Straight to the shredder
If we can somehow find the time amid the relentless blizzard of current Scottish political activity, we’re going to put together a list of all the legitimate and important questions that Alex Salmond’s lawyers have asked the Fabiani inquiry which haven’t even had the courtesy of a reply, let alone a satisfactory one.
We fully anticipate that the contents of the letter below, sent today, will be on that list.
“STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF ALEX SALMOND
SALMOND’S LAWYERS TELL LORD ADVOCATE TO RETAIN RECORDS OF “EXTRAORDINARY INTERVENTION” TO CENSURE HIS EVIDENCE
A spokesperson for Mr Salmond said:
“Mr Salmond has never refused to give evidence and remains happy to do so.
On Monday, he had confirmed attendance at the Parliamentary Committee today to deliver his evidence. His submissions had been approved and were published that day. Logistical and health and safety arrangements had been made for the evidence session and travel plans had been organised.
On Monday afternoon the First Minister pre-emptively announced that there was no evidence of wrongdoing on her government’s part. This was before Mr Salmond’s evidence was even published.
Then late on Monday night, after publication on the Parliamentary website the Crown Office intervened, which led to redaction of substantial sections of some of the very evidence the First Minister claimed did not exist.
In light of this astonishing decision to intervene at the eleventh hour and in light of the timing, Mr Salmond asked the Committee to defer his evidence by 48 hours to enable his legal team to consider the full implications of this extraordinary intervention.
Mr Salmond has now asked his lawyers, Levy & McRae, to write to the Lord Advocate as the Head of the Crown Office to ask for an explanation for the Crown’s unprecedented and highly irregular actions. In particular the Lord Advocate has now been asked to explain;
1. What was the legal basis for the Crown’s intervention, when lawyers and counsel have approved the submission as being fully compliant with Lady Dorrian’s judgment? Their advice is that they can see no legal reason for this move.
2. Why did the Crown not complain until now about the paragraphs they have asked to be removed from Mr Salmond’s submission, given that they have known about these since before 15th January and they have been in the public domain since then too? The Parliament also approved the submission before publishing it on the Inquiry website.
Mr Salmond’s lawyers have also posed the following direct questions:
• Why has the Crown’s position changed? What new information or intervention led to such a dramatic expansion of the material which the Parliament has been required to redact?
• Specifically, given the fact that each of the paragraphs which appeared in the original submission on the Ministerial Code in the same terms as previously accepted, what about those paragraphs is suddenly now so legally “problematic” that a Parliamentary Inquiry is to be deprived of that evidence? If the evidence is not published, the stated position of the Committee is that it will not be considered.
• What has now altered the legal analysis of this same text which means that members of the public following the evidence before the Committee on a matter of this importance are now not to have access to it via publication by the Parliament?
• What representations were made to Crown Office on this question, by whom, when and on what basis?
• If the submission remained a concern, why were no representations made about the balance of the submission before yesterday? Specifically, why was no aspect of this raised at the recent hearing before Lady Dorrian?
Mr Salmond has instructed his lawyers to request specifically that the Crown preserve and retain all material and communications with all or any third parties which led to their decision to intervene at the very last minute just as he was set to give his evidence.”
I think the most interesting bit is Mr Salmond has instructed his lawyers to request specifically that the Crown preserve and retain all material and communications with all or any third parties which led to their decision to intervene at the very last minute just as he was set to give his evidence.”
As I recall that’s a bit like the old Anton Piller, trying to prevent disposal of evidence. I guess it’s a warning shot for further action.
Remember the ‘missing tapes’.
If you know that there has been a conspiracy, vital evidence can turn up in the most unlikely of places.
As we are finding.
You just know ehere to look.
It is the ‘unknown unknowns’ that can provide the smoking gun.
https://www.tns2019.org/new-blog-1/2021/2/23/who-cares-scotland
Stu, can you, or anyone else, explain what either the ScotGov or Crown Office think is the point of this whole farce? Do they think the many thousands of us who have been watching closely will suffer sudden collective amnesia? Is it really a thunderingly clumsy attempt to trash vital institutions like our legal system or devolved government? I can’t believe any more that it’s simple arrogance and stupidity. It takes a lot of work to be this “inept”. Nor can I believe it’s *just* blind panic. Whose blog do I read for a hint of truth without paranoia?
I see craig Murray is offering £25,000 reward for Geoff Aberdein’s evidence https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
“As you can plainly see, the entire purpose of these redactions is to obliterate Geoff Aberdein from the picture. Very plainly nothing in these redactions tends to assist the identification of one of the lying accusers in court. The document was passed by the Parliament’s own legal service in line with Lady Dorrian’s amended court order, before yesterday the corrupt Crown Office intervened in a panic to have this evidence subverted.
Geoff Aberdein’s evidence is the most crucial collection of fact in the entire Holyrood Inquiry. Why?
In early March 2018 Nicola Sturgeon’s Chief of Staff and closest confidante, Liz Lloyd, phoned Geoff Aberdein to set up a meeting with Nicola Sturgeon and told him it was about sexual allegations against Alex Salmond. That is a full month before the date on which Nicola Sturgeon lied to Parliament she first heard of allegations. Lying to Parliament is a resignation matter.”
“Mr Salmond has instructed his lawyers to request specifically that the Crown preserve and retain all material and communications with all or any third parties which led to their decision to intervene at the very last minute just as he was set to give his evidence.”
Is that the sound of whirring shredders I can hear from the COPFS office?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/02/25000-reward-offered-for-copy-of-geoff-aberdein-testimony/
Mr Salmond has instructed his lawyers to request specifically that the Crown preserve and retain all material and communications with all or any third parties which led to their decision to intervene at the very last minute just as he was set to give his evidence.”
As the title states, Straight to the Shredder! There will be no material to be retained.
What a bourach! ‘Show me the evidence of a conspiracy, cause I know there is no conspiracy’. Oh FFS I didn’t think you could show THAT evidence. I better get it stopped!
This is the very essence of cancel culture. No acceptance of any evidence which contradicts the monopoly narrative and definitions of the purity spiral gang culture which is operating here.
If there is nothing to hide there is nothing to fear. Yet the extraordinarily efforts to undermine due process and inconvenient evidence and testimony at odds with the twelve year old management clones drunk on their own power fix clearly suggests there is.
Voting for such spiteful childish people to retain that power to gerrymander the system to their own wishes would represent a green light to trample over the rights of the majority via undemocratically debated and imposed legislation such as the Hate Crime Bill and GRA or worse to criminalise and punish anyone who disagrees with anything this cabal wishes.
Alice Timmons says:
24 February, 2021 at 12:43 pm
“Stu, can you, or anyone else, explain what either the ScotGov or Crown Office think is the point of this whole farce? Do they think the many thousands of us who have been watching closely will suffer sudden collective amnesia? Is it really a thunderingly clumsy attempt to trash vital institutions like our legal system or devolved government? I can’t believe any more that it’s simple arrogance and stupidity. It takes a lot of work to be this “inept”. Nor can I believe it’s *just* blind panic. Whose blog do I read for a hint of truth without paranoia?”
Basically ALL this is about one person and her narcissistic personality disorder. Wikki gives a good explanation of narcissistic insult and rage….
@steve ellwood – yep, because even if (and especially if) the committee report will be a whitewash (quite possible in my view) and the other inquiry too (less likely IMV but still possible), there will be plenty of court action over the next few years. That may be slow and boring, but there must be lots of people badly exposed to ruinous bills, ruined careers and possible prison – and I don’t mean Alex Salmond…
“There’s not a shred of evidence ….we burnt it “
Can someone explain why the Crown Office has the power in effect to overrule Lady Dorrian? Surely she gave a clear judgement which the Crown Office did not appeal – though I’m not a lawyer, and may well be missing something.
Anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see clearly that the SNPG and its arms have something to hide, and it’s a lot more than the identity of the alphabet women All this stuff is out there, anyway, but they bank on those, the mass of the population, who are not interested particularly, in not being aware of that, or, if they are aware, of not caring overly much. Such is politics.
However, even the dimmest lightbulb and/or the most uninterested member of the public will know what it is like to be ostracized, if the SNPG is allowed to get away with this and carry it into an independent Scotland or just a post May Scotland. In a way which might not have been foreseen by Mr Salmond, he is the obstacle who blocks the open door to even greater repressions of our liberty.
If his treatment at the hands of the SNPG is allowed to stand, if the redaction of vital evidence in what is a questioning of the misuse of powers, of evidence of possible corruption at the highest level, the rest of the lowly ones – us – are in for a hard time.
The GRA reform WILL – not might – impinge on women’s human and civil rights in ways that cannot be allowed to stand, or women and girls WILL – not might – be marginalized all over again, wiping out decades and decades of our fight for our rights so that men who claim to be women can occupy them.
The Hate Crime Bill is not the inoffensive gathering together of odds and sods of legislation to make a comprehensive whole – at least, it might be about that, too, but its end purpose will be to stifle free speech, to make anything and everything illegal in terms of any kind of protest about the GRA reforms, and that can be extended to encompass other things that the public might have doubts about.
We are all poised on the cusp of a descent into a place that has not been seen in Scotland – and not even in the UK – for at least a century. We have taken free speech, and liberty to act, for granted; we have eschewed force in favour of mass public education. Until now. You might want to ask why? Why have all these things come together in one perfect storm now? Why are our children being forced to sip from the Stonewall Diversity Champions’ cup?
An independent Scotland that is not free, that is authoritarian and repressive for the majority is not a place I want to see. I want a decent society where people are not told what to think, what to say, how to behave (within normal parameters). Just why does one man pose such a threat to the SNPG? Why does 0.4% of the population hold such sway that the rest must bow the knee or be cancelled, thrown into a no man’s land of pitchforkery, to be stabbed and hounded for telling the biological truth?
Nicola Sturgeon just gone off on one on her daily briefing re the enquiry, she blatantly lied saying Alex Salmond is refusing to attend, the delays are all his fault and there is no evidence of any wrong doing on her part, so much for her laser focus on Covid and not using her briefings to brief against Alex Salmond, you could tell she was itching to comment when asked otherwise she should have batted it away and said it was a covid meeting and not to comment on other issues, tick tock
If the crown shred it. There is always a history , whether from the sender or in their hard drives. A dangerous game if they attempt to suppress it. People have lose tongues.
Salmond was doing James Wollfe a favour describing him as ‘manifestly conflicted in his roles as both Government Legal Adviser and prosecutor’.
I would not be so kind. I moving him up the plotter list.
Dick move James.
I see that this had been allowed this afternoon in the Scottish Parliament ,
“ Urgent Question: Jackie Baillie – To ask the Scottish Government whether the Lord Advocate was consulted about the letter from the Crown Office to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body in relation to the evidence from Alex Salmond published by the Parliament. “
Alongside that list, I’d like to see a video showing all the interventions and interruptions the convener has made at the Inquiry when the focus drifts into areas that are difficult for the Government to explain.
Does the law have any clout in Scotland and the uk anymore after brexit ?
Are we not slipping into a lawless state ?
Interesting to see the amount of denial displayed regarding the evidence.
‘It’s all he said, she said…’
‘There is no actual proof of anything…’
Well if we were allowed to see it all there would be. Interesting that throughout AS criminal trial and this subsequent farce the Clown Office have held on to some stuff that it seems is so potent and destructive it would apparently blow our minds.
There is undoubtedly incompetence on a scale way beyond what we would expect of such highly paid individuals. There is evidence of poor judgement too, couched in hypocritical mawkish sentiment about protecting the poor women.
The staggering thing is that the one constant is the opportunity to get AS dominates. It is as if at every step their first thought was, will this result in the destruction of AS?
If Farq, Haggerty, Hassan and co. cannot see that this is then they are stealing a living as commentators and should reevaluate their lives.
Good god – Nicola really is a blatant liar – standing there as bold as brass, twisting the facts fo the matter. How can she expect us to vote for corruption?
I’m gutted at what she has done to a once fine and honest party and movement. Toom Tabard is too good a label for her.
Narcissistic personality disorder (according to the Mayo Clinic):
Signs and symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and the severity of symptoms vary. People with the disorder can:
Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration
Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
Exaggerate achievements and talents
Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people
Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior
Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations
Take advantage of others to get what they want
Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
Be envious of others and believe others envy them
Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious
Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office
At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:
Become impatient or angry when they don’t receive special treatment
Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted
React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior
Have difficulty regulating emotions and behaviour
Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change
Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection
Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662
Sounds like the perfect definition of Sturgeonism, huh?
The Lord Advocate is oblivious to all but his master’s voice.
What an extraordinary outburst by Sturgeon there at her daily briefing against Salmond.
I think I know what item Stu will run next thread on.
That woman has some neck.
Breathtaking.
Perhaps we could do with a reminder of another recent submission and statement to Parliament, barely a fortnight ago.
Statement by the Lord Advocate to Parliament: Clark & Whitehouse (09 February 2021)
(My edits)
“(it was) established legal authority that the Lord Advocate is immune from common law liability. That defence was upheld at first instance. But in October 2019, the Inner House of the Court of Session overturned the previous legal authority and allowed the claims to proceed.
On 20 August 2020, I admitted liability to Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse…
As a result of that investigation, I concluded that the decisions to place Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse on petition in September 2015 and to indict them were indefensible in law.
I concluded that those decisions proceeded without probable cause – ie without a proper evidential basis – in circumstances which met the legal test for malicious prosecution.
That legal test can, in certain circumstances, be met even though no individual had “malice” in the popular sense of a spiteful motive. My acceptance of liability in this case did not depend on any individual being malicious in that popular sense.
Although this case involved significant departures from standard practice, lessons have been learned and will continue to be learned.
The precognition process has been reinforced. And in 2018 I established new arrangements for the management and oversight of large and complex cases. Those arrangements are now well established, and provide a substantial safeguard against anything like this happening again…
In this particular case, there was a very serious failure in the system of prosecution. It did not live up to the standards which I expect, which the public and this Parliament are entitled to expect, and which the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service expects of itself.
What happened in this particular case should not have happened. As Lord Advocate and head of the system of prosecution in Scotland, I tender my apology to this Parliament that it did happen and for the consequent cost to the public purse…”
*I have abbreviated and edited much in order to be concise as possible. Full statement here: https://bit.ly/37G4Vjt
You may speculate how much of this will be directly lifted and copied for NS upcoming submission (far less any further statements from what passes for a Lord Advocate in Scotland these days)
“Tender my apology” – He misspelled ‘resignation’ there…
Sturgeon obviously knew when she claimed that Salmond had no evidence against her that the Crown Office were about to intervene. After all she arranged it. That woman’s mental condition is getting worse if she thinks that any of this undemocratic behaviour is fooling anybody.
Or perhaps, drunk with power, and thinking her position is unassailable, she just doesn’t care.
In the previous column, somebody saying NS joking about hair, again.
The woman is deranged
Mrs Murrell not happy at her covid briefing being asked about the Harassment and Complaints Committee and really doing her best to blame Alex Salmond for not being there today when we know it’s the corruption between the the Scottish Government , the Lord Advocate and the Snp who are to blame .
.
The blink-meter is in overdrive today watching her eyes when she’s answering questions re Alex Salmond .
It’s time someone told Sturgeon to step back from the Daily Briefing. She should never have been doing it anyway, other than at times of real crisis. It should have been held by health professionals, with the input of the health and public health secretaries, not the FM day after day. Now, with all this going on and her having rants at Salmond, she’s becoming more of a liability by the day.
Captain Yossarian was the lead character in the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
Catch-22 said that no man could self-certify as mad because to do so proves you cannot be mad.
We have our own catch-22 playing-out here, don’t we…..’You have no evidence and even if you have evidence I will see to it that you cannot present it and therefore I am correct in saying that you have no evidence.’
Jim Sillars said a week or so ago that ‘the toxic tentacles of the SNP had penetrated all of Scotland’s civic bodies.’ I don’t think that anyone would argue with that just now.
We have entered very dark times.
Thank you Lorna Campbell
That’s All
xxxx
FaceBook is swamped with the faithful busy claiming Wings is divisive.
Looks like a wee campaign going on.
What I don’t get is why she would lie about it in the first place, If she’d said “yes I knew about it in advance and discussed it with Aberdein” it would have just been highlighted by the inquiry as one of a series of misjudgements, and a minor one at that, no-one would have batted an eylid.
The attempt to cover up is far more serious and damaging than what they are trying to hide, what am I missing?
Radio 4, The World at One:
explosive stuff between Sarah Montague, Ruth Davidson and Sarah Smith.
A link to follow later ..
John -Correct -The rant yesterday , just before Salmond released the evidence. Evidence which she asked for, then the Crown removed. The timing is what gives the game away.
It’s so obvious it’s embarrassing. I remember a scene in Breaking Bad. Where his wife has already worked out her husband is manufacturing drugs. She is having small talk with him , skirting around it. We know she knows the truth and is playing him, it’s excruciating, toe curling. Then she just blows his world away!
That’s what’s going to happen with Sturgeon.
@ Alice Timmons [12:43 pm]
It is arrogance!
I suspect that *SOMEONE* is being “advised” by their sycophantic SpAds that there is not much to worry about at all, because of their arrogance, stupidity *and* their contempt for the Scots man and woman in the street, their advice likely goes along the lines of:
“Look at the polls! Every time *you* appear on TV, guarding, nurturing and protecting *our* Nation from WestMonster and all the Yoons, *YOU*, Dear Leader, have absolutely nothing to fear … ”
And *SOMEONE* will accept this and bask in the belief that they are truly untouchable. [Just as many foolish politicians have done before.]
Meantime, the dark cloud on the horizon is not just growing – there now seem to be weather warnings and most definitely *THUNDER AND LIGHTNING* ahead.
*BUT* … and this is a great big *BUT* …
*UNTIL* the Scottish MSM decide that they are true news gatherers/journalists and so decide to “release the hounds”, *ALL* of this will go unnoticed by the majority of the populace of Scotland.
Only a minority read political blogs and websites where the truth has been exposed for months past. The majority just switch on the wireless/TV and listen to the comforting platitudes broadcast from the likes of BBC/Sky/ITV etc.
How I *wish* that Andrew Neils GB NEWS was now up and running.
Instead, I will get a true appreciation of the current situation from the likes of WoS, Dangerfield, Murray and other prominent truthful sources.
(And my subscription to “The Spectator” has been worth every penny in the last couple of weeks.)
Wee Monkey – 12:54:
“Basically ALL this is about one person and her narcissistic personality disorder. Wikki gives a good explanation of narcissistic insult and rage”
—
Spot on.
Sturgeon is deep within her mental bunker:
“I think I’ll probably be the one to save the world from the brink of nuclear conflict, probably around 2027, by delivering a rousing speech at the UN Headquarters in New York on the need for a new approach to human fraternity – a more woke perspective, for a brave new world. The old science will be dead, and a new, politically correct version shall take it’s place. And won’t it be nice to see the Clinton’s again, I’ll bring Devi this time – perhaps we can get her into the Tedros’ job at the WHO he must be due to retire soon too….”
This is not going to stop until there is a revolt against the party leadership from SNP party members with a conscious. (Full Credit to Chris McEleny and Angus MacNeil for putting their head above the parapet in the last few days).
Most members of the powerful Scottish legal establishment may shed no tears at the damage to the independence movement but even they must be concerned that the widespread criticism and even mockery of the Crown Office from all parts of the political spectrum could adversely impact the reputation of Scotland’s wider judicial processes. When we see the Scotsman publishing articles by a distinguished legal academic alleging that ‘the Crown Office has become the lickspittle arm of the Government’, alarm bells should be ringing loudly in the chambers of our legal high heid yins.
Asks the Crown office to retain material and communications, meanwhile as Salmond’s lawyers await a competent and reasoned response from the Crown office, Crown office lackeys will be using the document shredders flat out.
Surely Alex Salmond and his lawyers aren’t expecting an answer before, or early on in Friday, and if that’s the case, and Salmond has no answers by Friday will he still give his further censored evidence to the committee, and wouldn’t that weaken Salmond’s hand if he did.
Pssst, Anyone want to make 25k.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/02/25000-reward-offered-for-copy-of-geoff-aberdein-testimony/
Apart from all the stress and frustration Alex Salmond must undoubtedly be feeling, all this legal activity must be costing him a small fortune. It seems very unfair. Is there a crowd-funder we can contribute to to help him out? Just as we did for the Judicial Review?
Yes, look at the polls…
An unweighted subsample of a UK poll granted but is it an outlier or a sign?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56181114
@Alice Timmons 24 February, 2021 at 12:43 pm
“Stu, can you, or anyone else, explain what either the ScotGov or Crown Office think is the point of this whole farce? Do they think the many thousands of us who have been watching closely will suffer sudden collective amnesia? Is it really a thunderingly clumsy attempt to trash vital institutions like our legal system or devolved government? I can’t believe any more that it’s simple arrogance and stupidity. It takes a lot of work to be this “inept”. Nor can I believe it’s *just* blind panic. Whose blog do I read for a hint of truth without paranoia?”
Its simple , by redacting evidence the Inquiry Team cannot now question Nicola on it as doing that would break the law. The fact that half of Scotland knows what the redacted info was means nothing, its all about trying to protect Nicola from being questioned and thus exposed as a liar.
A young Glasgow man put this together!
LITANY OF THE LOST
Bottle banks are full while churches are empty.
Amazon is blossoming as hairdressers and pubs go bust.
Face masks and latex gloves, instead of high heels and summer dresses.
Bums glued to seats and eyes fixed to screens, whilst football boots hang motionless on hooks.
Netflix devoured in silence as guitars and drums scream out to be heard.
The old grow lonelier, as the young forego their youth and grow lonelier still.
Chemtrails grow fewer and fainter, as worry lines grow darker and deeper.
Truth fades from memory as propaganda paints a new reality.
Politicians speak words as nebulous as candy floss as people greedily consume them.
Fear is nourished. Hope is rationed. Pertinent questions are starved before birth.
Illness and cancer disappear to make way for an ancient foe of dubious virility.
Sciences regresses as Galileo’s telescope goes unused again.
Bernaith smiles and catches his sneeze to protect the house of cards.
The world is closed…. but McDonalds is open.
Alex Salmond no longer has to prove anything. It is now down to those others to prove they did nothing as claimed.
Just like Alex had to do
Rev Stu,
I ask, as an onlooker who has now admired your work for quite some time, what *COULD* stop Alex Salmond calling a news conference tomorrow, with his legal team alongside him, then repeating all of his allegations, freely available online (as many have noted) – and without naming accusers or any hints to their identities, give the statement he intended to give to the Committee, then sit back and invite questions from reporters?
It is very unfair to ask you that, Stu, as you are not a lawyer, but can *anyone* see much wrong with such a course of action?
It would certainly wake up the MSM!
An observations on this , is that it is being claimed that the Holyrood house committee “agreed ” with the redactions , could I suggest they “complied” with as being a more accurate version of what happened.
‘Why Crown Office has become ‘lickspittle’ arm of SNP Government’ – Alistair Bonnington, The Scotsman
‘I practised for many years as a lawyer in Scotland’s criminal courts. I was opposed in criminal trials by Crown procurators fiscal. They were excellent lawyers – and trustworthy, honourable people.’
This is why Holyrood should, in my opinion, be suspended. No May elections until this is properly resolved. Just pay the MSP’s to look after their constituent’s problems which, of course, is what they should all be doing anyway.
No more affairs of state, laws passed into legislature; none of that. Everything at the moment is tainted.
On a more positive note, I notice far more media coverage all of a sudden and a realization that if we dispense with Sturgeon there is hope, if we do not dispense with her there is no hope.
It has taken the media an extraordinarily long time to work-out that what we have here exceeds Watergate by many times. Even in Scotland, serious jail time awaits those who have lied.
Willie- Nothing.
Indeed it may come to that.
Effijy, that was absolutely brilliant.who wrote that? Kudos to his writing ability.
RepublicfScotland @1.35pm
Might Alex Salmond’s lawyers already have a copy of those documents? Always good to ask a question you already know the answer too and I suspect that not everyone in the Crown Office might be willing to go along with this trashing of Alex Salmond and the reputations of those currently employed in the CO.
Sturgeon is bluffing her way through this. It’s excruciating watching her.
She is caught, but hoping events and time will save her. Anyone who thinks she isn’t part of the plot needs their head examined.
Just to add a counterweight to those who might be edging into destructive criticism of Holyrood as an institution…we’re all feeling a natural disgust at what has happened and what is happening but it’s too easy to push the plate away wi’ a boak and say I’m no eating that shite again.
The corrupt need to be removed so that OUR parliament, which we the people voted for, can be reclaimed for the rule of law and procedural fairness.
Corruption in politics is a norm of sorts…whatever corruption there is at Holyrood is dwarfed by what has happened at Westminster and in Whitehall in my lifetime. At the very least, Holyrood decisions thankfully do not allow armed forces to go and fuck up other countries. Even under devolution this corruption is potentially fixable and in some ways it’s better that this has come to a head now before independence, which I agree with Barrhead Boy is not going to be stopped now.
We know that certain corrupt actors are the problem. They need to be hounded out of office but please remember Holyrood is OURS not theirs.
So you can GTF George Galloway, take your bust of Churchill and retire to your country pile. We don’t need you.
Hands off!
I still can’t believe the Crown and SG are getting away with this. They are just making up the law and practice to suit their own ends.
It’s the Lord Advocate who is ultimately breaching his duties, by being directed by the Murrell’s. It will be the end of his career.
I’m pretty sure she defamed Alex during that toe curling session.
There is no doubt the the FM is deep in the mire here. My concern for the independence movement, and independence itself, is that the MSM don’t want to focus on this now.
They have two opportunities for this to play out better for the unionists … either (i) directly before the elections in May; or (ii) directly before an independence referendum.
NS should step aside while the damage to the independence movement can be corralled and managed. The longer she stays in place the more damage will be done.
The big question has to be ‘Does she care enough about independence – and the better society that we can become?’ Her actions will answer that question for us.
David – Nicola Sturgeon only cares about Nicola Sturgeon. She left a Covid briefing to have a pop at Salmond.
She is utterly devoid of any scruples or moral compass.
Re Craig Murray’s offer of £25,000 for an (unredacted) copy of Mr. Aberdein’s testimony, it went through my mind that the Murrells could take up this offer, just before they airlifted off the roof of Bute House!
However the funds would no doubt be seized (by the Crown Office?) under Proceeds of Crime lgislation!
.
Oh what a tangled web she weaves
When she fails the exam to deceive.
Oh our YES cash she also weaves
Paying legal fees for her hubby,
pals and thieves.
Oh how dangerous it is to poke
The former First Minister with your Woke
The Dreghorn Dirk in shoulder blades,
Kangaroos back to her,
in court in spades.
Oh poor wee Nick and her spiders web
With Wokeist pals she’s made her bed.
All her virtue signaling ain’t worth a thing from
her dissembling ring,
now cracked and dim.
Oh her shredders do buzz and feed
But the evidence denied is copied in screeds.
Poor Nick all you have is Covid TV.
That won’t stop justice nor more TV.
It’s Alex’s turn. Nick dust off your tainted CV.
Big Jock @ 2:16
“I still can’t believe the Crown and SG are getting away with this. They are just making up the law and practice to suit their own ends.”
Scotland’s two main colonial realities are beginning to hit home:
1. Osborne’s ‘arms’ of the British state in Scotland further the interests of the British state in any way they see fit, immune from prosecution.
2. Non-sovereign devolved ‘parliament’s’ are always subordinate institutions.
Why does anybody think the Scots want independence, if not to remove a colonial oppressor?
@ A2 What am I missing.
NS used those early meetings to try to persuade AS not to stand again as SNP for his previous Westminster Seat- a kind of reverse blackmail- she was wetting her knickers at the idea of an AS comeback and what it would mean for her.
If AS had been cowed by her threats and had withdrawn NS would have quite happily ditched the allegations as they were of no further use. She does not give toss about any so called ‘victims’, if indeed there were any real ‘victims’ at all. They were at most collateral for her. Suspect that NS was also a ‘complainant’ at one point but not called to give evidence in court.
Alf – It has the whiff of a British plot. I just wonder how deep this wormhole goes, and who is working for who.
I would like to think it was the Brits , and the Murrells had simply signed up to it as agents of state.
However another part of me thinks it’s just one out of control couple , who have conspired to create their own despotic empire.
PhilM says:
24 February, 2021 at 2:12 pm
“So you can GTF George Galloway, take your bust of Churchill and retire to your country pile. We don’t need you.
Hands off!”
Please, no – his country pile is in D&G – we’ve enough Yoons here already. Hoping he’ll sell up when he gets his arse kicked in May.
“This is why Holyrood should, in my opinion, be suspended”
You are raising the prospect that all this farce created by Sturgeon, the MI5 plants in the SNP, in the UK civil service, COPFS and the police might have been done with one aim and one aim only: to portray our own democratic and legal structures as incompetent and unfit for purpose so England MPs can proceed and take over our country, our assets, our NHS our culture, and destroy our body of law with less public resistance.
It is dishonest.
It is obvious what is going on here: the British state wants full control of Scotland’s parliament so the NHS and every other asset can be pulled together with England’s in a package that will be offered to American corporations in exchange for a deal. They have been preparing the ground for this for years and the corrupt fraud in control of the SNP has been helping them for 6 years by denying us democracy, our self determination and handing over our powers.
What do you stand to win out of England MPs taking over our parliament and assets and destroying our body of law? What do you stand to win if the NHS is sold to American corporations?What do you stand to win if England law is forced on us? or is the idea to destroy our courts so any future violations of the treaty of union by the British state cannot be contested in our courts of law in Scotland? is that what this is about, an attempt to neuter our courts? Or the whole thing?
Would you dare tell the English people to give up their democracy and representation in the UK parliament and EVEL and allow Brussels to take full control? Or that is something that you consider can only be asked of the Scottish people because somehow you see us as less deserving of democracy?
I mean, look at England’s failing government. It is a complete farcical government. Is it acceptable for you to see over one hundred thousand people dying in England because of the criminal incompetence and mismanagement of England’s government? Is it acceptable for you to see millions if not billions of taxyapers’ money ending in the pockets of friends or relatives of tory MPs or tory donors?
Why don’t you tell the people in England that you think the Uk parliament should be suspended?
Remember Johnson attempting to abuse power to close down parliament with the cooperation of the crown? Where were you then and why weren’t you demanding the UK parliament and govrenment to be suspended and taken over by Brussels or by Holyrood?
What makes you think Scottish people has to simply accept our parliament and government to be closed because the dirty and corrupt fingers of the british state are deliberately making it look unfit for purpose so they can take it over?
Wouldn’t it be far more noble of you to demand from that british state to take its fingers and nose out of our own business and concentrating in sorting out the mess they have made of England instead of making an even bigger mess in Scotland?
Have you stopped for even a second to think that in an independent Scotland without the continuous and uninvited interference of the corrupt and greedy British state Scotland would not look like this and what we are seeing in front of us would have never happened?
If anything has to go is the UK civil service from Scotland, the crown agents, MI5 plants in our political parties, universities, police, parliament and COPfs. This mess has exposed what they really are and what they really seek: to keep Scotland as a colony.
The people of Scotland already gave up its parliament 300 years ago and it was a colossal mistake. A costly mistake that has seen England robbing Scotland blind, expelling its people from their own land, forcing on Scotland its own language and history while continuously attempting to erase Scotland’s own, and taking constantly advantage on it ever since.
The suggestion that we are better off under the control of England’s elected clowns like Johnson, Gove, Hancock, Mogg, or priti patel to name but a few, that we cannot deselect no matter how we vote is spectacularly dishonest and it belongs in a 19th century mentality, just like the colonialism in the minds of those who insist in demanding Scotland to be England’s property and plaything.
Welcome to the 21st century. The empire ended long ago.
PhilM @2;12
eh Phil it’s not our Parliament its a construct of Westminster hence the term devolved parliament .
The power devolved to their parliament can be withdrawn at the stroke of a pen or by a petulant English prime minister.
Holyrood is just to keep the Jocks happy and give them a sense of importance and a belief they can actually do the things a normal country can do, Billy Connolly was right it’s a pretendy parliament ,our real parliament is still in recess that parliament was never abolished by the acts of union
As for Galloway aye a total chancer who thinks this bit of a argument between independence supporters is going to get him further up the pole yer onto plumbs george yer cards marked pal
Mia- England has it’s own corrupt government, so replacing one with another is as you say nonsense.
This is not about our parliament. It’s about a corrupt government, and democracy says we can remove them. The problem is we are not an independent parliament , so removing the SNP means our only
alternative is replacing them with a British party.
This is the bind the SNP have over us. I would rather have a corrupt independence party , than a bunch of British branch officers running Scotland.
Mia
“If anything has to go is the UK civil service from Scotland, the crown agents, MI5 plants in our political parties, universities, police, parliament and COPfs. This mess has exposed what they really are and what they really seek: to keep Scotland as a colony.”
This is our wretched reality, well said.
Scotland is no different from Ireland, India, Kenya, Malta, Malaysia and dozens other former colonies who had to cast out the oppressor. The rationale for our independence and liberation is precisely the same as theirs was.
@Mia, 3.20
Very well said. Thank you.
@Mia 24 February, 2021 at 3:20 pm
“You are raising the prospect that all this farce created by Sturgeon, the MI5 plants in the SNP, in the UK civil service, COPFS and the police might have been done with one aim and one aim only: to portray our own democratic and legal structures as incompetent and unfit for purpose so England MPs can proceed and take over our country, our assets, our NHS our culture, and destroy our body of law with less public resistance.
It is obvious what is going on here: the British state wants full control of Scotland’s parliament so the NHS and every other asset can be pulled together with England’s in a package that will be offered to American corporations in exchange for a deal. They have been preparing the ground for this for years and the corrupt fraud in control of the SNP has been helping them for 6 years by denying us democracy, our self determination and handing over our powers.
What do you stand to win if the NHS is sold to American corporations?”
Christ on a Bike , there are no M15 inside the SNP https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16602169.alex-salmond-probe-conspiracy-theory-mi5-debunked/ and the only people allowing American Defence Companies into Scotlands fully devolved NHS is Sturgeon Herself https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1214498/general-election-news-nicola-sturgeon-nhs-deal-us-firm-contract
No wonder the Indy fight is falling apart.
If someone already had the Geoff Aberdien statement and published it, they could probably be charged with being the source of a leaked document.
So, if I were someone who wanted the truth to get out there, what I would do is offer a handsome reward to anyone who would leak the document, then I’d print the leaked document on the website that I would set up. I’d claim journalistic freedom (like Clegg done at the record) to disclose the statement.
That’s just what I would do, and I’m not sure what anyone else would do though.
@ Don on 24 February, 2021 at 4:37 pm
Yes, the indy fight falling apart isn’t helped by folk like you aiding & abetting the Britnat cause with your direct links to BUM rags. Helping them bring in advertising revenue and possible new readers & subscribers. But you already know all this don’t you eh? And not just under the one name either.
For those new readers unaware, please try and refrain from clicking on direct links to BUM rags. When you click on those links you are aiding in the survival of the No1 reason Scotland is in the position it’s in, the Britnat media with their decades, if not centuries, of brainwashing, manipulation, lies and deception.
Archiving direct links, folks, also retains the articles in their original form. The Britnat media are notorious for changing the wording of online articles as soon as they get any complaints about blatant lies they are spouting. Archiving provides us with indisputable factual evidence.
A2 says:
24 February, 2021 at 1:23 pm
“What I don’t get is why she would lie about it in the first place, If she’d said “yes I knew about it in advance and discussed it with Aberdein” it would have just been highlighted by the inquiry as one of a series of misjudgements, and a minor one at that, no-one would have batted an eylid.
The attempt to cover up is far more serious and damaging than what they are trying to hide, what am I missing?”
I wonder – really, only wonder – whether it is like this: if the First Minister has to face rigorous questioning against the kind of evidence that the Scottish establishment is striving to suppress,
it may come out that she not only knew early on of the ‘alphabet women’ raising complaints, but in fact devised and had underlings orchestrate that whole farrago of false accusations from the outset – conceived and woven out of whole cloth, with nothing of substance to it, solely malice.
Could that be true?
Could it also be the establishment fears – for example, such underlings fear – that, if the first Minister is questioned in appropriate depth and unrelentingly, truths will come out as to who lied and who knowingly conspired to have Alex Salmond wronged and put at risk of prison?
If so openly identified as guilty, not only would the reputations and careers of such people be over, it might reasonably be thought that they could no longer safely exist in Scotland.. whether free or sentenced to prison themselves.
Such fears surely would be sufficient to drive unprincipled people to the extravagant and transparent follies we have been seeing.