On Sunday, Nicola Sturgeon told Laura Kuenssberg that the SNP’s accounts “went up and down” as her excuse for not noticing that hundreds of thousands of pounds had suddenly vanished from them overnight.
Several things leap out immediately from that clip.
One, there absolutely very much WAS “something glaringly suspicious in the accounts that I should have seen” – the party she led had raised almost £700,000 in two “ring-fenced” fundraisers that wasn’t there any more, which ought to have made its leader at least mildly curious.
And two, attempting to fob responsibility off onto the independent auditors simply won’t wash. It’s not their job to determine whether the SNP has kept its political promises or not, their job is simply to match up money coming in against money going out and produce a set of numbers to show what it all adds up to. It makes no odds to them if it was spent on a party conference, a fancy motorhome or a 50-foot golden statue of Danny La Rue. All they can see is numbers.
But even leaving those things aside, if we’re going to learn anything about how The Great Indyref Swindle got to this calamitous point unchecked we need to examine just how hard Nicola Sturgeon had to look the other way to fail to see what was going on literally under her nose and literally in her own back yard.
To tell you the truth, readers, we’re suffering from a little bit of option paralysis at the moment, although happily not in the same way Peter Murrell is.
The endless torrent of revelations following on from Murrell’s conviction a week ago isn’t just fascinating in its own right – it also forces numerous historical issues to be seen in a new light. At any given second there are half-a-dozen different articles we could be writing, but also so many to read that it’s hard to find the time.
We suspect this matter is going to run and run all through the summer silly season because there are simply so many angles and so many unanswered questions.
Sadly, this turned out to be prescient this morning.
Laura Kuenssberg did give Nicola Sturgeon an uncomfortable time in their interview on her Sunday programme on BBC News, but when confronted with the one gaping open goal that Sturgeon has no answer for – and even when Sturgeon TWICE set it up on a plate for her – Kuenssberg failed to knock the ball into the empty net.
That doesn’t – by some distance – mean there was nothing of interest to note, though, so let’s take a walk through (the first instalment of) what was said.
Now that Nicola Sturgeon is finally free of her gruelling MSP workload, which could give her anything up to two extra hours of spare time a week, she might like to start making a proper dent in the contents of her fully-loaded bookshelves.
The multi-statement meltdown that has been the unravelling of Nicola Sturgeon this week has been quite something to behold. Last night, for example, we swear our Twitter feed presented these two tweets one after the other.
We’ll be honest with you, readers, if we were in a situation where a lawyer was issuing statements for us, this isn’t what we’d want to hear.
“If my client had been charged, she’d be in prison right now” is a worrying distance short of a vote of confidence in your client’s innocence.
But the statement Aamer Anwar put out for Nicola Sturgeon last night – her FOURTH in 48 hours, despite saying on Monday morning that she’d be making no further comment on the Peter Murrell case – had rather more wrong with it than even that.
So, having made a statement on Monday morning which asserted that she wouldn’t make any further statements, then making another statement on Monday afternoon, Nicola Sturgeon and her solicitor issued a third statement in 36 hours last night.
And while we acknowledge that this is a very high bar to clear, it contained one of the most troubling and blatant lies she’s ever told.
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.
There will be no trial, no cross-examination, no explanation. The people of Scotland, the members and supporters of the SNP, the wider Yes movement, none of us will ever know what really happened. Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
Despite what you or we might think, in the eyes of the Scottish Football Association this ISN’T a pitch invasion. This is simply what a football match in progress looks like.
Because according to the absolutely extraordinary statement they’ve released this evening, that was game time. The clock was still running, nothing was being added to account for the fact that there were thousands of thugs rampaging across the field, and the game was still happening in that moment, until it was ended four seconds later.
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “We might also ‘twig’ that Imperial England has long since became a refuge and right of abode for millions of…” Sep 19, 13:25
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Aye, hunners o dodgy one-sided ‘annexation’ and ‘we’ll hiv yer sovereignty, thank you’ treaties are the wey it wis done…” Sep 19, 13:02
Alf Baird on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Confused makes a good point. As Professor Edward Said wrote: “The imperial relationship is there in all cases. Irish people…” Sep 19, 12:45
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The BBC along with the rest of the British MSM are indeed shilling for war, as is the FSL in…” Sep 19, 12:26
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The parliament of England, the monarch of England the politicians, the Commissioners all held the two mistakes and errors. 1:…” Sep 19, 12:24
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Stretching the neo colonial theme, kinda Woody Guthrie..ish These lands are our land, no longer your land From the icy…” Sep 19, 12:23
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Agentx, It was and is of no account what Scotlands old parliament did when adjourned in Scotland in 1707. To…” Sep 19, 12:03
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Many of the people you refer to as “Yoons” are independence supporters, myself included. (I was recently accused of being…” Sep 19, 11:58
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Agentx, The old Scottish parliament was already dissolved by the Monarch of England on the 28th April 1706 in England,…” Sep 19, 11:56
Spartan 117 on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “A bit early to be pished. Someone obviously left the COSHH cabinet unlocked last night. Snorted the Denso and necked…” Sep 19, 11:51
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “bbc shilling for war on the front page https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn0jke547r5o delusions of a fool, pining for the past https://archive.ph/f0c0J getting involved…” Sep 19, 11:42
Confused on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Ben Gvir recently had a rant on X “It’s time for the State to publicly recognize that the Malvinas Islands…” Sep 19, 11:40
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “This makes the “Scotland Act itself reservations and restrictions on Scotland from the legislation and Statues of then Westminster parliament…” Sep 19, 11:39
agentx on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Timeline of the 1707 Union January 16, 1707:The Treaty of Union was formally ratified by the Parliament of Scotland. March…” Sep 19, 11:02
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Simply said for late comers, The ratification of Scotlands side of the 1707 treaty of union occurred after the parliament…” Sep 19, 11:02
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Both the bill of rights and the act of Settlement were passed by the parliament of England prior the Scottish…” Sep 19, 10:47
Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Why would anyone trust a word Trump – or indeed any of his GOP successors say? Even if the Democrats…” Sep 19, 10:41
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Are Sweden and Germany Anglophone countries? How about Greece, Austria, Italy and Ceuta (Spain)? Your response is just more of…” Sep 19, 10:05
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The Westminster parliament records do not float an idea or theory that Scotland is Colonised , it proves it into…” Sep 19, 10:05
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Alf, Even you and the UN have to chronologically apply dates and time lines to arrive at the ” theses”…” Sep 19, 09:54
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “If you’re referring to the US-Denmark-Greenland deal, the reality would appear to be more nuanced. And it’s yet to be…” Sep 19, 09:44
James Che on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “No psychology, no theory, putting meat on the bone through the records of Westminster parliament, from the Horses mouth one…” Sep 19, 09:34
Andy Ellis on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Or, you know…in the real world, it’s not the yoons contributing to BTL discourse that are the issue it is…” Sep 19, 09:29
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Dunx According to the Declaration of Arbroath, the Picts were genocided by the Scots. That’s an awkward truth that can’t…” Sep 19, 09:26
TURABDIN on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “@Hatey McHateface Thirty years ago i wasnt around however the flooding as you term it may have had something to…” Sep 19, 09:25
Hatey McHateface on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “See, Dave? You can string a few sentences together when you’re prepared to make the effort. Why don’t you build…” Sep 19, 09:17
diabloandco on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Dave L , with you there , never ceases to amaze me how much time they spend on here relentlessly…” Sep 19, 08:17
DaveL on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “The yoons on here constantly moan whinge and cry about various btl posters, sometimes demanding they just stop posting their…” Sep 19, 05:10
Mark Beggan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Let’s just say, playing the victim now is not got the payback that one might have thought. Perhaps the victim…” Sep 18, 23:28
