The Land Of Do-As-You-Please
The contempt for the Scottish public being openly shown by public servants paid from the public purse to answer to the public has at this point reached such endemic levels that we’re not sure an acceptable level of trust can ever be salvaged.
The reply above is not just evasive, not even just pathetic, it’s insulting – not just to us, but to every citizen of Scotland.
The letter we sent on 15 July has simply been ignored.
There is no attempt whatsoever to engage with the Dean of Faculty’s analysis, which clearly finds unarguable evidence of a crime. It merely repeats Police Scotland’s fobbing off of the decision to the Crown Office, who to date have also refused to offer the public any explanation why nobody has been prosecuted for a serious criminal offence committed by the governing party of the country.
It does fit a pattern, though.
Time and again in recent years, the SNP government has demonstrated its utter contempt for the law of the land, spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money fighting hopeless court cases, losing them, and then refusing to implement the courts’ rulings. It has to be dragged kicking and screaming into eventual compliance, often having deliberately caused delays of several years.
It does so secure in the knowledge that the establishment – and in particular the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, whose head, the Lord Advocate, is also a government minister answerable to the First Minister – will protect it at every turn.
(Click image above for the full, deeply troubling article.)
The kindest thing we can say about the latest non-response from DCC Houston is that it continues to focus attention on the festering cancer at the heart of the Scottish judicial system – the Crown Office, where justice goes to die. But if Police Scotland want to avoid being tarred with the same brush, they’re going to have to start doing a lot better than this.
Wings will take advice from its legal team on where we can go from here, but there are numerous possible options. We continue to await a response from Police Scotland to a Freedom Of Information request on the matter from last month, which has now passed the deadline.
It joins another FOI request, this one from early June, which is now more than a month overdue and which we’ve filed an official complaint over.
Police Scotland are usually very quick with FOI responses, in stark contrast to almost any other public body in Scotland, so one can only speculate as to what could be taking so long with these ones, neither of which is very complex or difficult.
But as regards the reply we started this article with, we’re struggling to imagine what “new evidence” the Deputy Chief Constable could require. A crime has demonstrably taken place, which was initially indignantly denied by the SNP, only to be subsequently publicly admitted by the First Minister AFTER the police investigation had concluded.
An admission after the investigation is plainly new evidence – indeed, it’s far more than mere evidence. You don’t need to investigate any more if a representative of the perpetrators has admitted to the crime.
Whether it was Police Scotland or COPFS who determined that embezzlement had not taken place, that decision has now been clearly exposed as wrong by John Swinney’s admission. All that remains to be established is who specifically was responsible, and that one isn’t hard to figure out – it was whoever was running the SNP at the time. The party leader is responsible for the executive decisions of the party.
A great deal now rests on the answers to those two FOIs. We have a degree of confidence that we’ll get answers, because the Information Commissioner is just about the only public servant in Scotland still committed to doing his job with decency, competence, integrity and professionalism.
It matters because as it stands, the grim truth is that the idea of Scotland being in a fit state to become an independent nation again is a child’s fantasy.
If you don’t have justice as a cornerstone of your society, and especially if those in power are completely above/in control of the law, you have nothing worth fighting for.
It’s plainly obvious the gender benders are still in control of the Scottish Govt and the top levels of the judiciary and enforcement branches.
It make you wonder what compromat they have on various people.
Your last sentence above Stuart is Spot on!
This corrupt and inadequate system masquerading as Law & Order in Scotland has itself got to be brought to justice.
They are turning the country into a banana republic.
We may require a crowd Funder and or a petition to fight against these high powered truth deniers.
If only we could rise up to the status of a Banana Republic, that would be an improvement.
Unfortunately Scotland is a banana republic without the actual bonus of bananas. The contempt for the people of Scotland is staggering.Our judiciary is compromised and our police force is not fit for purpose, which is actually fighting criminal activity.
Far from the case being made for self determination we actually see the exact opposite happening. The present SNP regimes contempt and incompetence makes the case for the dissolution of our hard fought for Scottish Parliament
Every day. Every sodding day I read something online that turns me (a normally calm and very reasonable person) into an incandescent rage, and this has to be among the worst.
How these people have the audacity to carry on ignoring and lying is beyond me. I would be curling up in a quiet corner somewhere, never to be seen or heard in public again, from sheer toe-curling embarrassment if nothing else.
We are well overdue a good clearing out, and I’m beginning to understand how the French felt in the runup to their revolution.
Corrupt Police.
Corrupt Judiciary.
Corrupt Government.
Did I miss anything/anyone?
Corrupt media.
I’m now wondering Why go to the pretense of jailing Murrel? Because its obvious at leased to me that this isn’t about justice its about covering something up more sinister.
Murrel took all this far to easily for my liking, Sturgeon and Swinney’s attitude towards this whole affair has been with a pinch of salt.
I have to ask is this the real reason Sturgeon has never pursed Indyref2 after meeting May and now we’re being told Scotland has no right to leave, I can’t help but think this is all link.
People are being defended here and I do not believe this is at the Scottish level, this has the British state all over it.
Quite agree.
I find it just a tad strange that when questions were being asked about the missing Indy Ref money and things were getting hot especially when the police got involved, up pops Murrell and the entire investigation conveniently shifts to him and away from the missing Indy Ref money. It almost seems like Murell”s embezzlement was a set up and there was a haste in spending the money quickly on ridiculously expensive kitchen items and the Jaguar and motor home to produce a large monetary crime quickly.
Did Murrell agree to be the fall guy? Why has Sturgeon fled to London? Why are the police and COFS acting with the confidence that they are untouchable?
Something is going on in the shadows?
McDuff,
I quite agree, the British state knows and is involved. Sturgeon is being protected.
Independence isn’t going to die that genie is out of the bottle and it isn’t going to go back in.
Too many people want Independence for it to be stopped and Salvo and Liberation Scotland are making Scotland cause known to all the right people the trouble for England is no one likes England not even the English and the idea of destroying the British state would appeal to a lot of Country’s our trouble is the SNP and it always has been since 2015.
Oops…
Almost forgot,
Corrupt Press – they should be all over this like white on rice, but no. It’s left to one guy in his spare room who doesn’t even live in Scotland – no offense Rev.
Shows the extent of protection being afforded to the puppet regime at Holyrood. Enric Miralles should’ve skipped the upturned boat hull design and gone full-on Wooden Horse of Troy – Beware Westminster representatives (Dewar) bearing gifts!
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
“there is nothing worth fighting for”. Correct. Has been my opinion for a very long time.
I have to ask why does the UKG want to lose the opportunity to bring down the SNP and to use the SNP to close Holyrood?
It makes no sense to me that here is the golden opportunity to rid the UK of the Scottish national party by closing down Holyrood and having an internal inquiry to the SNP and the British state doesn’t want to do it.
Because with Holyrood there is the pretence that we have some control over our own affairs. Without it, the truth becomes obvious and a movement will emerge that reignites the independence movement.
It may be that our lack of independence is the root of the corruption. Who, ultimately, does the Crown Office/ Scottish Government/ Scottish establishment look to for their orders? In whose interest is it that they behave in a corrupt manner?
Plainly it’s the UK establishment who are pulling their strings in the centuries long campaign to prevent Scottish independence and how better to sicken the voters than to corrupt their society?
Both the Crown & Police Scotland’s have been told by a higher authority to close this down.
“The land of do as you please “ – only because so many Scots vote for them and therefore endorse this corrupt behaviour .
Despite the overwhelming evidence presented by you Stu this SNP government has wound its tentacles around what should be independent organisations to do exactly that.
“so many Scots vote for them and therefore endorse this corrupt behaviour”
Precisely.
There’s very little of this that wasn’t in the public domain back in May when a majority of Sovereign Scots willingly voted for 5 more years of the same.
The SNP can use the “Farage Defense”:
“Never mind what we’re accused of. What is the verdict in the court of public opinion?”
Which, looking at the chronology, is grossly unfair to Farage. He would correctly and accurately call it the “SNP Defense”.
It was a big achievement to push the Murrell court date past the election, and hardly likely to be a coincidence.
Up to that point any attempt to discuss the situation was battered down as being potentially contempt of court.
Whether it would have made a big difference is up to debate. Would Nats have switched to greens, stayed at home or stuck with The Party?
Scotgov hold the purse strings. They threaten to cut any services that don’t comply with their diktat. It’s as simple as that.
They appear to just want to keep digging their trench deeper and deeper thinking they can just keep fobbing off and it will disappear. Along with the Alex enquiry , its just continues highlighting that Scotlands Govt, Police Scotland and prosecution servive are corrupt to the core.
“It also does not identify any significant new information that was not available to investigators at the time”
WTF?! What are you talking about – the pretendy First Minister himself stated the ring fenced funds have been spent on a political party’s day to day operations, in clear breach of the law.
This is unbelievable and I don’t know if I am more appalled or depressed at reading this. What a state Scotland is in after 20 years of the SNP.
“It [Wings previous letter] does not identify any significant new information that was not available to investigators at the time”
They’re clearly saying that, during their investigation, someone made a similar statement to Swinney’s regarding the spending of the money on other SNP related activity. They had strong evidence of embezzlement which they reported to COPFS who declined to proceed further.
I doubt if further pressure on the police is going to result in any different response as I’m not sure what else they can say. The eventual response to your FOI requests may be revealing. Otherwise, it’s a case of chipping away at COPFS which is clearly where the corruption lies in this case.
The only conclusion to draw is that Swinney’s weasel worded 100-second confession had previously been given in private to Police Scotland/COPFS, who must’ve concluded in their own minds that as nationalist fools and their bawbees are easy parted, there was no crime to answer.
Therefore what was news to the rest of us courtesy of forked-tongued John, was yesterday’s news to the COPFS: Crime Only Pays For Some.
… let’s face it.
If the SNP were prosecuted on what is clearly an open and shut case and were promptly declared bankrupt, the British State would have to spend a great deal of time, money and effort infiltrating to the same extent the upper echelons of whatever party replaced it.
As far as Westminster is concerned, there’s too much invested in the SNP to let a mere matter of criminality jeopardise the status quo.
Do nothing to see here folks, move along…
Apropos of nothing…
How much has Scottish Police budget increased in last 12 years:
In cash terms, the policing budget in Scotland has increased by approximately £640 million over the last 12 years, rising from roughly £1.08 billion when Police Scotland was formed in 2013-14 to a record allocation of over £1.7 billion for 2026-27
How much has Scottish Crown Office budget increased in last 12 years?
The budget for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in Scotland has risen from approximately £105–110 million a decade ago to £260 million in the Scottish Budget 2026 to 2027, marking a cash increase of over 130% driven heavily by post-pandemic court recovery and inflation pressure
The Dean of Faculty tells us that he believes the crime of embezzlement has been committed in the case of illegally diverted ringfenced funds held in trust by the SNP.
COPFS, however, tells us that it can’t prosecute for the crime because such a prosecution requires a clearly identifiable individual, or individuals, who could be held responsible and tried in a court of law.
Assuming that COPFS is just as clueless as the Dean on who the culprit(s) actually is, it would appear that the Dean and COPFS are in agreement:
Paragraph 25 of the Dean of Faculty’s written legal opinion.
25. The caveat is that the information before me does not disclose who within the SNP authorized the disbursement of the relevant funds. That would be a crucial fact for any criminal prosecution, as only individuals can be dishonest. However, for reasons discussed below, that is immaterial for the purposes of a civil claim.
In light of this, Stuart Houston’s reply seems perfectly reasonable.
Houston says in his letter, “…if information comes to light that was not previously available…”
I’m assuming such information would be the name of an individual and where the evidence is sufficiently robust for COPFS to prosecute with a reasonable chance of getting a conviction.
It should also be noted that Swinney’s public acknowledgement that a crime has been committed is not an admission of guilt. He is merely agreeing with the Dean of Faculty that a crime has been committed – he doesn’t claim to know who by.
Surely it’s the folk who signed off on the accounts?
THE WORLD of do as you Please.
link to nypost.com
Greenland is safe….for the moment.
«If you don’t have justice as a cornerstone of your society, and especially if those in power are completely above/in control of the law, you have nothing worth fighting for»
“you have nothing worth fighting for”
What tripe. It’s worth fighting for the establishment of a system of justice that ensures that nobody is above the law.
Many of us, both in Scotland and in the USA, believed we already had these systems of justice. Now we’re discovering that we don’t.
But if we ever did have, how do you think they were first established? By people fighting for them, that’s how.
Surely it’s the folk who signed off on the accounts?