% of indy voters?
Many of them stayed at home presumably, but some undoubtedly voted for Labour or other parties. Reform got 22% of the vote, so it seems passing strange that none of the “other” independence parties have managed to break through like Reform has.
The movement certainly has need of a new contender, but ordinary Scottish pro-independence voters seem pretty resistant to changing from the SNP to “A.N. Other” indy party.
Doubtless in your usual way you’ll insist this is a result of our colonial status, because when all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
Scottish unionist voters don’t seem shy of abandoning the Tories, LD’s and Labour to support reform, so perhaps it’s just pro-independence voters that have issues making the leap from the failing SNP to a new party.
It seems pretty clear that Reform will be represented in Holyrood post #GE2026 given the collapse of the Scottish Tory vote. I have my doubts that the current plans involving Salvo, ISP, Liberate Scotland, Sovereignty, Alba et al will help us gain a pro-independence majority, but who knows…perhaps some dramatic development will save us in time?
Does that mean you will be able to post about post colonial facts in 2026?
2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year!
@Andy Ellis
Won’t support for Scottish Labour collapse when somebody books Sultana an Uber tour of Scotland?
She could do photo opportunities in a keffiyeh. That’s gotta be worth hundreds of thousands of votes.
@Hatey 9.20am
Again, ah hae ma doots about the electoral prospects in Scotland for Jezbollah or whatever they’re calling their party this week. If they take seats off “Scottish” Labour in Holyrood then it’s a positive at least in my book.
The more disunited the British nationalists are the better for the independence movement. It seems Reform are largely cannibalising the Scottish Tory vote, but given their showing in recent bye elections and polls, they’re likely to pick up a good number of seats on the list.
Whether that prospect in the run up to #GE2026 gives pro independence but anti SNP voters pause for thought remains to be seen. I’m afraid I tend to agree with Rev Stu: the next Holyrood election will be a huge let down and simply ensure (at least?) 4 or 5 more years of no appreciable progress.
The time for action was when Alba was established: the fact the movement didn’t (and still hasn’t) come up with a coherent response or progressed the cause to any appreciable extent doesn’t exactly presage great things for the upcoming Holyrood election.
@ Andy at 9.00 am
Those stats you’ve posted are from a diddy council by-election with turnout of just 30% of the electorate.
Electing a single Councillor midway through a local authority term is hardly a motivating force for change at pothole reduction and bin collection level, let alone the electorate expressing a desire for constitutional change within the UK.
@Dan 1.26pm
Far be it from me to try and argue that one council vote is all that representative, but unless you’re one of the usual suspects who rubbishes any poll whose result you disagree with, or insists they’re all unionist plots etc., there is no doubt that Reform have made significant inroads.
One poll or vote in a local election may not signify much, but a series of many polls or votes is somewhat harder to write off.
By all means, write off the impact of Farage-ism for the Holyrood elections or prospects of independence all you like, but – absent some black swan event – Reform seem set to make a significant impact in the rest of the UK, even if they don’t do quite as well here.
Who knows, that might turn out to be good for the movement if it sickens enough Scots of Westminster rule to make them grow a pair. We can but hope.
@ Andy at 3:54 pm
I merely pointed out the percentage of the electorate that were motivated to turn out to vote in a by-election, and why it isn’t really a good barometer to determine their motivation for constitutional change of the UK.
Nowhere did I touch on the subject of polling for parties such as Reform, let alone rubbish the stats.
In fact, I have consistently commented on the rise of Reform, and the utter failings of the “Indy” movement’s supposed brightest and best to work towards filling the obvious political vacuum created by the NuSNP’s antics, long before the need to counter Reform’s increasing support.
The only reason you’re waiting for a black swan event is because you refuse to get behind and support any of the initiatives some folk have pushed for to press the matter of Scotland returning to self-governance.
Stu too at the end of the article waits for some “dynamic new contender” rather than committing to proffer support and some much-needed exposure for other already existing initiatives, eg. I4I, ISP, Liberate.
That’s the real issue, nobody appears to meet your exacting standards because you either refuse to reach a consensus to work with others, or are shit feart an initiative you might back will fail, and the fragile egos just can’t handle backing something that didn’t succeed.
Finding genuine candidates to stand is hard enough because there is so little unity of purpose.
Why would any serious individual wanting to return Scotland to self-governing status waste their time and efforts standing as a diddy wee councillor fannying about with potholes and bins, and other local services within the constraints of an austerity ridden UK paradigm.
Far better to focus on the big picture, imo.
I’ve also pressed numerous times for clarity on plebiscite elections, but again get zero real response on the matter from the “big brains”. This summer the dung beetle battles get plenty of attention and time though…
@Dan – with respect for all of these micro-parties, I4I, ISP, Liberate, how many of them have anything close to what might be considered to be a serious political strategy which has any chance of success. It seems to me they are all collectively hoping for some magic event which will catapult them to the forefront of Scottish public affairs. For example, how many are trying to get exposure in the mainstream media, how many are seriously approaching fundraising and business/academic/civil society support. I’d count myself as someone who is fairly tuned in to Scottish politics, and I couldn’t name a single candidate any of those parties is fielding/planning to field.
UDI “might be considered to be a serious political strategy” in any colony looking to decolonize.
@ Aidan at 7:20 pm
Expecting any kind of positive MSM exposure for individuals, groups, or parties wanting Scotland to return to self-governing status is for the birds. There’s a reason that broadcasting is a power reserved to London Rule…
And it’s become pretty clear that little to no support will come from most of the “Indy” bloggers too.
That’s why I have consistently stated that decent local independent candidates should just get on with building their own support network and campaigning in their respective areas. Of course, this suggested strategy is purely on the basis of an end the union plebiscite election campaign, because it’s pissing in the wind expecting to improve Scotland’s lot whilst staying in the constraints of ongoing London Rule and the ten to one democratic deficit in England’s favour.
Why should it bother you who is standing outwith your own constituency. There are vastly different wonts and needs in the diverse Scottish constituencies, so it’s highly unlikely there will be an alignment in policy views between urban central belt cities and rural countryside areas.
The ongoing low electoral turnouts highlight that folk are fed up with conventional UK party politics of voting for promises of tasty ice cream, but instead getting served a mouldy jobbie sandwich.
Most of the locals in my area are totally fed up with ongoing bollox delivered by taxpayer funded politicians and civil service bureaucrats.
The latest wheeze in my area is some office dwellers somewhere miles away trying to retrospectively extend a conservation area status to include the entirety of residential properties and gardens that have numerous architectural features that do not conform to conservation area ideals. Pics show this process must be at least 2 years in the making because a neighbour’s car is in one pic of the document and they changed vehicle a couple of years back. 2 years gravy for someone to produce a proposal that is by no means a priority and wasn’t even asked for by the locals.
I told you all that it was utter folly covering roofs of conservation and listed building properties with taxpayer funded solar panel arrays, and shitey illegally loud air sourced heatpumps under permitted development protocols, which meant zero scrutiny was applied to ensure that such installations met planning constraints, and that the systems were a viable and appropriate use of taxpayers monies.
Aye solar on north facing roof with a 30-year timeframe to return initial investment makes fuck all sense, especially when Scotland is already green as fuck with the large scale existing and planned renewable projects.
So with new boundaries including none conforming properties being included in a conservation area, there will need to be a two tier level of what is or isn’t deemed okay. Double glazing for some, but not for others. Nowt says 18th century cottage better than a roof covered in solar PV and humming away like an old diesel Mondeo ticking over as the ASHP revs its bearings into oblivion as it tries to heat a poorly insulated single glazed property.
There’s some comedy attempts at rewriting history with the trees, too. Trying to slip in that the trees were planted when the village was built, when in fact they are only 100 years old and the village was built 150 years previously.
Naturally the conservation area document includes NetZero bollox in it too about using local materials to save the planet, but I guess China is local these days seeing as the fitment of lorry loads of imported solar panels and ASHPs is about the only work done to the properties, other than me helping folk out with slating repairs and removing saplings from chimneys before they split the stonework wide open.
The “rewilding” (read- too fucking lazy to cut the grass) of the green spaces of the village is going well too, because the grass not getting cut just makes it ideal for all the dog owners to let their pooches shit in the long grass, and as the various weeds go to seed over the next years folk will require serious amounts of chemical weedkiller once all the seeds blow into their gardens. “One year’s seed, seven years weed” as sensible old timers used to say.
Meanwhile, after hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on repairing the village sewer pipe that the beavers undermined causing it to break, 2500 gallons a day of the village’s untreated effluent continues to get pumped into the river…
@Dan 5.59 pm
If you weren’t taking issue with the stats, then your OP was pretty pointless.
I don’t support the initiatives some seem enamoured of because in my view they won’t work and could actually involve a much lengthier path to independence than the conventional routes. None of that is rocket science and none of it will be news to anyone paying attention. It’s not my job – or Stu’s I imagine – to advocate or advertise groups or organisations we don’t feel are going to produce results, tho’ doubtless the good Rev can speak for himself.
Doubtless he’s none to impressed with some of the folk BTL here harping on about his shortcomings in being supportive enough, which he’ll soon point out if he feels the need given what I’ve seen in the past.
I’ve no issue with reaching a consensus with folk I think are on the right track, nor am I in the least feart about the things you assert. Of course the things I believe in might fail, as might the things you or the other folk in here believe. The world won’t end in either event, tragic as it might be for our personal hopes and dreams.
Life will go on. Bills will need to paid. Shit happens. There comes a point when politically if things aren’t going in the direction we want that you either decide to withdraw, or to stick at it and wait for circumstances to change.
That’s hardly novel or unique to Scotland, either historically or in the present.
What more clarity do you need about plebiscitary elections? The concept is simple, it’s the parties who have to sign up to the principle. If they don’t, then hell mend them: we might as well all just stay at home and wait for younger people with more fire in their bellies to maybe deliver independence in a generation or so. They don’t have to like each other, or agree detailed policies…their sole aim is to deliver 50% +1 votes and declare independence.
Anyone who isn’t signing up for that isn’t a real nationalist at all in my view. If folk want to wast their time in constitutional cul-de-sacs and appeals to the UN, nobody’s stopping them. If they succeed I’ll happily admit I was wrong and give them the credit they deserve. If not, I’ll happily point out that I told them so all along.
I’m not qa betting man, but I know which outcome I’d put my money on if I was.
@Dan – I don’t necessarily disagree that it’s hard to get support or positive coverage from the MSM (particularly broadcast), but the point isn’t to get a terrestrial broadcaster on board (they are barred by ofcom from doing that), it’s to get exposure for the organisation and for the strategy within Scottish society and to be perceived as a mainstream political movement.
Let’s just consider the height of the mountain here. For the plebiscite election plan to pass the democratic event hurdle, it will require 50% of those voting to vote in favour of parties/individuals signed up both to independence and to that route for achieving it. There a certain areas (e.g. the borders) that are never going to return a pro-independence majority, so that means to average that 50% you’ll need constituencies where 60/70% of voters are prepared to support one man band parties with virtually no brand recognition. Even the 2015 SNP didn’t quite achieve that, with all of the strengths it had back then.
Local community organising is never going to come anywhere close to achieving that, unless in every single constituency they can bring out lots of really serious local people with influence and money who are prepared to expend both on backing this campaign. Even then, i’m pretty doubtful about getting more than a couple of candidates into double digits support without a coherent national political presence. So unless this grouping can organise itself properly, and start to really dominate the political conversation like Reform has south of the border, then they’ll stay at 1/2% in the polls.
I’m not saying this is easy, or that I have some magic fix, it isn’t and I don’t.
Lastly, re what candidates outside of my own constituency think, of course this is important! If the plebiscite election fails but achieves substantial support, this group could hold the balance of power within Holyrood which would put them in a powerful position to influence policy. If the plan worked, then I’d expect those individuals to be in poll position to form the government to implement it, even if they did immediately call another election to decide what the future government should be (are voters really going to say Scottish Labour or the Torres are the right people to lead Scotland to independence?). So if my neighbouring MSP/MP candidate is a ranging transactivist or Jacob Rees-Mogg, that’s hugely important.
Stu, I agree (in principle) that “Scotland deserves better” than domination by these two pathetic inept corrupt bankrupt political parties.
But since the voters of Scotland keep putting one or the other in power, since it appears that a majority of voters still intend to vote in 2026 for SNP or Labour, can it truly be said that the voters of Scotland deserve better?
I won’t particularise this to the SNP and St. Peter of Murrell (St. Peter the Fishy Man) because of course the wee fella has not yet stood trial and must be considered innocent until proven guilty, but this general point puzzles me…
If an organisation that’s required to file statutory accounts has had someone embezzling from it during the period of time covered by a set of accounts, how and where in those accounts would it show the loss due to that embezzlement? If auditors believe a loss to have been sustained, surely they are not obliged to leave it politely unmentioned simply because a trial hasn’t happened yet. Stating the loss discovered via audit is not a statement or accusation of who might have taken the money, and NOT stating a known loss would render the accounts inaccurate.
I would also think disguising the figure within some other bland heading would be less than fully transparent, but perhaps that’s allowable.
We do not know the basis of the charge of embezzlement. However, if it is the purchase of the campervan, I believe it has been appropriately disclosed. You can’t reduce the value of an asset (other than by depreciating it, which is merely the orderly writing off over a number of years of costs incurred in one year) unless you can quantify it with reasonable accuracy. We don’t know when the vehicle will be released to the SNP. If the trial is two years away, I daresay it will be held for at least that long. Once it is released, the party can assess, with reasonable accuracy, the loss of value and it will be included in the accounts at that time. On that basis, the disclosure in the Auditors Report is reasonable.
Of course, I may be completely wrong about the alleged embezzlement being related to the campervan and only time will tell.
Thanks, Skip_NC. I can follow your reasoning in the campervan scenario.
In the case that an organisation has had embezzlement that involves a simple cash sum (not an asset like a vehicle), do you have any thoughts on how and when a set of accounts ought to report the loss?
Sorry, I Despair, it’s been a busy weekend and I didn’t see your reply till now. You got me thinking about further disclosures in the 2024 accounts.
The beauty of double-entry accounting is that for every entry, there is a corresponding entry on the other side. Debits (what the organization gets) should equal credits (what it gives). So if there is a loss in cash as a result of, to keep it simple, somebody stealing from the petty cash tin (ie, the organization has “given” something), the correct entry would be a debit to “Theft Loss,” (they got stolen from) or to Sundry Expenses with a disclosure in the Notes.
I really don’t want to say too much, but if pound notes (or electronic equivalent) get stolen, it would be recognized once it can be quantified. I practice in the USA and have done for almost 24 years so the year that UK accounting principles would require recognition may be different to here but my general point remains.
In a high profile case that involves alleged criminality, a note in the Auditor’s Report is probably sufficient.
It is impossible to evaluate the quality of an auditor’s work without seeing the work-papers behind it. However, they have raised issues that are of interest to those who have donated to SNP coffers, without jeopardising Peter Murrell’s trial. On balance, I think they are right to take the approach they have.
Thank you again, Skip_NC (25th August, 18:31). Another helpful answer, which I appreciate whenever you can fit them in!
That new contender will surely be the UN. Which will pull the rug out from under Scottish politics and probably throw a cat into the pigeons dookit for good measure.
Ah hae ma doots John! If wishes were horses, beggars would ride of course, but I suspect that even in the unlikely event that the UN’s decolonisation committee does (at some indeterminate point in the future) opine that Scotland qualifies as a non self governing territory, those who are building palatial post colonial castles in the sky may be in for a disappointingly long wait.
Many of us are likely to be deid long before the bets placed by Salvo, Liberation Scotland and Alf’s post colonial theory cadres pay up.
As Albert Memmi wrote, and as you repeatedly postulate, “the abasement of the colonized… is supposed to explain his penury”
Of course, the role of the colonizer is always “to make any prospect of liberation seem impossible”.
@Alf 9.10pm
Liberation is eminently possible: many peoples with much less going for them than us, and with many more (and more serious) obstacles in their path than us have achieved their independence.
Some may want to blame the “colonizer”, whether that’s Westminster, non-Scots generally, or includes pro-union Scots for the lack of political cojones of the > 80% native born Scots to accept the arguments the pro-independence movement makes, or argue as you do that we’re too “doon hauden” by centuries of colonial enslavement to know what’s good for us.
In the end, nobody is going to do the “hard yards” but us. The UN won’t impose a solution and neither will there be any deus ex machina which propels us to independence in place of the Scottish people just growing a political spine.
Nobody but a handful of cranks really cares about the historical minutiae of how we got here: what matters is the somewhat quotidian process of getting from where we are to where we want to be, and persuading enough Scots that the potential risks of independence are outweighed by the potential benefits, and that the prospects of staying in the union are worse.
So far there’s little evidence that case is being made effectively, or at least that it is being made by any coherent grouping which will be in a position to deliver independence as a practical outcome.
Perhaps it’s true that things have to get worse before they get better. The only lights on the horizon are that underlying support for independence remains higher than the rapidly declining support for the SNP, and that voters under 40 seem to be far more pro-independence than older generations.
To quote the immortal words of Renton in Trainspotting: “It’s a shite state of affairs”.
Great post Andy.
Summarises everything any rational reader needs to know about Indy.
Sensible people, rational policies, competence, prioritising indigenes over migrants, hard graft and the treating of every taxpayer’s penny as if it is their own. That’s all any Scottish governing party has to demonstrate in order to convince us they have what it takes to push at the open door that is Indy. Yet the SNP has failed spectacularly on every one of these metrics since 2014.
One observation, if I may. Voters under 40, through the subtle alchemy of time’s passing, inevitably turn into voters over 40. That’s a truism that inexplicably eludes the posters on the Guardian BTL too 🙂
@Hatey 10.40am
Why thanks. I’ll be here all week: remember to tip your waitress. 🙂
I’m sure it’s true that young voters will become slightly more conservative (with a small “c”) as they age, but I’d need to see some analysis of the figures over time before I thought it was safe to abandon my presumption – or perhaps we’d better say fond hope – that younger pro independence coters might be the generation to deliver.
Time will indeed tell and we’ll have to wait for polling and election results before we can judge post 2026 performance I suppose?
IMHO much will depend on the direction of travel of the British nationalist project post the next Westminster GE. If Reform comes to power or is perhaps brought into some coalition with the rump of the Tory party, it might scunner enough Scots to finally grow a pair.
Sadly on current performance, I won’t be betting the farm.
“persuading enough Scots that the potential risks of independence are outweighed by the potential benefits”
Whit?
You appear to have forgotten 6 elected nationalist majorities since 2015 that have all failed to declare independence; which of course points to a co-opted national party elite that has instead made an ‘accommodation with colonialism’, as postcolonial theory confirms:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Alf says:
“a co-opted national party elite”
————————————
Wow – pretentious or what!
“forgotten 6 elected nationalist majorities”
In among all the conspiracy theories, I have one of my own, at least as plausible.
Could it be that unserious Scottish voters lang syne recognised unserious Scottish politicians, and so went ahead and voted for them anyway, on the basis that even if half their MPs and MSPs were self-evidently unserious batshit daft, at least they weren’t Tory or Labour?
I find it odd that some Scots, utterly convinced that the WM parties always lead them on with fake promises, nevertheless hold the SNP to a different standard. Why, FFS?
If these 6 nationalist majorities were ever intended to be serious about Indy, both by the politicians and their voters, where are the furious Scots that should be on the streets protesting, week after week?
They turn out to protest against corruption in Kiev. They turn out to protest against The War in Tel Aviv. They turn out to protest against migrant hotels in English seaside towns. Heck, we Scots even turned out to protest during Covid when that drug-dealing Minnesotan choked.
Yet on the subject of that 6 nationalist majorities, nada. Zero turn out. Nil protest.
Alert readers might easily conclude that for all the online sound and fury, most Scots SNP voters are in a Faustian pact with the SNP. We’ll vote for you and you “work” for Indy, but take your time.
Given your final paragraph, Andy, may I ask how long you expect to live?
I hope it is a long time!
The process will take, I think, at least as long as next June when the Committee is likely to meet next.
It is likely that the UK government will veto any UN resolution on Scotland’s status. It won’t prevent the UN deciding,should it choose, that Scotland is a non self governing territory.
I think that decision alone would give a big boost to support for Scottish independence.
Mebbe, independence groups should be making efforts to contact our dispora.
link to tandfonline.com
@Alf Baird 11.05 am
I haven’t forgotten them at all Alf, it’s just that none of them represented a mandate for independence because that wasn’t the basis for people’s votes. A majority of seats doesn’t constitute a mandate for independence unless it’s linked to a majority of the popular vote.
Unless you’re advocating UDI or popular uprising which dispenses with pesky processes like democracy altogether of course. It’s vanishingly unlikely you’re going to carry a majority of Scots along with you for that.
It is certainly arguable that the current SNP leadership is now a devolutionist rather than a nationalist movement, but again if Scots voters are unhappy with faux, milquetoast nationalists leading the movement, then it’s up to them to replace them with parties and leaders who tell rather than ask.
In the current climate I see neither the leadership nor the popular will to the SNP what Irish voters did to the IPP in 1918. Whilst I wouldn’t want to conjure the ghost of Civil War or support violent insurrection à la Sinn Féin there has to be a real question mark about the commitment of enough Scots to any type of nationalism that transcends 90 minute patriotism at football internationals or lacrimose displays of kale yard “wha’s like us” Brigadoonery at Hogmanay or Bur’s Night.
@Sam 2.12pm
I’m planning to be around for a while, though I’m a few years from retirement yet. Given the longevity of my forebears I’m hoping for another few decades at least.
I am perhaps less sanguine than you about the prospects of the UN deciding Scotland is a non self governing territory, and even less sanguine about that actually leading anywhere in any reasonable timescale even if they do.
To be honest I’m rapidly losing confidence that those in my generation will see independence, though perhaps the next generation might.
As for the diaspora, I’m not sure how much help they will be. Some of those I know and had dealings with in the past – particularly in the USA, Canada and ANZACs are pretty dismissive of the lack of bottle on display amongst native Scots. I remember being annoyed when a US Junior Year Abroad student I knew whose father had moved to the USA in the 1960’s repeated that all the people with any get up and go in Scotland had got up and went….but now sadly I think that there may be a kernel of truth in it.
@Sam – the petition to C-24 was presented in March with the objective of securing its discussion in the June session. C-24 told Salvo in no uncertain terms that they have no remit to receive or consider the petition, or to discuss it in June. Unless the UN General Assembly is prepared to rewrite the remit of C-24, then that’ll be the case next June and the June after it.
Maybes Jezza and the Sun Dried Fruit will be able to reach an accommodation with Chairman Murray. More devolved powers for Scotland in exchange for greater Islamification – a couple of million refugees, perhaps.
How is CM anyway? Does he live permanently at the UN, or does he commute back and forth?
I hope the UN will make a difference, but only Scots are capable of doing the heavy lifting. The only “weapon” the UN has, is recognition and endorsement. They won’t do for us what we won’t do for ourselves, but I would go further… Scotland needs the resolve to grasp Independence – even if the UN opposed it.
But be hopeful too… The UN can monitor probity and procedural integrity. I wonder what a neutral UN Arbiter would have made of the 2014 shenanigans.
Liberation Scotland is doing the right things, but I fear, the population is sick to the back teeth of fraudulent liars and disingenuous political types, and for the most part, is content to remain totally disconnected from the whole political shit-show.
I don’t know what the solution to that is. When the troops have been heart-scunnered, marched to the top of the hill only to be marched back down again, there soon arises an issue of popular de-motivation.
That Salvo and Liberation are approaching the UN is indeed progress, and I wholeheartedly back the initiatives. None of them are proposing a magic bullet, but instead hope to identify a meaningful “critical path” process which will actually deliver a result; one step forward without the customary two steps back.
But don’t dismiss the “less-than-silver” bullets as irrelevant. Any party obliged to consider Scotland’s Constitution and the Union, has to reconcile the lawful and recognised Claim of Right in their conclusions. Good luck with that UK Government…
It’s not really mentioned a lot, but we do have a precedent of sorts, in the Scotland-UN Committee of 1979, which was vastly under-reported and under the radar as I recall, but massively instrumental in Scotland regaining its Devolved Parliament and Devolution.
link to electricscotland.com
I was just a spotty teenager in 1979, and not politically engaged at all, so I don’t present myself as an authority on the Scottish-UN Committee, but reading what I can about the activities of John McGill and Wullie MacRae, at no time was it considered a “silver bullet” approach, but it put the Union under tremendous and sustained pressure in the eyes of many foreign governments.
For what it’s worth, I believe SALVO and Liberation are treading a familiar path, (although they might not agree with me on that point), but we are starting out much further along the road, and they have a more “sound” constitutional appreciation of what Scotland the nation actually is, and equally, what a pile of horse manure the Treaty of Union properly is, and always has been.
We’ve a way to go, but we’re on the right path.
I’m not sure why the Scottish UN Committee disbanded in 2007, the job wasn’t finished, but you sense that Devolution was well established as the base camp for the final attempt on the Summit. And indeed it was… Step forward Alex Salmond, who did the unthinkable, and won an outright SNP majority in a UK system devised to prevent such a thing, and delivered our 2014 Referendum. That’s when the SNP was at it’s very best.
It was the high water mark, and it followed decades of continuity and unshakeable resolve, but coming within inches of victory is not victory. These days, I can’t even calibrate where we are. Low water mark, mid-water mark, … I just don’t know. We are awash with cretins and gobshites, and bar a few places here and there, integrity is conspicuous by its absence. What a mess.
Sturgeon and her Scumbags have poisoned the Indy well so thoroughly, and allowed the freaks to flourish so prolifically, that I don’t know what is “safe” for us to do anymore. Every initiative is instantly steered towards a ditch, and catastrophe averted only by the brakes being pulled on.
I feel like a lone cell in the French Resistance after news that several cells were compromised by the Gestapo, and suddenly everyone must be treated with suspicion; new faces, old faces, everybody. The infiltration had to have help on the inside. That might seem a bleak metaphor for some, but if the crap fits, (no typo), we need to wear it.
Seeing a “Vote SNP” poster on the wall these days carries a “by order of the Gualeiter” stamp of legitimacy, which feels wholly incompatible with the “rebellion” of Independence.
The more they push the SNP, the less I listen.
So take heart, but don’t expect miracles from SALVO and Liberation. The Scottish UN Committee took 18 years to see Devolution over the line. But my heart would ask them, why devolution? Where was the last push?
And that’s the crux of it; SALVO and Liberation have only one objective. I believe they will neither crumple nor compromise until we are there. Independent.
Sturgeon, Swinney, Lords Wishart and Blackford,… they can all FOAD as far as I’m concerned. They sold out the most precious of dreams which Scotland possesses. No forgiveness for scum like that. I’d build them their own sunny Gulag on Gruinard Island, to bask in the shadow of what Britishness really means for Scotland…
Last year the auditors were appointed at the last minute so they would have incurred overtime. The first year of an audit is more expensive as the auditors have to carry out additional work to familiarise themselves with the client’s systems. The accountancy costs may have gone up if they got rid of staff and outsourced the function. The cost would go from being disclosed as wages to Accountancy.
Both reasonable assumptions. Part of it may also be the issue flagged in the 2023 audit. Time would have been spent investigating that, given the public’s interest in the matter. That cost (on the Audit line) would properly be charged to 2023, even though paid in 2024. Some of the increase in accountancy fees could have been setting up systems so that the utter shambles of prior years was not perpetuated.
Given what we do know, it is reasonable to form the view that those lines in the accounts are fair and reasonable.
Raffle ticket, anyone?
From the SPECTATOR,
«I’ll be honest with you, reader: I was brought up to be wary of the Union flag. In the London-Irish community I come from, no one would have dreamt of waving it. Britpop, with its Union paraphernalia, was a nightmare for us foreign-origin teens. Now? Now I love to see Britain’s flags. Symbols of national interest and national pride in an era of woke Balkanisation and anti-Western hysteria? Yes please. Hoist ’em up»
Brendan Ó Neill.
Spiked and the Spectator snear at the pretensions of Scottish nationalism, even the milk and water SNP brand but the AngloBrit type is to be celebrated and promoted as in the English flags one guy is putting up around York.
OK, this is supposed to be a counter to the cult flags with which local «leaders» of English authorities appear fixated but it is a rather chauvinistic maybe jingoistic nationalism that is replacing the cult.
More grist to Farage’s mill.
I’m as scunnered with seeing cult rainbow flags as I am with seeing cult Palestinian flags.
A pox on them both, I say.
If the English are feeling the same, then more power to their elbow. They don’t seem to have the cringy need to “just be nice” that we Scots are nationally afflicted with.
And much good it has done us.
I’m hoping you haven’t been infected with it too, TURABDIN. But I am struggling to understand just why you should be so upset over the people of a nation flying their own flag in their own country.
Brainwashed Brendan.
“….. I was brought up to be wary of the Union flag. In the London-Irish community I come from, no one would have dreamt of waving it.”
========
Had Brendan Ó Neill (does he really use a FADA above the O’ ?) come from the Glasgow-Irish community instead, would he see it and the cross of St George “as symbols of national interest and national pride?”
Or as emblems of “White Power”? AND, in a local Glasgow context, support for a football club with a sectarian history whose club colours are those of the Union Flag?
Are there links between the four donors and freeports?
“SNP rebels set date for independence day as they force John Swinney’s hand:
A source said of the new plans: “If we manage to get a majority of the population to vote for independence parties, the Union would be dissolved on May 1, 2027.” Otherwise known as a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, it is not a position adopted by the SNP as it breaks up the UK without Westminster’s permission.”
————————————————-
A date for your diary and dancing in the streets.
“A date for your diary and dancing in the streets.”
=======
Of Raith?
Of course. The clot who said that couldn’t actually pronounce Kirkcaldy.
A bit more news, how will they be able to force his hand?
The Leadership has ruined the SNP, this is what should have happened when Sturgeon first asked for a section 30 order and it was turned down, instead it was excepted as if it was an act of god and nothing else was done about it until the next election when we all went through groundhog day all over again. This is Sturgeon legacy and now we have the same legacy from Swinney.
“A date for your diary and dancing in the streets”
And flying the red flag. Or are we not supposed to notice the choice of May Day for this event? Maybe they’re assuming there will be no workers left in Scotland by then.
Haud oan though. Does this mean Chairman Murray won’t be returning from the UN, Indy on the scrap of paper in his hand, before May 2027?
Here’s what I really think. It’s a desperate lie to shore up the votes and guarantee the pay and perks for the troughers for another 5 years.
The people of Scotland are sick of these clowns.
“if we manage to get a majority…..”
End of topic bro.
re Agent X
What SNP Rebels?
They had a stall in Elgin today. Hiding hide behind the Yes Movement of course. They were pumping out the SNP 1 and SNP 2 Yoon Propaganda. They have even picked a Woke Harpie as a candidate. They treated me like a fool when I criticized the SNP 1 and 2 Death Strategy and then lambasted the Toxic Woke Greens and forming any alliance with them.
The Hetero hating and the Indy hating harpies are well in control of the SNP and Greens and that is just the effeminate men. The actual Harpies are even worse. That is the Woke castrate all hetero men brigade.
There isn’t going to be a Referendum and there wont be any UDI although i would welcome that. Heck I very much doubt they can hold the notionally safe Moray Seat with a Harpy for a candidate
Which harpy have they pushed onto the Moray branch? Emma Roddick is up against Fergus Ewing so that’s one harpy accounted for already.
Mitchell. I dont know if i can use her Christian female name. She might not like it.
I would draw attention to a Grouse Beater blog post today featuring a fascinating YouTube interview with John le Carré about the film version of ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Grouse Beater writes:
« The master spy novelist John le Carré discusses his novel ‘The Spy Who Came In From the Cold’, and the actors who played in the film, Richard Burton in particular, and his relationship with the director Martin Ritt. It is an eye and intellect opener on life in Britain in his day and now. It tells us of le Carré’s detestation of the English elite and the British State, so deep that he chose not only to live in Ireland, a free country, for the autumn of his days, but also to become an Irish citizen based on his Irish ancestry. …. His thoughts on Scotland were few though benign. His view of Scottish independence was typically generous, he ‘understood’ why Scotland ‘wanted free of English rule’.»
link to grousebeater.wordpress.com
I read his biography and that treated many episodes from his life in a less than favourable manner.
I was particularly struck by how money grubbing he was, and how that caused damage to people in his life who deserved better. Smiley and crew made him fantastically wealthy, but he never passed up a chance to screw more out of the franchise when he could.
That being the case, I’d want to know what part re-arranging his tax affairs paid in his choice of residence.
He famously believed that the Cold War was won for the right reasons, but by the wrong people. As he was a professed Europhile, an enthusiast for multi-linguism, and an admirer of Eastern Europeans, we have to wonder why he didn’t choose one of the former Soviet-bloc countries, now in the EU, to make his home.
I see we have the Scotland haters and moaners out in force this afternoon , for arseholes who CLAIM to be independence supporters they don’t half hide it well
Breaking News!!
Humza Useless has announced he’ll have/ screw-up no fewer than two jobs when he leaves his (failed) one job at HR.
One is public speaking, the other is, well er, public speaking about climate change..
Coming to a comedy festival in Edinburgh sometime soon!
Break a leg..
Young Lochinvar @ 16.15.
Perhaps any future autobiography could be entitled “White”, in recognition of his only memorable contribution to debate at Holyrood.
I am surprised there are still ongoing wars – at one time Yousaf was saying he would be an international mediator.
————————————————
“SCOTLAND’s former first minister Humza Yousaf has announced his departure from politics, signalling a move towards a “global stage” where he aims to focus on conflict resolution and combating far-Right extremism.”
———————————————–
What’s he waiting for?
But not Islamic extremism….
I hope his identity and nationality papers are in better shape than his driving authorisation papers.
Or do I? 🙂
TURABDIN says:
23 August, 2025 at 5:40 pm
But not Islamic extremism….
————————————
Oh come off it – you can’t expect him to solve every extremism in his first week!
from the Atlantic to the Pacific there isn’t one Islamic country that is functionally democratic, as the west seems unconcerned one might ask how democratic is the west?
Ask ChatGPT 5 for an answer?
Separated At Birth:
Just watched comedy classic “Carry On Screaming”.
Humza Useless sure is the spitting image of Oddbod Junior! 🙂
Just sayin an that..
Any politician who can successfully “fanny about with potholes and bins” deserves a crack at bigger things. If they can’t sort the potholes and bins, and the evidence says that they can’t despite it not being rocket science, then the idea they can run the country is absurd.
I’m reminded of the ludicrous politicos who will tell you straight they intend to fix the world’s climate, but can’t stop the burn at the bottom of their garden from getting rancid with human piss and shite.
Fantasists and liars the lot of them, and the credulous eejits who vote for nonentities who have never achieved anything concrete in their lives are no better.
Happy anniversary tomorrow of the battle of Haddon Rig in 1542.
Raise a toast tae them!
I wonder if Taylor Swift opened (by herself) her front door at 3.42pm today wherever and in whatever time zone she’s currently hanging out?
Swifties will be in a pink feather boa lather about this latest piece of cryptic codification but we know better peeps 🙂
‘Scotland deserves better’
Scotland had better and displayed the human frailty described by Joni Mitchell in her song ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.
Now Scotland needs to keep a weather eye out and learn from past mistakes. Of course there are many good people who have fought for Independence for years still working away BUT we desperately need a different, sane and optimistic voice who can carry the Auld Sang to victory