Stranger Things
Well, what an odd day that’s been.
Because for a start, if you’re the one person in Scotland who believes the above, please drop us a line. We’d love to have a chat with you.
And so far a chat is all the police have had with Peter Murrell, who was released this evening without charge pending further investigation, after being questioned for close to the maximum 12-hour period.
And while remaining carefully aware of contempt laws, the events of those 12 hours have raised a very large number of questions.
Police Scotland turned up in huge force today, with dozens of cops in many vans appearing at Sturgeon and Murrell’s home, and the SNP’s main office in Edinburgh, and possibly some other locations (we’ve heard many rumours but nothing confirmed), and were seen leaving with a succession of large bags and boxes of evidence.
The house in Uddingston was taped off with a big tent erected on the front lawn.
But remarkably, as far as we can tell nobody other than the former SNP CEO was arrested or questioned. This in itself is extremely peculiar. Numerous police sources have told us that for a major investigation like this, which has been going on for 18 months already, it would be unusual bordering on (and we quote) “inconceivable” that all persons of interest wouldn’t be arrested at the same time in one large and co-ordinated operation, for fairly obvious reasons.
The huge teams are also somewhat incongruous given that the investigation hasn’t exactly been secret. After a year and a half of enquiries being conducted in full public view, one might reasonably posit that any physical evidence that might exist would have been shredded or quietly dropped off a rowing boat in the middle of the Clyde long ago.
Or, of course, just put in the bin.
So quite what the polis would have been expecting to find in the Murrells’ back garden or a filing cabinet at SNP HQ is a mystery.
Nobody is sure whether Nicola Sturgeon was present or not. Early reports claimed neighbours had seen her being “whisked away” shortly before Murrell’s arrest.
Then a freelancer claimed that Police Scotland had confirmed she WAS there.
Before some apparent clarity was provided by an ITV reporter.
Sturgeon’s current whereabouts are unknown, and as far as we’re aware she still hasn’t been apprehended or interviewed. Which seems – how can we put this safely in legal terms? – somewhat surprising. Readers might reasonably feel that with Murrell being her husband, the CEO of her party at the time, and the person who donated over £100,000 to it (most of which still hasn’t been repaid), there might at least be one or two details she could help officers clear up.
But anything we were to write at this point would simply be speculation, so we must await further developments. That there will soon be further developments is, however, something we’re pretty confident about.
Jacinda Adern just got this job – Earthshot Prize – Prince William’s Charity…
Poor Nikla, she really is having a bad day today.
To paraphrase Mandy Rice Davies “Well she would say that, wouldn’t she”. But, no doubt she’ll instead say, “I can’t recall, I don’t remember etc, etc, etc….”
If he denies the allegations. They have to find the evidence. So have to release him. But why arrest him without sufficient evidence?
Or are Police Scotland so incredibly incompetent, that they hadn’t found the evidence first. Financial crime is committed on computers, laptops and tablets. The accounts are shared digitally. So why fill boxes with paper files and dig up gardens.
This just gets stranger and stranger.
“That there will be further developments is, however, something we’re pretty confident about.”
As long as the further developments are to make corrupt criminals, wherever they may be in the SNP, Scottish government, Scottish civil service, Scottish parliament, Scottish police, Scottish justice, prosecuted for their crimes.
Not one should escape justice.
Wonder where the two of them they/he/her /she /him are bedded down tonite??
I wonder who will be arrested tomorrow.
Or even who the police will confirm is helping them with the investigation.
It appears that there is something rotten in the governance of this country, all public, bodies are steeped in corruption.
There will be no convictions, the raids were a sham and we the people of Scotland will be getting what we rightly deserve for our stupidity and naivety.
We followed the band in our millions, with a few honourable exceptions. We trusted in the authorities, but they are laughing at the stupid plebs. The bodies may not be buried in Sturgeon’s back garden, but they are there and they are many, too many for justice ever to be served.
Go home nothing to see here, take down the Lion Rampant and the Saltire, fold them up and put them away in the chest of drawers, take them out when you are old and dottery and tell your grand kids about the old days of glory when the world was clean and we were to be a sovereign Nation.
Who do you think does the gardening at that house? Do you think Nicola likes to go out the back and do some ‘planting’?
One other thought, there is a way that Nicola would be able to avoid arrest and for the police not to need to arrest or speak to her today. That would be if she had already been interviewed as a witness.
There will be more people in the know but they interview Murrell only .
Keep up the good work Stu .
Big Jock says:
5 April, 2023 at 9:20 pm
“Or are Police Scotland so incredibly incompetent, that they hadn’t found the evidence first.”
Incredibly incompetent or incredibly corrupt?
Does it take 18 months to find that £600,000 is missing?
It wouldn’t take even a month for a competent accountant to look at the accounts and find out what money went where.
Murrell should have been arrested 18 months ago for hiding the books.
And to wait until the “election” of SNP leader is safely over?
Today’s events were nothing more than drama by the police, IMHO.
Scottish justice is rotten to the core, IMHO.
Its only the honest jury that found Alex Salmond innocent.
No wonder they want to abolish juries.
It will take the police ages to sift through everything they have seized, interview others, take advice etc. It means a slow death for the SNP. Whatever the outcome, mud sticks. Ask Alex.
I hope it isn’t but the operation and the arrest of Murrell strikes me as act to appease the indy masses and to satisfy those were wondering when Police Scotland was actually going to do something, of course Sturgeon and Murrell had been forewarned and the so called “investigation” was also suspended for a month, surely any serious incriminating evidence would’ve been disposed of by then.
The overkill of vans and tents was for our benefit, as for Sturgeon she spews out her usual drivel, I didn’t know, not to the best of my knowledge etc.
With Mr Murrell being released without charge the sturgeon sycophants think this is some sort of victory. It’s most odd to be questioned for nearly 12 hours without being charged!
Court: Are you married to or were you ever married to the defendant?
Sturgeon: I do not recall.
‘There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death.’
Technically she may be truthful. She obviously knows that there is an investigation and there will be questions to answer. She might even think that there is a possibility of arrests at some point. She might not. However how would she know explicitly that someone is going to be arrested ? The final decision to actually issue an arrest warrant must have been taken only hours before it happened.
The SNP know that our heads all button up at the back. Why wouldn’t we believe Nicola’s sudden and unexpected resignation was a coincidence.
And the need for a super fast election? Nothing suspicious there.
I wouldn’t rely on Humza to control this and make it go away. At some point someone will try to save themselves or use the opportunity to land an opponent in the doo-doo. Then it’s every (choose your pronoun) for themselves.
I’m still surprised they live in a housing “scheme” in Uddingston.
I always imagined them staying in some old victorian pile, surrounded by trees, out of the publics view.
Somebody once said that in WM politics, you can always predict what kind of scandal will engulf a politician by his politics.
With the Tories, it’s sex that brings them down. With Labour, it’s money.
So how our HR scandal pans out may finally solve one of the big questions: Are the SNP just Slab rebranded, or is the old Tartan Tories jibe true?
Maybe between them the Sturrells will cover both bases. Proving the SNP is indeed the broad church that represents all of Scotland.
Or as some wag pointed out earlier, the literal “big tent”, promised by Yousaf in an earlier, more innocent time (a couple of weeks ago, but that’s a geological aeon in politics).
See that big blue tent. Was that the right shade of blue?
Released without charge so a storm in a teacup methinks
akenation 9.32.
Not being a Indy supporter feel free to fold up your tent & leave this place some of us have more stomach for the fight without the Snp .
Humza Yusaf interviewed today. “As party leader of course I will know the state of the party’s finances.”
Well the previous leader claimed to know nothing about the party’s finances. So she should have.
Seems to me, a very “Trumpish” situation. I think it’s a setup. Why else would it all have gone slideways’ an only one arrest, even if it’s only Murrell! Too obvious!
Look what was announced on the same day !
https://news.stv.tv/politics/new-income-tax-band-proposal-by-humza-yousaf-could-lift-20000-children-out-of-poverty
Of course those of little brain jumped all over it with their GROUPTHINK ! Putting the announcement under the microscope and revealing the truth (which won’t see the light of day) things are not what they seem.
For starters The Scottish consolidated fund doesn’t really exist – not in the way that the Northern Irish one does. As ever it’s a Gordon Brown illusion.
Section 64(8) of the Scotland Act 1998 states “The Fund shall be held with the Paymaster General”, which essentially means that it is just a departmental budget account like the one DEFRA uses and which is held,these days, with the Government Banking Service.
Similarly section 64(2) states “The Secretary of State shall from time to time make payments into the Fund out of money provided by the UK Parliament of such amounts as he may determine.” – which means that Scotland only has access to funding that the Secretary of State has specifically allocated to the Scottish Parliament.
Strictly speaking Scottish Ministers only have the right to set a Scottish income tax rate, but any tax collection goes into the UK Consolidated Fund – as required by the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866.
“Other” taxes Scotland collects have to be transferred to the
Scottish Consolidated Fund, and Treasury can ‘designate’ those receipts – requiring them to be paid back to the UK Exchequer.
Which means Scotland runs much like the BBC. The BBC is actually funded by a grant-in-aid, but also has a job to collect tax on behalf of the UK government. The Scottish parliament is much the same, except that the Scottish parliament can increase and decrease the taxation a
bit.
A sufficiently wily UK chancellor could simply starve Scotland of spending capacity if they wanted to – without even having to change the law ( which they have done ) – assuming they could withstand the political stink. However
if the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament were of the same political party then it would be straightforward to re-centralise.
However, the agreement at present is that HMRC essentially guesses what the amount of Scottish income tax has been collected, tells HM Treasury and HM Treasury then marks up the Scottish Consolidated Fund with that amount to cover what is known under the Fiscal Framework as ‘assigned taxes’.
Scottish government spending leaks out of Scotland into England – because of the trade deficit with England. The Barnett formula puts that back, and the requirement for a quasi balanced budget in Scotland ensures that circulation can’t get too far out of whack. If Scotland ever started running a surplus, then the Barnett formula would be cut back, or Treasury would start designating further receipts.
The reason they “guess” what tax is actually collected in Scotland is because they have no way of measuring it. It is impossible, as both Scottish government spending and taxes collected from that spending. Flows into rest of the UK and rest of the World and never shows up on the Scottish accounts.
The only way to measure it is if Scotland has it’s own Treasury, central bank and currency. Because taxes don’t stop after first use. They are collected every time someone earns an income generated from the spending chains the Scottish government spending created. With your own currency it stops the flows across borders and can be measured.
https://new-wayland.com/blog/why-tax-matches-spending/
I suppose any of the formatted hard drives haven’t been written over then programs like EASUS Data recovery wizard could be used to gather any evidence which could take a while to collate any evidence saved, esp on external hard drives or USB pen drives, so maybe a mistake has been made at Sturrell Towers, we can only hope that someone in Polis Scotland has some sense of pride in their job, and not beholden to the former first minister or her lavender husband
https://twitter.com/dht1690/status/1643577496309301255?s=20
Hmmm…
Something I wrote previously comes to mind…
robertkknight says:
5 April, 2023 at 11:05 am
I was just thinking I haven’t felt this good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in 1978.
Then I remembered where I live, and the calibre of the agencies of the State, in all their glory, with which we are blessed in Scotland.
As you were people… as you were.
Ron Clark says: I’m still surprised they live in a housing “scheme” in Uddingston. I always imagined them staying in some old victorian pile, surrounded by trees, out of the publics view.
Sounds like Magrit Curran’s wee place in Newlands…
The arrest of Peter Murrell, and the raid on the SNP’s headquarters, were delayed until after the Leadership Election so as not to spoil things for Humza Yousaf. Like the alleged corruption itself, there is something reassuringly old school about that. As if a political power couple were in fact a gay man married to a lesbian. Those were the days.
I think Nicola will deny all knowledge of the
arrest
She will also deny knowing Peter Murrell or the fact that he lived at the same address
He was never in the same room as her as far as she can remember and it is an ongoing investigation so she can’t say anymore.
Craig Murray, Robin McAlpine and Smitty all seem to hint that this is not about the £600K.
Yet it seems to center on Peter Murrell.
It looks a bit like WM think they have a fatal blow for the SNP, in which case the SNP should ‘Lance the boil’ as quickly as possible.
The coming banking crisis may cause so much chaos that a regenerated Indy movement may stand to come out the other side in reasonable shape.
And in a brief interregnum between Beatie and Chapman, Sturgeon was herself Acting Treasurer and therefore responsible for the missing £600k.
Fear not comrades, for the birthing if the independent Scottish nation can be halted by no individual or group, mortal or otherwise. For it was foretold unto me that it is the will of the Messiah that this nation shall rise. It shall rise first within our hearts and thereafter shall be consecrated in the great hidden hall of Iona, which no mortal eyes have laid eyes upon for 4 score and 3 millenniums
Await her saying she knows nothing – she was the head of the SNP party, it’s chairwoman in business terms, he it’s paid ceo.
The role of the chair and directors is to oversee its operation, also hold the ceo to account. She seems to have failed miserably on both counts, no surprise.
She should also be arrested for complicity by negligence. As for them never chatting over the dinner table that’s irrelevant.
Looks as if the possible UN job may be out the window for our former FM
Wullie. It might be the case that Murrel was asked to confess and show the trail. He denied and they then warn him that they will now investigate the evidence.
He walks away like a ticking time bomb. Eventually the evidence is uncovered. Or has a neighbour reported strange activity in the Murrell garden. Maybe late at night, cover of darkness?
Today was pure pantomime. Nothing more, nothing less.
I strongly suspect today was less about the missing £600,000 and more about something else the police turned up during their investigations. Hence only Murrell being arrested, rather than everyone involved in the £600k.
After Yousef’s announcement today regarding introducing a new tax band. Saying it will fund this, that and whatever. The seals in the petting zoo clapped.
At this point you SHOULD really want to know how the UK consolidated fund really works and the UK government banking service department operates in the real world.
This can be found here under section 3
https://gimms.org.uk/2021/02/21/an-accounting-model-of-the-uk-exchequer/
Or if you prefer video – how these UK departments operate in the real world can be found here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7JJJcB3X3ag
To understand Scotland’s funding you HAVE to know how these things work. The real give away of how these bastards have treated us over the decades is embedded in section 64(2)
“The Secretary of State shall from time to time make payments into the Fund out of money provided by the UK Parliament of such amounts as he may determine.” – which means that Scotland only has access to funding that the Secretary of State has specifically allocated to the Scottish Parliament.
Once you study these things in great depth it unequivocally means when the Secetary of state decides to give us money. A spending bill passed in the UK Parliament finds the money from thin air. The votes in the house to pass the spending bill funds it.
These bastards in the UK Parliament keep slashing it On purpose. Slashing the amount they create from thin air that they could give us. They are nothing but a bunch of gangsters.
Financial impropriety or sexual deviancy seems to be the minimum buy in for the top ranks of the UN.
The State has been a central actor in all of this.
Act 1.
The FM/ civil service versus Salmond. That failed.
The Police/COPFS versus Salmond. That failed (but came perilously close to succeeding – but for the people of the jury).
Result: Major Damage to the SNP and the independence cause.
Act 2.
The State versus Mr Sturgeon. Result unknown. But may come to nothing.
Result: Probable fatal damage to the SNP. Further (we hope temporary) major damage to the independence cause.
What if in none of these cases the aim was to serve the “interests of justice”?
If someone were to postulate that the ONLY aim was to destroy the independence movement, what evidence is there so far to refute that postulate?
Who could deny that all of these interventions of the state has caused damage to the Movement?
Things will become clearer as we move forward. But there is no doubt that the BBC and the Unionist press (and parties) are cock-a-hoop.
I happen to believe that this is utterly misplaced – and all of the above have seriously miscalculated.
Act 3 is yet to be written. Now that so much is out in the open (thanks in large part to Rev Campbell and Craig Murray) we have the priceless opportunity to identify who are the bad actors in this.
If the correct lessons are learned the Movement will emerge from this all the stronger.
The pricks in the Branch Offices of the Brit parties are still the pricks in the Branch Offices of the Brit parties.
We move forward.
Hail Alba!
Talking of ticking timebombs, the current FM has to be very, very careful he doesn’t put his foot in it this time. Whatever he knows or doesn’t know about the police investigation, his propensity to mouth off something inappropriate (or revealing) must be a big worry to some. No wonder Kate Forbes looked so happy and relieved that Humza Yousaf “won” the race to become FM. What a poisoned chalice! With hard work and a bit of luck, a powerful, decisive, and charismatic leader might just have managed to pull the party out of this mess, but Mr Yousaf? Nahhh! Folks, this is existential.
The ex-FM may manage to put some distance between herself and what unfolds, but both Mr and Mrs Murrell are finished IMO. Her public reputation is rather sad and pathetic now. In tatters. What an ignominious ending to a once stellar career. Where did it all go so wrong?
To make matters even worse with Yousef’s announcement today of the new tax band.
HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs are rather fond of quoting Freedom of Information “exemptions “whenever questions about the UK government banking service arise. To try and hide their smoke and mirrors con trick. This is where the Scottish income tax collection ends up. In the UK consolidated fund under the government banking service.
All of which is rather bizarre given that the function of this part of government was widely documented prior to the 1990s. You just had to do a bit of digging to find it.
https://new-wayland.com/blog/uk-government-spending-gory-details/
RA My point was that the sickness is much deeper than M&Co the authorities are infected, the justice system inoperable, the people mesmerised, I know folks who although not certifiable, still believe that the SNP stands for all things Scottish.
Why do you believe that I am anti Indy? Or is that just a stock remark to cut down any who can see the wood through the trees?
Jim Sillars said it all today I suppose you think him Anti Indy?
“So quite what the polis would have been expecting to find in the Murrells’ back garden… is a mystery.”
Well folk have suggested he knew where the bodies were…
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/police-investigate-peter-murrell-nicola-29639761
I am not convinced this was just a pantomime. They are clearly looking for something in the garden. It could be signs of burnt papers,clothing or anything of that ilk. I doubt it’s laptops or hard drives.
“Jlm says:
5 April, 2023 at 10:08 pm
“…so much chaos that a regenerated Indy movement may stand to come out the other side in reasonable shape…”
I’m still going to go for a wee walk in Glasgow no matter what.
Hmmm! Mr. Murrell spends nearly 12 hours in police custody and then is released.
Has he snitched?
will we see some more ‘developments’ tomorrow, as a result of his ‘chat’ with the police?
Anyone who was involved in any wrongdoing (if there is any), will be asking themselves if they should trust the ‘royal couple’ or if they should be speaking to their lawyers and preparing a carefully worded statement!
Why should Humza Yousaf, who has never worked a day in his life – but will receive a guaranteed pension you can only dream of – and who has gone on record in the Scottish Parliament as saying he doesn’t like you care about the taxes we plebs have to pay?
The thing that sticks out in this report. Was a neighbour saying they saw Murrell on Saturday, clearing out his garage. That it was usually covered in clutter and boxes!!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/05/police-crime-scene-tent-nicola-sturgeon-home-safeguarding/
Does anyone else think that today’s police activities at Chez Murrell’s was a bit too theatrical, perhaps a staged stunt?
The tent and digging up the back garden … reminiscent of the arrest of Fred West or Dennis Neilson? Normal for a serial killer but for fraudulent accounting? I think not.
In my view it is a touch of theatre designed to bring an end to an uncomfortable narrative the REv and others had so brilliantly brought into the light. An end to searching for the truth about the current SNP leadership’s integrity concerning independence for our country.
I talk from insider knowledge. This evening an anonymous script was shoved through my letter box … before I got to the door the postman had scooshed.
I wont bore you with the details of the various monologues contained in said script but I outline the essence of the plot below:
1. Police Constable can no longer resist the pressure from senior police officers to investigate claims about misuse of donations by SNP
2. PC visits Sturgeon and explains that the likely upshot will be a raid on her house and an arrest of her husband, albeit for a few hours.
3. Forewarned Sturgeon resigns
4. Forewarned Murrell also rushes through the election of the patsy ‘Useless’ to protect Murrell’s ‘legacy’ ahem.
5. Once said ballot has been rigged Murrell resigns on some pishy pretext of misleading a journalist (LOL)
6. Prime time is Showtime ! Murrell is arrested, policy erect SOC tent and dig up back garden. No one else is interviewed in connection of said fraud
7. Murrell is released and disappears into the sewer he emerged from 30 years ago.
THE END
Hopefully the Rev will provide the evidence of all this in due course.
One question remains – who is/are SIX FOUR?
Murrell / Nicola wages:
Murrell – £80k per year plus expenses
Sturgeon – £157k per year plus expenses
So these 2 grossed over £237k per year, even before you add pensions, that I hazard a guess at 15 – 20% final salary plus expenses. Past 10 years they have taken £2.37 MILLION!!! For what? They are laughing at us!
Plus I hope the copper double gloved when they searched through her underwear draw!
“The only way to measure it is if Scotland has it’s own Treasury, central bank and currency. Because taxes don’t stop after first use. They are collected every time someone earns an income generated from the spending chains the Scottish government spending created. With your own currency it stops the flows across borders and can be measured”.
You have no idea,like Regan. No wonder,Indy is a non-starter.
For the pantomime theorists – Listen folks, the police can’t cause this level of disruption without an outcome. The public are in shock and they will want answers. Do you think they can go hell for leather like this and then say “Oh sorry we found nothing, move on folks!”. Nah, they have started something big and unless some poor scapegoats are found and hung out to dry, they can’t just cover this up, not now. Too much has happened today. The public will demand an outcome. Whistles will be blown and deals will be made. On the subject of scapegoats, some people will be feeling rather nervous tonight, methinks.
Its really nae hard. You huckle the 5 main contenders, lets just call them Nickla, Pedro, Liz, Sue & McCann, u put them in 5 adjacent rooms. U ask them ‘their story’, they begin squealing. U say X, Y or Z is next door, thats no what they said, they said it was u, would u like to tell us the actual truth now, we’ll go easy on u, we promise’. Then it floods out.
I know, I know, legal representation & stuff, but c’mon, use some nous pls Polis Scotland, you’re sooo compromised, if you finally start doing you’re job properly it’ll reflect so much better in the long term. We’re watching & so is the Rev!!!!!
@Luigi
What you just said. 100% agreement.
What I find strange is there are no images of Murrell leaving his house this morning or being released from police custody. Yet there is a big media presence and police presence at their home. No sign of Nicola too all day long either. Stu Campbell with his minimal resources hasbeen immense in his continuous documentation and coverage of this story yet there is a real lack of interest and apathy and desire from the msm. The unionist man used to say the SNP honeymoon was over to derail independence and the Salmond led nationalist government at Holyrood, yet they fail to find Sturgeon .let alone ask legitimate questions over their finances. It stinks to high heaven of cover up protection of the Murrells. A tent in their front garden doesn’t sit right with many of us tonight. Is it for show and overkill or is there far more to this. Time will tell. The murrells have no regard for Scotland with these shameful events. But today many more eyes have opened and it’s huge news . Their reputations are taking a huge hit.
How often does the NEC meet
At those meetings would there not be a printed financial update for NEC members to review
When the 600 K stopped appearing in the updates why did no one ask any questions
When the treasurers kept resigning why did such a red flag not provoke an NEC response
If you were on the NEC you were complicit by your silence
You have let your country down !
On the subject of high profile cases – Whatever did become of Gloag’s trafficking case? Dunno, it’s an itch in the brain, and current events aren’t scratching it.
I mean, I know of the monies, the Alphabeties, I’m even on talking terms with Scottish government contacts and their ilk – but I’m not working out what is so very big-tent big (not that the Alphabetties weren’t) so I just look to what else is big (and quiet) and itch a bit more..
I mean tents are usually forensic, and forensic is usually missing persons – not always, but often.
Ach well, sometimes 2+2 isn’t. What’s sure is I’ll read it hear first, whatever it is…
“a succession of large bags and boxes of evidence” ???
Didn’t they ask the SNP (eg, especially, the Treasurers at the relevant times, or some of the accountants or office staff) where had the money gone? Did they get full and frank answers? If not (as I must suspect), that seems like a very good reason to never vote SNP again.
Though maybe this is just my perspective as a lawyer.
Regardless of Murrell’s plight. IndyRef2 manifesto was fraudulent election promise. How could it be construed as anything other? SNP made no attempt to pass the necessary Act, through Holyrood.
Corporate death penalty still a thing? #ShowMeTheMoney
I did that quiz Stu tweeted, seems I’m left wing Conservative. Surprise, surprise
That should read “small c” conservative of course
Something not ringing true about all this.
Speculation is rife about the evidence tent, which does seem unusual…
Far be it from me to defend Murrell, but when ahem, “the Establishment “ went gunning for Alex Salmond, we need to remember the damaging smears and innuendo were an intrinsic part of the conspiracy from the beginning. The theory, presumably, being that even if the prosecution failed, he would still remain thoroughly discredited in the public eye…”where there’s smoke there’s fire”.
If our worst suspicions about the conspiracy to destroy Alex Salmond are correct, the last thing the Establishment will want is somebody opening up the whole can of worms in a plea bargain.
Just idle speculation… but if the figure “central” to the conspiracy against Salmond was trashed as a devious fraudster and a cheat, (aye, but only for sticky fingers), do you really expect the truth about Salmond to see the light of day, once Murrell is damaged and ostracised as an “unreliable” source?
I’m pretty sure in the Crime and Punishment version of Top Trumps, that a conspiracy to frame an innocent man and see him sent to jail as a sex offender is a much more serious offence than sticky fingers in the cookie jar.
Funnily enough, of all the things, this resonates with Scottish Independence… I have never been fully convinced Scotland is serious about Independence because otherwise Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty would have been a central and integral part of the campaign.
Why rank the fickleness of a compromised democracy and indoctrinated electorate, higher than the obdurate legality of Scotland’s Claim of Right and Sovereignty? Why? It’s playing to lose!
So it is with Murrell and Sturgeon. Until the crimes being levelled against them relate to criminal conspiracy to destroy Alex Salmond, and / or actual tre(as-on) against the Scottish Nation, I have this notion lodged in my head that “misappropriation” of some cash is just a misdemeanour by comparison. We’re not (yet), taking this seriously enough.
We should not be getting our hopes up that what we are watching are the wheels of justice turning. I know, I know, I’m actually sick of hearing that Al Capone went to jail for tax evasion.
I happen to believe in justice, and “Justice” required Capone to be tried and convicted as mobster, racketeer and murderer. It simply did. Who cares that he fiddled his taxes?
Do you see why I get a bad feeling about Murrell? He’s gonna get away with all the big stuff, isn’t he? And so is she.
Luigi says:
6 April, 2023 at 12:15 am
For the pantomime theorists – Listen folks, the police can’t cause this level of disruption without an outcome. The public are in shock and they will want answers. Do you think they can go hell for leather like this and then say “Oh sorry we found nothing, move on folks!”
Aren’t you forgetting the witch hunt to dig up evidence of wrong doing by Alex Salmond? Operation Diem, £850k spent investigating, 400 witnesses interviewed, “This team was comprised of seven officers from August 2018 rising to a maximum of 14 during the months between October 2018 and July 2019 before steadily reducing in 2020.“
They didn’t find a damned thing on Salmond, not one single complaint. But the prosecution went ahead regardless… Now there is your pantomime.
Breeks @ 4:29. Im not as conversant with the legal pros and cons but I get the same feeling. What we are witnessing is all window dressing, police Scotland have had plenty time to decide how to approach this, and so have NS and whoever pulls the strings.
They will walk.
.
Very well (and carefully written) Stuart. Thank you.
One thing I witnessed amongst the plethora of photographs appearing from the ex-First Minister’s house was a police officer with a Border Patrol calibre CCTV pinhole video camera system, evidently examining the contents of the fuel tank of a black vehicle parked on the driveway of the ex-FMs house. The officer clearly had the camera snake system inserted via the fuel filler cap point of entry.
Actually there were four curious things arising from the photos (two at the Uddingston House and two at the SNP Jackson’s Entry premise raid). All of which points to an extra-ordinarily thorough police scenes of crime examination. The most thorough I have seen in my career, and that includes homicides and FAIs. But we are in sub judice territory now, so the reasoning will have to wait until after the Procurator Fiscal takes their decision and the matter legally disposed.
I mention the fuel tank interior being videod as that is not normal for a low-value crime. But it IS indicative of Police Scotland NOT wanting their reputation trashed as per the bourach of the Police Scotland time and expense triggered by person or persons unknown in the Alex Salmond case. One result being severe reputational damage to Police Scotland and legal cost to the taxpayer during the Alex Salmond case, where Alex Salmond was found to be innocent, innocent, innocent. Many times innocent.
What would be intriguing is if any “other” homes or properties in the ownership or control of the Murrells, in the U.K. or abroad were also searched at the same time? Did anyone see Spanish television yesterday?
On a lighter note, I think it very thoughtful of the police to lend the 58 year old suspect a nice blue tent in the front garden, as that is likely where her indoors will have him sleeping due to the pure mortification of her abacus-challenged hubby cause such a massive mass curtain-twitching event at all the neighbours’ houses.
Oh what a pure beamer of a reddie must have been on the face of Wee Blinky.
How times have changed since she gave her high blink-rated evidence against her old boss, mentor and friend.
The imprint of yesterday’s events in Uddingston and Edinburgh will remain in the minds of oh, so many folk, incredulous to the dubious efforts to prevent Alex Salmond from returning to Holyrood.
If the Scottish police have nothing to show after all this “pantomime”, they are going to look really, really stupid. Are they willing to take a massive hit for this? What an embarrassment. I still don’t think the public will let them get away with this, not in the long run IMO.
Before all this, the majority of the Scottish public were blissfully unaware and thought Nicola Sturgeon had been a great FM. Now even auld granny will be asking questions. Someone is going to panic and spill the beans. It may not be for a while, but it will happen sometime. The pressure is on now, in spite of all this apparent cunning planning and deception.
The best laid plans…..
Jesus! Murrell is worriedly looking at his garden.
No fu*king wonder there are 25 police officers an 10 police vehicles and a murder investigation tent on it.
Would you bury secret papers or £600k in notes where your neighbours can watch you do it
I’d like an investigation as to why police Scotland are looking for a huge pay rise because their officers are overworked.
They never had their numbers reduced.
They don’t match the beat anymore.
They no longer respond to domestic Intruder alarms with rapid response and although they are still supposed to do so commercially their response times are generally in hours.
What would the 50 cops involved in that pantomime have done if that day out for Westminster press not have been coordinated- make tea and eat biscuits.
I absolutely love the idea of the police putting out the bins for the Murrells
All those stab vests crawling around the house looking for papers and the papers they were
after might have been in the bin they just put out.
Would 20 police vehicles we pay for just sit in a back yard somewhere.
Why would you want to retire with a great pension when all you have to do is carry a Tupperware box of papers into a van and go for lunch.
Will we be able to find out the cost to the public purse for the great Easter papers hunt?
The reputation of the police in the U.K. couldn’t get any worse.
The general view is that the police are digging holes and emptying office filing cabinets, lifting computers and taking it all away in order to find evidence to prosecute somebody.
Perhaps, maybe, although unlikely, it would be absurd, the police are taking away potential evidence in order to destroy it, or seal it up for 100 years?
Great start by Yousaf on his eradication of poverty.
20K kiddies lives improved already, and all it took was a tax hike.
WTF were the previous eejits doing then, if that is all that is needed? Hike the taxes again and get every kid out of poverty. What exactly is the problem here?
Incidentally, does anybody know any of the kiddies affected? It would be great if one of mine were to benefit, or even all of them!
Sure take some of the load off my shoulders.
Go Yousaf! Show us the fucking money!
@Al-Stuart says:6 April, 2023 at 7:34 am
You thinking what I’m thinking?
Use of red diesel in a road-going vehicle?
Cost of fuel these days, if it has been going on long enough, the sums involved could be astronomical.
Craig Murray:
“The mainstream media is widely reporting that the investigation relates to the missing 600,000 pounds Indyref2 fund. I understand that while that was the starting point, the allegations may now go much wider.”
This is my gut feeling too, or rather, I am split between believing that it is going to get much bigger or end-up being a damp squib (“insufficient evidence…blah, blah”)
I want to believe that evidence has been found that incriminates the mouldy Murrells in the Salmond scandal but equally suspect serious financial irregularities viz Gupta, Ferguson, etc, and some rather dubious off-shore accounts. What does worry me is how coordinated the whole affair appears to be and why NS was warned in advance. Remember that if NS goes down for anything, so do other very influential people. Any exit plan must hermetically seal-off those who might otherwise become casualties.
Meanwhile, the MSM will now focus on NS and her driving lessons.
WTF can they be looking for? It can’t be dosh. Their must be a digital trail rather than a physical trail of evidence. This look like a don’t fuck with us we’re the stuff message rather than anything of substance.
Been racking my brain trying to figure out what possible crime above and beyond the 666k fraud the police may have uncovered / stumbled upon.
I know some are thinking it might be money laundering but I don’t find that plausible or likely. Murrell does not have a source of illegal funds he needs to launder. So that is all nonsense I think.
I also don’t think Murrell pocketed the 666k other than the portion he paid himself as wages (which is what he ‘loaned back’ to the SNP I am sure, the tainted wages he received out of the 666k pot of ‘ring-fenced’ indyref2 fighting fund money.).
The only things I can think of that Peter Murrell did and does that may explain it is 1) he was heavily involved in trying to send an innocent man to jail on bogus charges and 2) he is liar.
So I think it must be something to do with him being caught perjuring himself and/or caught in the act of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Those two things I would bet my house on that he is guilty of all day long. These are the only areas I can think of that Murrell will have committed a crime beyond the 666k fraud of course.
Still can’t understand why they are digging up the garden though. I did wonder if they were looking for things showing he had been destroying evidence (in the BBQ for example) but that is pure guesswork.
Keeping him in the whole 12 hours is also interesting. It does seem to suggest something serious is going on beyond the 666k fraud.
It is tempting to get my hopes up that we might actually see some justice in Scotland but I just keep reminding myself this Police Scotland and the COPFS we are dealing with and there is no justice, just us.
Not many bloggers out there who can say they brought down a First Minister. Let’s just hope it goes a lot further than that.
As soon as the sturgeon was in the door a witch hunt began against AS and those involved in the independence movement, Manny Singh, Mark Hirst and Craig Murray. All negative publicity for the SNP and the movement. No unionist journalists, politicians or bloggers are hounded. And now this fiasco involving the finances of the party. Are we truly expected to believe that since post `14 and the near securing of a Yes vote that all these events are merely coincidence?
And the £600,000, its either there or its not, surely a fairly easy investigation for the police. And i don` believe for one moment that the Murrell`s were unaware that the police would be chapping at their door, they probably had the kettle on for them.
The Yousaf government must immediately establish a Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue, the Prevention of Vice and Looking for Things in Secret Places.
@Viscount Ennui says:6 April, 2023 at 8:10 am
focus on NS and her driving lessons
To be fair to NS, she is maybes mindful of the attitude of some towards allowing women to drive cars, or even go outside unaccompanied. If she has maybes been tipped off in advance about radical new restrictions that are under consideration by the new regime, it makes sense for her to get her driving qualification now, while she still can.
And on the financial side (always important to any canny Scot), she was maybes tipped off by the same source on how she could save money on her car insurance.
I read somewhere that the thing they could be looking for. Could be as small as an SD card or memory stick. Very easy to burn or bury in the garden. Indeed maybe buried in waterproof material for later use.
Who knows, but that sounds plausible.
Settle down folks. Let the investigation take its course.
I can’ t say much but I do know this has been under discussion throughout the force for weeks by very senior officers.
Give them time and space.
Are we really meant to believe that it’s only the £600K indy fund that is missing?
I would suspect many more thousands of pounds are missing.
As mentioned before, a luxury hideaway in Portugal can be very expensive.
And as for Sturgeon not knowing these vast amounts were passing through the joint bank account are just more of her classic forgetfulness.
It was a planned joint venture right from the start,,,including the sham marriage. (Where a square peg does not go into a round hole).
I can’t help but think, they’re looking for a hard drive or drives or maybe some other form of digital storage, what also interests me is what information do the police have that suggests there’s something buried in the garden in the first place and who give them that information.
This could of course just be pure theatre but I’m not so sure
I am sure (some of) the Police are helping the Murrells as much as they can. How many other suspects in a major crime investigation get several weeks effective notice their house will be searched. Craig Murray is right this is a farce.
I also find it very suspicious that Murrell loaned back his tainted wages the day after the Police spoke with him. I strongly suspect the Police advised Murrell to do that the day they visited him, to mitigate his possible guilt in the 666k fraud.
So as much as Police Scotland and the COPFS were trying to stitch-up Alex Salmond I would bet that here they are essentially trying to ‘stitch-down’ Peter Murrell.
If the cops do find anything in that house after the long forewarning they gave the Murrells then Peter Murrell is even stupider than I thought (which is very possible).
If this all turns out to be a larger crime relating to the Salmond stitch-up then make no mistake that would be us hitting the absolute jackpot. The contagion would spread to Sturgeon almost instantly. The whole house could come tumbling down… but let’s not be holding our breath for that one either.
Antoine Bisset says:
6 April, 2023 at 7:54 am
The general view is that the police are digging holes and emptying office filing cabinets, lifting computers and taking it all away in order to find evidence to prosecute somebody.
Perhaps, maybe, although unlikely, it would be absurd, the police are taking away potential evidence in order to destroy it, or seal it up for 100 years?
I think you are reading it correctly – all these coppers raiding the offices of the SNP smacks of the Nazis turning over the offices of the Communists and Trade Unionists in the the 30s – there is probably enough evidence in the public domain to bust the Murrells for fraud already. So, it looks like the authorities don’t want the Murrells having any access to evidence that may incriminate some of their ‘former political friends’ when the legal muck starts to fly. As always, we watch with interest.
I hear nothing from the trougher’s about our people and our history
and our pride in our country,
it is not your’s to play with,
We see you and and u will have to account!…sooner or later!
Graeme. The neighbours may have tipped off the police about strange activity in the garden. Murrell usually restricts that to uphill gardening! Sorry couldn’t resist.
Seriously though. The walls have ears. He was seen clearing out his garage on Saturday. So the neighbours are aware of the activities.
I mean, can you imagine living next door to them. I would be out every night seeing what the hell was going on in there.
Mac wrote on 6 April 2023 at 8:15 am:
Been racking my brain trying to figure out what possible crime above and beyond the 666k fraud the police may have uncovered / stumbled upon.
“I know some are thinking it might be money laundering but I don’t find that plausible or likely. Murrell does not have a source of illegal funds he needs to launder. So that is all nonsense I think.”
“The only things I can think of that Peter Murrell did and does that may explain it is 1) he was heavily involved in trying to send an innocent man to jail on bogus charges and 2) he is liar.”
How about paedophilia, possessing child porn images or some other sex-crime related evidence? The truth is, we simply don’t know and can only speculate until it is officially made known. Even then i’d treat anything we’re told by media sources with great caution.
And as far as the “big tent” goes, folks, it isn’t just used for murder cases. It can be used in a range of situations from sex crimes, murders and as a simple command post to blue collar crimes or just simply as a shelter from the elements. One thing is for sure, as far as i’m concerned, Police Scotland have certainly pulled out all the stops to put on a grand display for all to see. While Sturgeon remains in hiding to avoid the press (sarcasm). Is she renting the Scottish Tories well-used bunker i wonder? LOL!
BTW, folks, what is it about Uddingston? Seems to attract a certain type of individual, folk who were lauded as all great and wonderful when in reality they were nothing more than mediocre at best.
Sturgeon, Murrell and a host of former *Rangers players who played for that club during the tax-case years. Players such as Barry Ferguson and several, past their sell-by dates, former England internationals.
I think Billy Dodds may have lived there too or was it that other beacon of mediocrity who now occasionally does a stint on Sportscene, the one who has a brother in Greenock with a “drug problem”? (not 100% sure). I don’t envy the good folk of Uddingston having all these dodgy egotists living on their doorsteps. It’s becoming a second home for Police Scotland. LOL!
this explains Kate Forbes glee in losing to Humza !
Ash missed a bullet there ,but might have won if this
arrest had happened last month.
In the interest of transparency we should have a re-run !
Even odder this morning as its reported that the former FMs house continues to be searched – despite Miss Sturgeons husband having been released without charge.
Accordingly the apparent failure of the FM to discover which Scottish judge authorised the car bomb style raid against Peter Murrell yesterday, appears to have allowed the corrupt individual (heaven forfend there’s more than one, the auditors who think calling out laziness is racism or turning a spelling mistake into a naughty joke is harassment will have kittens) to issue a new one against Nicola sturgeon today.
Wow! Just seen a van reversing into that huge forensic tent on the front lawn.
Wonder if Murrell gave a ‘can’t remember’ interview.
A neighbour of Murrell apparently saw him clearing boxes out of his garage last Saturday.
Interesting that he obviously prioritised the SNP leadership election over the boxes??
Did the cops check under the garden gnome? Aye, Murrell could be sitting on the evidence, all along.
What a riddy for Sturgeon this is. Gonna be great the next time she’s on loose women , ps love the way you signed of this post @Stu confidently keeping us wanting more
Sturgeon’s car is clearly an EV so no fuel tank, though potentially alternative cubby holes to examine.
The house is a strange choice for a non driver. A new build, young family, housing estate with nothing particularly nice walkable to, no great public transport links and surrounded by motorway approach routes.
Also no solar panels or obvious insulation upgrades to the standard build. Not that it really matters if you have double generous income and no kids.
Oh, tish, who doesn’t get chauffeured to their Secure, Undisclosed Location regularly each morning?
My favourite part was Emperor Humza the First declaring vehemently that he had no prior knowledge of the arrest and searches.
Cynics might infer that he’d told the outgoing Chief Boaby precisely how much he wanted to be “surprised” by them.
Sturgeon pulled out of meeting today in Edinburgh re climate change.
So far the Police have discovered 2.4 Million Selfies!
Potential upside* being that precedent has now been set on the established and preferred method to investigate funding of Scottish labour, Conservative and Libdem, where the assets seized could be worth a bit more at auction – especially any based inside the M25 or gifted by Moscow, etc., so there’s still potential to honour those involved post indy (including any ashamed to be so) regardless.
*Presumably police Scotland is also now in position to resolve the Ash paradigm (ie if/when membership in residence numbers only 8000 and payroll is split between the two candidates offering to better manage devolution or if/when there’s 50000 bots voting from Iran now the ‘integrity’/’initiative’ killed their twitter )
Money laundering is an obvious additional charge.
Having fraudulently obtained the money you then spend it or send it to another who then spends it.
This is madness. Unless you are in the know, conjecture in this case (amusing as it is), can be a bit like looking into a whole barrel full of crabs, trying to second-guess their movements.
Oh! These risible paragons of virtue! Bless them!
As a former forensic examiner (primarily for court of session) – my experience is that witnesses rarely destroy evidence that later is used in court proceedings, even when their is prior knowledge of a raid
Call it human nature, call it sloppiness, hoarding, whatever you will but humans aren’t good at covering their tracks. Particularly with digital evidence (my speciality).
From the photos, This looks like it will recover a fai anount of paper and digital evidence so the specialists will need time and space to do their work in a fair and objective manner.
It all hinges on who knew what , when and in this respect I tweeted @policescotland asking if they would confirm the date on the arrest/ search warrant . I won’t hold my breath waiting on a reply
I said many years ago that Mi5 had infiltrated the snp and were set to destroy it from within! In 2015 the snp were the major threat to the union and even the English press agreed its days were up almost within weeks.
The snp was a bigger threat to the brit establishment than the ira. They were infiltrated.
These events prove brit state involvement.
I will make a prediction which I hope I’m wrong.
Sturgeon and murrel will go acot free without charges.
They are owned and protected by mi5.
This about covers it….it is going to get much worse!
https://robinmcalpine.org/how-bad-is-this/
The police will have been looking for evidence relating to a conspiracy charge.
It is likely to exist as M would have kept it as compromat so as to keep control.
The street theatre of the dramatic raids on
the Murrell’s house in Glasgow and similar on Gordon zlamb House in Edinburgh reinforces how there can be no trust whatsoever in Police Scotland.
Literally no one with any grey matter can fail to realize that Sturgeon’s resignation was triggered by something and that these police raids seem very much to have been timed to occur after someone had fixed it for Humza in what was a very much truncated and clearly compromised election.
This is an insidious covert war that is being waged. Corrupt, coordinated the very essence of a rule of law in a supposedly functioning democratic state is compromised.
But you know what. England despite it’s vicious colonializing history lost all its colonies. And they will lose Scotland too.
I can’t help imagining Humza Yousaf desperately trying to make sure he knew nothing about what’s going on like someone trying to avoid finding out what happened in Game of Thrones.
He must have spent the last few months avoiding all social media and walking into every room with his fingers in his ears shouting ‘no spoilers, no spoilers, I haven’t watched it yet!’.
What this event has done is to reinforce among some the theme too wee, too poor and now, too corrupt a theme the Unionist media will exploit to maximum effect.
Nothing succeeds like hypocrisy in a fit of outrage.
I have to say I am not convinced by these police theatrics at all and even less of the purpose of it.
Personally, I am beginning to think this is just part of a much bigger charade designed to completely burn the SNP to ashes right before the next General Election, all while giving a convenient exit door from politics to Sturgeon, Murrell and the rest of the gang who helped destroying the SNP from within.
If there is any truth in that thought, then there is at least a silverlining: if the british state has to go to these ridiculous lenghts to end Scotland’s main political vehicle for independence and resurrect the labour party in Scotland, then it is clear they know unionism is truly dead in Scotland and they have to artificially maintain it by killing democracy. This will be a phyrric victory.
Let’s see. A leader, a CEO and the rest of the executive team have been able to get away not for weeks, but for months, possibly even years without showing the party books to its own accountants, never mind the public. Yet, in the knowledge that 600,000 pounds went missing, conventional press, electoral commission, police, COPFS, and the opposition MPs and MSPs, even two lord Advocates sitting in the middle of the fucking cabinet turned a blind eye as if it was business as usual.
And the Scottish public is supposed to accept this as “normal” in a functioning democracy and that COPFS, police, electoral commission, press, etc, are sound independent bodies doing their job rather than the corrupt tools of a crown acting in frantic collusion to preserve a political union toxic to Scotland.
A party leader for over EIGHT YEARS, which judging by her actions in other areas is a control freak and who was temporarily the custodian of the effing books, seemingly gets away with saying to the public she knew nothing about nothing. One cannot help but wondering if this clueless politician was a leader at all during all these years, or if they were just the face who pretended to be leader while somebody else was leading the party and government from the shadows. Was Sturgeon the milli vanilly of Scotland’s politics?
Then we got a controlled wave of resignations (Lloyd, Murrell, Foote, Sturgeon and Swinney). A few at once, all with some rather pathetic, non credible excuses, all SNP and all with impeccable timing. But the fascinating part of all this is that several other higher profile individuals who took part in the industrial scale suppression of evidence regarding the Salmond case, including civil servants, the crown agent and the police chief have been all quietly retiring, resigning or moved elsewhere.
So, were these last SNP resignations all an excuse to let the culprits exit the scene before the shit hit the fan and splashed over everybody else left behind?
We had Lloyd resigning because she was caught with her hands on Yousaf’s campaign while still being paid by the taxpayer yet, instead of being disciplined and sacked for gross misconduct breaking the civil service code of conduct, we have her doing interviews on TV as if she was some sort of celebrity. What kind of farce is this?
Then there is the timing of the whole thing. The “leadership” contest had to be rushed and I mean rushed through to the point of not being a credible contest at all. It was full of dodgy things and from the very beginning it was clear it was the coronation of a numpty while using two other candidates for show and to make it look like a real contest instead of what it was: a farce. One of the many signs this was a complete farce was having Kezia Dugdale endorsing the numpty even when this woman is, allegedly, no longer in politics and therefore in political terms, a nobody. Who could have possibly thought her opinion was in any way or form important? This to me is a sign they are all in it together and Sturgeon’s SNP has been working with Labour all along.
I am now wondering if there was some king of deal with the powers that be to hold on to the theatrical display of “arrests” and “seeking” of evidence until the right numpty, by British state standards that is, was “in charge” of that dangerous majority of anti-union SNP MPs.
It is evident even to a child that the Greens are toxic to the SNP and are actively turning SNP voters away. The fact that the numpty coronated in the SNP’s latest farce of leadership contest was the only one who was determined to keep feeding the SNP poison through this toxic partnership with the Greens and keep allienating people with the GRR crap nonsense is another sign the British state has a hand on the whole thing and the ultimate objective here is to completely destroy the SNP as a credible vehicle for independence making it unelectable on time for the next GE.
They showed us a tent in Sturgeon’s front garden CSI style. What for? I mean, if you were going to bury something in the garden, you would bury it on the back garden away from anybody’s view. The front garden of that house is fully exposed, so if you were going to bury something in it, it would be immediately obvious to any passer by. Even if you bury something there during the night out of view, the next day there would be clear signs of digging and a damaged lawn. Being the house of the FM, this would immediately catch the attention of neighbours and passers by. So, was the tent covering something being unearthed or rather something being buried while the tent was protecting the area from public view while providing a great excuse for a damaged lawn the next day? Having Murrell “arrested” is of course a wonderful excuse to put the tent in the first place and to remove evidence from the house. How much of that evidence will actually reach police HQ and a court?
We are expected to believe the police, judges and the COPFS are acting to deliver justice when over the last few years they have demonstrated to us that delivering justice and arresting real culprits and crooks is the last of their priorities. I mean, their latest delivery on this was releasing the rapist of a child claiming his brain was not completely developed at the time of comiting the rape. What message does this send to victims of rape? That they are worthless. What message does this send to other rapists and paeodphiles? Fill your boots until you are 25. Isn’t this legalisation of paedophilia and rape by the back door? Sometimes you wonder if the real crooks and criminals might be those dressed up as judges.
So with such evidently low standards of judgement, never mind justice among judges, COPfs and police, I am actually wondering if this display of exaggerated police activity around Sturgeon’s house and SNP HQ might be more a legitimised way of safely removing the incriminating evidence to be safely disposed elsewhere while actively destroying the SNP as a political party in the eyes of the voters. Two birds with the same shot.
I mean, the COPFS actively supported the main culprits in the SGov and civil service in getting away with redacting and suppressing from public view industrial scale numbers of documents of great public interest. At that point, it was more than evident the powers that be were far more concerned about protecting Murrell, Sturgeon, the alphabetties and the vietnam group than being seen as giving a shit about delivering justice.
I don’t see why this charade with the tent will be any different to their now established Modus operandi in Scotland.
HY had to become fm. Imagine with tge english Kings coronation coming up if a pro I dy FM was at the helm?
Maybe the police are doing a dunblane type of cover up with the documents.
Mi5 have done their job in dismantling the snp as a political force.!
Join Alba!
My caption to the first picture above would be…
‘Danger Rat and Penfold in happier times’
All those curious titles invented by the SNP government ( as in Minister for Circumlocution, Opacity and Waffle) just got impudently blatant.
Apparently Mairi Macallan, who took over Sturgeon’s speaking engagement, is cabinet secretary for net zero. Does that mean in charge of F**k All?
How strange. Only 48 hours ago, many people were still harping on about how great FM Sturgeon was. These have suddenly disappeared- it’s all gone so very quiet, so quickly. Will Nicola Sturgeon now be the name that must not be mentioned in SNP circles? I wonder if Humza will still be making regular calls to Nicola for advice, like he promised? It’s a funny old world.
Mia gets it right, every time!!
I enjoyed the Yousaf interview yesterday where he was in front of a poster of a young man with the quote alongside, “My local adviser helped me quit!” LOL
Al says:
6 April, 2023 at 12:00 am
“You have no idea,like Regan. No wonder,Indy is a non-starter.”
And yet you weren’t brave enough to point out why I have no idea ? I gave you plenty to contradict or at least pick something and show where I am lying. But you didn’t did you. All I did was contradict your world view, so you lashed out. I contradicted what your TV taught you.
So let me try and put it in layman terms for you so a five year old will understand it.
I work in the private sector get my monthly wage from the UK government. Why do I say government instead of my employer ?
I take a note out of my pocket and read it. As it happens it is in very simple English. My employer didn’t give me that money. The government did it is written all over the note and they even signed it with a signature. The government has obviously ” issued ” it and then my employer for their hands on it and then gave it to me.
Or
My employer took out a bank loan and then passed the government money to me. The bank ” issues” state money when it lends. Read the bank note.
So let’s say I got paid £2,000. Pay my income tax and national insurance. I pay my mortgage, utility bills, energy bills and buy some food. Go shopping in 5 different shops, have a nice meal and go to the cinema.
What’s just happened ?
a) When I pay my income tax and national insurance. All that’s happened is the government has collected back some of the money it previously issued that my employer got their hands on either by selling goods and services or by taking out a bank loan.
b) When I paid my mortgage, utility bills, energy bills and buy some food. Go shopping in 5 different shops, have a nice meal and go to the cinema. I’ve just created over a dozen different spending chains. My spending is someone else’s income.
The mortgage company, Utilities companies, energy company, supermarket, 5 retail stores, the restaurant and cinema pay tax on the income earned from me.
So now more of the money the government gave me has now been collected back by the government.
Now The mortgage company, Utilities companies, energy company, supermarket, 5 retail stores, the restaurant and cinema. Spend the income from me that wasn’t taxed by the government.
They have Just created between them, numerous other spending chains that will create income for somebody and will be taxed.
This process continues until eventually the £2,000 given to me by the government is collected back by the government. This process happens all over the UK.
Now the mortgage company is Scottish, the utilities companies are Scottish, the energy company is Spanish, the supermarket is German, 5 retail stores are American, the restaurant is Irish and the Cinema is Welsh.
So when these companies pay their tax on my income GERS breaks down immediately. Not worth the paper it is written on. As HMRC has no way of knowing when they collect their taxes that it came from Scottish government spending. It is impossible to calculate Scottish government spending was X and ALL of the taxes collected from it is Y.
Because it has flowed across borders and has ended up in the UK consolidated fund not the Scottish consolidated fund. Unless there was infra red dye put on specifically notes used for Scottish government spending. It is impossible to calculate how much tax was collected from Scottish government spending as it flows through the spending chains getting taxed as it crosses borders.
It gets worse much worse.
The mortgage company is Scottish, the utilities companies are Scottish, the energy company is Spanish, the supermarket is German, 5 retail stores are American, the restaurant is Irish and the Cinema is Welsh.
They now spend their income that wasn’t taxed in Northern Ireland, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Brazil, Ireland and India.
None of the taxes collected from the income they generate for somebody else. Will appear in the Scottish consolidated fund. All of it goes into goes into the UK Consolidated Fund – as required by the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866.
It is impossible to calculate how many taxes were collected from the initial £2,000 Scottish government spending injection given to me. Why they guess and using an index finger and computer keyboard mark up the Scottish consolidated fund. Using a number plucked out of thin air.
The UK as a whole can measure what they FIRST spend ( issue) and then COLLECT back as taxes. The UK is sovereign with a free floating currency. Has a central bank that records what was issued. That there is little difference between somebody holding, say, Sterling Savings in Birmingham, Alabama from somebody holding Sterling Savings in Birmingham, England.
Both are a drain from circulation in the Sterling currency area and free up capacity in the real economy within that area, because saving denies somebody an income further down the spending chain. Both may provide capacity to buy something in the future and, outside of cash or a basic deposit account, both are likely to provide some sort of income in Sterling.
Both can be taxed. Sterling accounts are all transitively linked to the Bank of England via chains of other Sterling accounts. That’s what makes them Sterling. (Yes that applies to Eurocurrency deposits as well?—?ultimately they have to clear via the Sterling banking system to be worth anything and that allows authorities to collect back taxes on a remittance basis).
Foreign entities are holding your currency as savings. Similarly, financial products denominated in your currency are held as savings. Savings are, in effect, an export product of your currency area.
The UK as a whole can measure it because it has a record of all £’s issued and ALL £’s collected afterwards.
Individually, Scotland can’t it is nothing more than a county council in this regard. As it does not have its own treasury, central bank or currency. It can record what was spent but NEVER record all the tax that was collected from that spending.
Now Al. I have given you get plenty to chew over and plenty for you to rip apart with your Andrew Neil TV thinking. So Please show me where I am lying. Please use the ACTUAL government accounts and point out where on the government accounts I am lying. How the money gets there and where it comes from.
Destroying your simplistic worldview and how you were potty trained in how you are supposed to think about these things in an education camp from the age of 5 and then by the media as an adult. Then lashing out is not good enough.
Please use the ACTUAL government accounts in the real world to make your case against me. As that is what I use – the facts to make my case. After studying it for 4 hours every week night for 20 years. I know what I am talking about. So you better know your stuff.
Large malt and a revolver ?
Al,
Did you hear the Speech by an External Member of the Bank of England MPC in Glasgow on Tuesday.
The external member of the MPC and LSE Professor of Economics gave a talk at the Scottish Economic Society conference in Glasgow (April 4, 2023) – Quantitative Easing and Quantitative Tightening – where she commented on current monetary policy settings.
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=60756
They started off well then lied about everything. Using GROUPTHINK for those who believe the GROUPTHINK.
It was aimed at people like you, John Main and Chas. Who fall for the GROUPTHINK and can’t think or study things for themselves.
Alba better be ready.
The unionist SNP is rotten to the core so its destruction must be welcomed, whether carried out by britnats or otherwise. It seems britnats still believe the SNP is the independence movement. Bless.
Game Of Gnomes.
Re digging the garden, perhaps the Murrells have struck oil.
Geoff Anderson @10:11am
That’s a shocking post from Robin McAlpine. “much, much worse” doesn’t really begin to cover it. There’s a whole bundle of sturdy boughs to beat the SNP with, morning, noon and night for as long as needed.
The only highlight is that perhaps Westminster doesn’t really get the whole independence thing and they think by killing off the SNP they’ll kill the desire for self-determination too. Given the history with independence movements they can’t be that naive. What is more likely is that the ra-ra Nicola crowd simply won’t be able to process her downfall and the downfall of the party and will simply give up rather than acknowledge that there were problems all along which they chose to ignore. So the independence movement is about to get a severe beating which might take some time to recover from.
The worst picture for me is that of Angus Robertson lurking behind Humza Yousaf waiting until he has to resign.
Robin McAlpine’s piece was sensible and sadly very believable. I hope that past misdeeds, to put it mildly, do come out into the open but I waiting for the future to unfold without having too much hope or too much despair.
I know that our MPs and MSPs, up to and including the FM, cannot claim ignorance of the situation. They had a front row seat to the things that were being done. And even if they chose not to see, then the communications they got from countless SNP and exSNP members should have alerted them. I know when I resigned I wrote 2 sides of A4 explaining why I was resigning and I had to hold it down to only 2 sides of A4.
I have a good constituency MP but if (when) he loses his seat at the next election my regret will be tempered by the thought that he could have acted any time in the last 9 years to stop the ascendency of the clique round Sturgeon and Murrell. Which brings me back to Angus Robertson. Have they learned nothing?
A massive story like this and the Wee Ginger Beggar is busy serving up mealy-mouthed vanilla tosh. The poor soul is worried about “certain individuals” attempting to use the comments section of his blog to mouth off about Peter Murrell. My heart bleeds. Stu, meanwhile, is like a Rottweiler with a bone, driven by journalistic instincts rather than grifting ones.
Mia – 6 April, 2023 at 10:17 am
Might the tent in the garden have been for recording and sorting what came out of the house? I wasn’t watching so I’m only asking.
Where was the third address raided by the police
I have believed most of what Stuart Campbell has said up to now,and yes I have contributed in the past. I read what Mia says above and there is much there that is possible.
BUT I am now convinced Stuart Campbell is being taken for a ride by the Unionist establishment and throw in Box ,77 Brigade and the inner britnat cabinet or whatever.
Fred West had less SOCO attention.In the words of Karen “I smell SHITE”
Personally I am only interested in Scottish Independence but left the SNP in 2019 and i now see we are naive in not recognising the power of The British Empire.
From what I’ve seen on various news channels this morning, this business is far from over. Police have been coming and going at the Murrell house all morning.
Question for anyone willing to read the contempt of court act 1981;
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/49
Now that release without charge means there can be no court to be in contempt of in relation to yesterday’s novichok style drama, would it be fair to speculate that it was undertaken with the specific intent to let the current FM know what awaits if he fails to follow orders – ie in not dissimilar way as the previous FM was forced to go along with the seasonal flu abomination after having been shown in no uncertain terms what whoever it was coordinating the nonsense was able to do to her own predecessor?
“Might the tent in the garden have been for recording and sorting what came out of the house?”
It could be for a lot of things. The strongest incentive in believing there is a legitimate reason for that tent and the magnificent display of action a few days after the leadership farcical contest ended, is the assumption the police/COPFS etc are not politically motivated and have a genuine interest in gathering evidence to put crooks and criminals in prison.
The complaints procedure, millions of taxpayers’ money wasted in fabricating a criminal case against Mr Salmond on ridiculous charges, the concessions of annonymity to potential perjurers, the waffle letters of response to the Rev’s FoI requests and the active enterprise into suppressing information of major public interest from the public, seriously questions the validity of that assumption.
Once you don’t longer assume the actions of the COPfS, police and judiciary are necessarily directed to deliver justice and put crooks and criminals in prison, everything becomes possible.
I’ve been waiting on this day for a long time now, my hope now is this sparks a chain reaction that leads to the total destruction of the SNP with Sturgeon herself facing a prison sentence as a nice little cherry on top,
I cannot for the life of me see anything worth saving in that party except perhaps a few individuals who will hopefully have the good sense to get out while they can the rest can go to hell.
This will hurt the independence movement no question but it will not destroy us we can rebuild, what doesn’t kill us will make us stronger, but keeping the SNP on life support will only hold us back they’re finished and we all know who to thank for that.
Forget the SNP Join Alba & Liberation.scot and move forward together as a united force and win our freedom
Doug says:
6 April, 2023 at 11:21 am
Alba better be ready.
I hope so much this is the case what an opportunity Alba has right now. I really hope they can capitalise on this. I hope they are very busy working on a strategy.
Unfortunately, the EU uber alles crowd who don’t understand money and that’s all Remainers by the way. Will have to hold their nose to vote for Alba. Why they haven’t moved over already.
Thus, The middle class liberal guardian readers will stay with the SNP. Pretend they are left wing.
The problem the Indy movement has with small ” C ” conservative voters is the Indy movement are dealing with a bunch of idiots.
Stop a small ” C ” conservative on the street or walk into a Conservative club and they think Scotland can’t afford to be independent and England funds us. The GROUPTHINK of these idiots is rife in these places. They feed off each other.
Ask a small ” C ” conservative from Kate Forbes land or a liberal that reads the Guardian where they get their £’s from that they use to pay their taxes. They’ll shout in unison from their employer.
At this point you know they shouldn’t be allowed near sharp objects.
But play along with them anyway and say okay your employer gives you the £’s you then use to pay your taxes. Where does your employer get the £’s from then.They’ll shout from us the consumer when we buy things.
This is Why we don’t have independence already. In these people’s minds they have consumers and businesses creating all the money between them LOL! They all have counterfeit printing presses in their basements creating £’s LOL!
They actually believe consumers give businesses the £’s and businesses give consumers the £’s and the taxes raised from these 2 groups are then passed to the government so that the government can fill the treasury so it can spend LOL!
That’s actually what business schools and economic students are taught LOL!
With no mention at all about who actually ” issues ” the £’s. That allows consumers and businesses to interact with each other.
They have never read a bank note in their pocket or a bank note in ANY business till in the country. That lets them see who actually put the £’s in their pockets and in their tills.
Point blank refuse to see the massive difference s between an issuer of the currency and the users of the currency. Consumers and businesses are ” users” of the currrency. The government is the issuer of the currency. Either via government spending or bank lending. How businesses and consumers get their hands on the £’s they then use to pay their taxes. It is written very clearly on any money these fools have received their entire lives.
That’s why we are not independent already. The Glasgow Herald, the Guardian and the right have instilled these people with a GROUPTHINK so strong it will take a brain transplant to move the majority to vote for independence.
Because they don’t understand money and fall for the tax payer money myth. They think we can’t afford it. It really does boil down to how does the Indy movement breakdown that GROUPTHINK!
How can we – when the Indy movement itself use the exact same framing and narrative s as the Guardian, the Herald and the local Conservative club ?
What chance do we stand when even those who want independence simply don’t get it. Will attack anybody who upsets their own worldview. Potty trained into them from the age of 5 by the people the ruling class they hate.
Explained in this 2 part series by Journalists who were forced out of the the mainstream media and got together to form their own media outlet. Like Stu does.
‘Our Indifference To Ourselves’ – Beyond The ‘Virtue’ Of Self-Sacrifice – Part 1
https://www.medialens.org/2021/our-indifference-to-ourselves-beyond-the-virtue-of-self-sacrifice-part-1/
Our Indifference To Ourselves’ – Beyond The ‘Virtue’ Of Self-Sacrifice – Part 2
https://www.medialens.org/2021/our-indifference-to-ourselves-beyond-the-virtue-of-self-sacrifice-part-2/
At the moment the GROUPTHINK is winning by a country mile.
Maybe there is a supersized shredder in that tent??
Mystery solved.. Police Scotland Catering Division. Burger van sheltered by tent in front garden. The smell of fried onions, gave it away.
The Murrells are said to be starting their own fast food business..
Robbin Baskins
Al-Stuart says: at 7:34 am
“One thing I witnessed amongst the plethora of photographs appearing from the ex-First Minister’s house was a police officer with a Border Patrol calibre CCTV pinhole video camera system, evidently examining the contents of the fuel tank of a black vehicle parked on the driveway of the ex-FMs house. The officer clearly had the camera snake system inserted via the fuel filler cap point of entry.”
John Main says: at 8:06 am
“@Al-Stuart says:6 April, 2023 at 7:34 am
You thinking what I’m thinking?
Use of red diesel in a road-going vehicle?”
Just for the bantz, you lads should get a shift in the new Burnistoun series as new Quality Polis characters.
As Ian Smith points out at 9:27 am, it’s a leccy car with a charging lead attached to it! Not much point in try to run a leccy car on diesel…
Further inquiries over my tea break show it to be a Peugeot and it is taxed until July 31st. It is defo black though, so at least that’s one less thing to peak Humza’s heart rate…
Police Investigations and Review Commissioner [PIRC]: we should write to pirc.scot to complain and ask for:
– investigation into the postponement by police of action until after SNP leadership election;
– whether N Sturgeon was told by police, directly/indirectly, of the course of their enquiry, before she resigned;
– whether the delay gave notice which allowed evidence to be destroyed.
Craig Murray says he is doing this and thinks it will be helpful if a lot of other people do so too.
Questions Questions ?.
Rev its beyond belief that Police raid Sturgeon/Murrell ‘s home to secure evidence & a Police officer pushes out their bins to be emptied by the council bin men ( brain deid ) police ./
Also re Sturgeon ( the X Lawyer ) leaving the property to the police , any Lawyer would advise that there should always be
someone in the house during the search.
but that being said get in there n rip the place apart ( all in the name of recovering evidence U unnerstawn ) .LoL
@Famous15,
Stu being manipulated by Unionists? Really?
Was it Stu that pinched the referendum money?
Was it Stu that hobbled the ability of the membership to contribute to policy decisions?
Was it Stu who filled the SNP with Trans activists?
EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING WAS DONE BY THE SNP.
You sound like the wheesht for Indy mob who would proclaim freedom even under the rule of this SNP freakshow. No thanks.
Stu exposes the truth. Just that. To folk like you he must be an agent of the Crown to do so. Your proposed world would be so fekked up I doubt anyone would want to live in it.
Police Scotland News page explicitly states the 1981 act still applies ‘remains active’.
https://www.scotland.police.uk/what-s-happening/news/2023/april/investigation-into-scottish-national-party-funding-and-finances-update/
So people still need to watch out…
for a little relief,
no politics,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJb1xw_4zFM
Al and John Main
Ignore the balloon and hopefully it will go away. Fingers crossed.
Says Famous15, First ‘petty’ officer of the 55 Brigade. :-))
Hopefully the remaining – if any – real people in the SNP move over to ALBA, and they had best be in a hurry. SNP really has to crumble and be demolished now, let the rats scurry away to their next dark corner with their green pals and grr legislation.
The Indy movement, despite the setbacks already and to come, will move on and be undeterred. It is way bigger than the now disgraced SNP and there is too much at stake to let this be the wining line for the opposition. So, no re-runs, no way back for SNP, let them rot, let’s vote them all out asap.
How about a real fundraiser to totally eclipse the £600k ringfenced and woven-in pot that magically disappeared. Let’s give it to ALBA and let’s self-fund so that there can be candidates set-up at all levels and under a clear manifesto for immediate independence. I’m in…
@Gordon Gekko says:6 April, 2023 at 11:02 am
It was aimed at people like you, John Main and Chas
Ach Gordon, what does it matter?
Summed up in 3 words now:
SNP Game Over
If you want to engage the groupthinkers, remember that for most of them SNP = Indy, so the 3 words become:
Indy Game Over
The Chinese curse is true – we do indeed live in interesting times.
In case no one else has seen it on Sky News, the tent at the front of the house was for the protection of the arrest van for Murrel.
Sky showed footage of the van shoehorned under the tent at the front. They did this obviously to deny any footage of him being put in the back of the wagon.
Will the scottish people come together and put an end to all this
shit…the horseshoe nail,if you will…I dearly hope so,…
The rest of the world might not know how important this little country is,yet…
but i do…!
So now we have a better timeline of yesterday’s events. Peter Murrell arrested at 7:45am. Nicola Sturgeon leaves at about 8:10am and the police vans pull up at 8:30. So far, no problem with any of that. It looks as if the police wanted to avoid a media circus. What bothers me, though, is the brief video I saw of Nicola Sturgeon leaving with a couple of overnight bags. She looked rather too happy. I have always felt that Nicola Sturgeon’s face has never told a lie in its life. Looks like Peter Murrell is out to sea and has nobody to throw him a life jacket – not even his wife.
Dinnae kain if onybody’s pit this oot:
Redfield & Wilton poll (31st March-1st April 2023)
Should Scotland be an independent country?
Yes 46% (+1)
No 54% (-1)
Check the brass neck of this. https://archive.is/2023.04.06-132514/https://www.thenational.scot/news/23439974.snp-supporters-call-donations-party-peter-murrell-arrest/
Honestly. A fool and their money are soon parted.
PhilM @12:58
Far be it for me to question the motive behind making such public statements, but does logic not demand that the only judge whose court one could now be in contempt of in respect of the matter is the one that issued the warrant for the operation..
In which case wouldnt they need, at the very least, to be given a name in public BEFORE anyone not in the loop could legitimately be charged with being in contempt of their secret court.
Chas says:
6 April, 2023 at 1:05 pm
Al and John Main
“Ignore the balloon and hopefully it will go away. Fingers crossed.”
LOL! The GROUPTHINK trying to protect the group in full view. The group will come up will all sorts of ways to try and protect the group. The GROUPTHINK within it.
So thanks for So beautifully proving my point Chas. Trying to bring the group around you to protect you.
Rather than simply extracting an extract from the debate and disproving it. There’s plenty of paragraphs to choose from that I have written. Just pick one fact and try and disprove it using your GROUPTHINK Chas. See how you get on.
I’ve clearly upset your worldview. Look at you running to the group for protection. Rather than healthy debating and trying to prove me wrong.
You can’t as you simply don’t know what a government balance sheet looks like and how the assets and liabilities are generated. That’s the true problem isn’t it. So keep lashing out Chas and looking for hugs from the group that support your mythical worldview. Instead of trying to move the ACTUAL debate – how money really works – forward that will benefit independence and Scottish families.
Where do YOU get your money from that you then give back to the government as taxes Chas ? Did you read the note before you handed it to HMRC ?
When an archaeologist digs up a £ coin. What do you see Chas. A tax payers coin that the government needs to fill the treasury. Or a coin that was issued by the government ? Did you read the coin ?
Or do you just speak like Andrew Neil and how the corporate media taught you how to speak about government finances ?
I see you got an acknowledgement by the BBC today!
Congratulations.
I think the independence movement needs to re-group. I thought, as a Unionist (my maternal grandfather was from Uist), that Kate Forbes was most threatening as competent, and nice, but I wonder if you have to rethink it, if the SNP ends up as a trough from which our ruling elite feeds its face, never mind educational, police, health and transport failings.
“Skip_NC says:
6 April, 2023 at 2:43 pm
So now we have a better timeline of yesterday’s events. Peter Murrell arrested at 7:45am. Nicola Sturgeon leaves at about 8:10am and the police vans pull up at 8:30. So far, no problem with any of that. It looks as if the police wanted to avoid a media circus. What bothers me, though, is the brief video I saw of Nicola Sturgeon leaving with a couple of overnight bags. She looked rather too happy. I have always felt that Nicola Sturgeon’s face has never told a lie in its life. Looks like Peter Murrell is out to sea and has nobody to throw him a life jacket – not even his wife.”
I think I am on the same wavelength as you. Can’t see how Nicola didn’t get arrested when they searched their home unless she has provided evidence, is being treated as a witness and/or cut some other deal that leaves Murrell taking the fall.
If I was someone that had done some dirty work for Sturgeon in the past I would be getting in first to the police with my version of events because if she can help her husband take a fall who exactly won’t she throw in front of a bus?
“SNP supporters call for donations to party after Peter Murrell arrest” says The National.
Thinking about a strange occurrence. Two weeks or so ago Liz Lloyd gave an interview on TV where she said some less than positive comments about Sturgeon.
What was that all about?
Was she trying to set the scene for a defence for herself, maybe knowing what was coming down the road?
Was she trying to give Sturgeon’s defence. maybe she was suffering some sort of stress?
And on another point, of ll the resignations my biggest question is the Chief Constable’s resignation. That is what is very intriguing to me.
@Skip_NC (2.43) –
What video?
Do you have a link please?
Doug, so now the National has become like an American prosperity gospel evangelist. “Give now and your prosperity is assured.” People still fall for that guff over here and it seems Scots are not immune either.
Ian Brotherhood, I saw it somewhere on Twitter yesterday. I am not on Twitter but I keep an eye on the WoS account and look at other tweets listed on that page. So, sorry, I don’t have a link.
Chas,
For healthy debating purposes to further the debate rather than just lashing out.
Rather than asking you to believe what you saw with your own eyes when you read a coin or bank note instead of believing what Andrew Neil told you. Here’s a different approach.
Section 64(8) of the Scotland Act 1998 states “The Scottish consolidated Fund shall be held with the Paymaster General.”
Scottish Ministers have the right to set a Scottish income tax rate, but any income that is raised goes into the
UK Consolidated Fund – as required by the Exchequer and Audit
Departments Act 1866.
Any figure that is collected each day that goes into the UK consolidated fund gets reset to zero before the start of each working day.
What happened to Scottish income taxes ?
If the figure in the UK consolidated fund is lets say £100 million by the end of today and that includes the income tax collected in Scotland. They change that to a 0 using an index finger and computer keyboard for the start of tomorrow ‘s working day.
What’s happened to it ?
The answer is income taxes destroy money never to be seen again. To try and control inflation. They do it by zeroing the account every night.
They issue state money into the economy first via government spending or bank lending and then take it out of the economy via taxes as it flows through the economy. Then destroy what they collect to help with controlling inflation.
Think about it. It is quite frankly absurd to say taxes fund the government AND control inflation. That is an oxymoron.
Now am I trying to manipulate you, Why would I lie to you, Am I playing a joke on you Chas ? Why would I even make this up ?
Well find out for yourself . I’ve given you the official government documents that you can find online – the Scotland Act 1998 and Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866.
Read them yourself. See for yourself I am telling the truth.
Just a thought, but if the police are searching any house and are concerned that the occupants will attempt to get rid of things like drugs or documents, they normally dig up the waste pipes to check for anything that has been flushed.
If reports of digging in the garden are true, then perhaps this is normal police procedure when serving a search warrant.
Irrespective of hair splitting and whatabootry conspiracies simple fact is the £600k plus is unaccounted for and still missing, that is the one unavoidable truism in the murrell situation.
laukat says:
6 April, 2023 at 3:08 pm
“Can’t see how Nicola didn’t get arrested when they searched their home unless she has provided evidence, is being treated as a witness and/or cut some other deal that leaves Murrell taking the fall.”
If this is simply about the £600k then the CEO and the Treasurer of the SNP are the ones liable. No ifs, buts or maybes – they were (and are) directly responsible for the finances of the SNP. Any discrepancies in the accounts/funds then they need to explain their actions.
You’d have to prove that the NEC members and the “leader” of the party were aware of “discrepancies” in the finances to put them in the frame.
Time will tell.
As an expert on the Police Service I will say this only wance “I have seen much less police response for multiple murders” Wings has been correct on so much that he has allowed his triumphs to cloud his judgement. Wheesting apart , for balance both sides must be exposed to common sense and daylight.
I want independence and admire Alex Salmond but who knows who has joined his Alba.
The YES movement should stay out of ordinary politics and be a constitutional movement.
Make no room for fellowtravellers or troughers or egotists.
Has nobody tracked down and door stepped Nicola yet?
I cannot imagine a Boris or a Trump being let off so lightly by the media.
Gordon Gekko/Chas
What Prof Richard Murphy has to say about Modern Monetary Theory might be useful here.
I take him to be saying Governments create money, spend money and tax money out of the system – in that order. Tax isn’t Government raising money to spend – requiring taxes to be paid in a given currency is a Government’s way of ensuring use of its currency.
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2022/10/23/mmt-does-not-require-that-markets-believe-in-it-but-politicians-must/
If Peter Murrell was was being cooperative with the police, he’d have told the cops where the cash is.
The fact his home was raided for two days tells me he’s not cooperating.
Murrell thinks he’s above the law.
No Independence supporter is going to give that party money again.
Thank god for Alba. Alex Salmond a master strategist. He saw this coming.
James Caithness @3:25
Scotland Act schedule 5 indicates that whilst a number of the activities they are required to police are reserved, management of the public authorities, among which the police (presumably), are not – so until fully explained otherwise, Humza Youssaf’s Scottish government MUST be entirely responsible for what happened yesterday.
Accordingly, if he was not consulted on the politically motivated raid (/ not responsible for ordering it!) my first question would be why did he not use today’s press conference to sack the one who replaced the one who resigned..
Oh right, expert now!! Stu has allowed his triumphs to cloud his judgement. Expert!! No pal,you’re just a swooper
@Skip_NC 3:32pm
We Scots have a habit of falling for the “we are god’s people” schtick since the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. Probably before.
We’ll be sticking “in god we trust” on our bank notes next.
New low in gullibility from these SNP supporters asking for donations though. Will they ever learn? Nae chance. Sandy Lyle is mair likely tae win this year’s Masters.
Famous15 says:
6 April, 2023 at 4:20 pm
“The YES movement should stay out of ordinary politics and be a constitutional movement.
Make no room for fellow travellers or troughers or egotists.”
I agree. as for your second comment, would that include Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh?
I have advised ALBA that I will not join any party that includes T A-S.
I wonder how many Polis managed to get a selfie with Elsie before she shot the crow, we all know how much she loves a selfie 🙂
I hope to God NO ONE has the temerity to ask for us to give the Murrells a break.
They can go and take a flying fuck.
I want these two bastards screwed into the ground.
They never relented when it came to them hounding Alex Salmond and others in their pursuit to jailing innocent men.
Rot in hell you horrible spiteful morons.
And regards the digging, the Murrells were partial to a line or two of Charlie.
Brush the snp away,like dandruff off a black polo neck,…
if you want to represent the scottish pulic in holyrood or westminster…then prove yourself worthy…better do that right quick though!
Nicola has had to pull out og the Cimate of Change event in Edinburgh tonight.
Do you think she and Peter Murrell might have to pull out of the Coronation as well?
PS I meant Charles III’s not Humza’s.
“Vestas says:
If this is simply about the £600k then the CEO and the Treasurer of the SNP are the ones liable. No ifs, buts or maybes – they were (and are) directly responsible for the finances of the SNP. Any discrepancies in the accounts/funds then they need to explain their actions.
You’d have to prove that the NEC members and the “leader” of the party were aware of “discrepancies” in the finances to put them in the frame.
Time will tell.”
If this is about the missing £600k then I still don’t see how Nicola avoid arrest as she was in effect the party treasurer as leader after the resignation of Douglas Chapman and until Colin Beattie was appointed. Douglas Chapman clearly knew the seriousness of being the party treasurer but not having checked the books, hence he resigned when he was stopped from doing that. I don’t think Nicola’s excuse of ‘I didn’t know’ will hold up as her its her job to find out. Having a treasurer resign is as red a flag as red flags can be.
There are also multiple on camera interviews with her saying the money wasn’t missing and the accounts were in order. If after being asked she checked and then contacted the police then she can say ‘I wasn’t aware of discrepancies but as soon as I was I acted’ but until as late as last week she was denying any issues.
I don’t think anyone is expecting the NEC to be arrested. However I do wonder why Colin Beattie is not also under arrest if this is purely about the missing £600k. He was treasurer for the entire period bar the brief point where Chapman was elected and then resigned. The electoral commission publish what they expect a treasurer to do https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf_file/intro-party-treasurer-rp.pdf
Looking at that and if it was purely about the miss-use of £600k surely he’s higher on the to arrest list than Murrell?
If it was falsely obtaining £600k by promising an Indyref then Nicola is surely higher up the arrest list than Murrell as Nicola was the public face of the donation drive.
The fact he and Nicola are not under arrest suggest the Police view the gathering of £600k and non-ring fencing of it as either not a crime or probably more a lesser crime to what has actually taken place and what Beattie and Sturgeon may provide evidence on.
Saw the news clip of another 7 Police Officers entering the Murrells house today.
Is anyone here old enough to remember the old candid camera trick of the desk drawer being filled, and filled, and filled seemingly never to get full – it was situated against a wall and had a false back… all the stuff was pulled into the next room.
Those were not search team officers. They were carrying full PPE equipment (radios, utility belts, baton, handcuffs, etc). The search team wear black cargo trousers, black t shirt and fleece and police baseball hat – with or without hi viz). This is for practical purposes.
So, why were beat cop response officers being put into a house that is currently being searched under warrant? During a drugs raid, they would be there at the start, to control potential suspects and or neighbours who wanted to join in/obstruct.
Whoever is currently Acting Chief Constable needs to stop over egging the pudding I’d suggest.
With regards the big tent in the garden… on seeing the van leave from within it yesterday, I’d suggest another reason why it may be in use, is to enable officers from say, the serious Fraud Squad from London, to have entered and left, without having their photo’s taken by all the press.
The non-event, of all non-existent events… IndyRef2!
Propaganda is a two way street. Pitch your tent.
The goal of independence.. A competent government, able to implement change for the betterment of Scotland. Are we there yet?
Maybe, we should just skip the first bit and take a punt. We probably would take that punt, if given the opportunity.
Sturgeon, having boxed herself into a corner, then eventually being forced to offer the only viable mechanism to end the Union. That being, a genuine no nonsense, election manifesto promise from SNP!
We all thought at the time of that announcement, fuck! She’s actually going to take on Westminister!
Hell no!
What was her only way out of that promise? Yes, the actual exit door!
Since her departure and the circus of events in the meantime, what did happen to that final indy promise, as proposed by Nicola Sturgeon and her cronies?
Is it buried under that tent, in her front garden? I’d much prefer delivery of that urgent manifesto promise.
That latest failure lies squarely, with Sturgeon and her party. No amount of propaganda can change that failure.
Being hamstrung by the original party for independence, not a good look. How the fuck, this will be stage managed, from now on, as usual, a complete mystery. Deception taken to another level, seems to be the norm.
I said it yesterday and KLF has said it today, the funds are still missing. Where the money has gone is largely irrelevant.
Laukat, completely off-topic but several decades ago, I was a PAYE Auditor in what was then the Inland Revenue. One business that got pulled for random inspection used junior employees to fill the Company Secretary positions at his handful of subsidiaries. They were told to sign filing documents and the boss stood over them whilst they did. We raked the boss over the coals, as much as we could, but left the underlings alone.
As I said, completely off-topic and irrelevant. Don’t know why I posted this, to be honest.
Isn’t this interesting. Not one of mine.
publications/foi-202100213228/
Asked for information relating to a meeting/dinner held on 3rd December 2017 between Deputy First Minister John Swinney and Ravi Trehan of Liberty House, India:
Needless to say Scot Gov found reasons for not providing much of the information requested. But it does appear John Swinney was there.
And so, while Derek MacKay was Financial Minister Nov/Dec 2016 when the Gupta family took over Lochaber Smelt… one year later it is Honest John himself being wined and dined in Mombai…
I do hope nothing in this is connected to his reasons for resigning from his ministerial role recently.
There can be no doubt that Murrell and Sturgeon had been warned about all this well in advance.
Resignations followed by a rapid and fraudulent election and then the police decided to act.
Surprise raid it certainly was not.
Even if there is anything bigger involved, it is a fact that £600,000 has gone missing and the police have been investigating it for 18 months.
IMHO, the police made utter fools of themselves by arresting Murrell, making a big show of searching and then releasing Murrell without charge.
On whose orders were they acting?
IMHO, this is not a police investigation of Murrell.
The whole sequence of events is to cover up as much as possible the crimes of certain corrupt criminals in the SNP, Scottish government, Scottish civil service, Scottish parliament, Scottish police and Scottish justice.
Unlike many posters, I am not giving the police the benefit of doubt.
Don’t you remember how evasive they have been to the Rev. Stuart Campbell about the Police Chief’s visit to the Scottish government?
The police have plenty to hide and that is what they are doing.
All this is IMHO without prejudice to anyone.
Antoine Bisset says:
6 April, 2023 at 4:47 pm
“I have advised ALBA that I will not join any party that includes T A-S.”
I don’t know anything else about Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh but she was one of Alex Salmond’s defence witnesses and she humiliated one of his accusers by exposing her lies.
Is it possible that the 600K was used to fight the UK elections
The massive scale fraud police investigation and arrest, we’ll see just how strong the lavender marriage really is.
Who will snitch on who first? Who will remain Loyal. Who will cooperate?
There’s no telling some folk.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/23439974.snp-supporters-call-donations-party-peter-murrell-arrest/
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23439974.snp-supporters-call-donations-party-peter-murrell-arrest/
I’m thinking a nice round number is needed.
£600,000 – that number just popped into my heid from nowhere.
I’m in for £5. Anybody else?
Why Scotland pop. 5•5 million should not be an independent country….like Barbados pop. 282.000.
No comparison, we’re so much better than that Barbados.
Deafening roars of Bajan laughter.
How long has woman H got before she in in the light
Survation poll 29th Mar.- 3rd April
Should Scotland be an independent nation?
47% Yes [up 2]
53% No [down 2]
Just watched a baldy guy slumped on a park bench, OD by look of it, in NS constituency being whisked away in an ambulance. The kiss off?
“In a response to a Freedom of Information request submitted by a blogger, the force declined to say whether the criminal investigation into the SNP was discussed at the meeting with Mr Brown” – The Telegraph.
Looks like the MSM can’t even identify a “journalist” when one comes up and hits them in the nose.
The Pop band ” The K Foundation” set fire to a million quid, a few years ago , on Jura….so this sending money to the Snp, as mentioned in the National ,is not a new stunt.
Charitable encouragement is detrimental to improving Scottish politics.
Will our grandchildren be donating to a devolved Holyrood?
Probably not. The UK, will not give an inch to slipper clad politicians in Edinburgh.
The entire concept of independence is purely fictional. Encouraged by online warriors. While no attempt to materialise the necessary Indy infrastructure, by those empowered to do so.
It really is all in the mind. Politicians take it in their stride, as fodder, for their own aims.
Anybody who thinks otherwise, is caught up in the dream factor, so cruelly exploited.
So all these mugs sending money to bail out Murrell… what do they expect the cops will do. Wait until his crowdfunder hits the 666k mark and then declare that the money was only resting in other accounts and now it is all cool so move along people nothing to see here.
It is like getting nicked for shoplifting and thinking if you pay for the goods at the police station you can make it all go away.
I donated to Alex Salmonds judicial review fund and that was the best fifty quid I have ever spent. This in comparison is flushing money down the toilet for all the wrong reasons.
But then if you believe in the Murrells at this stage you are the dictionary definition of a mug.
Bernard de Linton @7:21
Aye, the SNP are the Unjustified Ancients of Woo Woo.
Give them nothing folks. They’ve already had our money and they misused it.
Thanks to Dundee Annie for the link.
Shauny…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SzMRs-iyB4
Mac 7.50
I would say Deluded MUG
As a supporter of the Union I cannot resist a certain schadenfreude in all this
That said I don’t live in Scotland
It seems to me that only two things are certain in this;
1. Had it not been for the Learned Editor of this site the vast majority on here would still be voting for this rabble and
2. To suggest that the whole fiasco is a result of UK ‘deep state’ interference is-how to put this ? -bollocks; and suggests that proponents of this theory will still adhere to any old nonsense proffered them
“Skip_NC says:
6 April, 2023 at 5:52 pm
Laukat, completely off-topic but several decades ago, I was a PAYE Auditor in what was then the Inland Revenue. One business that got pulled for random inspection used junior employees to fill the Company Secretary positions at his handful of subsidiaries. They were told to sign filing documents and the boss stood over them whilst they did. We raked the boss over the coals, as much as we could, but left the underlings alone.
As I said, completely off-topic and irrelevant. Don’t know why I posted this, to be honest.”
Not sure how it worked in your inland revenue experience but did the junior employees have to provide evidence against the boss?
Going to be some laugh if Murrell goes to try and all the witnesses are granted anonymity. Revenge of the alphabet?
One other thought – I can’t work out why the police were searching the garden but is it just that they are looking for the ring-fence that went missing?
The judiciary and the police in Scotland is to put it mildly, policitically compromised. I simply don’t have confidence there is the slightest desire to thoroughly investigate any instances of malfeasance by individuals linked to the SNP. I don’t even have confidence that should an individual break cover and decide to spill the beans that it would make any material difference. I would dearly love to be wrong but I’m not holding my breath.
I was a criminal fraud investigator in a Government agency for over 20 years so I’m not unfamiliar with why cases don’t go the distance but when the prosecution body is themselves questionable I rest my case.
Laukat, no it was a civil settlement. The boss got his backside severely booted, which was nice to see.
My guess on the last couple of days is that they found a loom in the shed.
@Tommo who said
“2. To suggest that the whole fiasco is a result of UK ‘deep state’ interference is-how to put this ? -bollocks;”
But Tommo . . . everybody knows the polis were looking for MI5 plants in Sturgeon’s back garden!
Rob gets it.
It ‘s not rocket science after all.
Issue ——> Collect ———> Destroy.
Once you get the sequencing right you can’t miss it and you never go back to believing the myths. No matter the truth the GROUPTHINK is so strong they will still believe they have to collect then issue.
Even though in simple English terms you can’t collect something unless it has been issued first.
Tricky Nicky wanted to be like Hilary Clinton but, she’s more like Donald Trump.
Not 100% sure but is there not a law which states a spouse is not compelled to give evidence against their partner. Or that they are only compelled if its a serious crime which involves assault, injury or a death which is not applicable in this instance. For that reason, Sturgeon in a way is protected from questioning. They may ask her but she might not need to answer.
o/t Tonight on cooncil telly, stv, did that used to be Scottish Television. In prime time from 7.30 to 10.10 we had the English womens football team playing Brazil.Yes, the Lionesses, hip hip hooray.
Anybody who doesn`t recognise that we live in a colony is sorely deluded.
Who knew? SNP’s catalogue of failure combined with the establishment’s magnification of that ongoing shambles, is a recipe for success.
I’m just not convinced, which side is winning. Certainly not, the Scottish electorate.
@Tommo
Careful or you’ll be hearing from our solicitors – Finucane, McRae & Nelson
Craig Elliott says:
6 April, 2023 at 10:09 pm
Not 100% sure but is there not a law which states a spouse is not compelled to give evidence against their partner. Or that they are only compelled if its a serious crime which involves assault, injury or a death which is not applicable in this instance. For that reason, Sturgeon in a way is protected from questioning. They may ask her but she might not need to answer.
That might well be the most passionate aspect of their wedding vows.
I do wonder if she was capable to transpose one of her heroes’, henry kissinger, quip:
“To be an enemy of america can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal”
to her relationship with westminster.
But after wondering, probably not.
Craig Elliott says:
6 April, 2023 at 10:09 pm
Not 100% sure but is there not a law which states a spouse is not compelled to give evidence against their partner. Or that they are only compelled if its a serious crime which involves assault, injury or a death which is not applicable in this instance. For that reason, Sturgeon in a way is protected from questioning. They may ask her but she might not need to answer.
That might well be the most passionate aspect of their wedding vows.
I do wonder if she was capable to transpose one of her heroes’, henry kissinger, quip:
“To be an enemy of america can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal”
to her relationship with westminster.
But after wondering, probably not.
Chic McGregor says:
6 April, 2023 at 5:16 pm
“PS I meant Charles III’s not Humza’s.”
========
(Sigh) Charles III died in 1788
In 1745, acting as regent, he proclaimed in Holyrood his father James VIII King of Scots and repealed the Act of Union.
Gordon
Its not so much
Issue ——> Collect ———> Destroy.
As
Issue as necessary ——> Collect as necessary ———> Recycle.
A circular economy, but quite different from the green party understanding, which I suggest is:
Mandate ——> Collect ———> Add to private savings ———> Delcare moral failing in the lumpen ———> Mandate harder.
Benhope @ 10:37 pm
“o/t Tonight on cooncil telly, stv, did that used to be Scottish Television. In prime time from 7.30 to 10.10 we had the English womens football team playing Brazil.Yes, the Lionesses, hip hip hooray.”
A couple of days ago the ‘here’s one last thing’ on STV celebrated the death of Thatchers Chancellor Nigel Lawson – on the same day Scotland’s world champion boxing legend Ken Buchanan passed away and got no mention.
One thing we can rely on is our current FM.
I’m sure if things start getting too warm, he’ll chuck as many scapegoats on the bonfire as necessary.
Now, remind us, who was on the NEC treasur/finance committee? 🙂
Interesting, bizarre Facebook thread. Stirling, of course. What a total fucking grift. The state of denial of the people in the comments section is utterly incredible. Not a brain amongst them. Gullible as Hell, and mad as a box of frogs.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0ia3ykdaaSp9s4SYdPoaFyYLcYGcgxkHoTKrw4qjr9nokg5fxVFzyvt2PU2NBPKWol&id=389529967775319
Nosey neighbour, claims a sawn off IndyRef2 mandate and a rusty biscuit tin, is still in one of the Murrell’s wheelie bins.
‘Just one more thing’, always the final scene. Have the credits rolled yet? Who’s gonna play the Murrells on Netflix?
The future of Scotland is in the hands of rebel MPs.
Just how soon, will they make their move? It needs to be decisive.
If their initial plan is to hang around, as a cursory nod to independence, as some sort of loaned credibility to SNP, that would be sussed immediately.
Best make a clean break or face a slow death. Leave the party to circle the drain.
A confederate of Westminster and Holyrood SNP politicians would suffice for a full blown coup.
Alf Baird, Luvya, ye colonial b’stard ye! (new Scots, and why not, we basterdise everything else!)
Other point; idiots who ridicule murrell by posting a link to his fundraiser, c’mon TF, get a F’kn Grip!
RIP Ken Buchanan
Hi
I was wondering why nobody mentioned the Covid Money that was not used
She did not distribute the Total money received what was it used for.
I am still trying to figure out how he was elected, do you think it was a stitch up.
I also wondered why so much was said at the election of the FM about independence
Scotland is in a sorry state with debt, but not one said let’s get our priorities right and get the country up and running on all the outstanding areas and then look at independence.
Tommo says:
6 April, 2023 at 8:09 pm
As a supporter of the Union I cannot resist a certain schadenfreude in all this..
You’re late to the party Tommo.
The time of grief and anxiety for Independence was when the conspiracy, make the Sturgeon’s conspiracy, was actively trying to destroy Alex Salmond, and were well on the way to succeeding.
The SNP under Sturgeon have been leading Independence supporters up the garden path since 2014, and Sturgeon’s demise is the most positive step forward which true Independence supporters could wish for.
Scotland should have been Independent in 2016, when one sovereign entity in the UK Union voted Remain, and the other sovereign entity voted for Brexit. Any competent Scottish leader would have cited the Claim of Right, the inalienable sovereignty of the people, and Scotland would have had a constitutional Scottish Backstop 100 times more powerful than the Northern Irish backstop. Do you really think Scotland is going mourn the end of Nicola Sturgeon’s career?
In certain parts, somehow, loyalty still blinds the SNP’s party faithful, a curious bunch I find incomprehensible, but in other quarters, Sturgeon is held comparable regard as Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher.
May her fall from grace be as wounding and publicly humiliating as that she suffered upon Alex Salmond, and like Thatcher, may it bring unity and harmony to Scotland’s long suffering people.
As for MI5, I’d refer you Peter Wright’s Spycatcher book. There’s no one incident reveals a tr(air-or), it takes a detailed audit, something akin to the cash flow analysis of a ledger, all the good things done versus all the bad things done, and the enemies of the state are revealed by the profound imbalance.
Weight up all the good Sturgeon has done for Scotland against all the bad, all the servile capitulations, the lies, the abandonment of Scotland’s constitutional rights and betrayal of Scotland’s democracy.
It doesn’t actually matter if Sturgeon is or isn’t a puppet of the State, she couldn’t have made a better job of wrecking Scotland’s YES Movement and SNP. She did her level best to wreck ALBA too.
You’re welcome to your schadenfreude, I fully understand why you’d feel that way. But in the ongoing game of Battleships, a direct hit on Sturgeon is now recorded as a “miss”. The good ship Independence is not there.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Ff0900866-d4ab-11ed-aa19-0b889c9927d9.jpg?crop=3176%2C1786%2C391%2C200&resize=1500
Salmond on the Road
https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2023/04/07/salmond-on-the-road/
https://twitter.com/shiny02/status/1643902741935190018?s=20
@John Main & JockMct
Assuming the Humza election is legitimate, £5 from each of his first pref supporters should be enough to repay the (official) debt the whole SNP owes Mr Murrel
£50 each will double the infamous indyref kitty that led the Scottish police into stormy (Daniels/ Alvin Bragg)* waters
If Kate Forbe’s lot chips in in equal measure the campaign reserve gets quadrupled..
..and if its an underlying condition that Ash takes over all ARs roles, spending it legitimately risks actually happening AND being fun again for those watching from afar!
Worst case, and Humza’s coronation turns out to have been as shady as they managed to make it look, payroll need only up its contribution by factors of 10, 100, 1000, etc, pursuant to cost benefit analysis of his ongoing munificence potential and optimisation strategy thereto, to achieve same result or better.
*https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/04/06/fec-commissioner-undermines-entire-manhattan-prosecution-the-trump-daniels-nda-is-not-an-election-campaign-violation/
Alien wants a human female womb. WTAF
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/jessica-alves-i-m-ready-for-a-baby-hooked-on-the-look/vi-AA19zoSu?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=3d58177ce2114aae84a93a382120efc8&ei=109
https://twitter.com/DaveLukewarm/status/1644228188518612993?s=20
https://twitter.com/markthehibby/status/1644049728659771398?s=20
Breeks says:
7 April, 2023 at 6:17 am
Tommo says:
6 April, 2023 at 8:09 pm
As a supporter of the Union I cannot resist a certain schadenfreude in all this..’
‘You’re welcome to your schadenfreude, I fully understand why you’d feel that way. But in the ongoing game of Battleships, a direct hit on Sturgeon is now recorded as a “miss”. The good ship Independence is not there.’
Fair points Breeks- We shan’t agree but are both entitled to our views (Subject to the Hate Crime business of course !). No harm in that.
The independence «game» isn’t over. It hasn’t even begun. We’ve had a very long and tedious warm up.
Current events suggest the «warm up» is over, the match is due to begin in earnest;
the psychological war, for the heart, the mind, the soul of the nation.
Focus! Too much time has been squandered looking for a Moses to lead the people to freedom. The people must now take the lead.
This will go down well!
They still haven’t said how much was paid out for Alyn Smith in legal fees and compensation.
https://archive.is/2023.04.06-170217/https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/snp-turmoil-humza-yousaf-to-explore-whether-snp-will-pay-peter-murrells-legal-fees-4096115
For the Unionist on board the ship- can you explain on why it’s good
to be the only country in the world controlled by another for the others benefit.
Why it’s good to be ruled by a party our country has never voted for.
Why you want to stick with English policies that have seen us endure 13 years of austerity and recession, the first decade in 150 years where the working class has been made worse off.
Why you think the Tory plan to make the pension age 75 as Ian Duncan Smith recommends.
Why you think it’s fine to have Food Banks, Heat Banks and Period poverty in the 21st century.
Why it’s fine for Boris PM, our ruler to call Scot’s rats that he would like to eliminate.
And lastly the NHS is being broken down to sell off. Are you happy to sell your home for the price of long term treatment of a serious health condition.
.
Hi Dan.
You are spot on.
When I saw the police officer on his knees by the black car on the Murrell/Sturgeon driveway, with a tube going into the fuel tank, I thought it was a piece of equipment I and colleagues on port surveillance duty have used, time and time again.
Mea Culpa. After another Wings reader pointed out it is likely to be an electric car, I thought maybe it’s one off those dual hybrid vehicles. Traditional petrol and dynamo electric arrangement.
For thoroughness I went and checked DVLA open source. That black car is registered as 100% electric.
Maybe there is a point every single one of us here at Wings BTL (and all the othe websites BTL) are missing?
We see things that appear certain. In this case I was mistaken. It certainly LOOKED like a camera cable was being run into the fuel tank from a CCTV device we use.
But on further inquiry, as the black car is registered 100% electric, then that observation is a dud. Proven beyond reasonable doubt to be a dud.
My point? Three points actually:-
Q1). What amongst the Phil Redmond/Colin Dexter/Glen Chandler drama feast for the eyes we all witnessed in the Murrell arrest this week TRULY fits a narrative of our choosing?
Q2). What is really going on?
Q3). Is all we have witnessed more to do with Occam’s razor than Penfold Murrell the alleged Wokeist Super Villain?.
A1). A salutary and reflective lesson for this WoS contributor. It really looked like Murrells fuel tank was being checked via CCTV. Men on here of a certain age become obsessed when their doctor brings one of those cables near to Prostate Alley and Jackson’s Entry!
The fertile mind would likely reckon it was for a USB stick in a waterproof/fuel proof wrapping. WRONG.
A2). The problem with conspiracy theories about the police is that there are a significant number who joined up to serve in that vocation for the RIGHT reasons. The ones who go into burning buildings or dive into the River Clyde to protect life. It is these cops that get thoroughly pissed off with bent plods. A tipping point gets reached and somewhere up the chain of command, a senior ranker HAS to sort out a cesspit such as Scottish Politics.
There is a reason Chief Constable Iain Livingstone is retiring soon. Mere mortals such as BTL contributors may or may not be given the truth.
A3). The most likely answer to what just went down with the high drama at Dregside Close this week is that sufficient Advocates and Cops and Law Officers got utterly fed up at their profession being brought into disrepute and REQUIRED the inquiry be CONDUCTED PROPERLY and obliged to reach an INEVITIBLE conclusion by the novel idea of FOLLOWING THE EVIDENCE.
Ergo: Occam’s Razor.
Stuart Cambell has done his job professionally, with tenacity and to be frank, with a great deal of courage.
The forensic reporting on this Wings site, such as public domain NuSNP accounts showing £92,000 where there should be £666,000 is sufficient for an aforementioned pissed off honest cop to make it clear to the respective high-rankers: investigate this matter properly, or some very senior officers will be at the business end of Neglect of Duty, or Malfeasanse in Public Office charge.
After years of obscene injustice and bent politicians trying to stitch up Alex Salmond for political expediency, this BTL segment is full of many of us venting off in relief.
But none of us, not one here or anywhere else really knows what is happening behind THE SoC tent!
Only 4 or 5 people really know what is going on.
Q4). What does all of this mean?
A4). Stuart Campbell is going to be busier than he ever imagined. He will be forensically researching and writing first-rate articles for at least 5 more years (sorry Stu). There is still a spectacular dénouement to this current bourach to come.
The next Holyrood election will be sooner than anyone thinks (Humza Truss’ McLettice will be gone by Christmas).
The odds of Alex Salmond being returned as First Minister again will start to improve. He has resigned, then come back more powerful than before, time and time again.
Benhope 10.37pm
Absolutely.
Its a constant diet of English football and rugby including the English national football team always shown on main channels with Scots having to pay to see their national side. Can you imagine the outcry in England if the positions were reversed.
Over the years i have seen a rapid decline in Scottish television output, all designed to have a generation brainwashed in favour of English culture at the expense of our own. It has worked in tandem with the dismantling of our industries as per the agenda.
There is no doubt time is running out to save our country.
On what Al-Stuart says: exactly. Have wondered if those ‘sufficient pissed off honest cop (and there are plenty) would make clear to the respective high-rankers’ that if those in charge of this investigation yeild (and that’s perhaps still a 50/50 call) at that point it is in plain view a differnt game. Its knowingly perverting the course of justic. And that’s a different level of any future misconduct risk – that’s a criminal risk in plane sight.
Apropos of Scottish football’s marginalisation on our screens, has anyone noticed that Sportscene gets shown AFTER Match of the Day on Saturday night. BBC Scotland always used to have it the other way round and could still do so if they wanted. The present arrangement means Sportscene is sometimes not shown until after midnight.
@Al-Stuart says:7 April, 2023 at 9:40 am
For thoroughness I went and checked DVLA open source
Your avin a larff, right?
You really believe that the personal vehicles of senior politicians, even if they are our own “pretendy” politicians from our own “pretendy” parliament, are registered on “DVLA open source” for us all to investigate?
Cool, maybes you do.
Forget bridge buying, can I interest you in the next big thing: bridge futures? Get in on the ground floor, and make a killing on bridges not yet built, designed, proposed, or even thought of.
I have a website …
I imagine that WM will dribble out rumour and innuendo for months over this whilst their investigation goes nowhere.
77th brigade will be analysing the public response to see where to take it next.
Plus it suits police priorities … overtime and pensions.
@Effijy says:7 April, 2023 at 9:39 am
Why it’s fine for Boris PM, our ruler to call Scot’s rats that he would like to eliminate
OK Effijy, I’m going to bite.
You miss Boris, so so much, which is why you struggle to ever post anything without mentioning his name.
Please help me to understand your visceral hatred, loathing and obsession.
Provide a link to a reputable source for your claim that Boris called Scot’s rats that he would like to eliminate.
Help me out here. Maybes I will start to add my own weekly post about Boris. Maybes we all will.
For those Unionists who gleefully repeat that policing in Scotland is devolved let me state that only their funding and servicing is devolved. So uniform etc devolved but policy such as state “security “is not devolved.
Senior officer and Special Branch selection requires Ministry of Defence vetting and approval.All officers in Special Branch and Chief Constable,Deputy Chief Constable and all Assistant Chief Constables and Chief Superintendents are regularly briefed by Security Services and have frequent .”war games” including scenarios of unrest in”devolved area”. At middle management level upwards Unionism must be supported with a vigour which would make the Tories envious.
Stuart now I must apologise and you must complete the cleansing of the Aegean Stables and rid us of all the chancers still in the independence movement before exploring the theatrics (thanks Mia) of the British police.
@John Main
You must be the only person following politics that’s never heard of this:
http://glendiscovery.com/scots-a-verminous-race.html
@ Al-Stuart Don’t we have firefighters to go into burning buildings? The Glasgow Humane Society to pull people from the River Clyde?
Beauvais. It’s because the BBC think the English league is the best in the world. So Scots would surely want to prioritise the English league over our stupid wee league!
Something rarely mentioned. We had a Premier league when the English still had a 1st division. When they changed to the Premier league. It became ‘ The Premiership ‘. Again ignoring the Scottish one was first.
Now don’t start me on Scottish people pronouncing H ‘haitch’. The first time I heard it was on a game show. We used to laugh about it. Now Scottish people are mis pronouncing it. The Anglicisation of Scottish language!
In real-time we are witnessing what will one day be a landmark event in Scottish Democracy and Scots Law.
Whatever the toxic methods and premeditated events of (or otherwise) the SNP Organisation Leader and distinct Party Leader – there is one event worth paying respect to.
That on the 23rd March 2020 – a jury of eight women and five men at the high court in Edinburgh found Alex Salmond not guilty of 12 charges of attempted rape, sexual assault and indecent assault after only about six hours of deliberations.
It is that one event, and those Scots women and men of the jury who by their values and honesty set the course and created the environment for what we are witnessing now, today.
Others have done an extraordinary job to bring about this moment.
But imagine. Imagine those women and men of the jury had buckled under the tsunami of pre-trial media propaganda and manufacture public opinion – and found Alex Salmond guilty? Where would this moment be? It wouldn’t exist.
Of course, those members of the jury will never it that way. Because they’re Scottish. And that’s fine. We’d all no doubt like to think we’d the same. But the fact is they did. And they have my respect and gratitude.
So Aye, it turns out we’re still NOT too Wee,too Poor or indeed too Stupid
Oh dear !Alex Salmond on Talktv just echoed my wish for the Aegean Stables to be cleansed.
I always thought Alex was very clever so please listen to him. No I will not join Alba but I will still support YES.
@ John Main No, really, what Al-Stuart is saying is 100% true, no matter how preposterous it may sound. The car registration number is clearly visible in one of the videos. I checked it myself and I can confirm it is an all-electric Peugeot.
@Senga says:7 April, 2023 at 11:20 am
I am struggling to believe that “important people” have their vehicles registered on a DVLA database that any punter can interrogate.
Of course their vehicles will be registered, but just not at an access level available to the general public. As with any database containing sensitive info, there will be different access levels, guarded by different logins, and these privileged logins will be made available to the police, etc.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Of course, the vehicle may not belong to the Sturrells.
Of course, they maybes ain’t as important as they (and we) think.
@ Craig Elliott The law on this was changed around about a decade ago.
‘Spouse or civil partner of accused a compellable witness
‘The spouse or civil partner of an accused is a competent and compellable witness for the prosecution, the accused or any co-accused in the proceedings against the accused.’
Section 264 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995
A lot of complaining going on about the TV. I don’t know what’s on it because I haven’t had one for about 20 years.
Im not sure what you expect?
It’s like buying a newspaper with the expectation of being impartially informed about anything at all.
Here’s a tip – bin the TV and take the time to find the equivalent online. Take the money you pay for a TV license and donate it to something that will benefit Scots.
That way you don’t have to pay for your own brainwashing, you won’t be constantly insulted by being fed lies a 10 year old can see through and the money will be of much more use elsewhere (at the very least you wont be funding propaganda that is undermining your nation).
If you add up the cost of a TV license and multiply it by the number of Scots who care about our nation you come to quite a remarkable number.
Winner.
@ John Main
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17711776.fact-check-boris-johnson-call-scottish-people-verminous-race/
@ Craig Elliott
And similarly the following was struck from Section 130 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004.
‘Civil partner of accused a competent witness
(1)The civil partner of an accused may be called as a witness—
(a)by the accused, or
(b)without the consent of the accused, by a co-accused or by the prosecutor.
(2)But the civil partner is not a compellable witness for the co-accused or for the prosecutor and is not compelled to disclose any communication made, while the civil partnership subsists, between the civil partners.
(3)The failure of a civil partner of an accused to give evidence is not to be commented on by the defence or the prosecutor.’
@ John Main Is Peter Murrell really that important?
It is all a question of numbers.
https://archive.ph/FC6mt
Economic, demographic and the rest…
The Union with England has been a historic total disaster.
The archetype of the «colonial legacy».
Something has to give…even if the majority stand in the way.
Why you think the Tory plan to make the pension age 75 as Ian Duncan Smith recommends.
You mean the millions of people they’ve let into the country aren’t going to pay our pensions?
Colour me surprised.
Anyway, I think the plan is to not be in office when the British government can no longer afford to pay its unfunded pension commitments. For everyone else, the plan is work till you drop (or are killed by doctors, if we go down the Canadian route).
@ ayemachrihanish Alex Salmond also faced a thirteenth sexual assault charge which the jury found ‘not proven’.
You would need your head buttoned up the back to believe there was not a tip off to the Murrells that shit was going to get real very soon .
The only question is whether it was done officially, who from, and whether that could ever be uncovered by official questions and FOI requests.
For example, in an inquiry that was moving at glacial pace anyway, they could have justified to themselves and made the decision to move at the Easter break due to it being too disruptive to the business of government to do it earlier. Then leaked/passed the information on.
Hence the rushed process and other shenanigans to get it all over the line by the end of March.
@JockMcT says:7 April, 2023 at 11:49 am
Thanks for the link.
Every day a school day.
At least I now know what Efigy is forever banging on about.
Some breaking news…
The firm that audits the SNP’s finances has resigned, the BBC has learned.
Accountants Johnston Carmichael, which has worked with the party for more than a decade, said the decision was taken after a review of its client portfolio.
By law, the party has until 7 July to present their accounts to the Electoral Commission or face possible sanctions.
It comes after police investigating the party’s finances searched the home of former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell – Nicola Sturgeon’s husband.
He was arrested on Wednesday and later released without charge.
A spokesperson for the SNP said the party was in the process of finding a replacement firm.
Humza to appoint a new spin doctor. Another job for the Rev. to apply for
And yet another, as auditors resign. I wonder why.
Just for shits and giggles, here’s the ‘poem’ blob johnson quoted from the dead poet James Michie…
The Scotch – what a verminous race!
Canny, pushy, chippy, they’re all over the place, Battening off us with false bonhomie, Polluting our stock, undermining our economy.
Down with sandy hair and knobbly knees!
Suppress the tartan dwarves and the Wee Frees!
Ban the kilt, the skean-dhu and the sporran
As provocatively, offensively foreign!
It’s time Hadrian’s Wall was refortified
To pen them in a ghetto on the other side.
I would go further. The nation
Deserves not merely isolation
But comprehensive extermination.
We must not flinch from a solution.
(I await legal prosecution.)
Even if the Murrells were tipped off about a forthcoming search they may not have been au fait with police procedure and the lengths the polcie will go to. The same goes for digital evidence; not everyone is IT literate. Maybe they thought it was good enough to hide a USB stick in one of their coffee jars and ‘delete’ their browsing history.
Things often go in threes. Will the Treasurer’s job be the next to be announced?
Who would want their name attached to the SNP accounts.
Will they be audited before or after murrell’s legal fees are paid??
What a f…… Mess sturgeon and Murrell have created.
Are they daft, nasty or doing their job
@dasBlimp says:7 April, 2023 at 12:34 pm
Suppress the … Wee Frees!
Only a few weeks since when there were almost daily posts on here calling for exactly that. I can even remember some of the names.
Well, these posters got what they wanted. Kate Forbes was crucified for her beliefs. Yousaf cashed in on the “progressive” votes. A travesty of course, but its just a wee pretendy parliament so never mind.
Facts eh? Awkward cuntin bastards.
One of the pushers to raise pension age to 78 Mr Deveraux, retired at 61. Hypocrtical erse.
And to think these are the same clowns that are promising a utopia of 20 minute neighbourhoods when they can’t even run their own finances. Clown World.
And your point is Senga?
Are you already advocating that at least one Murrell is already tainted by his not proven guilt? He has been arrested? So,therefore by your logic.. he’s at least not proven guilt!
Not proven means exactly that. There was a charge – a charge. But there was no evidence of any crime to be guilt of. Not proven means it’s not proven that even a crime existed. There was nothing for the accused to be guilt or innocent of.
There are numerous reasons an auditor may resign. Firstly, the may resign because the client asks them to. That is, in my view, unlikely in this case. Audit work will, presumably, be ongoing at the moment. It would be more normal to ask for resignation when the audit is complete.
Secondly, any accounting firm – even my one-person firm – would stop work at some point if fees remain unpaid. If there is a fee dispute, it would, perhaps, be unusual to resign at this point in the audit cycle. In an audit, it would be normal not to start work until partial payment had been made. However, with a high-profile account such as this, I daresay the partners would want to make every effort to resolve the dispute before stopping work and resigning.
Thirdly, the auditors could have determine that they had been misled and cannot continue in office. I struggle to think of that ever happening at a firm I have worked for.
Fourthly, the auditors might be on the verge of being investigated by ICAS in respect of issues that have come to the attention of the public.
Finally, it is distinctly possible that they have resigned after a general client review. Accounting firms are not – or should not be – generalists. They need to find something that they are good at. If key personnel has changed recently, perhaps they consider that they no longer have the expertise to carry out the audit. In that case, the only ethical decision is to resign.
To sum up, on the information available as I type (which may have changed since I started typing or before this gets posted) I don’t think this changes very much. It is not overly surprising.
Senga @11:46 & 11:52
Wow!
Dont remember that change getting much air time in the SNP/ Conservative manifestos of the day – which begs timely question as to who deserves fair blame for the unlawful (if not criminal*) code: faculty of advocates/ law professors/ contemporary legislators/ legislators from previous administrations/ Director of public prosecutions (& current leader of opposition)/ intern tasked with putting the legislation into digital form, etc (and why nobody noticed the fundamental shift in favour of the prosecution/ a presumption of guilt, until you just now)
The original version sated:
Spouse of accused a competent witness
(1)The spouse of an accused may be called as a witness—
(a)by the accused;
(b)by a co-accused or by the prosecutor without the consent of the accused.
(2)Nothing in this section shall—
(a)make the spouse of an accused a compellable witness for a co-accused or for the prosecutor in a case where such spouse would not be so compellable at common law;
(b)compel a spouse to disclose any communication made between the spouses during the marriage.
(3)The failure of the spouse of an accused to give evidence shall not be commented on by the defence or the prosecutor.
(4)The spouse of a person charged with bigamy may be called as a witness either for the prosecution or the defence and without the consent of the person charged.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/46/section/264/enacted
*ie in so far as common law and other statutory privileges have been ignored with malicious intent
Having consulted their portfolio, the SNP auditors resigned before PM was arrested and now the SNP are looking for a new firm…
Perhaps a certain someone with a chartered accountancy qualification could fill in…as a helpful suggestion, how about a new firm by the name of Forbes and Regan?
Interesting, it would appear that Gupta are being investigated for alleged fraud and money laundering!
https://archive.is/TaAN1
PhilM, if Kate Forbes’ Wikipedia entry is accurate, she cannot possibly be a chartered accountant. She holds a non-accounting degree and only spent a maximum of two years under a CA. She would have needed three.
🙂
The Rev is fine where he is being our ‘Unspin doctor’
Do you think we need to up our direct debits to compete with the tax payer funded £90k pa post?
I wonder if he’s approached Val McDermid I understand she is very good at writing fiction.
Now that I think about it, I suppose the auditors could have resigned some time ago and have only now made it public to protect commercial interests. If that is the case, the SNP would have much explaining to do. That can’t be it, surely?
https://boingboing.net/2022/02/08/new-study-shows-that-mafia-accountants-are-really-good-at-their-jobs.html
New study shows that Mafia accountants are really good at their jobs
This surprised me
In other words: if you’re gonna do some illegal shit, it’s better to hire someone who’s really good at following the rules than to hire an idiot who will just fudge the numbers. And if you’re not gonna do some illegal shit, it’s probably still better to hire someone who knows how to get away with doing illegal shit. Basically, you want someone who knows how to navigate the loopholes, for better or for worse
STV news reporting that the SNP’s auditors have resigned.
Putting the circus aside. The need for any cop, to knock on the door, of any recently resigned politician (nae, TWO TOP DOGS, both of whom, recently resigned for no real reason) should raise serious questions and full enquiry. Naw?
Is it not time for everyone to resign from the SNP?
Anyone know what size of ‘coffee can’ you would need to hold £600k?
Did the mattresses & cushions get slashed?
Ruby, that doesn’t surprise me. A modified opinion basically puts the blame on the client. So its issuance should be a sign of high audit quality. Mind you, it could also mean that the auditor is giving a modified opinion on a legitimate business’ financial statements for spurious reasons, where other firms would give an unqualified opinion (unqualified is what every client wants). This would give the impression of high quality audits to deflect attention from the illegitimate businesses.
In my opinion the SNP brand has been fatally damaged by this and what Sturgeon and Murrell were up to for eight years, Murrell and Sturgeon “Ratnered” the party’s credibility its over for the SNP.
This is interesting, I’d imagine the party’s financial position has gone from bad to worse.
“The SNP’s accounts for 2021 were published on 16 August 2022.
The party’s total income was £4,510,460, total expenditure was £5,262,032, assets were £1,630,454 and liabilities were £1,055,689.”
Skip-Nc being reported that auditors resigned before Murrell was arrested.
@Skip_NC
I looked this up a while back, Katie Forbes, as she is listed on the ICAEW directory, appears to have a MSc ACA but she doesn’t have a practising certificate. The ICAEW says that, ‘Completing the ACA qualification enables you to use the title ‘ICAEW Chartered Accountant’. Not being au fait with this world, it would seem to a layman that she is then a CA (unless you have more insight with your specific background,some of which you’ve mentioned recently).
It must have been her time with Barclays on a graduate entry programme when she started down this route.
Actually Skip…if your background is in accountancy, I think you might be able to help me with something…it’s a sensitive matter, related to public sector corruption in Scotland, so not one to be idly thrown open to the winds or (to be on the safe side) to anyone still active in Scotland…interested?
@ ayemachrihanish ‘Not proven means it’s not proven that even a crime existed.’ That statement is entirely inaccurate. Anyway, I am not here to discuss the meaning of ‘not proven’. And, I wasn’t making a point; I only mentioned the other charge for completeness.
@ ayemachrihanish If the jury thought ‘no crime existed’ wouldn’t the obvious verdict be ‘not guilty’.
Did my comment speculating whether Starmer might have some inside info from NCA contacts, from his Director of Prosecution Days, that might be behind his block on Labour working with SNP at all levels get spiked, or did it just not upload?
I was just asked for a passport or driving licence when buying 100 (one hundred) Euros, “to prevent money laundering”…
PhilM, that is interesting. I didn’t realize ICAEW had changed their rules. The standard used to be three years but you could get full credit for the first year if you did an accounting degree. Now, it’s two years of experience but you still have to do all the exams.
The terminology of ICAEW Chartered Accountant is interesting. I wonder why they did that. The dumbing down of the qualifications to obtain a practicing certificate may be one reason but, if that is the case, it is hardly a positive.
Lenny Hartley, aye, I did wonder if they had done so previously and it has only now come to light. Depending on how long ago it was, the SNP may be guilty of moving too slowly to replace them. If that is the case there is one word to describe SNP leadership right now:
Incompetent*
*Other words are available.
The cops will be auditing the accounts.
Partners in crime. Sturgeon and Murrell.
Scotland’s ugliest couple.
No UN job. No Job with the Royals. Nicola’s been disposed off. A treacherous nationalist. But a nationalist none the less.
She’ll go into hiding from here on in.
Stumbled across this wee number in respect of Police and Criminal evidence Act 1984 (from perspective of English common law?) and conclude that at least 3 of the 5 counts required for a legitimate arrest must have been absent last Wednesday.
https://www.saunders.co.uk/news/when-is-an-arrest-unlawful/
Accordingly, given his much celebrated compassionate approach to a particularly high profile suspected miscarriage of justice back in the day, one particularly fun way for the saga’s arms and legs to grow might be if, in addition to any other action being undertaken (eg defamation, overnight camping within the curtilage of a domestic dwelling, etc), Humza hires Kenny MacAskill to sue the Scottish Government, jointly and severally, for both its corporate responsibility over Pete Murrel’s unlawful arrest and any and all damage suffered by his spouse in consequence.
I’m delighted. Sturgeon’s reputation is in tatters.
If only her behaviour was more becoming.
If only she didn’t marry Peter Murrell.
We know that Nicola hasn’t got an honest bone or an original thought in her body.
I despise Nicola Sturgeon. It’s impossible for me to ever despise a political leader than her. She deserves everything that’s coming to her.
Here’s a thought £600K plus compound interest after 5 years ?
Oh well…I’m taking your silence to mean ‘not interested’.
Moving on…
PhilM, I have lived in the USA for over twenty years. Not sure I’d be much help to you.
All accountants are trained to have a healthy scepticism. It’s not enough just to add up the numbers. That is what a bookkeeper is for. You have to be able to step back and look at things in the round. However, when it comes to uncovering corruption, a forensic accountant has advanced training in – how can I put it? – filling in the blanks. I imagine that would be quite a small subset of people in Scotland and I expect most of them would either work at a larger firm or own a boutique practice. Either way, fees would be higher than your average CA.
Do not ignore Chartered Certified Accountants (professional body goes by the acronym ACCA). There are plenty of good accountants in that body. They are looked down upon by ICAS and ICAEW. That is partly because the training is shorter, partly because it is seen as a qualification for accountants in business, partly because the rules on how many times you can sit the exams are more relaxed and partly because, well, they are not ICAS or ICAEW!
If, however, you just need someone to translate accounting stuff into plain English, I may be able to spare some time after April 18th, when tax season ends over here.
Re Accountancy Qualifications
I maybe a bit out of touch but the designation CA refers to those who have qualified under ICAS (Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland) ACA refers to those similarly qualified in England and Wales.
To have a practising certificate is an additional requirement. Most qualified accountants do not go down this route as there is no need for them to do so – if you are working in business, government, charity, commerce etc. its irrelevant. Those however who stay in the profession either as partners in accountancy firms or sole practioners require to have a practising certificate to eg sign off audited accounts.
I do not know if Kate Forbes is an ACA but given her career I cannot imagine she will have a practising certificate.
@
‘Lenny Hartley says:
7 April, 2023 at 1:38 pm
Interesting, it would appear that Gupta are being investigated for alleged fraud and money laundering!
https://archive.is/TaAN1‘
Wow.
Follow the links on the FOI, and then Financial Times articles.
I’ve been speed reading, and I don’t understand big business… so, this is very rough guestimate.
Gupta…
Lochaber Smelt came with 2 hydro electric schemes attached and half of Ben Nevis. Scot Gov did a 25 year cheap energy supply deal (from the 2 Hydro Schemes and the land potential)… This amounted to a Government guarantee, initially around/under the 30£ million amount, then adjusted to £161 Million, Gupta used this guarantee to borrow more money at UK bond rates, and used this finance to buy the Smelt in the first place.
Scot Gov guarantee now appears to have exposed the Scottish tax payer to over £500 million debt?
The land was contracted never to be separated from the whole package, But Gupta did not agree with this, and registered it (in a tax haven) as a separate entity.
Greenill colapse means that Gupta could not raise anymore cash and Credit Suisse, and the German Bank Regulator became concerned….the term money laundering has been used. Serious Fraud Squad involved as of 2 years ago. Other countries/governments and big corporations also looking for their money’s back/ and or legally obliged to instigate legal actions.
When you said it was going to get worse I thought surly not
But here we are
Any tips on how much longer
A police friend said there was lots of shit years ago well before this stuff
Anyone with a brain would jump ship now
I do hope alba will be very selective in who they let in
David Leask tweets that “Wings over Scotland is not a journalist in any meaningful sense of the word.” Total lack of self-awareness from the talentless bald twat.
I do enjoy watching the Salmond leap.
Type in a name, any name you wish and you may just find the name of the accountant you wish. This website and its data are publicly accessible…
https://www.icaew.com/about-icaew/find-a-chartered-accountant
@Colin
See my comment above at 3.10 pm for Katie Forbes and whether she has a practising certificate…clue…it’s on the ICAEW website…
anybody seen the murrells aboot or are they still in hiding ?
FORT WILLIAM, likewise FORT AUGUSTUS, are so named in honour of William Augustus, duke of Cumberland aka «the butcher», the man whose military intervention led to the decimation of the Gàidhealtachd.
Is Scotland the only country where humiliation of this kind is commemorated?
Another unsavoury legacy of that toxic Union.
Skip_NC
I need someone with some authority i.e. a background in accounting just to check my reasoning on a really quite simple matter…yes we are talking some quite basic accounting ideas but what’s behind them could be ‘very interesting indeed’…so if you are free after the 18th and have just 10 minutes, you should immediately see what I’m driving at.
Not normally this cryptic…or am I (stokes chin in sinister fashion and cackles like Stewart Hosie…)
Daisy Walker, if true thats another massive scandal brewing.
SNP Chartered Accountants have quit?
Why? What does That mean?
PhilM, I’d be happy to do that. I’m sure we can figure something out if we can be put in contact with each other. Can our host effect an introduction? Iain Lawson was able to do that when someone on his blog wanted to get in touch with me.
SNP hire lawyer to defend Murrell, says the Telegraph.
The SNP members must be delighted that their membership fees and fund raising efforts are being used in this way on behalf of an ex-employee. Could be an interesting precedent if others, current or ex, need similar representation.
Should attract loads of new members.
No wonder Humza got the job. Nobody else wanted it!
Interesting question!
Where would the interest go?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpwSXWq1wwU
Geoff Anderson, I offered some observations at 1:17pm and again at 2:04pm. Auditors resigning is not, in and of itself, a major issue. It happens al the time and can be initiated by either the firm or the client.
However, it has now been clarified that the resignation was before Peter Murrell was arrested. What we don’t know is how long ago it was. If it was quite some time ago, it is a problem, because the SNP should have made sure to have someone in place before now. If no firm with the suitable experience and expertise is willing to accept the engagement, it is reasonable to ask why not. Might the SNP have to go outside Scotland to find someone? That would be rather embarrassing.
Johnstone Carmichael’s statement tells us nothing. It is true that firms regularly review their client list and decide which ones no longer fit their service offerings. However, it is also the standard reason when seeking to terminate an engagement that the auditor no longer wishes to retain. It’s the classic “It’s not you, it’s me,” break-up line. We have no way of knowing which it is and, unless it gets brought up in a criminal trial, we are not going to find out.
@Skip_NC
I’ll get round to it over the weekend. For any help at all I will be eternally grateful.
Namaste…
@Merganser
“SNP hire lawyer to defend Murrell”
Will they use the woven-in £600k I wonder?
Where is the money really coming from is the big question.
https://archive.is/e2Kjj
SNP hire ‘white collar crime’ lawyer to defend Nicola Sturgeon’s husband
Decision to hire expert in ‘allegations of financial crime’ seems to counter Humza Yousaf’s claim that Peter Murrell was sole police focus
The SNP has said it is not paying Mr Murrell’s legal fees, raising questions around why it would need a high-profile criminal lawyer if, as Mr Yousaf suggested, no current workers are in legal trouble.
Who have they hired the ‘white collar crime’ lawyer for?
Shug, yes I hope Alba are selective too, don’t want the entry issue jumping ship to them
Setting aside any false impression that Nicola Sturgeon’s house is a Crime Scene!
What is the current financial state of SNP?
Bankruptcy a possibility? Be as well bumpin’ Murrell’s legal expenses onto the bonfire.
In the meantime, are ordinary punters expected to carry the can, for Murrell’s mismanagement?
Would the electorate be expected to bend over, again?
Perhaps it really is time for plan B.
The British state will never let Scotland go unless Scots put up a fight; far too much is at stake for its establishment puppet masters.
If you were intent upon destroying a movement you did not like, you would infiltrate it to the highest level and activate your «moles» to undermine it.
Scotland has been had, no doubt.
Sturgeon may or may not have been a mole but the years of her leadership are suggestive of double dealing, a wilderness of mirrors.
In future nationalist politicians will have to prove they are in reality, demonstrably «nationalist», with all that term signifies.
Nationalism, freed of Sturgeonesque squeamishness, needs to return to centre stage.
The British state will never let Scotland go unless Scots put up a fight; far too much is at stake for its establishment puppet masters.
If you were intent upon destroying a movement you did not like, you would infiltrate it to the highest level and activate your «moles» to undermine it.
Scotland has been had, no doubt.
Sturgeon may or may not have been a mole but the years of her leadership are suggestive of double dealing, a wilderness of mirrors.
In future nationalist politicians will have to prove they are in reality, demonstrably «nationalist», with all that term signifies.
Nationalism, freed of Sturgeonesque squeamishness, needs to return to centre stage.
@ Ruby at 5.48pm: Just my guess, but so that the SNP can defend itself against any accusations by Murrell that it was involved in any financial misdeeds? Or because the members of the NEC may be held responsible for false accounting?
This lawyer won’t be cheap!
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-hire-expensive-high-profile-29657419
Maybe the use of Stuart Munro isn’t for Murrell but for “other party business”
Steel yourselves folks, I think it’s going to be an interesting few weeks
You all know it’s really down to you folks, right? You are the army. If its not you I can’t imagine who you think it is. Most are probably watching Emmerdale. I know, it’s shite.
Mr or Mrs that is the question?
Would be interesting if someone asked Katie Forbes & Ash Regan what decision they would have made re paying for a lawyer for Peter Murrell.
I hope the Murrells have started drinking the cheap wine tonight and end up tearing lumps out of each other.
Blaming each other for the catastrophic end they’ve had to their careers.
Brilliant stuff, let’s hope they don’t keep the neighbours awake, otherwise someone might phone the Polis.
@ Lenny Hartley re ‘If true… another scandal… massive’.
If true, I think we’re going to need a bigger word than massive.
The Gupta finacial empire method of operating appears to involve similar £100’s million pound projects in countries all over the world, businesses considered vital to those countries governments, thus ensuring similsr amounts of gvt investment.
Those counties, SA, Australia, France, Germany, America…. and A Emmirates…. not happy bunnies.
anyway, I’m rather sure, Niklas not on the invitation list for Chuckies big doo. Charlie gets on well with the Saudie Royals doesnt he.
Politicians never care about the cost because it’s never their money that’s involved.
In that article you linked to it states
‘The former, and the party’s former chief executive, was arrested by cops and quizzed for almost 12 hours over the allegedly missing £600k of donations to the nationalists.’
Do we know for sure that it’s the missing £600k that the police are investigating?
The ‘tent in the garden’ and van loads of documents taken from SNP HQ suggest something more serious or is this how all fraud investigation are conducted.
Did Natalie McGarry have a tent in her garden?
Way back during the lock down when there was nobody going in and out of the SNP HQ
there was a wanted poster on their front door it said ‘Peter Murrell wanted for perjury’
It was there for ages.
Maybe the police investigation is about a number of things.
Has the leak to the D. Record ever been solved?
And there’s this
https://archive.is/QMD77
Alex Salmond case: David Davis uses Commons privilege to reveal SNP texts
Paulk 4.29: “David Leask tweets that “Wings over Scotland is not a journalist in any meaningful sense of the word.” ”
He’s right, of course: in Scotland the term “journalist” usually equates to presstitute/churnalist/stenographer for the state.
Dear old Dante might have have had a bit of a wobble trying to decide on the Eighth or Ninth Circle of Hell for them.
Leask should get out more: I suspect the public have more regard for hedge-fund managers, estate agents and unmarked white-van layers of tarmac than his seedy bunch (no offence intended to the three aforementioned categories 🙂 .
Odd wording when the news talks about the house Peter Murrell shares with former FM Nicola Sturgeon, but doesn’t say married, husband or wife. They haven’t haven’t they?
My thoughts – to be ignored.
1. Police Scotland were too cosy with NS to launch a full-scale investigation into Murrell having delayed Branchform for as long as possible.
2. The investigation started south of the border and relates to wider issues, possibly surrounding Gupta.
3. Police Scotland had no control over the broader investigation but warned NS that it was coming.
4. NS jumps ship.
The £600K is not a red herring but a bit of a squirrel.
All hypothesis.
Did the number of police at Peter and Nicola’s house seem a bit excessive, all the TV shows I have seen, forensic people want a pristine scene to do their work.
It certainly looks like they are taking it seriously after how long ?
Why did the previous police chief retire so suddenly?
Could the police be trying to look good but find nothing so as to deflect from previous bad police decisions
.
John Main,
Why do you have to be so obnoxious?
One of the reasons I like Wings Over Scotland a lot, is that Stuart Campbell researches all of his articles to an incredibly detailed degree.
Stuart Campbell always LINKS via hyper-text to source material.
Whereas the resident Troll, John Main accuses me of lying. Ironically lying about an earlier admission that I was wrong. Jeezo.
So, just for John Main’s rude trolling, here are facts that prove John Main is either lazy and/or an ignorant disruptive Amadan.
John, the registration of the black car on Murrell’s driveway is in many public domain pictures, including the last video excerpt from Twitter on this thread (just get your lazy finger out of your fundament and scroll upwards).
To save time, here is the registration of the black car in Murrell’s drive…
SC21RUH
In fairness to you John Main, I thought this car would be redacted on PNC (Police National Computer) due to the connection with a high level politician.
But as you can see yourself, input “SC21RUH” into the public domain DVLA website here..
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/
The result PROVES it is an ELECTRIC vehicle. Therefore the tube I saw going into the fuel-tank flap will be an electric vehicle cable and NOT a CCTV pinhole camera checking a fuel tank for water-proof wrapped USB data storage sticks!
———————————————————
PUBLIC DOMAIN DVLC RETURN…
Vehicle make PEUGEOT
Date of first registration June 2021
Year of manufacture 2021
Cylinder capacity 0 cc
CO? emissions 0 g/km
Fuel type ELECTRICITY
Euro status Not available
Real Driving Emissions (RDE) Not available
Export marker No
Vehicle status Taxed
Vehicle colour BLACK
Vehicle type approval M1
Wheelplan 2 AXLE RIGID BODY
Revenue weight Not available
Date of last V5C (logbook) issued 20 August 2021
——————————————————————————
My point?
The official information IS there.
John Main, maybe you will apologise for being so obnoxious?
https://wingsoverscotland.com/stranger-things/#comment-2751448
@ Al-Stuart
These two other links might blow John Main’s mind.
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-status
https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/
I can understand Johnson Carmichael not wanting to continue as the SNP’s auditors. As a reputable firm, they won’t want their reputation destroyed by being associated with Murrell PLC.
As a stickler for accuracy, Stuart, could you please remove any posts that include the words Leask and journalist in the same sentence?
Have just read a series of tweets by a well-known independence supporter and regular tweeter (perhaps once a regular here, or still contributes using a different handle?) which absolutely lay into Sturgeon using language which many would find ‘offensive’.
I won’t link to the tweet or name the person (I don’t know him/her in any case) but it made me think – what if the FM succeeding Alex Salmond had been male?
The growing fury around developments in the past three years or so has been tempered by the fact of NS being ‘female’, and much of her agenda (aside from the obvious GRR pish) has revolved around her ‘gender’.
Just for argument’s sake – what if it had been Ian Blackford as FM rather than her? Can you imagine the vitriol? It would be worse – much worse – than Sturgeon is currently facing.
‘You can’t say that about a lady!’
‘That’s no lady! That’s my wife!’
etc…
Those condemning ‘social media’ for what’s being said about the Murrells (e.g. Mike Russell, Wishart et al) should perhaps consider how the independence movement might have reacted to such open treachery in the pre-internet years.
Sticks and stones an aw that…
I suppose at the very least ol’Humza will be hoping that Peter Murrell is a ‘not proven’ winner…
Is there even so much as a rumour as to where the Murrells are bugging out.
It doesn’t suggest they have much confidence in their story.
A pity Sturgeon was ever let in….
https://twitter.com/AngusMacNeilSNP/status/1644317419710689280?s=20
BBC have been reporting that not only have the SNP’s auditors resigned, they apparently did it just days before Murrell’s arrest. The mind can only boggle. LOL!
__________
As far as that obnoxious c@nt Leask goes, it would be a very hard task indeed to try and find a churnalist more up his own arse than Leask is. Having a pop at ‘His Nibs’ is the only way he can get anywhere near the smell of success. He’s a demented inbred Little Englander Tory throwback.
So mr yousaf how has the first week gone?
For those who may have missed it.
You may have enjoyed the single – here’s the album.
Alex Salmond, Robert Slavin and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheihk in Coatbridge last night.
Gie yer goosebumps a wee treat!
😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVSl3jBY8Z4&t=1066s
Mebbe the Murrells are having a pizza with the Skripals down Rosso’s in Bothwell?
‘Member the Skripals?
@stuart mctavish 3:51 pm
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 does not apply to Scotland. The “counts” to which you refer are irrelevant in Scotland.
The Scottish law is found in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016. All the Scottish police need to justify an arrest is “reasonable grounds for suspecting that a person has committed or is committing an offence”.
Don’t know if you remember me Stu from years ago now re Murrell setting up the fake company Independence Merchandising to scam £hundreds of thousands of MP/MSP expenses into the party funds supposedly – the police and Crown Office were not interested in investigating that back then siting lack of evidence even though I gave them the evidence.
The police are totally useless at investigating financial crime – three different times I reported the present SNP Provost of Renfrewshire Council for fraud presenting them with the evidence and they did not find any evidence of criminality as they said every time and it was only after the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner was set up that they were forced to reinvestigate this again after I reported the police to them that they found partial evidence against her but it was by then time barred – the rest of the evidence held by Renfrewshire Council was conveniently destroyed as it was by then over the 6 or 7 years they had to keep records.
One of the useless police involved in this was Robertson the useless clown who was involved in the Rangers case that has caused the tax payer some 50 06 60 million pounds or maybe more so far. Even if the police manage to find anything they have got to get it by the corrupt Crown Office etc.
I reckon it was Murrel/SNP that got my blog Paisley Expressions blocked because of the post about the Independence Merchandising scam and funny how the mainstream media weer not interested in that back then and neither were any of the other political parties. Something strange is going on just now how they are all suddenly interested in this fraud after totally ignoring all of the other fraud that has been reported to them by me and others for years.
Paulk says:
7 April, 2023 at 4:29 pm
“David Leask tweets that “Wings over Scotland is not a journalist in any meaningful sense of the word.” Total lack of self-awareness from the talentless bald twat.”
Quite so… He once told me that actually training and qualifying to do one’s job (in my case, ENG cameraman) – over a period of nearly six years; carrying a press card for the best part of 40 years (at that time) and being appalled by his childish, unprofessional rhetoric and behaviour – was, “quaint”.
…of course the little pipsqueak did this from behind a keyboard. Which is just what he does.
Pot, Kettle and the remarkable lack of capacity for reflection; even in diffuse form. “Meaningful sense”? One wonders what he can possibly mean? …His ‘professional’ (I use the term loosely) tack has always been to ‘swim with le feci’ chucking the lumps around; rather than report objectively from a bridge.
I went to a tenabrae service tonight. An ancient 1000 year old service. I have never been to one before. Of course the SNP designed their party to be the new religion. How disappointing.
George Ferguson, that sounds wonderful and I am rather envious! Do you mind me asking where it took place?
Kenny McBride article Times
https://archive.ph/WPt8S
David Leask said soonest true amended.
A deadbeat unionist with a pencil in a propaganda pamphlet with a Circulation figure
sum 12,000 copies in a country of 5.5 Million.
Every year their numbers drop with the same dross and bile pumped out daily.
Here is demeaning the Worlds most read political blog as being a pale attempt at being a loss making budgie cage lining.
Ian Brotherhood says:
7 April, 2023 at 10:32 pm
For those who may have missed it…
…Gie yer goosebumps a wee treat!
Aye, it does.
But maybe not everybody. I’ve noticed a wee bit dissent here and there, that what Alex Salmond is proposing is in some ways conflicting with what SALVO is suggesting; for example, ALBA will contest UK and Scottish Elections, and their corresponding franchise.
There’s a body of opinion which would dispute that franchise, based largely on the opinion that unchecked immigration from the South has, and still is, occurring at such a rate that “Scottish” result might be compromised by the numbers. Indeed, if the sources are correct, under a different franchise, we’d have been over the line in 2014.
I think it needs said, but I don’t feel divided by this.
It’s not a conflicting strategy, any more than you have conflicting strategies between your Army, Navy and Air Force. They all have their strengths in different theatres, observe different disciplines, and have their own preferences and prejudices over how a campaign should be fought.
But they’re all on the one side. If there’s no top cover, your ships and armour are sitting ducks. If you’ve no Navy, your command and supply lines are cut, and your reach is severely curtailed. Without ground forces, you cannot back up or hold on to your advances and your enemy is forced to concede.
You need them all, settling their differences and working to compliment each other.
Right now, I don’t see or expect ANY problems whatsoever with YES, ALBA, ISP, SALVO, AUOB, all slotting together as homogenous YES Campaign, whether it’s fighting a Scottish Election, UK Election, Referendum, Plebiscite, or Liberation.Scot constitutional initiative.
The composition of our “Task Force” will tailor itself to the prevailing needs. The “problem” we have, is that we have an “outlying” component in the discordant SNP.
The big question for us all, and it needs an answer, is whether the SNP can be reformed into something progressive, and useful to the cause again, our whether the damage done, (and yet to be done), is irrepairable, and whether the YES Campaign needs to be successfully weaned off the SNP’s part in all this. The frustration is, the SNP is refusing to acknowledge the problem exists, so there is a vanishingly small possibility of meaningful reform.
We have our Army of grassroots footsoldiers; they grumble, but footsoldiers always grumble.
We have our redoubtable, Dreadnought Constitution doing sea trials at the moment. If we give it the right target, then SALVO will prove to be very well named.
The turmoil is in our Air Force, the top cover, with a slow and lumbering SNP so vulnerable it will get shot to pieces, and it’s nimble fighter escort in ALBA, which so far, try as it might, it cannot hit the enemy adequately hard… yet.
Salmond is right, Ash Regan is right, SALVO is right. The Union must be contested and put under pressure wherever the Union exists. Every vote is a referendum on Independence. Every manifesto becomes a mandate for Independence.
If I was in charge, I’d be tempted to go further. I’d reset the parameters. I’d put the Union on notice: Declare the Union Treaty breached, and have Scotland vote annually to tolerate continuance of the breached Union year by year, and renew Scotland’s vows to the Union every year… until the year we don’t. Then it’s over.
We shouldn’t forget SALVOs strategy. It is not to go to the UN and demand our independence. It is to go to the UN and, evidence based argument, that Scotland is a sovereign nation in a trade treaty with England and as an equal partner have the right to determine our own fate or we are a colony of England trapped by uk (English) law seeing our culture, language, identity suppressed and destroyed by the colonising culture. As well as our natural resources being stripped and stolen for the benefit of the coloniser and to the detriment of the native Scots. Therefore Westminster has to give us control of our destiny as an equal partner in the union or they have to admit that Scotland and its people are a colony which would get Scotland UN and world support to start the process of decolonization. The SALVO strategy is a win win for Scotland but just a starting point of a wider strategy. As Alex said it will be the “community of the realm” that will win our freedom as it will come down to a vote in one form or another.
I get a strong sense of the American Gothic image from the top photo. Someone better than me should make it so.
@Al Stuart 8:35
I will certainly say I am sorry you are such a fragile, precious, wee online persona.
I guess you haven’t noticed, Al. Scotland is all over the MSM, day after fucking day, and why?
Because we’re a fucking laughing stock, that’s why. Too wee, too incompetent, too corrupt, too thick to achieve anything. With a disgraceful travesty of a so-called “leader” at which tens of millions of people all over the world can only look at and scoff.
So right now, and it looks like for the foreseeable future, I don’t expect to be taking things too seriously on here. Soz in advance if you will be finding that obnoxious.
I think you are pretty close to the truth John, The fact that Sturgeon’s direction of travel was not deciphered years ago is a clue to the political perception of SNP members and a large section of the Scottish public.
The whole process seems to be run by old male duffers and women with a grudge against biology and other men in general.
Hate to bang on about Kate Forbes but at the very least she appears to have real conviction is young, intelligent and full of the life force.
A start would be to dump the old, mainly disgraced, has-beens and attempt to introduce relevant politics into the equation.
It’s a shame – I genuinely think Nicola Sturgeon was a decent calibre of politician compared to the English monsters we’re forced to live under. Of course if they’ve committed a crime, send them to trial.
But it just doesn’t feel like it affects the bigger obstacles for independence. Rev Stuart Campbell made a pithy joke on Twitter that the biggest thing standing in the way of Scottish independence was Nicola Sturgeon – it stung a little as I still think she’s ace compared to anyone in the current Conservative party. But if her tardiness has caused so much resentment, well, she’s gone – Humza will have at least half of the urgency to forward the independence cause. Legal blocks; polling which just doesn’t offer much reassurance; a jaded feeling about the whole enterprise; beaten down by our English overlords, no energy or care to resist or fight back.
NOTE – I just read an article in Herald Scotland in which an interview with Humza states he thinks “Scottish independence in 5 years” is still an achievable goal (https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23441979.scottish-independence-humza-yousaf-says-realistic-within-five-years/)
Five years. Woo-hoo-yay. Nothing will change.
I wonder if the intended scrapping of both the corroboration requirement in Scottish criminal trials and the ‘not proven’ verdict will have taken place before and if Murrell faces trial.
John Main says: at 10:40 am
“I guess you haven’t noticed, Al. Scotland is all over the MSM, day after fucking day, and why?
Because we’re a fucking laughing stock, that’s why. Too wee, too incompetent, too corrupt, too thick to achieve anything. With a disgraceful travesty of a so-called “leader” at which tens of millions of people all over the world can only look at and scoff.
So right now, and it looks like for the foreseeable future, I don’t expect to be taking things too seriously on here. Soz in advance if you will be finding that obnoxious.”
Scotland like many other countries is blighted by incompetents and corruption, but be careful what you write as your Better Together is showing with that “too wee” sneaked into your post. 😉
Dan
Nah. I used “too wee” deliberately because even the currently revealed alleged crimes are miserable and mean.
600K? Can you see a senior politician from Germany, France or even WM getting neck deep in the doodoo for that paltry sum?
Where’s the ambition, flair and balls to commit crimes worthy of a proper country? FFS, Blair has trousered 50 mill and never once had to spend a day assisting with inquiries. 600K is local authority level stuff by comparison.
But it’s early days. Maybes some half-decent first-world country crimes will come to light in the days to come. Something that will allow us Scots to believe we really can cut it at the highest level.
.
John Main
Your reply shows you up to be what I thought you were. An obnoxious, charmless dolt that comes on BTL to troll.
You are evidently one of the sad type of master-baiters who get off randomly insulting people to make you appear as some form of polemic persona. But in reality you amount to nothing. You are one of life’s takers. You give nothing.
Many read Stuart Campbell because he is good at what he does.
You on the other hand are not.
You obviously crave attention. A DSM-5 Manual field-day. It iis clear even negative attention will satisfy you.
“John Main” I will know to scroll past you in the future. You simply don’t matter to Scotland. Your ilk are from the unpleasant detritus that has been spewed-up in the lead-up to 18th September 2014. You have haunted website comment boards in Scotland ever since.
Most of the folk here BTL are painfully well aware of the condition of Scotland’s political system just now.
We don’t need Amadans like you to point out the painfully obvious. People are starving to death or freezing to death in a first-world country, rich with food and overloaded with economically priced energy. That is what needs remedying.
Many of us get inspired by brilliant orators and true statesman such as Alex Salmond.
Unlike you, Alex brings something to society and the common good.
You, John Main, meanwhile are clearly a bitter, twisted and abused child like person acting-up to steal attention. Fortunately people get the nature of your troll-baiting quick enough.
Good bye.
Al Stuart
Hello again and a Happy Easter to you.
Soz you are not having a good day, or maybes even week. I do hope things will pick up for you.
I can’t be arsed to look up “Amadan”, but I am guessing it must be good, cos you like to use it so much. Drop a post with the definition, thanks.
Apart from that, the rest of your post can be discounted, with the exception of your claim that “people are starving to death”. I can only recall one prior example of that claim being trotted out on here. I don’t recall any evidence being produced the last time, so maybes you can improve on that this time around.
Oh, maybes if it’s not too much trouble: having posted about life’s givers and takers, maybes you could provide some evidence of your own giving. Just so that the casual reader can convince herself you’re truly on the side of the angels. Hurling the insults from a position of righteousness and a that.
Thanks in advance.