No Money Back, No Guarantee
Peter Murrell wasn’t even locked up in his cell at Saughton (we hope it’s the same one as Craig Murray’s) when the chump-suckering resumed.
And as the Nicola Sturgeon Loyal, led by her most faithful of lieutenants, set out to try to take control of the post-conviction narrative, let’s take a look at just what a boatload of bare-faced bullshit the above is.
Everyone in Scotland, not just the SNP’s members or independence supporters, was a victim of Peter Murrell’s crimes. For a start because Operation Branchform cost close to £3 million of public money, dwarfing the £400,000 Murrell pinched to spend on a houseful of frou-frou knick-knacks.
(The Police Scotland bill alone of over £2m does not include the Crown Office’s costs.)
But even the cash directly trousered by Murrell didn’t just belong to SNP members. The pot of party funds he pilfered it from was filled from three main revenue streams:
(1) SNP members’ membership fees and donations
(2) UK taxpayer funding, the large bulk of the SNP’s income
(3) Money donated by the wider independence movement to two fundraisers which ultimately triggered Murrell’s arrest, which were supposedly “ringfenced” for an “Independence Referendum Campaign Fund” but in fact just disappeared into the SNP’s general treasury and from there into Murrell’s pockets.
That last one, incidentally, remains an unanswered question. The total raised from the 2017 and 2019 fundraisers combined was almost £700,000 but Murrell only copped a plea for misappropriating £400,000 of it, and the rest remains unaccounted for.
We know it was spent years ago because as far back as October 2020 there was only £97,000 left in the party’s bank account, and the SNP has thrown up a whole string of absurd madcap excuses to explain away the fact that it was plainly, demonstrably and fraudulently frittered away on lavish and wasteful general party spending – the exact thing they angrily insisted WOULDN’T happen.
Operation Branchform started as an inquiry into the missing fundraiser cash but then morphed into a wider embezzlement one, leaving the original complaints unresolved. The former has a different and narrower group of victims to the latter, and they still deserve answers, not from Peter Murrell but from Nicola Sturgeon and her then-deputy John Swinney.
But it looks like they’re ontae plums.
Sturgeon’s girlboss fanclub have pulled out all the stops to excuse her.
But Sturgeon quite literally WAS responsible.
Not because she was Murrell’s wife and £80,000 of very pricey Amazon parcels were piling up, unnoticed by her, in the kitchen they ostensibly shared (although we’re told that their marriage was such a facade that neighbours referred to the house as “The Prop”), but because she was his boss – and as such had a direct fiduciary duty to party members to stop him doing what he did – and because she personally signed off the accounts from which hundreds of thousands of pounds were missing.
Sturgeon can’t even plead simple ignorance, because she didn’t just direct enquiries to the party’s auditors. She repeatedly, actively and personally asserted, in public and in private, that there was NO missing money and that the party’s finances were in rude health and anyone suggesting otherwise would be for the high jump.
Murrell’s activities might have gone unnoticed by the auditors (whose remit is very narrow and technical), but you didn’t need to be an accountant to see that the money simply wasn’t there, you only had to be able to read.
If Wings, a humble website run by an idiot, could spot it in 2020 – by the simple act of noticing that 97 is a smaller number than 700 – then the party’s leader, whose legal responsibility it was, certainly could and should have.
That is something that still needs explaining after Murrell’s conviction. Two people – Sturgeon and treasurer Colin Beattie – both signed off on accounts that were clearly and obviously dodgy to even an amateur eye, and it’s difficult to tell why neither has yet been charged with any crime.
The most plausible explanation – which came to us from a senior former SNP source yesterday – is that the Crown Office, having already suffered an embarrassing defeat over Alex Salmond, didn’t want to risk being seen to have mounted two expensive and unsuccessful prosecutions of SNP First Ministers in a row.
But even if we leave aside for a moment the questionable neutrality of an organisation headed by a person who is also a Scottish Government minister and answerable to the FM, the state of the Crown Office’s delicate ego is not an adequate reason to abandon valid complaints about serious crimes.
Yesterday morning Sturgeon – “The people’s QUEEN, living her best life” – affected a breezy air, posting holiday snaps on Instagram along with a personal statement about how sad and shocked and etc she was over Murrell’s crimes.
She ended the statement with the words “I will be making no further comment”. So anyone previously familiar with her track record on promises therefore wouldn’t have been surprised when it was followed just hours later with a further comment.
While the first had been in her own name, the second statement was lawyered up. It was issued by semi-celebrity lawyer, publicity aficionado and political activist Aamer Anwar, and backed up by a threatening email Anwar sent to much of Scotland’s media.
We say “threatening”, but on close inspection it’s got about as much legal menace as a TV Licence reminder. If the media fail to delete defamatory comments by readers or viewers, it says, Anwar is instructed to “consider” legal action or – oh no! – complaints to the toothless press watchdog IPSO.
Also, the threat carries with it a tantalising proposition – any legal action brought by Sturgeon for defamation would result in her having to appear in the witness box and be cross-examined in forensic detail by the defendant’s lawyer about what she did and didn’t know. You could make a fortune selling tickets to such an event, and Sturgeon’s usual “I don’t remember” approach to questioning, as seen during the Salmond and COVID inquiries, wouldn’t cut much ice.
Yesterday also revealed something we were told by an unimpeachable source two years ago, but couldn’t talk about while Sturgeon was still under investigation for fear of contempt charges – the fact that despite claiming to have “fully co-operated” with police when she was arrested, she in fact turned her chair to the wall and didn’t say a word for seven hours. She is of course legally entitled to remain silent, but it’s a very stretched definition of the word “co-operating”.
(Just as it had been when she publicly pledged to give the Salmond inquiry anything it asked for, and then, in conjunction with John Swinney, directly obstructed it and refused to hand over documents on almost 60 separate occasions.)
For the record, and for the reasons already stated above, it is absolutely this website’s belief that Nicola Sturgeon knew there was money missing from the SNP’s accounts, and that she was lying when she said otherwise, and furthermore that she dishonestly fronted a fundraising campaign while knowing that she had no intention whatsoever of “ringfencing” the resulting money. Mr Anwar knows where to find us.
Today, the SNP will attempt to deflect from the scandal with another performative vote in Holyrood about demanding a second indyref, secure in the certain knowledge that it’ll fail. John Swinney will attempt to alchemise the Parliamentary arithmetic into the “100% guaranteed” referendum he said would result from an SNP majority, despite the fact that he didn’t achieve one.
He won’t have any more luck than Sturgeon did when she pulled the same stunt twice before (in 2017 and 2020) then quietly scuttled off when Westminster said no, and no more luck than donors to the SNP’s “ringfenced Independence Referendum Campaign Fund” will have at getting either their stolen money or their dreams back.
Although by this time next year, both he on his First Minister’s salary, and Sturgeon on her fat book advance and other lucrative income streams, will indeed be millionaires.
You think she could have saved everyone a lot of money if she had just turned over the books and energetically cooperated with the police.
A fraud like this should have been what used to be known as an open and shut case. A gift to crime clear up stats.
I suppose love and loyalty are powerful motivations.
“Love and loyalty.”
Oh Paul, what are you like ! Nearly choked on my morning toast & coffee by chortling merrily at such comic gold, you wee mischief you.
Farce-wave feminism: it is “misogynistic” to hold the very powerful boss of a criminal in any way answerable for his crimes, about which she cannot possibly have lacked knowledge, because she was merely “his wife”
SARCASM NINJA LEVEL 5 ACHIEVED.
It also includes those that just marched & attended rally’s, i had SNP membership a couple of years but did not donate. Many folks spent their own money on trains, lunches etc just to be there. I always felt something off about Sturgeon. Never thought I’d go from staunch Yes to agreeing with Unionists: that Scotland is indeed too stupid for independence.
I really, really want to comment on this post, but I am almost speechless.
How do you articulate the feelings of horror, disbelief, betrayal, revulsion, dismay, fury, despair and utter powerlesness when faced with the demonic evil of our so-called ‘leaders’?
There aren’t words.
So much bravado, bluff and bluster from (ex?) Mrs Murrell and her legal representative.
I very much doubt the follow-up behaviour will match the bombast.
I did not expect to hope that you get taken to court.
I’m confused by the ‘revelation’ of her silence during police questioning as I already knew about that. I thought it was common knowledge. For the life of me I can’t remember where I learnt it.
And could the rest of the missing money have gone to the salary of newly created sinecures in the SNP machinery?
I suspected that she chose not to answer certain questions, but I didn’t know that she stayed silent for 7 hours and turned her back to the interviewing officers.
Presumably she asked for a cup of tea at some point and made a request to use the toilet.
Not getting charged because of insufficient evidence and being cleared are really not the same thing.
Peter
Was it not that COPFS deemed it “not in the public interest”?
That’s what I seem to recall.
Why is it that politicians who talk about being progressive like Sturgeon actually turn out to be Fascists who don’t tolerate any opinions other than their own? We won’t get the truth from her and unfortunately I doubt there is anyone on the opposition benches who is bright enough to get anything out of Swinney, a man who knows where all the bodies are buried and has shown that you don’t actually need to have any opinions to get on in politics, just back the right horse. Scotland and the UK are corrupt but no one is ever (or rarely) held to account and the guilty just go on to better things. As a Unionist I thought Salmond was at least competent but I always disliked Sturgeon but like many was shocked at just what a dictator she turned out to be. I have seen power go to people’s heads – even if it is just being made a school prefect or promotion at work, but Sturgeon was really off the scale but she doesn’t care about our opinions and is now off to be a media personality and make some real money. I just hope that there is an inhibition on the family home so at least Murrell’s share might enable some money to be repaid to the SNP.
Disappointing that only one thief has been jailed.
I will only add the I think Sturgeon has been very lucky.
Between the Salmond scandal and this theft it shows what a team of scumbags are in the SNP.
What Sturgeon said about Salmond in 2021:
“The behaviour complained of was found by a jury not to constitute criminal conduct and Alex Salmond is innocent of criminality, but that doesn’t mean the behaviour complained of didn’t happen and I think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of that.”
——————————————————
Applying the same logic – Sturgeon may well not have been prosecuted, but that doesn’t mean that the behaviour complained of didn’t happen.
We will not lose sight of that.
I wish there was a way to upvote this comment. To paraphrase her statement:
“The behaviour complained of was found by the COPS not to constitute criminal conduct and Nicola Sturgeon is innocent of criminality, but that doesn’t mean the behaviour complained of didn’t happen and I think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of that.”
Let’s remember that co-opted national party elites are merely the coloniser’s tools.
A colony’s “confidential agents pensioned off at high reward” aye comes with “guaranteed immunity” for some (Cesaire).
Reminiscent of Orwell’s “ever-degenerating capacities of imperialism” seeking to “stem the Movement for Colonial Freedom” (Elkins).
The oppressor only goes downhill from here.
“ever-degenerating capacities of imperialism”
Aye, Alf, Orwell could already see it from the very heart of the empire he was a big part of.
Empires grow old.
They get tired.
They get stupid.
They get cruel in ways that don’t even serve them anymore.
At the start, an empire knows what it’s doing… by the end, it’s just stumbling aboot, trying tae haud oan tae things it nae langer unnerstaunds.
We just have to look at the current state of Westminster to see that degeneration in action.
It’s like an auld beast whase claws are cracked and whase teeth are loose.
Still dangerous, aye — but no whit it ance wis was, eh?
And the fowk it ance haudit doun?
They’re not what they once were either. They’ve learned. They’ve hardened… and they start to remember thersels.
That’s what I think Orwell meant by “degenerating capacities”.
The empire weakens.
The people strengthen.
And the world tilts, slow but sure.
Goodbye, Britain, goodbye.
Never shit in your own house.
Be careful for what wish for.
Us indigenous Scots hiv niver taken a shit in oor ain hoose.
Your favourite country, England, wis the yin that took a massive dump in Scotland… and then, like the foul creatur it is, shat all over its own house.
England has produced a lot of shit over the years.
Its imperial, omni-directional-splatter-erse has been spraying it around the world for several centuries… many countries are only now managing to get rid of the smell.
Fortunately, the British Empire is now only capable of dribbling its shit doun its ain leg, but still – it would be nice for the rest of the world if it gave its erse a wee wipe noo an agin and treated the rest o us oan the planet tae an occasional courtesy flush.
“Us indigenous Scots hiv niver taken a shit in oor ain hoose”
My, Northy, but you do find new ways to proclaim Scottish exceptionalism near every day.
I guess the auld Scots saw for addressing guests “You’ll hae hid yer tea” needs expanded with “Ye’ll be wantin a shit”.
And as if by magic Northcode just to confirm the degeneration of the auld empire that you so eloquently expressed who else should just turn up to make every right thinking Scot beg for the destruction of this FAKE union
I day and two bastards appearing without any remorse for the mayhem and destruction they imposed on normal people, true psychopaths BLAIR & STURGEON
That “legal letter “ takes the ***ing biscuit “. What have they done to our once proud wee nation?
On R4’s Today programme this morning, the SNP mouthpiece was at pains to make the point – at least 3 times – that “no public money was stolen”.
Now why would they be pushing that line so strongly, especially since The Real Rev above shows it to be untrue?
My other thought this morning: Are there any published photos in existence of the former FM holding a Mont Blanc pen or wearing a Bremont watch etc, I wonder.
But somehow I don’t expect our glorious “forensic media” to also wonder anything of the sort.
link to bbc.co.uk
Sturgeon wearing a Murrell bought pendant.
link to scottishdailyexpress.co.uk
Photo with Sturgeon and Jag on her drive.
‘There it is. Right there officer.’
Rev. Spooner says:
“the SNP mouthpiece was at pains to make the point that “no public money was stolen”.
Now why would they be pushing that line so strongly, especially since The Real Rev above shows it to be untrue?”
They’re trying to portray it as an internal matter, and then they’ll declare that the “real victims” (themselves and their supporters) have forgiven, forgotten, now let’s move on and never mention it again.
The sentence will indicate a lot about what happens next. Meanwhile Alex Salmond’s treatment and the SNP’s lead role in it remains by far as it’s greatest treachery.
Mmmm. Something doesn’t smell right in this case. A lot more to this than meets the eye, methinks. Anyone else get the feeling that Sturgeon is being protected by the British establishment? Mr Murrell suddenly throws his hands up and confesses – was he quietly made an offer he could not refuse?
Was the British plant (one of them) in the Scottish government the actual FM? There were certainly enough rumours of past behaviour to suggest that she may have been seriously compromised. Was she owned? Perhaps – all this green/ woke/ LGBQ/ gender nonsense certainly provided a useful smokescreen if so.
Great article brilliant insight to it all. Bet he gets three years and is out in six months-Scottish establishment right behind them, we’re doomed
Great article brilliant insight to it all. Bet he gets three years and is out in six months-Scottish establishment right behind them, we’re doomed
Peter Murrell, the SNP’s chief executive, loaned the party £107,620 in June 2021.
Is Sturgeon saying that she knew nothing of this – in the same year that she said there was nothing wrong with SNP finances.
In Sturgeon, Murrell and Swinney, the Scottish people got what they voted for.
The voters could have thrown the corrupt SNP out this month. They didn’t. They returned the SNP to power, albeit with a reduced vote share.
The SNP is obviously lying about the embezzlement. But the voters have, in essence, endorsed the lying.
Maybe just felt the alternatives were even worse? Which in some cases is probably true, in scale if nothing else.
If the court hearing had been held, as originally planned, on February 20th, fewer folk might have voted SNP.
Some SNP fan was saying St Nic was the queen of Scottish politics, the best Peter can aspire to is to be the queen of A wing.
Please don’t suggest he turns ‘trans’ at this point! Although, I’m sure Isla Bryson and that Miller bloke from Gattonside both need cellmates right enough.
Sturgeon says that Murrell claimed to have won the £125K Mobile Home on Bullseye.
She should have been suspicious as he didn’t have the Bully Tankard.
“Stay out of the black and into the red, nothing in this game for two in a bed.
Super,Smashing, Great!
No public money was stolen.
So who funded the police enquiry, which cost over £1m?
An unknown amount of the money will have come to the SNP as “short money” doled out to political parties every year.
The police enquiry cost over £2 million, not £1 million. Then there will be the costs of the Crown Office, Scottish Prosecution Service and the courts.
The amount of Short Money is not unknown. It may be hidden in the SNP financial statements but it is a matter of public record for all parties.
At some stage, and not in the too distant future legal action will I suspect be raised against those who negligently failed ( or worse, conspired ) not to stop the fraud.
Indeed, with fundraising monies being acknowledged to be hypothecated who signed off on the comingling of monies in the accounts.
There’s more to this than Murrel.
Trouble is, such legal action (suing the SNP) would cost us defrauded donors/members/public further money.
Although, I’d be up for it for the principle, of getting justice and info. Many people wouldn’t.
Emphasis has to be on general public stopping these endless Scottish & UK corruption scams happening.
That’s why the money is spent.
A quick “Google” of Sturgeon signing offical documents fed into AI (see screenshot below)
link to i.postimg.cc
Pen Analysis
Images 1, 2, 3, 5 — Close-up hand/writing shots
Dark resin or plastic barrel
Visible nib suggesting a fountain pen
Proportions and cap style consistent with a mid-range to luxury fountain pen
The rounded cap top and gold-toned nib are reminiscent of Montblanc Meisterstück 149 or 146 characteristics
Image 4 — Blue-tinted image
Appears to show a rollerball or ballpoint with a slimmer profile
Could be a Montblanc Starwalker or Bohème series
Image 6 — Most identifiable
Classic black barrel with gold trim
Cap proportions and clip design strongly suggest a Montblanc Meisterstück Classique (145/146)
The distinctive white star emblem on the cap top may be visible
Montblanc Comparison
FeatureImagesMontblanc MeisterstückBlack resin barrel??Gold trim/nib??Cap shapeSimilarRoundedWhite starPossiblySignature feature
Conclusion: These appear highly consistent with Montblanc Meisterstück fountain pens, most likely the 146 or 149 model.
I wonder if Breathy Bain having read that is now frantically clearing out her desks pen drawer 🙂
As for the alphabetties; bet they’re keiching it over any “incentivising trinkets” that came their way..
I bet they’re not. ‘Protected’ is the word that springs to mind.
Brilliant article again Stu.
I hope every blogger, journo, MP, MSP, JK, David Davis and anyone with clout and a following calls her out. Let’s see how far she is willing to give evidence. We’ve been decieved far too long by this woman and her cabal. Bain, Lloyd, Swinney, oh the list goes on. They haven’t just killed a party , they pissed on its grave. By the way , they owe me 50 quid.
Plus interest. Inflation being what it is.
“The two fundraisers combined raised almost £700,000 but Murrell only copped a plea for misappropriating £400,000 of it, and the rest remains unaccounted for“
==============
There’s been some speculation about this “missing money”.
Might this be connected with Murrell’s plea bargain and his lawyer’s attempt to minimise jail-time?
Although, in Scotland, there is no formal tariff matching length of a custodial sentence to money stolen, the judge will take into account some factors around the “seriousness” of the offence, including duration of the embezzlement and sum embezzled.
There seems a rough practical pattern in Scottish sentencing:
At The upper end
Over ~£100,000: Immediate imprisonment very likely.
Prolonged frauds (£500k+): Multi-year custodial sentences expected
This last band is where Murrell might be -had his legal team not persuaded the prosecution (headed, remember by a Sturgeon nominee) to accept a guilty plea below the half-million mark . And that guilty plea will be taken into account by the judge as a mitigating factor when sentencing!
Did he steal the money he lent to the SNP?
It has previously been suggested by Wings, that he stole this money, then partially paid it back as ‘a loan’, when cashflow was tight and questions began to be asked. Similar to the campwrvan devaluation ruse attempted later.
“It has previously been suggested by Wings, that he stole this money, then partially paid it back as ‘a loan’, when cashflow was tight”
I do not recall suggesting that.
Murrell 8 – 10 out in 4
Not as such, I don’t think. He didn’t steal pound notes. He took it in kind. There was the sale of one of the cars but that was only 47,000 or so and not enough to cover the loan. Unless…
The loan was about 107,000. It was reduced to 60,000. I think most of us can do the arithmetic. I am absolutely not, in any way whatsoever, suggesting that someone at SNP HQ knew about the thievery and came to a private arrangement with Murrell to return some of the stolen resources. Oh no, definitely not. Perish the thought.
I find it utterly sick-making that Swiney and all the other apologists are falling back on the old ‘shocked and appalled’ mince. How can anybody pretend, with a straight face, that this is some huge surprise? This has been looming over the horizon like a herd of particularly disreputable turtles for literally years.
Wouldn’t it be nice if even just one of them said sorry? Or admitted that at best they completely fucked up any due diligence? The flock of airborne porcines flying past my window suggests there’s bugger all chance of that!
Rev, politically, we are not aligned and me and your followers will never be friends, but for ‘Mr Anwar knows where to find us’ you have, not for the first time, my undying respect.
The crimes began in August 2010, about the same time as the pair were “married”. Could it be that the marriage was a cover for the fact that the two had to be in frequent close contact in order to carry out their conspiracy, without attracting suspicion?
My suspicion is that initially she thought she was using him, as a housekeeper, party enforcer, and respectibility enhancer, in order to gain unlimited power. While in fact he was also using her, to access unlimited funds, and as a trophy wife.
Currently she’s won that contest, as he goes to jail. However, if at some point it’s in his interest to spill the beans on her part in various schemes…
Since UK short money was the main contributor Murrell is a hero for sticking it to the Colonists.
As post colonist theory describes, robbing from the Dirty English Bastards (Smith) and giving it to artisan German coachbuilders, he has both struck a blow for freedom and enhanced oor standing for a quick return to Brussels dictatorship instead.
True. And supported Swiss penmakers. Plus, by costing Police Scotland £2,000,000 and CPS £1,000,000 more, this surely taxes the English taxpayer who subsidies Scotland, no? AND payes the wages of rank and file PCs in Scotland! What’s not to like?
Very good! More please.
The post-colonials are punching themselves into a corner.
What part You’ve been ripped off! don’t you understand. No amount of text book rant will cover the Great Scottish Independence Swindle. Ever had the feeling you’ve been taken for a ride,or in the Scottish context, led up the hill eyes wide shut.
“I bet there’s rich folks eating in a fancy dining car
They’re probably drinkin’ coffee and smoking big cigars
Well, I know I had it coming, I know I can’t be free
But those people keep on movin’
And that’s what tortures me.”
Perhaps Sturgeon can be persuaded to do some volunteer work in a hospital in the DRC…
Scotland’s newly elected parliament has called for Westminster to devolve the powers which would allow it to hold a second independence referendum
The vote passed as follows:
Yes: 72
No: 55
Yes.
Just think how much larger the yes numbers and smaller the no numbers would have been if the SNP-party-before-Country doeballs hadn’t promoted “both votes SNP”..
You’d have thought they’d have learned how DHondt works by now, but no.
Definition of stupidity..
Definition of stupidity the promotion of two votes SNP it is not young Lochinvar.
Rather it is the definition of treachery. Nothing less. And sadly, through through most folks not understanding the D’Hondt voting system the donkeys fell for it.
In 2021 some 1.093,000 SNP list votes delivered 2 seats when it could cast for another independence party ( ALBA) deliver around 25 to 28 seats.
Shame on me them they say for conning voters but what do you say when the same wasted vote con is repeated. It just shows how well intentioned voters are so easily duped. All part of the system, and the subtle, but malign interference.
“powers which would allow it to hold a second independence referendum”
Man, is there no end to their shortsightedness, nor their ignorance of Scotland’s history?
What about the third, fourth, fifth and sixth referendums?
Seventh, if we recall Bruce’s spider?
HMcH
Bruce never sought a referendum from the English, he dragged them by the metaphorical scruff of the neck to negotiate the terms of the treaty and formally admitting they’d lost the war in 1328.
Well done such a boost for the Cause. Dont worry everyone Canvassing for By-election abdpublic dont seem very interested in over hyped court cases. Positive feedback .SNP back again.?
It’s hardly “overhyped” is it, the chief exec stealing nearly all of the parties resources.
‘..the chief exec stealing nearly all of the parties resources..’
Yes, and the chief exec who stole the SNP’s money was the husband of the Party leader who knew nothing.
Izzie, AgentX above kindly posted two links. Take a look.
Ah, c’moan noo, Aidan.
If we’re all colonised and we’re all victims, then so is Murrell. There can be no justice for the colonised in the coloniser’s courts.
Read Izzie’s post again. This travesty of justice makes Murrell a hero. Besides, what are the voters going to do? Turn on their own tribe and let another tribe win?
Ain’t gonna happen.
Still not convinced? Then consider this. If MI6 can protect Sturgeon, then MI6 can fit up Murrell.
QED.
Provide evidence that the money supposedly embezzled ever existed. MI6 subverts every crowdfund, every election, every referendum and every poll.
Playing the long game, it’s very possible they greatly exaggerated the sum gifted for ring fencing. Then they leaked the true amount so that they could fit up Murrell for “stealing” that which had never existed.
Now prove I’m wrong!
Izzie…you really must stop dropping the ‘D’ from your name, it’s disingenuous.
Hark! Is that yon Wee Ginger Fud and his acolytes of Saint Nicla calling you back? Toodle-oo the noo! Don’t let the door clap your behouchie on yer way oot!
There’s none sae blind…
I am still waiting for the first memes and gifs to come out, featuring Sturgeon being questioned by the Line of Duty team.
Between her “no comment” answers and Adrian Dunbar’s: “in the name of Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey” it should be fun.
Aidan It seems the medua are hyping this to ‘get’ at tge SBP. The members are the victims here and we are getting on with wirking to ensure victory in Aberdeen and in my case Broughty Ferry. Noone outside the unionist media seem bothered
“Izzie”
Are you drunk or just illiterate ?
If you’ve read the article above you’d see that it wasn’t just SNP members money that was stolen. It is also a huge cause for concern that someone in the SNP could embezzle so much of the parties funds, putting it near to bankruptcy, without anyone else either noticing or doing anything about it. This is a huge political story for Scotland and for the independence movement.
Izzie, I’ll take your posts at face value.The unionist weasels on here are lapping this up. They will always be tossers. We have been had by The Murrells and almost the entire elected cohort of the SNP were in on it or kept their mouths shut. Money and status not Scotland and Independence. The SNP elite have treated us like shite and filled their bank accounts. They clearly have no conscience about it either. They are not pro independence, they could not care less. It is a game played for wages. That is how much the political class in Scotland despise the public.
Absolute, unqualified respect to Rev Stu for having the guts to publish that fourth last paragraph there.
«Instead of politicians, let monkeys govern countries; at least they will steal only the bananas»
? Mehmet Murat ildan…Turkish Author & Playwright
Like that Turabdin!
AS I like Ataturk’s speech after Gallipoli.
Don’t just leave it at that, you idle so-and-so!
Stir yourself and post Ataturk’s speech.
I do not wish to be disrespectful to Mehmet Murat ildan, but Scots have had monkeys governing us in different coloured rosettes was for the past half century.
Please believe me: tjhey have stolen a lot more than bananas!
Wouldn’t work, TURABDIN, we have no bananas.
The Murrells are a distraction from what should be the sole objective of the Scots, and their highest priority… independence.
Sure, Northy, but please show some respect.
Some of us are still in mourning for the disastrous election results (remember them?).
And now we must enter a new mourning period for the loss of the ring fenced fund.
What does the Good Book say? There’s a time and a season for everything. But right now, this is not it.
We need time to grieve.
Pleased to see Alison Pearson today in the Telegraph has acknowledged you as having been the first to break the story, unlike the ‘complicit and complacent’ media.
Hmmm.
Ordinarily this would summon up a barrage of abusive posts along the lines that the Telegraph (like the BBC) only ever posts lies about Scotland.
If the BBC reports much the same story, should we assume that Murrell is innocent?
TURABDIN says:
26 May, 2026 at 6:57 pm
«Instead of politicians, let monkeys govern countries; at least they will steal only the bananas
=========
I do not wish to be disrespectful to Mehmet Murat ildan, but Scots have had monkeys governing us in different coloured rosettes was for the past half century.
Please believe me: they have stolen a lot more than bananas!
They reckon that since they didn’t have any clue how much money they had left in the kitty (for 5 years?) they should still be trusted to run the nation’s economy.
They must take us for fools ————-
There was an article written prior to the referendum that implied that three SNP members had close links to unionists media.This was in the era of the temporary government on the High street. If I recall Sturgeon and Swinney were part of this trio. I don’t know who wrote the article but I do think it was written in the style of Wings. That article could be relevant with in today’s atmosphere.
I don’t find it at all implausible that Ms Sturgeon was completely in ignorance of Murrell’s appetite for bling: on the face of it, it’s bizarre behaviour, bounding on the slightly mad, and if he hadn’t concealed it from Sturgeon (and everyone else) she’d surely have got him into the hands of a psychiatrist. So he probably kept the outrageously extravagant purchases in a box under the bed. Why might he have done that? Either (a) because he is indeed slightly mad, or perhaps (b) selling the stuff on eBay was a way of money laundering his theft. Will we hear about police efforts to recover the money at his sentencing appearance?
Frank
According to reports on the BBC ££where££ then a fair old percentage of purchases were from what you would traditionally consider female luxury items sellers..
Sturgeon didn’t know or even suspect?
Aye right
Buttons up the back of our heads!
The defence of all gangsters/ lags molls through the ages..
It seems incredible that a) she didn’t notice that in her personal life, her husband was purchasing very expensive items (like cars, the motorhome etc.) totalling well above his post-tax salary. B) that the SNP went, within a few years, from having a significant war chest to being in financial trouble to the point where it required the CX to provide a personal loan.
On the latter point, significant and aggressive moves were made to conceal where the money had gone to by restricting those elected to oversee the parties finances, from accessing the information needed to do their jobs. She was involved in that.
None of that definitively proves that she knew everything and was in on it. Equally, in my view it is impossible to reconcile the facts as we are aware of them with someone who was acting diligently and professionally at all times, but was duped by a sophisticated fraudster. At the very very least, she was extremely incompetent as leader and failed to undertake even basic enquiries about the parties finances.
Let’s also not forget that she received and had benefit of goods obtained by fraud which is potentially the crime of reset in Scotland, or handling stolen goods in England (where she is now). These crimes would still have been committed even if she didn’t initially know that the goods were obtained by fraud.
It appears that Nicola Sturgeon is finally being called out by the MSM. ‘Sturgeon claims never to have seen..yet we have this picture of it here around Sturgeon’s neck/parked in her driveway’.
GM
Link please?
Ye know, that’s 2/3rds of the party leaders/ seniors during the independence debates have either been described by a judge as (literally) too thick to understand what they were saying, and the subsequent FM too thick by her own admission to know what was going on financially around her both at work or at home. Worst of all she was a counter signatory of the former..
Dumb and dumber or something else perhaps?
Make yer ane mind up but neither is flattering..
Click on the pictures above. Also Telegraph, Sun, Reptile, even the BBC (who backed her to the hilt whilst hounding Alec to the grave and beyond) were heavy on her.
I dinnae like it either but I am hoping Sturgeon is now vulnerable and alone or more alone than before. That lame imposter Swinney is all she has. Bain retired as well
link to telegraph.co.uk
When is the Police auction?
I fancy a nice set of Salt n Pepper grinders. Maybe get a designer bag for the girlfriend. I can never resist a bargain.
Drop a few hints and she might get a copy of Sturgeon’s Collected Speeches for you.
“I fancy a nice set of Salt n Pepper grinders.”
Salt n Pepper…? I just had the most ghastly fleeting image cross my mind at this, “P-push it REAL GOOD….”
Brrr. Pass the mind bleach. Reckon I’d plump for one of the super-posh pens, might make a cheeky offer!
Anyone else just sitting idly assessing this whole mess, and the whole mother of all messes down in London, and regretfully coming to the conclusion that the political route just no longer works?
Here you go YL. This is what is really going on in the world:
link to unherd.com
The people controlling the supply chains, the tech, and the AI will be running things very soon. If we are good, we’ll get some kind of UBI.
If we don’t intend to comply, we had better have our own supply chains, tech and AI.
You’re correct. The political route doesn’t work anymore. The penny that still hasn’t dropped for most is the reality that for those at the top, the Starmers and Swinneys, the political route isn’t working either. They have their hands on the levers of power, after a lifetime of eye gouging and stamping on the faces of those beneath them on the ladder, but the linkages have been disconnected.
They don’t control the supply chains, the tech, or the AI.
BBC is reporting that Murrell bought “a bottle of Loctite super glue (£3.50)”.
I wonder, as a bit of a tea leaf himself, if he has a pathological desire to glue valuables down.
He’s certainly providing new material for any comic wanting to revise the “grippy Scot” narrative. Luckily for Murrell and Sturgeon, the Hate Crimes act is still in force in Scotland, so comedians at The Fringe will still have to tread carefully.
Perhaps that was always the plan.
I am not making excuses for her, but it’s reasonable to assume that if he had an annual income of £85,000, she might have believed he could afford all the things he was buying, e.g. ‘it’s his money; he can do what he likes with it.’
£85,000 a year is about £56,000 after tax (but before pension contributions, and fixed costs like housing). So the £400k he stole is equivalent to around 7 years of his tax home salary. If we estimated that he had £1,500per month in fixed costs, that would mean he would have had the equivalent of twice the disposal income that his salary should have provided, for over 10 years.
Yet none of that raised any alarm bells?
Surprised no one noticed the 6-wheel campervan.
I think my missus would’ve raised an eyebrow at that point 😀
Oh aye definitely- it’s a huge purchase to make for someone on that salary. Are we really to believe that Mrs Murrell had such a reckless indifference to the way her husband spent money and acquired debt?
Murrell’s escalating thefts
2010: £537
2011: £706
2012: £1083
2013: £1,518
2014: £3,425
2015: £5,520
2016: £46,284
2017: £43,724
2018: £17,855
2019: £96,764
2020: £152,005
2021: £22,202
2022: £6,214
link to scottishdailyexpress.co.uk
Interesting.
2020 was a bit of a kerchinger, by the looks!
“Murrell, who is Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband, pled guilty to embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP over a 12-year period.”
——————————————————-
Most of the press have a comment similar to the above.
It is important to note that Murrell and Sturgeon were NOT estranged when the thefts were carried out.
“NOT estranged when the thefts were carried out”
Likewise, Scotland and England are not exactly ‘estranged’, the former held tighter than ever, as the legalized theft via colonial robbery of £150+ billion a year from Scots continues:
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
Absolute mince……..as usual. Very easy to pick random figures out of thin air. It’s all you have. But no quotes from failed ancient academics no one is interested in or cute wee Scottishy words so that’s a bonus.
It looks like it’s time for a wee reminder… in Scots, tae.
Ther scarce be a wird pit doun here fae colonialists (unyonists if preferryd… baith be alike) that’s onythin’ ither than abuise, threit, lie, errure, afftak, diveesion, diversioun, distractioun, logicale fallace, or hatesome antiScot rethorik.
No English translation this time… sometimes writing in thon Inglis gies me the boak.
“pick random figures out of thin air”
That it can be demonstrated that a resource-rich Scotland controlled by a poorer over-populated imperial England has a far lower GDP compared to all our Nordic neighbours, and less than half the GDP of some, is hardly based on ‘random figures’, it is reality.
The reality is therefore that if Scotland’s GDP were on a par with the ‘average’ Nordic nation we would be at least £150 billion a year better off.
This colonial reality suggests Scotland’s economy is both plundered and under-developed and is costing Scots at least £150 billion per annum.
It is based on random figures because the figures you’ve provided are wrong, as I’ve pointed out before and as you’ve acknowledged (but you haven’t amended the article). Quite how you think for example, you’d get away with a GDP per capita figure in £ for Scotland (although you’ve falsely labelled it as dollars) with a figure in dollars for every comparator.
Using the actual figures:
– GDP per capita in Scotland is about the same as in Finland.
– it is higher than in France
– it is about 20% higher in Sweden
– nobody uses the GDP per capita figure for Ireland, because of the extensive use of base shifting profit erosion there. Using consumption rates, output per person in Scotland and Ireland are likely to be quite similar.
Oh, My God, AI Dan… that was one of the most interesting posts I’ve ever read in this place.
There was me just about to end it all by massively overdosing on Tunnocks Tea Cakes when your comment came along and gave me the will tae live agin.
Can artificial intelligences be given medals for saving lives, I wonder.
“it is about 20% higher in Sweden”
GDP per cap in Denmark, which has a similar population to Scotland, was 50% higher than Scotland (2021/22) and Denmark has relatively few natural resources compared with Scotland.
There is no reason for Scotland to have 50% less GDP than Denmark other than the fact Scotland’s considerable wealth is being extracted, which it is via City of London deregulation, UK corp and other taxation, offshore tax haven ownership of Scottish assets/utilities, industry transfer pricing, plus long-term lack of investment leaving the Scottish economy under-developed, and absence of any national econ/industrial plan for Scotland.
Adding £150 bn on Scottish GDP would merely put us on a par with Denmark, still well below Norway, Ireland, Swiss etc.
An independent Scottish nation would be looking for that £150bn, which is the cost of colonialism.
You’re lying again, the GDP per capita in Scotland is around 75% of Denmark, not 50%.
Scotland is overall a very wealthy country, but parts of Scotland haven’t recovered from the loss of heavy industry in the 60’s to 80’s. That is why Scotland underperforms on GDP per capita metrics compared to Scandinavian neighbours, who never industrialised or deindustrialised in the same way. There is no “missing” £150bn which would by the way make Scotland in the top 5 wealthy countries in the world (aside from tiny tax havens). If Scotland wants to bridge the gap, then it needs to find highly productive employment for depressed areas e.g. in the central belt and the Clyde, which is very difficult to do.
GDP-PER-CAPITA BY COUNTRY, 2021/22
Norway – $106,149
Ireland – $104,039
Switzerland – $92,101
Denmark – $60,345
Scotland – $40,325
The $20,000 difference between GDP-PC in Scotland and Denmark is 50% of Scottish GDP-PC under colonial rule. Clearly the GDP-PC margin is even greater between other ‘small’ nations and a colonial Scotland.
At the very least ‘unionist’/colonial cheerleaders like you should be questioning why a resource rich Scotland seems so poor financially. We all know the answer, colonial plunder and economic under-development.
“We all know the answer, colonial plunder and economic under-development.”
I am convinced by Alf’s argument, which is supported by GDP-PC figures.
I am unconvinced by AI Dan’s ‘argument’, which is supported by heehaw .
AI Dan’s heehaw leaves me cold and induces in me an overwhelming desire to open a packet of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes and consume each delicious cake one after the other until the packet is emptied and a fresh one must be opened and devoured and so on and so on and so on and… while staring unblinkingly at a blank wall and drooling chocolate doun ma chin and rocking back and forth on a creaky auld chair and haein a mumbled chat wi ma lang deid maw sittin’ oan the rockin’ chair next tae me up here in the attic o ma hoose.
Why would you be using figures from 5-years ago when for at least part of the period the U.K. was in national lockdown AND said figures were subject to a substantial revision in 2023!
Using accurate up to date figures, Scotlands GDP is c$55-60k per capita (depending on the figures you use), around the same as Canada, Finland or the UAE, about 25% less than Denmark, about 20% higher than France, and significantly higher than the Baltic states e.g. Estonia. We’ve been through this before and you acknowledged the figures you used were a) out of date, and b) incomparable even on the reference date, yet rather than correct your own dodgy data you’re trotting out exactly the same debunked numbers as before.
Is this because your argument falls apart completely when someone looks at the actual data and can see that Scotlands GDP per capita is around the same as comparable countries like Canada and Finland, and better than European neighbours like France?
My article identifying ‘the cost of colonialism’ for Scotland was published a couple of years ago and was therefore based on data at that time. Is that also difficult for you to understand?
That France and Britain have far lower GDP-per cap than many smaller North European states reflects the fact both these heavily indebted nations have struggled economically for at least the last 50 years after losing most of their cash-cow colonies that held up their currencies and balance of trade, as well as paying off the USA during most of that period for assistance to ‘win’ WWII.
England is clearly dependent on Scotland as its last major cash-cow colony, the plunder of which brings our GDP down to the pathetic level it remains at today.
Yes but we’ve been round this roundabout before, the data was wrong when you published it and now it’s both wrong and out of date. It is true that GDP per capita is lower than countries like Denmark and Sweden, and much lower than Norway. Equally it is the same as comparable high income countries like Canada and Finland.
The $150bn figure you quote is also made up (the rounded number is always a clue). It isn’t based on any analysis of Scotland’s industry or tax base or anything like that, it’s just an arbitrary numerical representation of that fact that you think it should be higher. It’s the same with GERS, a lot of people are quick to dismiss it, but I don’t see anyone doing a forensic bottom-up calculation of what the actual tax take should be for each form of taxation along with a convincing rationale of the delta between the two. It’s just the normal “there is this assumption or estimate therefore the whole thing is completely useless and we’ll just make something up and go with that instead”.
Scotland is being fiddled.
You can quote all the figures you like. Unless they hand over the full accounts you know jack shit with yer guessestimate bullshit.
Scotland is a wealthy country. Rich in oil & Gas along with an abundance of natural resources. Only an absolute fuckwit hands it all over to another country without even seeing the proper accounts.
Scotland is also held back from its full potential because of the single market bullshit. Only domestic trade & everything has to pass through English ports.
Aye, speaking of de-insutrialising. Clyde could’ve & should’ve been moved on to the luxury cruise ships & Ferries that were fashionable at the time – just think of all those tradesmen too (electricians, plumbers etc) but Maggie made sure those jobs went to England instead. Same as those workers should’ve been skilled up to work on the rigs & the oil & gas industry. Instead they got ghost towns & betting shops.
Scotland should be an independent country. It’s ABNORMAL for a country to give another country its entire revenues & control over it’s trade & be handed back some pocket money, a shopping bill & a FU note of guessestimates.
There is ZERO benefit to Scotland. None. Nada.
Here’s a novel idea, why don’t you think, real, real hard & come up with some?
Or – We go independent & England can offer us a union for a membership fee. They list all the benefits they’re offering & we’ll see if we want to join it or not. Just like the EU. See if there’s anything they can think of too..
@Northcode 8:18
Thanks for that rare peep into your personal life and habits, Northy.
You’re a sly dog! All this time you’ve been living a far more interesting and accomplished existence than we could ever have guessed from your posts.
Leading economists say GDP is a pants way to measure a country by because it adds in things like rents & services. Purchasing parity gives the real health of a Nation.
Don’t knock being fiddled, Geri, you might have an organism
So Maggie killed of the Clyde did she? And there never was any rigs fabricated at Nigg, Ardersier and Kishorn by masses of Clydeside welders.
Oh well. At least alert readers can conclude you never were one of the lassies who traded affection for generous gifts from the bulging pay packets of the Scottish welders, fitters, scaffolders, etc who coined it in big during the North Sea bonanza.
So that’s good.
Economists will say anything to avoid being grilled like that boy you were writing about yesterday, Geri.
Any sarnies left?
Well here’s the good news Geri, the Office for National Statistics produces an extraordinary amount of high quality data through over 5,500 statistical releases. The treasury also produces its budget analysis which is then reviewed by the Office for Budget responsibility.
You can also see the accounts for every company registered in the U.K. through the companies house website.
But of course you don’t trust any of that do you. All of the relevant data you discount outright, not because of any flaw in the collection or analysis methodology, but because like all fanatics, it conflicts with your existing world view.
Conclusion
So, the English Government’s Office for National Statistics (where I found this report) is actually useful for some facts.
I wouldn’t trust much of what the ONS has to say about Scotland’s wealth, tho.
I couldn’t find any reliable figures on how much of Scotland’s wealth is being stolen by England – tho, reading between the lines, it’s a lot.
I think we can safely assume that the vast, the huge, the sheer galaxy-sized total of Scotland’s wealth stolen by England is ‘woven through the UK’s accounts’.
“I wouldn’t trust much of what the ONS has to say”
Well, therein lies the problem, in a nutshell.
“The ONS hasn’t a clue, so I’ll default to entirely unsubstantiated, grievance-driven anecdote that I heard on YouTube, which spookily enough happens to entirely fit in with my fanatical, irrational zealotry, oft trotted out in hermetically sealed echo chambers”.
Who needs experts etc. Sigh – like pushing shite uphill.
“The ONS hasn’t a clue…”
On the contrary, I think the ONS knows exactly what it’s doing when it omits, or includes, or promoted, or hides, or twists.
Are we, the colonised Scots, really expected to believe that an organisation wholly owned and controlled by the English colonial state is to be trusted by the peoples of its imperial possessions?
Imperial possessions England has plundered for centuries… and still plunders to this day.
Ah, my bad. Of course!
The ONS are “in on it”, all part of some grand Fanon-tastic conspiracy – in fact they are one of THEM, right?
Yawn.
Data shite in = data shite out.
A. GERS has been admitted by various ex London MPs that it’s bullshit to show a colonial branch office is too wee & too poor to go it alone. They better fudge the figures. A common Colonial trait to keep the population thinking it’s skint while they fck off with Billions. Ask India.
B. Richard Murphy, professor & chartered accountant, said they’re CRAP. Completely Rubbish Approximations at Present. 25 out of 26 income figures are ESTIMATES on the basis Scotland is a mini part of the UK.
Nobody would ever prepare an income statement based on estimates, samples & statistics when you could actually gather the correct data. The UK doesn’t run its own accounts like this – it uses the CORRECT information. There is absolutely no reason why Scotland shouldn’t have exactly how much it is collecting. We could collect our own data.
BTW, he also said he’s never met anyone ever wank themselves blind over Scotlands Income & expenditure than yoons do. Okay, he actually said Obsess, but wanking is probably what he meant.
(This is probably why England doesn’t have an devolved branch office – it’s need to furnish GERE.)
C. Estimates based on *Current Constitutional Arrangements* An independent Scotland would make its own fiscal choices & trade deals. Starting with Oil, Gas, Electricity sales to England.
D. The UK government already announced in parliament it is stealing over £190 BILLION from the North sea. That’s Scotlands resources. That should be added to the income eh? That’s the North sea alone, add all the rest they thieve.
E. Scotland should be an independent country. Stop yer bullshit based on nothing but made up fantasy figures. It’s fucking embarrassing at this point, especially when so many economists rip the piss & have thoroughly debunked them. No other nation on earth runs it’s entire income based on guessestimates. Scotland only has a population of around 5.5 million & what is taken from the NS. No reason why it shouldn’t be given the proper data. They stopped producing it because it showed Scotland was minted & was keeping England afloat – that was even before Oil first came ashore.
Unlike you, I’ve never tried “… pushing shite uphill.”
Tell me, is it really a very difficult thing to do, or are you fibbing as usual?
It doesn’t sound all that arduous a task, but I wouldn’t know… again, unlike you, I’ve never had the urge to try.
I suppose the level of difficulty depends on the consistency and quantity of the shite to be pushed up a hill – runny shite will obviously be much more difficult to push than shite thoroughly compacted and with a more solid temperament.
Who would have thought the dynamics of pushing shite up a hill would be so… involved?
I could be wrong, of course… there is always that remote possibility to be considered.
But I think this is the takeaway point of my comment posted @9:35AM today:
“Our research suggests that the top of Scottish society is significantly unrepresentative of the Scottish population…”
“Unlike you, I’ve never tried “… pushing shite uphill.””
On the contrary, Northy. Most would conclude that’s an activity (hopefully metaphorically speaking) which fills your (extensive) waking hours and copious output, this latest being a mere tip of a very large “shite-berg”. 🙂
Of course the ONS doesn’t take an institutional view of political questions, it collects, analyses and publishes data. So what Northcode and Geri are saying is that they reject data as a concept generally, because it doesn’t accord to their view, which of course speaks volumes.
@Geri – the only bit of that “he said/she said” hearsay ramble worth responding to is around approximations and estimates. Obviously you’ve never been involved with the compilation of statistics, but this approach is normal when exact figures aren’t available, which they aren’t. For example, when I work in London and in Edinburgh, there aren’t separate line-items in the P&L and it doesn’t give rise to a separate Scottish/English corporation tax or VAT liability. So it isn’t possible to simply identify from tax returns exactly how much tax accrues to each country. So the statisticians and economists producing GERS use a range of independently assured statistical techniques which are explained in detail in the methodology. You’re welcome to challenge that (although I doubt you have the skill or experience to do so), but nobody ever does and certainly doesn’t in a way that demonstrates a large amount of money that should accrue to Scotland is wrongly accruing to England. Instead it’s, there’s some approximations = whole thing is rubbish, instead let’s go with figures which have no analytical or evidence-base at all, but suit my narrative.
“Of course the ONS doesn’t take an institutional view of political questions…”
Time for another packet of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes and a chat with mother up in the attic, I think.
And paragraphs, AI Dan, paragraphs… they were invented for a reason.
Bloomberg also mentioned a staggering £177 billion excess profits for Energy firms. So there is more income down the City of London sewer.
Who to believe?
A. Ai Dan, a foreigner living outside of Scotland, thieving wanker & internet troll arguing over guessestimates & fantasy data because someone who works for the UK government pulls numbers out a hat to show they’ll guess £100 means we owe England £99. We can have a £1. change & be fucking thankful..
OR….
B. Chartered accountants, leading economists, the UK government (when it unwittingly slips up at the despatch box) & market analysts?
That’s a tough one eh? NOT! GYTF, ya rocket.
Let me repeat again. No other nation in the whole wide world uses guessestimates to guess it’s own income when the UK government is very capable of collecting & sharing that data for its own use.
But then again , no other country is stupid enough to hand over it’s entire income & resources to another country in the first place & expect them to be honest. It’s bat shit nuts & I’d be embarrassed to admit I was that fucking stupid in public. Scotland is being robbed blind. There isn’t even an oil fund FFS. Why not? Any guesses?
Bloomberg may have broke the story, but the analysis informing it which was apparently leaked has not been published, so we don’t know what methodology was used or what assumptions informed it, or what the definition of “energy firms” was.
What we DO know for definite is that the Energy Profits Levy last year which is a 38% corporation tax surcharge, last year raised £2.9bn, with total tax revenues from oil and gas being £6.1bn. You can see how this accords to the numbers produced by the North Sea Transition Authority:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/government-revenues-from-uk-oil-and-gas-production–2/government-revenues-from-oil-and-gas-production-september-2025
link to nstauthority.co.uk
So these are assured and audited actual numbers reported from an official source, not unconfirmed reports in a newspaper.
Let’s not pretend that there are any economists or chartered accountants supporting your point of view, as on every subject you sit totally contrary to the consensus of professional opinion. In the case of GERS, it’s the Office for Statistics Regulation. You could always write them a lengthy letter explaining in detail how they got it wrong? I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.
It is a clear demonstration of how thick Starmer and the Labour Government are, that they are not rushing to offer Swinney and the SNP their referendum.
The SNP is effectively skint, they could not afford to fund a referendum campaign.
They are recovering from the scandal of the Murrell case, all the Unionists would need to say is: “Run an independent country – they couldn’t even run their party properly” and they’d be home and dry.
The SNP is probably weaker now than they have been at any time since 2014 – now would be the right time to put Independence back in its box for another 20 years.
Thankfully, Westminster is too arrogant to see this, so the broader independence movement has time to recover and, after they say No to a referendum, consider and implement other methods of breaking free of England.
“JOHN Swinney will request a Section 30 order from the Prime Minister when they meet in “the next few weeks” following Holyrood calling for powers over an independence referendum to be devolved.”
——————————————————-
Swinney has not yet requested a S30 Order.
I remember well the coming up of Nicola and the emergence of the SNP as the ruling party well over a decade ago, I had friends who became very involved in local politics as their footsoldiers (some who have been featured in unflattering terms on this very site…). And there was always the whiff of the lightweight about her, wasn’t there? I wanted to like her, hearted the selfies my friends posted with her, I just kept waiting for the great stateswoman moment and the serious politician to emerge. Instead, it became increasingly obvious she was using the charade of independence to enrich herself, angled for the most powerful position she could, and she left in the perfect ignominy of defending the locking up of male rapists with female prisoners. And here, finally, her magpie ex-husband exposed and she lawyers up to once again delay the inevitable. There really never was anything there to believe in, anything at all. I should catch up with those friends some day and ask how they feel.
Murrell & Sturgeon, as in Burke & Hare.
Definitely has a ring to it.
“Murrell & Sturgeon, as in Burke & Hare.”
Today’s article was nearly called “Shopping With Burke & Hare” after the Hook’n’Pull Gang song 😀
To those who professed to have ‘held their nose’ whilst reluctantly voting for ‘them’ again….has the stink broke through yet?
It’s sad to see some people here trying to blame the Union for this. The reason the rest of the UK doesn’t come down hard on SNP corruption isn’t because they’re in league, it’s because if they do anything at all they’ll be accused of interfering in Scottish matters.
Consequently the independence movement goes on unchanged and supporters will vote to put those same corrupt or incompetent politicians into ever more powerful positions.
Ultimately of course, like those in Westminster who can’t cope with the job, the plan is to hand responsibility to the EU while still enjoying the privileges of office.
It is a given (by admission, not proof or evidence) that Murrell stole significant sums from the SNP for over ten years.
Alex Neil wants a KC led investigation, but who will pay for it? The SNP?
If the SNP do fund the investigation, does anyone really believe that it will dig deep enough to expose the full extent of the thieving?
I think that there should be a second, parallel, investigation – by the regulator of the auditing profession if only because Murrell’s thieving shows just how light a touch various firms have taken with the SNP in the past.