The Lion’s Den
Just a couple of hours now.
From 12.30 this afternoon, Alex Salmond will attempt to tell the people of Scotland the truth about what happened to him in the last two years – a grave injustice which saw an innocent man have his reputation dragged through the gutter, be placed under incredible personal stress, be left greatly impoverished by proving his innocence, and then have the jury’s verdict endlessly traduced by the media and a gang of criminal conspirators protected from the consequences of their lies by lifelong anonymity.
His job will be a difficult one. Every single person in the room will be bitterly hostile to him – the four Unionist committee members because he’s Alex Salmond, and the others because he represents a deadly threat to the First Minister.
The inquiry’s convener – a woman sacked by Salmond years ago – will attempt to prevent him from presenting large swathes of evidence, despite having made him swear to tell “the whole truth”. The SNP members will try to run down the four-hour session with questions designed to only deflect from the real issue – the actions and behaviour of the Scottish Government. Andy Wightman will probably just cry.
We’ll be extremely surprised if there aren’t some attempts to slyly re-try Mr Salmond and paint him as a guilty man who cheated justice, and to drag up salacious details of the allegations in an effort to smear him in front of the cameras.
We believe Alex Salmond will be more than equal to the task.
You can watch the evidence session in a variety of ways:
– streamed live on Scottish Parliament TV
– broadcast and streamed on BBC Parliament (Freeview channel 232, Sky 504)
– broadcast and streamed on Sky News (Freeview channel 233, Sky 501)
(we would be surprised if this coverage was uninterrupted)
– on Scotland Speaks
Let justice be done. It is long overdue.
LET JUSTICE BE DONE AND SEEN TO BE DONE!
Good luck Alex.
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
? Mark Twain
I hope the Scottish Parliament video player doesnt jump all over the shop today like usual!
Thank you for the viewing links. Difficult to find elsewhere with a comment on another blog asking for links was told, “It’s behind closed doors”.
Let justice be done indeed. The very best of luck to you Alex.
Is Scotland a banana republic? It is certainly naive and unsophisticated.
Look how good the UK Government does corruption. They do it effortlessly. They are so cool.
Scotland should learn from Priti Patel and from the whole Johnson cabinet.
First 15 minutes (and every 15 afterwards) will be Fabiani reminding Everyone of limited scope given redactions. Cue “Strike that!” Repeated Loud and often
My thoughts and good wishes are with Alex Salmond today! may his testimony give them all what they deserve! Good luck Alex we stand with you!
Sturgeon’s on-going attempts to undermine the rule of law and destabilise trust and belief in the trial by jury system, which she has done repeatedly on live television and elsewhere, prove that she is not a fit and proper person for public office.
It really is that simple.
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
Or give answers in parliament such as “To the very best of my knowledge, I do not think that that happened.” when questioned about a meeting you previously could not recall even happened.
I hope justice will prevail, but not getting my hopes up.
Every Scottish newspaper headline is anti Alex and sympathetic to St Nic. That tells us all we need to know.
It is akin to Daniel in the lion’s den, but he has truth on his side. An honourable man.
We’re rooting for you Alex.
The time is now.
Let Alex Salmond call out the vile corruption that sits at the heart of this rotten Scottish Government.
Our cause, or right to a fair, just and honest society is our right.
I applaud utterly Alex Salmond and all those who have supported the cause of decency. I for one wish him all the very very best as the world watches him address the shabby enquiry committee which has, save for some exceptions, tried every which way to restrict exposure of the rot at the heart of our government.
And now the world watches.
Praying for integrity and decency from all members of the committee.
You’re right, of course, that the inquiry will do what they can to stymie the evidence (although I actually have more faith in the unionists). But I still think what he presents will be enough to topple the conspirators. We finally have the media in London interested, which I’m sure NS was hoping could be avoided. Will the repercussions be enough to save the SNP from the woko harem crowd? We shall see…
Bon courage à notre ami.
Allez!
Judging by Twitter ( i know) there is no appetite for Sturgeon resigning.
Will that remain should some gruesome truths arise today and over next week?
Mr Murrell hasnt been seen much lately eh..still at the shops?
Someone used a chess analogy the other day, with Alex Salmond thinking three moves ahead. They’d probably do well not to try and draw him into a long game. Feels like checkmate is not far off.
Good luck Alex. We all know you can run rings around the very best of them. You’re the smarter, better person. However, I see nasty Nicola and her criminal cabal pulling out all the stops and launching hurdle after hurdle at you. I’m a great believer of karma and believing the truth will out. You will get your justice Sir, one way or another and we have your back.
Honestly don’t know how this is going to turn out. Genuinely nervous and worried for Alex Salmond.
The newspaper headlines for the next few day are going to be horrendous I fear.
Whats most bizzare is that he is the victim of this botched inquiry, yet he will be treated with the most disdain out of all of those who have appeared.
Wishing Mr Salmond the best of luck. For some reason I think he’ll need it.
The very best of luck to you Mr Salmond. I have no doubt they will try and stymie you at every turn, but I don’t think any of them are really up to the task.
I think Alex will be there with his own plan, and if it goes as we suspect it might I don’t think that will be the end of it. After all he is a master tactician so never write him off. Maybe next week after the FM has had her say, he might have more to say on his behalf.
I feel for Alex and his wife. What they have been put through is absolutely hellish. Truth will out now. Too many MSM bods on the story now.
The most accomplished Scottish parliamentarian of his generation and he will wipe the floor with them.
I have confidence in Jackie Baillie to ask the right questions in a measured and calm way.
4-hours is a long time for lightweights like Wightman to keep their nerve. Salmond has done it before, many times.
Every major UK paper is watching and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was headline on BBC News tonight….not BBC Scotland, of course….that will be school exam results or the weather.
@Rev Stu
Slightly O/T, but was just wondering if you know what this “big news” coming in the next few weeks @jeggit is referring to in his recent posts is all about?
(insert stroking chin emoji)
https://twitter.com/Jeggit/status/1365055411292950541
As is not on trial.
AS is not on trial.
AS is not on trial.
But Scotland is.
Those committee members are representing the nation and there will be a global audience.
They had better perform as the country expects.
If certain members of the committee decide to distract, deflect, and ‘fillibuster’, that will be noted and will be interpreted as a conscious attempt to PREVENT ‘justice’ being done.
If the inquiry is a genuine attempt to understand what went wrong and why, party allegiances should not come into play. If they do, it will be an insult to our attempts to build a modern progressive independent state.
The Scottish political system is now under scrutiny. Good may come of this.
But I fear that the opposite may also be true and we will become a laughing stock.
At least the committee members will be able to sustain themselves on the plentiful supply of bananas available.
https://www.tns2019.org/new-blog-1/2021/2/25/it-became-tribal-it-became-lord-of-the-flies
The most accomplished Scottish parliamentarian of his generation and he will wipe the floor with them.
I have confidence in the MSP for Dumbarton to ask the right questions in a measured and calm way.
4-hours is a long time for the intellectual lightweights to keep their nerve. Salmond has done it before, many times.
Every major UK paper is watching and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was headline on BBC News tonight….not BBC Scotland, of course….that will be school exam results or the weather.
F?at j?stitia ruat cælum
In its current form the SNP is absolutely finished.
The independence movement is not however finished. Never again should we allow one party, one corrupt cabal to seize power. Our movement will see to that.
The wind is with us. The time is now. A new and reinvigorated movement is standing ready to move. Honest and true candidates are preparing to stand forward to replace those utterly corrupt or too complacent to do anything rather than stand idly by.
Sturgeon and the cabal must go, and go now. There is an election and independence to be won. Let no one make any mistake about that.
‘We are sorry, but due to technical issues we are unable to broadcast Mr. Salmond’s appearance before the committee.’
Private citizen Alex Salmond, at his own expense, will attempt to do the job that the Scottish people pay their parliament to do.
However, thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money will have been spent by the SNP government to train the SNP committee convener and the SNP committee members (plus Andy Wightman) to block this democratic process of the Scottish parliament.
Was Salmond’s full unredacted evidence released?
Thanks Wings for the Links.
That’s me showered and shaved, and to calm my nerves I’ve spent the last hour on YouTube watching Jacqueline du Pre [cellist] playing Schubert’s Trout Quintet where the Trout doesn’t take the Bait and teases the fisherman and his hook. The trout wins and gaily swims upstream unharmed.!
Here’s to Alex today , We’re with you all the way .
#IstandwithAlexSalmond
And special thanks especially to Rev Stuart Campbell , Craig Murray and all the other bloggers for their honesty and integrity and for believing in Alex .
For Alex
It is the lion’s den.
Alex Salmond has been very courageous and supremely dignified from the start of his horrific ordeal to the present day.
I cant see him changing now. Courage comes from conviction, from speaking the truth.
(My prediction today is for Fabiani to be particularly loathsome, from farce to fangs.)
I am not a believer, but I am going to try it today and pray the committee has a sense of decency. I don’t feel the opposition will be too hostile towards AS, it is NS who is under scrutiny more than AS.
“I got entangled in my own data, and my conclusion directly contradicts the original idea from which I start. Starting from unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism. I will add, however, that apart from my solution of the social formula, there can be no other.”
? Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons
David Lyon says:
26 February, 2021 at 11:32 am
Was Salmond’s full unredacted evidence released?
…but not the fearless committee.
‘Mr MacAskill told Sky News he thought individuals at the Crown Office had “acted inappropriately” during the saga, and said “lines had been crossed” by the prosecution service into political matters.’
This is all we need to know and understand. This is the root cause of this melt-down. A failure by the Crown Office – not the first, by a long way.
Scotland has been let-down by those it trusts to protect us.
The Grauniad today, referring to those “brave women”. Remarkable how the establishment still portray an innocent man as guilty and don’t seem bothered by appalling corruption at the highest level.
The science denying green wokist Lorna Sclater on Sky News spouting some right pish at the moment.
I like to believe that the truth will be enough but I know it isn’t always so. However a jury realised the truth, so I’m hoping this is televised enough for the country to learn the truth. Sturgeon is an utter bully . I cannot find the interview but in 2014/15 she was asked if she thought Mr Salmond would try to interfere with her Governance because he had been so centre stage and her response was
‘Alex would never do anything to hurt me’
It MUST hurt Mr Salmomd that a woman who had so much trust in his behaviour towards her would be so dreadfully betrayed by him. More than anything, I wish him well. this must be a terrible strain on him.
I think everyone should be reminded of what Sturgeon said about Mr Salmond in September 2014.
“Alex Salmond’s achievements as SNP leader and Scotland’s First Minister are second to none.
“He led the SNP into government and has given our country a renewed self confidence.
“Through policies such as the council tax freeze, free prescriptions and the scrapping of tuition fees, he has made a real difference for hundreds of thousands of Scots.
“And yesterday he inspired 1.6 million of our fellow citizens to vote Yes to independence.
“The personal debt of gratitude I owe Alex is immeasurable. He has been my friend, mentor and colleague for more than 20 years. Quite simply, I would not have been able to do what I have in politics without his constant advice, guidance and support through all these years.”
– NICOLA STURGEON MSP
Last updated Tue 23 Sep 2014
People must remember that however well Mr Salmond manages this afternoon, it does NOT alter the fact that he is an innocent man who has been traduced by a harridan
I think the majority of the ‘inquiry’ members will simply pack the goalmouth-oh and that includes the referee. The fix has already gone in multiple times-they don’t need to score a goal ,simply to stop Mr Salmond from ‘nodding one in’.
I don’t think he has a celluloid cat-in-hell’s chance, but I hope without much confidence that he gets whatever passes for justice in Scotland these days
Welcome to Indy
Alex good luck.
There is not much to say but good luck Alex, there are a good many people supporting you today and in the hope that you will return to public life in the future.
Nicola Sturgeon is the focus of this inquiry – as long as a couple of the committee stick to that principle then all shall be well.
Anyone with half a brain can work out what they despots are trying to hide. We see you – the emperor has no clothes.
Good luck to Alex. You’re a good man.
Anyone else feeling a bit sick? ?
Lorna Slater (green) and Daniel Johnson (SLab) on Sky still promoting the idea that AS might be not guilty but he is bad anyway. Shocking.
Alaisdair Adam ( Na h-Eileanan an Iar) and Stuart MacMillan (Greenock and Inverclyde) are the two SNP MSPs standing for re-election.
Just to let you know – in case they let us down.
@Caroline Wilson
He faced a judge and jury and was acquitted. The Committee know we are watching and will judge them.
But yes, I still feel for him – but remember it is AS, and he knows how useless Fabiani is, he sacked her after all!
A man’s a man for a’ that. We’re with you Alex, a true patriot. Best wishes today … and hoping for a much brighter future for you, and Scotland ???????
” For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Like others I’m wary of expecting too much from this afternoon , just hoping Alex is allowed to say enough to administer the coup de grace to this travesty of an administration , put the record straight , clear-out the dross and maybe then we can refocus all our energies on the only goal worth striving for , the Independence of our nation .
Best wishes big yin , take them OOT
Alex the Iceberg is about to come into full view for the Titan ‘Nic’ and its too late to change course now folks.
I can see the Parliament TV livestream being overloaded. Still, we’ll get edited highlights on the news tonight. They’ll no doubt be interesting…
He is going into the vipers nest and is already denied the ability to tell the whole truth with these redactions that conceals the real culprits. The farce continues!!!! I hope he can shed some daylight on the darks arts of NS and her inner circle. But he’s hamstrung on what he can say . So all I can do is say that the people who believe in truth, justice and integrity are right behind him.
As for NS she should rot in hell along with her co-conspirators
McLaurin @ 11:07
That quote is frequently used by Judge Judy Sheindlin.
If only she could replace Fibby Annie.
If the gadgie Cole Hamilton starts gan on aboot quines being harassed and failures to help them it’ll mak yi boak.
Cole Hamilton kens a’ aboot fit it feels like tae harass quines.
I can’t agree with the comment that everyone on the committee will be against Alex , the planted SNP nodding heads yes that is obvious they are there to deflect attention away from Nicola Sturgeon and her government , well we all know her government fkd up that’s not in question and it’s cost all of us over half a million quid to find out they fkd up despite attempts to block the information that’s had to be extracted from the people who know , they are still attempting to hide all the information they know exists .
I believe the prize of Nicola Sturgeons head will overcome any dislike of Alex I believe the plan will be to give Alex every opportunity to put the boot in , her downfall kills 3 birds with one Stone
1 bring Sturgeon down and Indy takes a fatal hit
2 finally make sure Alex doesn’t return because of his long association with the SNP guilt by association
3 make sure the two above are linked together 1-2 making highly unlikely to believe the SNP and any Independence movement are fit to run a country ,
This whole Pantomime whatever the outcome is not going to be a guaranteed selling point for Independence not just this year but possibly years to come , I might be prejudiced in Alex’s favour but I place all this fiasco at Nicola Sturgeons feet she owns the whole shit show . Happy Nicola ?
“Alex Salmond will attempt to tell the people of Scotland the truth about what happened to him in the last two years”
It is not just two years, Stu. These scum of the earth have been playing dirty against him since at least 2017. That is over 3 years ago. Let’s not give these cockroaches any leeway nor decrease the torment and grief they put this man through for the only sins of being a good politician and having Scotland’s interests at heart.
“Whatever comes out of these gates we’ve got a better chance of survival if we work together”...
Have to hand it to Mr Salmond, he’s prepared to go out there on his own, in the most hostile environment of his life – when Gladiator was team-handed and had warriors on either side of him to back him up.
But then, Mr Salmond has the power of truth, and right, on his side – that’s the man for Scotland!
Its a two-for-the-price-of-one for the unionists
Damaging Salmond
While damaging Sturgeon for damaging Salmond
We Scots owe such a debt of gratitude to Alex. I hope and believe that my thanks, good wishes and positive energy can travel across the seas and help him to get through this part of the nightmare. Truth, honour and honesty will prevail. Courage.
I don’t think the 4 members from non SNP party will be hostile to Alex , I think they will want him to get as much truth out as possible
But 100% agree Fabiani will do her very best to close down everything as she has done so throughout this enquiry.
Hud it gaun min. Have at her!
One of the very few benefits of the Covid pandemic, and the resulting lockdowns, shielding, furlough, working from home, and other restrictions, has been that those so-inclined have been able to watch, listen, and read everything relating to the ‘Harassment’ committee’s work.
A small group of us started doing this during the build up to the Judiscial Review.
Until then, none of us knew who or what to think or believe.
We were, and still are active SNP members, but only because we support our local candidate.
That could easily change after 6th May.
We’ve missied nothing – the JR, the criminal trial- where we must thank blogs like ‘Wings’ – and those of Dangerfield, Lawson, Murray, and (sorry Stu), Kelly.
There are others, and every one is saying much the same thing.
A few media columnists also also started to see what we were seeing as event unfolded.
We watched every minute of the committee’s evidence sessions, and talked about the witnesses once we’d also read the ‘official reports'(we also spotted a few ‘redactions’ there too).
Every letter and response was studied, as was all the written evidence.
We’ve been reviewing much of this evidence in recent weeks, and spotted the same thing Iain Lawson has said very recently !
Basically, as more evidence appeared (or didn’t, which is every but as relevant), we discussed things on Zoom and other platforms, and a few months ago we concluded that Alex Salmond was the victim of a shocking, high level political/criminal conspiracy, the likes of which none of us has ever witmessed before in UK politics, and two of our wee group are pushing 70 (the youngest is early 30’s).
We’ll all be watching today, knowing that ‘the Scottish establishment’ has prevented Salmond from being able to tell ‘the whole truth’, and ‘nothing but the truth’.
And we’ll also be vert aware that many, possibly most of the other witnesses (including those who managed to avoid appearing in person and taking an oath) took the same oath, and then told ‘nothing like the truth’ !!
He’s not going to judged by anyone.
Salmond is about to skelp their pusses.
Just under a year ago Alex was battling for truth and justice as well as his own liberty outnumbered by odds of nine to one and he prevailed. Today he faces another nine – and he will win through again.
In all our efforts to defend a man who has been victimised and subjected to an almighty fit up and conspiracy designed to destroy his reputation and imprison him please never allow the unionist narrative to dominate. Talk of ‘banana republics’ is rank hypocrisy from a stinking, decaying and decomposing corpse of British unionism. These bastards are the ones presiding over a banana monarchy resplendent with butcher’s aprons and the brazen criminality which was confirmed in the London High Court last week involving literally billions of pounds worth of Covid19 contracts awarded to shell companies, unsuitable companies and useless companies all with one common denominator – their links to Tory cabinet members and senior politicians and consistent donations to the Tory party. When Hopeless Matt Hancock is behind bars for a series of criminal actions unionist fuckers can point the finger at us. Until then they can keep their stupid, hypocritical narratives to themselves because regardless of our real problems their union is withering on the vine and will not last. Boris Johnson is despised and the desire for Scottish independence is bigger and broader than any one party or individual. The Tories are guilty of ‘social murder’ and consistent criminality but their poodle and lickspittle MSN turn a blind eye. We shouldn’t. We must keep our eye on the big cause. Expose the British unionists as the criminals, hypocrites and charlatans they are https://sptnkne.ws/FzAw
So Alex turns up.
The Committee try to gag him, by refusing to let him refer to the truth as per his written submission given under oath.
Alex politely turns on his heel and takes his leave.
Outside he has the whole of the world press waiting, who have allocated 4 hrs, waiting for his full truthful statement.
At the end.
Pull pin walk away.
Cat well and truly out of the bag for all to see and hear.
Await meltdown!!!
Andy Ellis at 11:29 am
Slightly O/T, but was just wondering if you know what this “big news” coming in the next few weeks @jeggit is referring to in his recent posts is all about?
Ah, Jeggit, the wee bugger – he’s done this previously. Whatever the hell it is, I hope it’s not a selfie in a Mankini..
Alex Salmond is there to tell the truth. The committee chair is there to stop him. I predict it will all end in tears and the hearing will have to be abandoned.
Let Justice be done or the Heavens fall! As Jim Garrison said. And when justice is done the LA and NS should step down! They have made a farce of justice law and TRANSPARENCY. What a nerve Sturgeon had to dare Alex to prove the evidence that SHE HID via redaction. The Indy supporters backing her to really should take a hard look at what she has done because it is abuse of power corruption deception and lie after lie. She has disgraced justice and integrity and MUST STEP DOWN to stop this embarrassment of our nation. The Irreverent Stu Campbell has done a great service to real rather than supine journalism in Scotland with this blog! If I was outside the parliament to day I would have a banner saying LIES FOR JOBS ROLL UP MAKE IT UP GET PROMOTED! alex should have been welcomed back into the SNP and he WILL and SHALL fulfil the dream he said that would never die. I will vote Indy when he is back at the helm rather than the ACTOR who has used the Yes camp as her vanity mirror and never meant a word of it. Utter treachery of the worst kind to a man who gifted her the job.
Unfortunately, many people have made up their minds regardless of what they hear from Alex today, they will take what is said out of context to reinforce their contorted version of what they believe happened and will happily blame the victim for what has happened.
Under no circumstances will they apportion any blame to Nicola Sturgeon. She is a deity to them and so infallible.
Amen Tommy
Ignore all the Spec op posters talking shite and attempting to belittle Scotland.
It’s a shit time but it will be over soon enough.
BREAKING:
Former First Minister Alex Salmond will not be able to attend today’s hearing after all its members were eaten by a family of bears.
“Och it was terrible,” said a bystander, Fraser Murdoch, who bears a striking resemblance to Murdo Fraser but has a large novelty moustache. “The bears just came and ate them all so it looks like we won’t be able to hear Salmond’s evidence after all”.
A spokesman for one of the bears, [redacted], said that they would regurgitate the MSPs, but only once the Scottish Parliament has been dissolved for the election.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said this was just another cynical ploy by Mr. Salmond to demean the experiences of man-eating bears. She added that Salmond was a fat old lech, Joanna Cherry has nae mates, Kenny Macaskill is a KGB plant, and that she didn’t want to talk about the subject because she was focussed on covid.
Now, to more serious matters, BBC Scotland heads to a ten-minute feature on how more and more Scots aren’t putting butter on their morning toast. Our special investigations team find out more”.
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just:
That his justice cannot sleep forever.”
Can I have a link for the Burns room in the Scottish Parliament?
Thanks in advance. I want to see Alex in the committee giving his account of harassment.
A very fair assessment of events and analysis from James Matthews on Sky just now, alluding to the timing of the complaints and his possible comeback.
The things you find yourself saying…
Wonder how long Fabiani and the rest of the SNP members have been doing their Lawyer prep and have their question sheets ready to go. If it were anyone else but Alex Salmond you might worry they would struggle but if he on his game and isn’t interrupted every two seconds by Fabiani it should get interesting.
Committee Room 1 – https://www.scottishparliament.tv/channel/committee-room-1
Kiwilassie, Stu posted a bunch of links for video in the article
Fucking disgrace of a man Aly Smith on Sky news basically saying “even though Alex Salmond was found not guilty he is still guilty anyway”
Like or loathe Mr Salmond this type of unchallenged utter horse shit from a prick like him is what is ruining the reputaion of our judiciary and parliament not Alex Salmond !
A Person. 12.02.
Pot Noodle sprayed all over laptop.
Thanks for that.
@ Mr Bruce Hosie
Aye, and questions no doubt provided by Brillo Enterprises Inc.
Come on Alex!
I know who I want to be standing when we reach the end of the day and it isnae NS.
Amazing how many people have just become interested in this procedure and mistakenly believe that Alex is just an arrogant philanderer, yesterday’s man who can’t bear being out of the news. Also, amazing how many people know someone who knows a woman who worked for Alex and said ‘ he was all over them”.
Well, let’s hope the truth will win and maybe,just maybe, these people will see for the first time how they have been lied to and manoeuvred for someone else’s gains.
Good luck Alex.
The horrendous Garavelli, some churnalist from London, still lying through their teeth.
If things go well for AS, I think some of the sycophants will start distancing themselves from the FM.
That is, the ones who only care about their careers.
We can only wait..
.
Andrew gordon says:
26 February, 2021 at 12:09 pm
Fucking disgrace of a man Aly Smith on Sky news
—-
Aye, whats he doing there anyway?
He’s the MP for Stirling not an MSP, it’s no his place of work!
Lockdown anyone?!?
Should Nicola remain anonymous? Asking for a friend…
I should have looked at the opening posts before asking for a link. I hope one of them will work for me in NZ.
It’s Saturday morning here. 1: 14 am.
I most probably will sleep all day tomorrow while the sun is shining . “Smiling “
Kiwiklassie
see the top of the thread above – the Rev has listed 4 links for watching the hearing and you may need to try more than one in case some of the links crash.
Very best of luck Alex from ALL true Scots independence supporters who are not interested in being part of a clique but purely and totally believe in independence for our beautiful country and people
That beautiful country and people ONLY want honesty and integrity from people we elect not corruption and lies
I think we are going to be entertained by the Basil Fawlty tribute act today
It’s going to become evident with a few wee tweaks you will start to notice some changes
Don’t mention the WAR will be changed to don’t mention Nicola all together now pay attention.
Don’t mention Nicola
Don’t mention Nicola
Don’t mention Nicola
Now have we all got it , your job and pension depends on it Don’t mention Nicola
Sounds bleedn stupid but what do I know
So far so good – got access to Committee Room 1 at just after 12:25
Thoughts and prayers it all goes as it should for AS….these bustards will do anything to protect sturgeon.
I agree, Alex is equal to the task. He’s the greatest political communicator of his generation. Plus he has truth and justice on his side, always a bonus.
I nearly forgot white waiting for the show to start
Go for the fkn Throat Alex don’t hold back drag her name through the same shit as she’s dragged yours she didn’t hold back yesterday so return the compliment in spades
Oh here we go
“Alaisdair Adam ( Na h-Eileanan an Iar) and Stuart MacMillan (Greenock and Inverclyde) are the two SNP MSPs standing for re-election.”
You mean (Dr) Alistair Allan, who was Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy when she ran the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association back in the 1990s?
Allan was appointed only in July 2020 to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints.
Courage mon brave!!!
something tells me the live-feed will experience
“technical difficulties”
at some point, for some reason and for some time.
we should run a book on it.
Has it started? None of the links above working.
there she goes, there she goes again
linda fabiani’s hair played bass for the “scream” (primals) in the mid 90s
moan then!
Go onto the guardian site, they have a live feed skip
Seconds out round 1
Right Alex get stuck in go for it
I wonder how long it will take for the referee to intervene ?
Alex . Wishing you all the best. I left Scotland in 1969 so didn’t know of you when I lived there. I have done a lot of research since your Indy Ref in 2014 & have looked into your whole career.
You are a good man. A son of Scotland. In my eyes, by what I’ve learned of you, you are a legend.
You will win this battle. Truth will always come out.
How could Nicola do this to you, when you treated her like a daughter & was the person to hand over the golden challis & respected party to her.. If it wasn’t for you she wouldn’t have achieved the position of being First Minister.
She got there clinging onto your coat tails.
I recon the only mistake you made in politics, was to hand your succession down to this woman.
Tv lagging about 30s behind Internet…..
Big Eck not holding back!
Fkin hell, going by his opening statement this should be good!
I can’t bear to watch. My very good wishes to Mr Salmond though. I’ll come back for the reactions of those brave enough to watch.
Tommy Sheridan – word bro .
Give those gloating hypocrites precisely fuck all .
This is Scotland’s business and Scotland will sort it out , one way or another
This is making the Tories happy if nothing else, just sayin’.
But I tell you, all this stuff is doing Wings’ viewing figures no harm!???
.
TNA2019,
Thanks for that quote…
As is not on trial.
AS is not on trial.
AS is not on trial.
But the Scottish Parliament is.
(Last sentence, my words).
Alex, please enjoy you say and some justice today.
Fabiani doesn’t matter. History will judge her whitewash.
Alex, PLEASE be aware, just as this FRAUD of a whitewash committee is, as Stuart Campbell eloquently puts it, a room full of entirely hostile people, they don’t matter that much.
For the benefit of an honourable and decent man, the Rt. Hon. Alex Salmond, there are processes, legal and otherwise outwith the Fabiani Whitewash Committee NOW UNDER WAY that will assist in bringing the Scottish Parliament, the Clown Office and the McWoke SNP back into GOOD REPUTE.
In other words Alex, whatever happens today, many of us outside this Fabiani arena, have your back.
What happened to Nicola Sturgeon is tragic. That she stabbed you in the back is disgusting.
What she and her turncoats have done have aged you 20 years when comparing photos of you in 2014 to today.
ALEX, WE HAVE YOUR BACK.
Now I just heard you utter the much sought words…
Today that changes….
And Alex begins his evdidence after remaining respectfully silent for so many months.
Today will lift our hearts. But I suspect will also make many of us sad as well.
@Tommy Sheridan
I agree with you 100% that talking about Scotland being a banana republic in the context of the UK is laughable.
But there might be more depth to this plot yet. We are only half way of uncovering it. We don’t know what else is being hidden out there. We might find in time that this plot was devised south of the border for a takeover of Holyrood or they simply took advantage half way to exploit the situation.
In any case, something is interesting about November 2017. There are an awful lot of politicians in the UK that were conveniently targeted around this point (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Westminster_sexual_misconduct_allegations). Coincidence? I would think not.
There appears to be some parallels in the modus operandi of the the botched case brought against Mr Salmond and the way Mr Sargent’s case was handled. In both cases the “accused” was not informed of the allegations, they were kept in the dark, they were not allowed to defend themselves properly, the press quickly took over as if they were in a hurry to make it public and there was some aprehension for judicial reviews, suggesting that the orchestrators were not confident with their own procedure.
Mr Sargent’s family brought a judicial review into the case that led him to his death because there were perceived irregularities. This was quickly shot down by an “agreement” and payment to the family.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/carl-sargeant-faced-allegations-of-inappropriate-touching-and-groping-before-his-death-his-family-say-a3685556.html
Around the end of November 2017 there was another labour politician who also took on his own life due to harassment allegations. It seems this expedition was going too far. It remains to be explored why all these people were really targeted.
Are we seriously expected to believe Sturgeon and her team of amnesiac and rather incompetent civil servant plotters were operating solo and in parallel of this UK wide fishing expedition that targeted all these people at the time, or would it be far more plausible to think that this was in fact part of that UK wide operation and Mr Salmond had already been targeted as one of the scalps to be won in November 2017 as was Carl Sargent?
We should never underestimate how far the British state is prepared to go to retain control over Scotland’s assets.
Meg merrilees says:
26 February, 2021 at 12:15 pm
Conversley, I have a young attractive female relative who worked for the SNP at Holyrood and found him to be the perfect gentleman.
Ha ha ever a showman brilliant start and showing he’s not going to be pushed around especially from the chair
Nice try Mrs but No Cigar dear
Fabiani’s first question completely pointless and time wasting.
Did Mitchell actually ask a question in all of that ambling narrative?
He’s light years ahead of them:-)
Just shows you what a bloody loss to the Independence movement Alex is
We are lumbered with a very very poor substitute not just poor but fkn useless
‘We shouldn’t confuse institutional failure with personnel’
‘Some consequence should follow after unlawful conduct’
the parliament feed seems to have a slight DELAY wrt the BBC feed
fabiani’s first Q is baroque, technical – where is the landmine
mitchell #1 – debating society civics question
AS comes out smoking – but is the committee doing rope a dope?
ask boring questions, run the clock down (then ambush later)
I see – trying to make him look like HE set up the complaints procedure, then it bit HIM in the arse
Tommy Sheridan no disrespect mate but this isn’t about you stop trying to derail our anger.
How good is it to listen to a grown-up who knows what he is talking about? He is light years ahead of the pygmies governing us just now.
Going to have a break at 2.15 to disinfect the place, if they had of got rid of 5 members of the committee that would have cleaned the place up no end
Jeez. I hope they’re not going to spend 4 hours on irrelevant questions.
Pygmies attacking him but he is handling it well. Gaun yersel Alex
Watt just handed her arse!
Margaret Mitchell shops in Tesco when there is a M&S Food Hall across the road.
Watt just shot herself in the foot.
Maureen Watts trying to match wits with Alex Salmond.:-)
Maureen Watt is attempting aggression – let’s see
As someone who has not really followed Scottish politics, I’m finding his testimony fascinating. Seeing a human being rather than a politician. Keeping taking things back to the facts of the matter.
Section 1 this policy covers bullying and harassment….
I rest my case, your Honour.
and the first point goes to Alex Salmond….
Maureen Watt showing why she was not fit for his government, She has arrived carrying a lot of baggage.
@holymacmoses – He’s swatting her aside like a troublesome fat midgie.
I’m not a great fan of AS, but I must say it is great to see and hear him again.
We have arsehole number 2, James Wolffe, to look forward to on Monday.
I can’t believe even now, that folk are pointing the finger south of the border for this whole mess until we look inward and fix this mess, and bring the country TOGETHER then we will never have peace.
This is Scotland’s problem. It’s our mess and ours to fix. Time people grew up and tried to move forward.
How thick is Maureen Watt?
Asking irrelevant hypothetical questions.
Who on earth is this watt she’s about as bright as a 2waty bulb
Jeez oh Maureen Watt totally out of her depth, floundering and clearly getting frustrated as Alex Salmond runs rings roundabout her.
Mo Watt is likely to be like a member convenor who is likely to be total twit.
I am watching a snp MSP attempting to land a blow and missing by miles not only missing she’s looking bloody stupid and Alex is attempting to educate her , oh fkn shut up yah stupid fkn idiot and least if you shut yer gob we can give you the benefit of the doubt ,
Question do we actually pay this fkn idiot ?
Christ the bar must be set really low if this idiot managed to sneak in ffs
Watching today’s Holyrood Committee. Maureen Watt’s questioning is hostile, if not disrespectful in manner. Salmond staying dignified against her slimy insinuations about his behaviour years ago. Someone should tell her this is not a rerun of the trial or is she too thick to understand that.
Is Maureen Watt saying the previous process was flawed because of AS? She seems incapable of addressing the flaws of the policy that is the subject of the inquiry!
Maureen Watt is trying to try Mr Salmond
That Maureen Watt needs to shut her stupid mouth now. What an idiot .
Watt appears to be doubling down on the “me too” side of things here. Now citing opinion poll which isn’t the most reliable of guides. And now she goes low and dirty.
oh! watt oversteps – the temptation to RE-TRY him over things he has been cleared of – that is a FOUL
Maureen Watt is failing miserably in an attempt to look smart!
I am so ANGRY. Alex has been put through hell and seeing it in his face just drives it home. It’s absolutely disgusting what has happened to him.
Apart from being the leading politician of his time he ain’t alone in that chamber. He has the truth on his side.
He will prevail. Meantime the snp is being run by a group of mendacious, political pygmies.
Unlock the West Gate, Alex. “For you’ve no seen the last o my bonnets and me”.
Oh and ps Maureen watt. Shame on you.
And the first foul goes to the Scottish Government… shame on you Maureen Watts.
Good. Salmond put Watt back in her box. Should’ve seen her face.
Maureen Watt: what a c*nt. To think I voted for that mess.
Ffs . Here comes another fecking eegit Cole Hamilton, jesus wept.
Cole Hamilton being a fanny!
Cole-Hamilton playing to the big audience.
Good for Fabiani, putting the rodent Cole Hamilton in his place. Both the SNP and unionist sides of this committee are attacking Salmond, and she’s stamping down on it hard.
what a slimeball alex cole is
What a weasel Cole-Hamilton is.
The witch hunt continues. Brazenly in front of the cameras too.
Shouting at my laptop now. Cole-Hamilton needs thrown off the committee. Even Fabiani is slapping the twisted bastard down
Fucking disgrace, these questions!
Cole Hamilton – what a diddy; if you want to get aggressive, you cannot go at it like that; even Fabbyanny slaps him down
“never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man”
Mr Cole Hamilton was THERE when Mr Salmond was around – why is he asking this?
Alex Salmond delivering a masterclass on why reactive governance to Twitter trends leads to disaster.
That Maureen Watt and Alex Cole-Hamilton appear to need Salmond to not only spoonfeed them, but go “Here comes the big aeroplane – neeeeoooowww!” is an indictment of the level of political pigmies on parade today.
Did Cole-Hamilton not bother reading the remit of today’s committee? Or has he put in a special please of “the dog ate it, miss”?
ach being utterly despicable!
What is this session about again ? Is it a trial ? The convener should have intervened immediately and stopped this smearfest.
Fuck me. Cole Hamilton putting Salmond on trial again.
Christ! Who is the eejit Cole – Hamilton ? Do folk vote for him? or is he another Murdo Fraser? Backdoor MSP?
Fk if I thought the previous idiot was pushing it
Co Hamfist has now been warned twice
A real surprise is the convener has noticed low blows being attempted he just doesn’t get it he is following a line of questions that are way outside his competence in other words drop the fkn bone it’s not in the remit , this clown is way out of order .
Watt = embarrassing
C-H = enbarrassing
AS = decent human being
Thus far
Alex Cole Hamilton attempting to lead off a tangent about Alec Salmond temper. Hamilton an arse licking Tory stooge.
Alex lining up his ducks now. Evans, Murrell etc. Bring it on.
Get Cole-Hamilton TF
So far Alex is a great lion taimer.
With Alex Cole-Hamilton being well put back in the box.
Happy with Linda Fabiani trying to keep Hamilton on track.
I look forwards to AS coming out clean with the cabal in serious trouble
Why according to what Fabiani said at the beginning civil servants cannot be addressed by name?
Alex Salmond needs to tell A C Hamilton to eff off .
Absolutely outrageous enquiry seeking to rerun the court cases, seeking to blacken Alex Salmond.
Cole Hamilton is an a sute animal. All over the place trying to smear. Ditto Maureen Watt. Snarling pygmies.
Alec Salmond by comparison comes across very very well.
Liam Fox yes that little uncle Tam bastard is saying in Westminster that the Westminster parliament may need to step in at Holyrood because of the Nicole Sturgeon Affair.
Given the line of questioning so far I have even less faith in a fair outcome of this committee. I’m unsure they’re ever going to move beyond the Fair work policy – just spin that and smears out for four hours.
AS playing with Wightman as a cat plays with a mouse.
Well so far the committee’s questions have been one of slurring Alex Salmond or wandering off the into areas where the committee has no remit.
I’m loving the way Alex sees what direction their line of questioning is leading to and tailors his answer to bring it back under his control. A master politician!
Cole-Hamilton seeking a soundbite and public flogging.
How do these people get elected? How is someone like that allowed to be involved in making laws? It is staggering. He is completely inept.
So Andy Wightman has papers that no other member of the committee has seen:-)
Can I just say to cole hamilton what he said to Maree Todd.
How the actual fuck did Andy Shiteman get hold of a “draft letter informing former FMs of this new policy”
Fabiani says Committee hasn’t seen it?
Also if it is a “draft” men’s it was finalised and may well have not been sent.
Who is feeding Shiteman?
Also if docs not seen by committee can be discussed surely G Aberdeins evidence can now openly be discussed?
Sauce for the goose and all that!
alex Salmond must be wondering what’s he’s done to be sitting answering banal questions from the like of arsecole-hamilton and shiteman.
As Wightman’s letter wasn’t presented to the committee beforehand, is it allowable as any form of evidence?
If the draft letter hasnt been published, how can he refer to it ??
slight curveball from wightman there
Alex Cole Hamilton – what a muppet! Made Wightman look articulate and intelligent!
What the hell is Alistair Allan on about? Salmond wasn’t attacking the committee, he was exonerating it. This is a hatchet job.
Jeez.
One numpty after another trying to have their ‘Rumpole’ moment today. Bunch of absolute amateurs.
What exactly is being examined again here?!
Well done Mr S for keeping cool.
idiotic or insulting questions should be dealt with by one word answers; “fuck off”, also works (or as the kids like to say – “have sex”)
If this sly wee bunch of rats is the best we can find for the Scottish Parliament, then there is something badly wrong with our system.
Incredible, absolutely incredible, but as I watch Alex Salmond giving evidence on the BBC, the broadcaster at 13.42 is flashing up side bar quotes from the First Minister releasing a statement that Alec Salmond is making allegations without a shred of evidence.
What a fucking joke. Quite frankly if the BBC and Sturgeon are releasing statements like this as the live broadcast proceeds they need to get this we c*nt into the dock.
So before enquiry of Salmond has even finished Sturgeon is screaming that Salmond is making up allegations without not just evidence but even a ‘ shred ‘ of evidence.
Day by day Scotland’s politics becomes ever more byzantine, even ‘levantine’.
Wow, think i’ve seen a camel!
Asking the same out of order Question in a slightly different way is not really clever it just draws attention to the Questioner it doesn’t make them look smart it just makes them look fkn bloody awkward.
So far it’s ALEX way ahead on not just points but on actually blows landed Alex is so far ahead he’s playing a totally different game he’s a professional playing against a school team it’s that one sided
The snp plants have been coached and are attempting to re run the criminal trial , the snp bods wouldn’t have had the time of day in a Alex Salmond cabinet , personally I wouldn’t have them make the Tea never mind sweep the floor that’s how fkn useless they appear .
Just listening to and watching Alex Salmond is a reminder of what we’re missing.
Never heard or listened to Alex Cole-Hamilton before but he’s a complete arse.
Willie , if that is the case then Mr Salmond’s lawyers should be alerted and on to it.
Well NS and her cronies have already made sure that he couldn’t refer to the important aspects of the evidence he already submitted, which was published, then redacted…this committee is a joke.
@2pm
Salmond was raising the issue of the letter that was going to be sent out to former First Ministers about retrospectively applying the policy that was being drafted by Evans. He questions the motivations given that nothing had ever been done either the Scottish Government or any other administration within the UK.
Headshot!
Alasdair Allan is supremely thick
I thought this committe was investigating whether Sturgeon lies to parliament, because although I have only been watching for 40 mins it seems to be concentrating on slurring him.
Jeezo that Allan guy. Like someone’s half-starved and shaved Frankie Boyle.
That Alasdair Allan guy looks the type who would’ve been offering his dinner money to the school bully before being threatened for it.
I am hearing a lot of talk about Shred not a shred of whatever
All from the same source
Nicola Sturgeon
Eh maybe she’s been too involved in much of the SHREDDING I suppose if you have been doing that to cover yer arse you might keep saying Shred it Shred it the term might well stick
Jockanese Wind Talker @ 1.41 pm and others ,
“ How the actual fuck did Andy Shiteman get hold of a “draft letter informing former FMs of this new policy”
.
This is an article about the letter he’s referring to ,
“ The harassment policy at the centre of the so-called Salmond inquiry was legally dubious from the outset because none of the former ministers who could have been targeted by the policy were consulted before it was signed off by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. “
https://archive.vn/LLo6F
Alex S is warning to the task nicely – Alaster Alan’s arse has just been whipped.
Did Alan ask questions of this detail and complexity of any other witness?
No of course not because His questions have been written by someone else – probably Evans or even Wolfe…
Proper questions now from Jackie B
Run away and hide Allan, you appalling man.
Bill Mackay @ 1:00
“Tommy Sheridan no disrespect mate but this isn’t about you stop trying to derail our anger.”
I’m not sure Tommy’s remarks are about him at all, nor do I think he is trying to derail ‘our anger’ as you suggest.
Some view, as I do, that Scotland’s predicament primarily reflects our longstanding subjugation through colonial oppression; in line with this thesis it remains that independence is effectively decolonisation, according to the UN.
The UK ‘union’ is in this sense a political deception which thankfully more Scots are now starting to appreciate, not least thanks to Rev Stu and other Scottish intellectuals/bloggers. But fundamentally there is a reason for the deceitful behaviour of the British state and its agencies towards Scotland, much of which Tommy rightly alludes to, and which I would relate to our colonial reality, where deceit becomes the norm, and independence the rightful and inevitable outcome.
These and related aspects are extensively covered in my book ‘Doun-Hauden’.
I can’t fucking believe Jackie Fuckin Baillie is actually the one who apparently is going to the meat of this – and the actual remit of the Fabiani Inquiry!
Thank goodness Jacquie Baillie has now brought us back on course with a bang.
Alasdair Allan comes across as a man with a plan and selective deafness.
Anyone care to give their impression of the score right now
I think it’s 3-1 to Alex if it was a football match , if it was a boxing match then the Referee looks close to stopping the fight because the opposition are unable to mount any defence
Alf Baird no disrespect but it’s an open comments about what corruption took place inside the sco/gov,whet ever happens in the uk gov can wait and is totally not needed today.
Comment at 2:05pm in moderation Rev.
Can’t see anything contentious (maybe too sweary)!
Update on the latest score and a correction
Previous score should have been 3-0 and not 3-1
Latest score 4-0 to Alex
All these idiots want to talk about is his “behaviour”. All coached to ask the same thing.
Let’s ignore the elephant in the room that was the concerted effort by actors of the State and Government to jail him.
Why is Wightman playing with an earpiece?
So it “wasn’t” Sturgeon’s principle private secretary, who leaked the info to Clegg at the Daily Record. It must have been one of the other twenty-two suspects from the Scottish government.
McMillan – same question as Allan. They have been primed to try and show that the policy approach was legit, when it clearly has not been.
Cole Hamilton should remember “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt”
So far, they’ve not laid a glove on AS. Apart from Jackie Baillie, the moronic committee give truth to the West Indian saying ” the higher a monkey climbs the true, the more he shows his arse”.
Y’know looking around that committee table, it would appear that the only person who actually wants to get to the truth of the matter, apart from Alex Salmond, is Jackie Baillie.
I never ever thought I’d see the day that I’d be cheering on Jackie Baillie, however that day has come.
What’s really sad is that this committee should be seeking the truth and should be grateful to Mr Salmond for trying to help them. Instead there is much aggression against a man who has already been tried and found totally innocent
Question to all the SNP reps on the committee
Have you been coached in they way you are presenting your questions
Yes or No would be acceptable
That’s three times the snp bods are following the same line ” Former Ministers ” a practice not used anywhere else in the World it simply does not exist ,
They are desperate to get him to say former ministers should not be pursued.
Summary of the proceedings so far:
Salmond – masterful and in full command
Cole Hamilton – was he on drugs?? what a joker/clown
SNP MSPs – reading their notes poorly, lower that second rate. Remarkable similarity in the vocabulary of their questions – were they written by the same person for them??
Jackie Baillie – the only one that sounded she understood the case.
FFS! He is trying to say whatever policy you set it has to be legal!
The constant referrals by Watt and NS sycophants to does Alex object to a retrospective policy to include former ministers is deliberate to sway the public into thinking that he doesn’t agree with being investigated
He has to nail the fact that he doesn’t object to ANY minister being investigated current or former but it HAS to be LEGAL AND CORRECT and refer constantly that what happened PROVES that that is NOT what was being done
Sorry but the standard of snp msps is absolute rock bottom,but they have more power than the rest by numbers,they could have saved a fortune and just sent in 5 monkeys from Edinburgh zoo
So the line of enquiry is the policy came about because of ‘Me too’ not in order to nail you, Mr Salmond. These people are so stupid they cannot see that both can apply and were a convenient tool to do away with a political adversary.
ForWomenScotland have also put up my cartoon.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ForwomenScot/status/1365279801548890113?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
I cannot see how it can be legal or legitimate for an ex minister or employee to be the subject of an organisational investigation. Surely that has to be a police matter?
I am a believer. God bless you Alex! The truth will come out .
Remember Daniel in the lions den!
Did Big Eck just label this “a reputable journal”
not “botched” – UNLAWFUL
eat it
And Alex is on the attack. Got to say, he is very, very good at fighting his corner here, and is now telling Fabiani what the committee is meant to be discussing.
Twathater and Silver Darlin have nailed it. The snp MSPs are trying to besmirch him on the me-too agenda. Absolutely disgusting. They have no case. I’m so angry with the snp- this is just outrageous. He’s knocking lumps out them but their disingenuous approach has no integrity – shame on them. Sturgeon had brought them to this level of behaviour, it is unforgivable.
The standard of questions being asked makes you realise that Scotland can’t be independent with these idiots in charge. How many explanations from AS do these fools need. Its an absolute pleasure to listen to Alex, c’mon bonnets.
.
Good Lord,
Just listening Alex Salmond elegantly navigate the minefield of what Stuart Campbell has eloquently described as a place where…
“Every single person in the room will be bitterly hostile to him”
It is distressing to realise what a huge loss to Scotland it is to have Alex Salmond out of parliament.
Albeit as a private citizen who is supposed to be enjoying a hard earnt and honourable retirement.
Contrast the ability, forensic intellect, leadership and dignity of Alex Salmond with the earlier evidence session given by the petrified putrid Peter Murrell…
https://archive.is/RTWiT
We are in stark times.
What worries me is that Alex hinted in his opening statement he may not wish to return to frontline Scottish politics.
All trying to paint AS as somehow misogynist. He answers the point each time, gently reminding them the policy that was put is was unlawful and biased, ‘botched’ doesn’t even to begin to cover it. then the next questioner asks it again. All the questions about AS conduct, nothing about the Scottish Government’s illegal policy. The only exception although I hate to say it was Jackie Bailey. He is showing them all up for the stooges that they are. Pathetic.
Jackie Baillie has asked a couple of important questions. Mr Salmond is managing to get some important points over. Cole Hamilton is back to his usual moronic state and I get the distinc feeling that the SNPs there have been given the questions to ask and don’t give a fig about the answers. Andy Wightmas has papers he shouldn’t have – so much for ‘privacy’
Mr Salmond must be exhausted with all this idiocy.
I can follow clearly everything Alex is speaking about ,
I start to get cross eyed when some of these MSPs are asking questions I don’t think they even understand the shite they are spouting ,
as for the current helpful intervention quoting Westminster discussing retrospective investigation into Ministers with all due respect discussion isn’t doing , and certainly isn’t doing something that is not currently in use anywhere in the world , this retrospective legislation was implemented on the hoof and as Alex has repeatedly said done at speed , and we all know the outcome don’t we A Bill for over 5 million quid in order to get one man ,
By Christ he must really fkn terrorise them are they so shit scared of one man ?
What a pathetic excuse for a committee. Summed up brilliantly by stu.
We will in future look back at this kangaroo court and with shame see what those horrible people tried to do to Alex.
Stay strong and honourable Alex. The truth will not be concealed
Is it just me or does it feel like it’s a member of your own family up there? If it wasn’t for bloody covid there’d be thousands of us outside for him.
Whatever happens Alex, when covid is over when you come to the marches the roar from the crowd will deafen Holyrood. Hail Alba.
If anyone needs to see the effect the last few years have had on Alex Salmond just need to see him today. He looks done in. Constantly trying to wear him down day after day.
Would’ve broken lesser men by now.
I have to say, having watched the Committee, Alex Salmond makes Scotland a better place.
I hope he comes back into public life.
Alexander “Alex” Geoffrey Cole-Hamilton (born 22 Julie 1977) is a Scots politeecian. This page wis last eeditit on 31 August 2020, at 00:12. Text is available unner … FRom Wikipedia. What an arse!
Alex Salmond comes over as eminently reasonable, measured, articulate and extremely patient with these fools before him. His assertive answering of the same question several times over, even after 3 years of being on trial, shows his respect to the process of this Scottish parliamentary committee even though it is populated by people whom he knows are out to try and trip him up
I mean how very dare Maureen Watt and others talk to this man after what he’s been through in that tone.
Alex Salmond comes across as leagues ahead of these shysters.
Can see why any weak and dithering person clinging on to power would fear a statesman like Mr Salmond.
fm getting handed her arse in pm questions
Calm, composed and collected!! Has showed the SNP representatives a clean pair of heels at every turn. It would appear that only Jackie Baillie and Murdo Fraser are prepared to ask the important and pertinent questions.
One thing that’s really striking me on this line of questioning is that they seem to be holding Alex Salmond 100% accountablw a first minister for the Fair Work Policy. Yet at the same time we’re being told Sturgeon has no responsibility for the new policy. That appears to be quite an obvious disparity.
Well done Alex Salmond, in the face o that shite fae ACH and MWatt as well as some of the rest of the committee trying consistently to stray into areas you cannot go into due to the Clown Office forcing the redaction of your evidence.
On the face of the first session, the only 2 who got to the guts of the issues were JB and MF, good straight up questions and gave AS the freedom to answer as he saw fit to.
Whitewash wasn’t too bad on the face of it, seemed to be more fishing for notes on future Scottish Parliament policy proposals, than trying to get to the guts of anything the committee are meant to be doing, just the usual pissing into the wind from him.
Fabiani, I thought at the opening was okay, fairly above board, but when she came back at the end of session, she was running the same line as the other SNP members and tried for a third time to get him to say things in a way that would suit the rhetoric, but AS was havin’ none of it.
It’s no wonder they keep “running out of time” when they keep asking the same things in repetition – a classic tactic to try and get someone to slip up and say something in a way they didnt want to describe it.
Well played Alex Salmond tho!
There’s no many folk in Scotland who could sit at this committee and perform as cool and collected as you did, especially after all the shite you’ve been through the past 3 years.
Bravo Alec!
Still think The Party can be reformed? Still thinking of voting for The Party after this clown show?
Listening to Alex Salmond getting his statements across in a way that let’s the communities know he’s smarter than they are. I thought that JB and MR were trying to help him be able to say stuff in his evidence by their questions.
Lost says @2:46. AS looks 100 times better than he did on 23rd March last year. That is not minimising the effect of the tightrope and microscope he has to live under. The truth will out.
That would be committee
Having heard the first part of Alec Salmond’s submission to the Scottish Parliament, I can see how damning this is to the legal institutions and the very Parliament itself. At the time of his trial, everyone could see that it was a complete stitch-up, finally confirmed by the verdict.
To bring about his justified revenge at this time makes me doubt his real desire for Scottish independence. This makes him in many people’s eyes a modern-day Daniel Defoe who was instrumental in 1707 in getting us into this unequal mess.
In putting his case to the Scottish Parliament, he has more or less damned the Legal and Political institutions in the country as not fit for purpose and Scotland, therefore, not fit to be independent.
If he were hoping to get into political life in Scotland, he has lost 52% of the electorate that were praying to get away from the incompetent public-school hold on his country.
He may be more successful down south for saving the Union (a peerage maybe?)
Bill Mackay @ 2:10 pm
“it’s an open comments about what corruption took place inside the sco/gov,whet ever happens in the uk gov can wait and is totally not needed today.”
Scot Gov is still very much part of the UK Gov machinery, some might say still a mere UK Gov department dressed up as a gov, and Scotgov is a UK spending department, still run by Whitehall’s finest, no matter who sits or talks in Holyrood. Osborne’s ‘arms’ of the British state in Scotland (copfs, police, civil service) still hold Scotland firm and run the show here, as we can see from the main ‘actors’ witnessing in the present enquiry. ScotGov is hardly a separate entity from UK Gov in practice.
Mia also raises the potential key role of UK entities in this matter, which is an aspect some would like to ignore.
Brendan O’Hara can sing for his next vote.
He’s just turned his vote off as far as I’m concerned.
Well that’s it we’ve hit the break period.
And what a performance by Alex Salmond. At 66 years old sitting in a tank of the most vicious basking sharks his intellect an consummate delivery stand head and shoulders above the the pygmies trying to re-run his trial.
But what kind of Parliamentary enquiry is it that the Crown Office can restrict an ex First Minister from giving evidence, telling the truth.
Additionally I didn’t realise that the Crown Office has another Police Scotland investigation into another policeman with this time it being ex Scottish Justice Minister and now MP, Kenny MacAskill.
The rot is unbelievable!
Anonymoose
Looks like we thought the same thing
Gordon McAuslane says:
In putting his case to the Scottish Parliament….
He is a WITNESS who has been REQUIRED to appear.
Its not about AS, its about an illegal stitchup.
Alex Salmond is head and shoulders above all of them. He is calm, he is reasonable, he is polite. And he is the one gently but very perspicaciously reminding them all of what precisely they are supposed to be investigating, and what their remit is.
Actually, in terms of that remit, as well as simple fairness, the Unionist members of the committee are better and fairer than the SNP ones. If we are somehow ashamed to say it, we also have to be honest and objective enough to admit the evidence in front of our faces. Jackie Baillie particularly: these were good questions, fair questions, not simply seeking answers with which to score political points afterwards, but to the point and in accordance with the remit.
Can’t help thinking we are looking at the future President of the future fully independent Scottish Republic.
Pixywine says:
26 February, 2021 at 1:35 pm
Liam Fox yes that little uncle Tam bastard is saying in Westminster that the Westminster parliament may need to step in at Holyrood because of the Nicole Sturgeon Affair.
Mr Fox would like us to believe that Westminster behaviour is better than this set of SNPs? I don’t think so.
Some of the personnel in the Scottish Government and Civil Service need to be ousted but if Mr Salmond can win his points then Scotland will have achieved something that WM has never done:
Acknowledge its failing and set the record straight for the future. That would be a huge success for the new Scotland
@ Gordon McAuslane: I hear Alex Salmond’s evidence in a totally opposite way to you.
I regret very much Mr Salmond’s absence from our political life. He is honest, decent, kind – everything that we would all wish in our statesmen.
Seems the SNP and Alex CH suggesting no one complained because of the atmosphere at Parliament for which AS was responsible. Despite NS being the person ultimately responsible should anyone have wanted to complain about him. Also previous Civil Service head said Holyrood easier to resolve issues in than Westminster.
So he is responsible for her lack of effectiveness? No wonder she wanted to palm it off to Leslie Evans. I wonder if they will ask NS if no one complained about AS to her because she was useless?
Alex is doing very well, no doubt he expected them to be against him, but acted in a considered manner, with all his facts in hand. He is showing all the quality he indeed has.
It also makes it that without he was/ is the best politician
that we have ever had, despite all he has had to endure, he is still on top of his game.
Grind them down Alex, you are in a different league.
When the time is right, I feel sure you will have a list to sue.
Alex starts the afternoon with a masshoosive point score around prior communincation with the complainers by L Evans. Seems it wasn’t even disclosed under requests arising from a specific search warrant, and wasn’t informed during the criminal case nor judicial review!!!
Remarkable statesmanship performance by Alex Salmond.
I am disgusted at the quality of those questioning him.
How Cole Hamilton might have passed his 11 plus must be in question.
The SNP Trio also thick as mince.
Some re asking the same question their colleague was torn up on.
Hope we can together with a special man here list all the inexplicable and
I presume illegal acts that are being highlighted here.
Lesley Evan’s should be in the next series of Orange & Black
So far only two people in that room have behaved with any dignity and in accordance with the ACTUAL remit of the committee – Alex Salmond and (can’t believe I’m saying it) Jackie Baillie.
The two SNP sh*ts were just that, repeatedly trying to smear Alex by referencing negative things about HIM personally – like a witch hunt.
And that, sadly, reflects on how the current SNP government think and behave.
The only other person behaving like an utter jobby was Alex Cole Hamilton, but that is par for the course for him.
But look, SNP, you really are going to swallow the fact Alex Salmond is wholly completely innocent, the complainants were simply not believed by a jury of mainly women with a female judge, in the highest criminal court in Scotland and YOUR government policy was unlawful, unfair and tainted with apparent bias. At the very least your government screwed up, and in particular your current leader, Nicola Sturgeon. In reality, it is much worse. With each passing day, I see fools from the SNP trying endlessly to deflect, distract and defend the indefensible. Even today, Alyn Smith couldn’t stop himself from apparently trying to make Salmond look bad. What an utter shoddy bunch of corrupt creeps. The SNP really, really needs to wake the f*** up and realise just how out of touch and malevolent it has become.
And another thing, just look how over the last year it is reported Nicola has tried to smear Alex, yet he has said NOTHING.
The fact is Alex Salmond is a king among men, he towers over amateurs like Nicola Sturgeon, and has shown himself to be a man of integrity, honour and statesmanship.
Alex Salmond, MUST be compelled to return to the indy movement, even if he doesn’t want to. Scotland needs him, a REAL leader of integrity, amongst a cesspit of corrupt wannabe’s.
His return cannot come soon enough.
This orchesyrsted spectacle should see sturgeon survive.
I agree that Fabiani was fair at the start but I haven’t watched the 2nd part yet.
If she changed tack, we can all guess why.
A bollocking from NS, perhaps?
John Martini; “Still think The Party can be reformed?”
Yes. 100%. Just as Hiroshima was transformed.
I’m not going to lie, I’m not that excited right now about a new party. I’ll support it, though. Maybe when this is over, I’ll have more enthusiasm.
My primary immediate concern is to see the SNP destroyed and its leadership held to account, ideally sent to prison. They can hardly complain since that’s what they tried to do — the difference, of course, is that they are guilty where Salmond was innocent.
The rest in the party who sat and watched quietly are complicit. They’re complicit every second, over and over again, when they choose to do and say nothing. And they will pay with the jobs that they thought their silence would protect.
There’s a time for everything in God’s world. There’s a time for building and a time for destroying. Right now is a time for destroying.
Murdo Fraser seems to be the only one treating AS with courtesy.
Alex just scored another hit about the S Gov. withholding documents – unprecedented for a gov. to be forced to release documents especially after they had said that THERE WERE NO MORE DOCUMENTS.
@Cenchos
I helped fund Brendan O’Hara, I even got sent a t-shirt with his name on it (it arrived 6 months after he was elected!). I have been waiting to see where he stood on this. I hope he doesn’t seek election again because he is finished here after that. He is the invisible man.
Surely Evans will resign now?
I mean, like, today?
Evan’s knows where the bodies are buried, and could Take Sturgeon, Lloyd, MacKinnon, etc, with her.
I’ve read all AS evidence, but it’s still devastating to hear it articulated in such an exemplary way by AS.
Alex winning again here .
Sneaking admiration for Murdo Fraser’s questioning of AS, polite and courteous. I never thought I would say that EVER.
The issue of the response from the Permanent Secretary to the legal advice AS received from his legal council re. his position on the Judicial Review is priceless.
Salmond’s description of this as (to paraphrase) “Its legal because we say so/think it is'” represents the basis of the whole of Cancel Culture.
A regressive and reactionary stance which always and without exception pre-assumes what it aims to deduce.
Got to say Murdo Fraser’s been excellent compared to the waffling crap we witnessed in the first half of proceedings. Might be through the looking glass stuff, but fair’s fair.
Allan just walked into a sucker punch, jeezo
Ian Brotherhood @ 3.21 pm ,
It’s not just Leslie Evans , there should be quite a few clearing their desks right now .
Taxi for Evans.
Taxi for Wolfe.
Almost certainly taxi for the Murrells.
Yes – I think Baillie and Fraser have been excellent. Perhaps they know they’re in a hostoric moment in time. Salmond has been fabulous today. Wiped the floor with them
Jame Wolffe on Monday….
Hatuey
Gotta love a guy who gets shiva. Just as well the destroyer also has the power of resurrection.
Alex’s recollection of dates and who did what and when is exemplary and highly believable.
15:36:25.
Here comes Farcie Annie … now back to Alastair, who has been put firmly in his place.
Forgive my stupid question.
Could Alex Salmond not provide to the committee as evidence the article from The Spectator, and other media sources that have cited the redacted information.
Let’s see the Crown Office attempt to redact and remove from Parliamentary Record the contents of media articles that are legally published by the media.
The “indy groups” on facebook are hilarious
copy-paste responses attacking Salmond and supporting Sturgeon right across every group and page. Makes you wonder if a chunk of virtual support is really just a bot farm. It’s not like The Murrells don’t have form on astroturfing….such as with the “leave a light on” stunt they pulled upon brexit happening.
Allan is still not getting it at all. So desperate to crawl up Sturgeon’s backside that he’s demeaning himself totally.
“Do your homework” Salmond to Allan.
Bin bag for Mr Allan.
Eh A question to the first minister
First Minister would you like to reconsider your comments about Alex Salmond in Holyrood yesterday ? maybe offer a unreserved apology perhaps ?
Answer from Nicola Sturgeon 45)66£((54(54(54(54(54?54 fuck fuck fuck it
I had forgooten how good Salmond was/is . He is giving a masterclass in open honest transparancy. When you know youre telling the truth there is no need to supress or hide behind anything. Just passed by Holyrood in my car wee while ago, gave a few toots to the massed ranks of the msm Sky/BBC and a shout out ‘Go on Alec’ ! Wasnt the only one honking horns !
If only his submissions had been allowed. Shameful.
How in the name of all that is holy, is Lesley Evans still in a job?
That guy Allen is one huge tube. He is doing all he can to get Nicola to notice him and promote him.
He’s going to toe the party line and keep to the let’s stitch-up Wee Eck tactic, no matter what.
Makes you wonder if a chunk of virtual support is really just a bot farm.
A lot of SNP/Sturgeon support has felt like that for a while now. In fact, it’s felt very similar to the unionist bots and astroturfing campaigns from 2014.
@Glenislay
The FB stuff is so off the mark you do feel it has been farmed out. It reads like it has been translated from a foreign language most of the time. Maybe that is where Leasky and Co should direct their microscope
Alasdair Allan giving a “watch from behind your cushion” performance. FFS imagine if you voted for THAT.
Alex Salmond is a hero.
Just occasionally the professional mask slips and you can see the personal hurt, the utter devastation this has wrought within his life, the anger that the Scottish Government has been so traduced and besmirched and the integrity with which he has conducted himself in all matters of his political life.
Peter Murrell is a vanishingly small man by comparison, Leslie Evans memory is like a colander compared to Alex’s micro- detail-recall and as for NS’s remark that he has not’ a shred’ of evidence – dinnae count yer chickens hen! This can of worms
will take some time to clear up.
Let’s hope the committee has made note of the various questions Alex has suggested they ask of next week’s witnesses.
Alastair Allan doesn’t seem to absorb any answers given by Mr Salmond.
Alex is absolutely forensic, and not missing either.
From the chair
A lot of people are wanting to speak but we can’t let this session go on for ever !
Because we can’t allow this fk up to make us look any worse than we already have
There is no truth in the story that’s going around that Nicola Sturgeon and partner have been seen heading at high speed towards Edinburgh Airport no truth at all we dispute that story has any truth it’s simply not true it’s that fkn Salmond that’s putting that about , it’s all that fkn Jury’s fault
Salmond is now in control. Wightman’s backing off, Allan couldn’t even make eye contact with the man he’s betraying.
@Gordon MacAuslane
Referring to AS, you state that ‘in putting his case to the Scottish Parliament, he has more or less damned the Legal and Political institutions in the country as not fit for purpose and Scotland, therefore, not fit to be independent.’
Are you blaming AS for stating his case? Is this just another instance of ‘Wheesht for Indy’? You seem to accept that those institutions are not fit for independence so, in effect, are you proposing that we should ignore the faults in these institutions and instead conceal their maladministration because it might prevent gaining independence?
I know that there are people who take that position but personally I find it unconscionable to suggest that we should vote for a party leadership and support institutions that have behaved so badly. I know I couldn’t vote for any independence offered on that basis.
I do not want to vote for independence at any price (in the unlikely event that this lot would go for independence.) Those who have acted unfairly and unjustly are unlikely to reform themselves and have shown themselves prone to abuse of power. What kind of independent Scotland would we have then with people like that in charge faced with an unquestioning electorate which ignored wrongdoing? The prospects for that future Scotland would be lamentable.
I’d vote for him
What comes across is that Alex is talking freely and openly. Clearly putting across his point. He appears to be ‘comfortable’ in this position. He certainly knows his stuff and all the documents involved.
Compare that to some other witnesses we have watched, nervous, anxious, forgetful, fidgetting.
Agree totally Alan the snp bod seems to be stuck on transmit mode permanently , his receive mode obviously hasn’t been fitted and it is a known flaw in this particular model of Turnip
Hope it went well for Mr. Salmond.
These SNP MSPs are coming across really badly.
McMillan now trying to get AS to concede JR was only in his favour on one point. The whole bloody thing collapsed it was riven through with flaws and bias.
They have been told to go out and defend the Govt and they are really shit at it.
What an utterly stupid intervention by Fabiani claiming “its up to the commmittee to request the documents we feel appropriate”.
Well, Ms Fabiani, then stop interrupting and let the committee decide by themselves if THOSE documents are necessary.
YOU are not the committee. You are just a member and a rather lousy convener that has allowed Sturgeon’s government, the civil service and crown office to tie the hands of the committee you preside and deprive it of fundamental evidence. There are other members in that committee that are perfectly capable to decide by themselves if they want those documents or not. You don’t speak for them, so let them do so.
Perhaps Ms Fabiani should be reminded of who she is acting on behalf of . She is acting on behalf of the the interests of the public, because the public in Scotland is what parliament represents. It is in the interests of the public to know if Sturgeon’s government, the UK civil service and perhaps the crown office were planning to progress a criminal court case to hide the calamitous result of the judicial review “and get Mr Salmond”.
That intervention by Fabiani was utterly stupid and exposed herself as being totally in the pocket of Sturgeon and the crown office and desperate to hide evidence.
Very poor, Ms Fabiani, very poor. As convener of that committee, if you had a bit of common sense, integrity and any real interest in getting to the bottom of the situation, you would have ALREADY requested all those documents.
So why didn’t you?
Why did we let big Eck stand down? We would have been on our own by now.
Frank get the shredders primed!
Wightman has raised the question of sisting the case – Salmond has now mentioned 17 meetings, thrice daily meetings with Mc Kinnon and the Committee has one document concerning this matter.
Alex has had a slight tiff with Fabiani about what he can say and there is a quick flash of the suppressed anger Alex has towards this government and its corruption.
AS: I am not suggesting that the LA tried or even wanted to accelerate the criminal case in order to sist (overtake and therefore suppress) the judicial review.
Perfect. He has got it out there, without slandering anyone, least of all the LA.
And I hope this [whole sorry business – my addition] will lead to a strengthening of our Scottish institutions. Precisely. There are constitutional and democratic issues which these matters here highlight, concerning the separation of powers. Thse issues need to be seriously addressed.
Maureen Watt obviously been told to Filibuster and support the government decisions.
@ Socrates MacSporran says:
26 February, 2021 at 3:49 pm
“That guy Allen is one huge tube. He is doing all he can to get Nicola to notice him and promote him.”
She kens fine well who he is – (Dr) Alistair Allan was Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy when she ran the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association back in the 1990s.
That Allan was appointed only in July 2020 to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints should give food for thought.
Alex should nut her
Have to say AS looks much happier now and much more relaxed.
He was obviously concerned at how much he would be allowed to say but I think he’s said as much as he wanted.
Hopefully this will take some pressure off him
Does Alex Salmond suffer from asthma? Looks like an inhaler sitting beside him.
I can indeed see just why Westminster want to derail Alex Salmon. He has done himself some good by going to this sham.
After this I think anyone watching this, will be sorry Alex is not still the FM.
He has been accurate and faultless, if he was still in charge Indy would be happening in May, no if’s no but’s. A giant of our time.
approx 40 documents provided from the Scottish gov to the committee that were NOT presented in either civil or criminal court case, despite a search warrant and a specific duty of candour and disclosure upon the government.
Obstruction of justice being claimed bu Alex.
Not looking good for the Permanent Secretary. She has not discharged her duties in response to the civil service code.
I bet if the Public who have watched this , if a poll was held tonight a lot of people who represent the SNP would be shittin themselves tonight ,
Screaming look at the polls is starting to look a bit fkn risky but what do I know.
Nothing to confirm the car heading at high speed towards Edinburgh Airport and the occupants suspected as resembling the first minister and a baldy fat c@@t possibly known as her partner ,
Never heard of Maureen Watt.
I bet you she is Chair of her local Church Council.
David Beveridge says
says:
26 February, 2021 at 3:50 pm
Alasdair Allan giving a “watch from behind your cushion” performance. FFS imagine if you voted for THAT.
He’s apparently Quadrlingual though he is just bi facial. I never warmed to him when he wasSNP high Rep at Glasgow Uni. Sturgeon was sabbatical officer then too. .a perpetual list tourist he Went off to the Hebrides in the hunt for a seat. That’s maybe why is less than woke more asleep having voted against same sex marriage so he must be shuddering in the pews up there. He speaks Norwegian so don’t be surprised if he leads his wee free tribe off to their Viking ancestors in the event of trans dependence.
Alex regularly gets handed crocks of shit by his questioners. He turns these crocks of shit to wonderfully illuminating helpful and positive responses.
Does Maureen Watt always sound like she’s reading a Janet and John book?
Alex is indeed a giant of our time!!
Someone should have a word with Maureen Watt’s attitude towards Salmond. Her face is a picture. Awful!
Maureen Watt really hate AS, doesn’t she?
That inquiry is an embarrassment to Scotland.
Ametuerish doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Jesus God Almighty.
I don’t think Eck is on Maureen Watt’s Christmas card list after that putdown! ?
They are trying to kill him. This is a neuro immunological attack on a man in poor health due to their actions.
I have seen Holyrood described as a glorified toon coonsil.
Maureen Watt sounds as if she couldnae get elected to the community, never mind the toon coonsil.
Is she a member of the Sturgeon Coven – sounds as if she is?
Snp MSP Watt totally not a clue, as anMSP or HR professional.
Anyone with an employment law background like myself knows mediation is a 1st part of any harrasmwnt process.
The fact she jumped to sexual harassment again trying to assume AS guilty.
He repeatedly called into question the legality of all processes by Scot Gov.
SNP members seem to be looking at retrying As. There plan is failing.
Two answer from Alex
“No”
“Yes”
Private Secretary done with the first
First Minister done with the second
Three hours into his inquisition the Enquiry has had to be suspended due to Alex Salmond taking unwell.
Complaining of a small chest infection let us hope it is not something more serious. Many of us have feared for him. Let us hope this is nothing sinister.
AS chest must be bad – saw on Twitter-someone noticed he had an inhaler on the desk.
Alex Salmonds straight up honesty, clear, concise and fully explaining each point at the committee today is why he’s such a great politican and debater.
In stark contrast, all the virtue signalling and shrieking the past week done by the FM and her coterie makes them look like a circus ran by chimpanzees.
‘WE NEED A GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND THAT CAN PROTECT ITS CITIZENS FROM ARBITRARY AUTHORITY’ – ALEX SALMOND
I hope he had the water tested for novichok
If you are one of the punters who elected Maureen Watt, then get up on that naughty step,,,and don’t come down until after the May Election.
Maureen Watt “regretacibly” . Pig in lipstick. SNP members of the committee are by far the poorest.
There were quite a few ‘ooft goan yersel Eck ‘ from this direction . Missed why it was suspended , hope he’s ok
So far, I’ve now counted at least two important documents which the committee members claim that they haven’t received, one of which Fabiani says they did. So, they aren’t reading the documents, and some documents aren’t being given to the committee by the government. This is lying, clumsy incompetence on a thermonuclear scale. By contrast, Salmond has tested them, their answers, and is now on the front foot, not failing to show his anger and contempt such as Watt, Allan and McMillan. I’ll say it now. Get Sturgeon out, and Salmond back. And an employment firestorm at SNP HQ is now essential.
Maureen Watt SN P states HR had to go to the police because of the seriousness of complaint.
Why then, did they sit on them for a year? Failed HR or failed in general?
Socrates MacSporran says:
26 February, 2021 at 4:26 pm
I have seen Holyrood described as a glorified toon coonsil.
Maureen Watt sounds as if she couldnae get elected to the community, never mind the toon coonsil.
Is she a member of the Sturgeon Coven – sounds as if she is?
The Stoneybridge Toon Cooncil would be a stretch!
he was coughing too much – so they broke for a short period
Maureen Watt looks like she has a mouth full of soor plums at the end of her questions
I had to look up who Maureen Watt was. Without knowing who she was, I got the impression she was very hostile to AS. She certainly did her best to ‘run down the clock’ with that very long extract she read out before her very limp question.
I am worried for Mr Salmond’s health. I found it appalling that that woman kept reading through and asking the question while he was still coughing so badly. You could hear him in the background. He clearly couldn’t pay full attention to what she was reading and asking.
And what about that Ms Watt? She is in HR but does not know what is in the current policy for current ministers?
Very poor.
I think they have to sit today for as long as it takes.
I don’t think any time is set against it finishing.
I hope Alex is ok this is worrying me
Hope he’s OK. He’s been doing well so far but it’s clear the psychological and physical toll this is all taking. And four hours and counting is a long time to be interrogated and speaking, especially if you’re not well or feeling asthmatic. If the committee doesn’t manage to get beyond the first part of the questioning, what happens next? It was just starting to get interesting. Is the rest now in question?
Salmond absolutely ‘on top of his brief’. In possession of the facts. and with forensic recall of relevant issues.
Dorothy @4.19
Yes it did look like an inhaler on the desk beside him. His voice was quite croaky this morning.
He must be shattered by now – this is a long stretch to be giving answers.
And we’ve only just got to the Peter Murrell text messages –
pity they haven’t all been as determined and wel prepared as Jacquie Baillie when questioning – but then a lot of them don’t want to get to the bottom of this.
Oh, it’s OK, they’re back.
Alex has just laid out clearly how both cases are linked
The holding back of collapsing the Judicial Review makes sense if you believe the Criminal Case would be successful , and as Alex pointed out this Inquiry would not have been held if the Criminal Case had been successful and Alex was in Jail .
As for the approach of the SNP reps any SNP prospective candidate would have to shoot me before I would vote for them , I watched the ones who were in Holyrood yesterday every single one of those gutless bas ::::s should be fkn ashamed of themselves Scabby fkn cowards
All the SNP (and the LibDem moron) on the committee, are operating at full on imbecile mode.
Embarrassing.
The committee is disgustingly hostile with the Nationalists reading from prepared scripts that keep emphasizing charges that Alec was found not guilty of. I feel he is doing very well against implacable foes who seek only political advantage and not truth. Come on Alec! You are not well and they know it and seek to grind you down! Keep going! You alone have the integrity, honesty, objectivity and partiality!
He got ill when she was reading out Murrells “on all fronts” text, which I think says something.
The People’s Court, Judge Roland Freisler presiding….
The SNP are school kids – I cant vote for school kids come May.
Ohi Nicola remember sweetie Polls go in both directions Dear
I couldn’t give a friar tuck if you win or lose you haven’t even attempted to fight for Independence your a con artist so I am loosing nothing
Something I don’t hear touching much upon regarding the grotesque inappropriateness of Murrell’s texts is the fact that he sent those text messages (I am referring to the two that are in the public domain) in January 2019 when Mr Salmond was no longer a member of the SNP. In other words, Mr Salmond was no longer Murrell’s business nor the business of any other executive, or leader of the SNP for that matter. It was therefore totally inappropriate and sinister actually for the CEO or any executive of the SNP to ask for police action, never mind the metropolitan police action.
When Cole Hamilton is asking questions the lady behind him is in a very unenviable position
This man has been betrayed by people he considered to be friends and you can see how upsetting this has been to him.
What a disgraceful affair. How can an enquiry take place where a questioner can read out a text message to him which he cannot read back to them and yet he is expected to answer about it.
AS appears to have proved Mr Murrell has been less than equitable with the truth re contact with the police over investigation s.
I think we are into the real grit.
Alex giving a sterling account.
Socrates MacSporran maureen Watt daughter of SNP Stalwart Hamish Watt and Mother of former SNP MSP Stuart Donaldson.
She has not always been inept. We selected her a candidate way back at turn of century for Aberdeen North, however she had to stand down for personal reasons a short time after.
I think it might have been Richard Lockhead that got the gig or maybe Bryan Adam,
That night at the selection hustings she came across very well.
I cant for the life of me figure out why she has been so useless on this committee !!!!
Ok i have my suspicions !
Do you think that woman behind Alec CH is reading WoS?
The SNP representatives at today’s committee meeting
were quite pathetic.
They seemed to be reading out passages given to them while not
fully understanding them and being completely incapable of arguing
for any point that they had hoped to make.
I cannot accept that the people of Scotland should be refused access
to any document that Parliament, its Civil Service, its Lord Advocate,
Crown Office and the Police.
These MSPs are happy to sit on their static gravy train while they watch a coordinated
attack on an innocent man who could all too easily his financial stability his reputation
and his liberty.
I would vote for the only 1st vote Independence Party as anything else supports the Westminster Unionists but on independence they need kicked far into touch.
Divide and conquer by all and any of the dirtiest means has been the favourite tool
of Westminster for several hundred years and to the detriment of many nations.
She looks really spooked now!
Alex Salmond is ripping Alasdair Allan a new one. Toe curling. Salmond has been under daily pressure for years and still wiping the floor with them.
this farce has gone on too long anyway, we need a judge led inquiry, I propose
JUDGE RINDER
– he would get to the (power) bottom of it all, in 15 minutes or less. And with that spicy biyatch gay humour.
or an even meatier judicial commission compromising Judges – Death, Fear, Fire and Mortis.
Feeling quite smug today…due to literally thousands of resemblances, I had already guessed that JFK MUST have been one of James Dornan’s political heroes.
The smugness is tempered by my other Dornan pick…wee Archie from the Great Escape.
Ah well.
That Cole Hamilton chappie doesn’t half like the sound of his own voice – Ms Fabiani did you not ask for short and sweet ??
Alex should rise a quit this now, I doubt that Nichola will let herself be encouraged to further her part in this debacle.
He has anwered all very well, it is turning out to be grilling.Yes he can handle it, but why should he..
ACH needs taken down, Scotland sees him, he is out next time.
No one would not say he beat them all, answered every question, elequently.
You have proved your case Alex, do not let them even try, to ground you down. Yet I understand why you would want to finish on top, and I have every expectation that you will.
But to should be getting out now, I suspect Nic won’t get anything like this. I have read that she has been advised 3 hours only. They are certainly feart of everything coming out, too late it has.
I fear this panel will do whatever Nicola tells them. It’s hopeless. It needs an outside authority to convict the liars.
Silver Darling
Eh want to test her out ?
Maybe let her know we are watching her ha ha
Oh Christ I can’t say that now can I Humza will be at the door
Eh
Big Jock ?
I can’t see but any ear pieces on show
I wouldn’t put it past them
Andy Wightman asking helpful question Shock!
– you had mr aberdeins evidence …
moving on
HA!!!
I hope nothing has been introduce into the atmosphere to make Alex struggle for breath.
Linda Farci-Annie coming in again to make sure no one hears what the SNP and its leader doesn’t want people to hear.
AS it’s not a conspiracy, or a conspiracy, it’s malicious, and that can be proved and verified by documentary evidence.
If we were negotiating our divorce from Westminster,
there is only one person in that committee room capable
of delivering anything that could be considered acceptable.
A consummate performance by Alex Salmond that couldn’t be matched
by any other U.K. politician that I have seen.
He has nailed the lot of them but will justice ever return to us?
Not if these parliaments can prevent it.
.
I am a floating voter. Though always voted for Alex Salmond.
The constituency where I lived in 2007 changed from a Unionist MSP to an SNP MSP by just a few hundred votes. Jack McConnell lost his First Ministership by half a dozen marginal constituencies like mine.
Almost every Scottish constituency is STILL an SNP marginal.
Labour politicians arrogantly took the electorate for granted. They were booted out of office.
The pain in Alex Salmond’s face is distressingly clear. His life’s work besmirched by pygmies.
The Scottish electorate are not stupid.
Alex Salmond has not missed his mark.
I believe either Nicola Sturgeon must now resign and take Evans and her McWoke Coterie with her for the sake of Scotland whether you believe in Independence or not. It may well be imminent police action will have the same result.
Or the Scottish electorate may well tip sufficient marginals to shunt the SNP into opposition as ignominiously as New Labour politicians were dumped.
Sadly for those of us who have watched many Scottish football games where we have to get used to losing, today, Scottish Independence may likely been lost for a generation. I think Alex knows this is a perilous risk and has done his best to walk that tightrope of Hobson’s choice where he has to defend his position, defends Scotland’s institutions, but needs to disinfect the stench of Sturgeon and her McWokeists.
To Alex, thank you for attending today, thankkyou for your life’s work, your honour and integrity.
I hope and pray your health improves. I hope you have the spirit to return to help us out.
God knows with the over-promoted, leaderless pygmies within Holyrood, Scotland needs its institutions cleared out of the failed leadership Alex Salmond focused upon.
Alex, if, after a well deserved break and now you have magnificently reminded us of how much Scotland owes to you by giving evidence to the neutered Fabiani Committee, please, please consider coming back into public life in some way to help those of us here who still care about Scotland.
Thankyou sir.
I can’t remember the snp bods going after the Tories, Labour, Libdems in this way , over all the years these well paid Jeremy Hunts have been living in good style at our expense and I can’t remember some of them even being their I guess they must have been there because we were paying them .
I wonder if Holyrood holds attendance records for MSPs these ones in particular
Just asking like
I hope people are taking notice of how badly we are being represented by these bottom feeders these useless bleedn waste of space ,
Would anyone miss them ?
That’s Rhetorical by the way .
‘The very people who worked close to me are the people you’d expect to receive the solicitous email.’
Absolute destruction of McMillan
‘It was important to you and important to the committee, so I let you continue@
If what Mr Salmond said is important to the committee, then surely it was right that he said it.
Nicola Sturgeon is a disgrace. I think the blink count will be at strobe level next week.
The utter mediocrity and inept, amateur hour quality of SNP officials and MSP’s is laid bare today. Whoever thought any of this intellectually and morally challenged bunch were fit to run a government is woefully mistaken. As a demonstration of how far we are from independence with people who know what they are doing and can be trusted this is all you need. They are like junior assistant managers promoted way beyond their abilities. They have shredded any of the dignity of office, any concept of the responsibilities of government, and made Holyrood look like a village hall committee. Salmond is actually having to spend a disproportionate amount of his time in schooling them on the basics of government and the law. They really have no idea, and are pathetic in their desperation to carry out their prepared orders to keep the focus on the allegations which have been disproved, and are not the remit of the inquiry. They show absolutely no idea of why they are or what they are charged to investigate.
You can tell already what their findings will be – a soft soap, mealy-mouthed recommendations for ‘improvements’ in process, but nobody was guilty of abusing it. You can see it coming a mile away.
Yet these utter nonentities, mediocre puppets of the regime, pick up gold-plated wages and pensions, while demonstrating clueless inability to do their job, or even know the basic requirements of what that is. Democracy isn’t even a consideration for these apparatchiks. Salmond has demonstrated the appalling sycophancy and mediocrity of officials across all branches of government. Expect a lot more hit jobs over the weekend and an utter travesty of propaganda next week as they roll out the red carpet for the Head Liar and Despot.
Fabiani gets in my nerves. It is as if she does not want the evidence out
Anybody know if there is a link to watch this online? I would assume it’s finished, and I could not watch it. Thanks in advance.
Mr Allen is a child who thinks that evidence is only evidence if he agrees with it.
moron.
These people really are morons – Macmillan doesn’t seem to understand the legal constraints
When you hear Alex speak, eloquently, and with clarity , compared to the waffling and bullshit spouted by bojo and his ilk, its like comparing cro magnon man with archimedes.
The sad thing is that today reminds me of what we once had and have now lost. The standard of the average SNP MSP seems now to be very low by comparison.
Just the usual unionist concern troll and ever diminishing useful idiot’s take on Alex’s submissions then I see.
Alex isn’t the first person to be innocent of charges made against him.
And he won’t be the last.
No matter who happens to be the political leader of a country.
John H
Yes agree it’s our fault I suppose
Our fault for being trusting
Aye once bitten etc
I won’t forget and I hope everyone else does the same
people are well aware of the CIA creating the “meme” – “conspiracy theory” in 1967 to smear skeptics of the Warren Commission; another related tactic is to have a big hoo-hah, a full investigation, but at the end, have some figure of authority conclude
“COCK UP” but “NOT A CONSPIRACY”
the BBC even had a full department doing these “investigations” – running interference, usually shown on “Panorama”, where TOM MANGOLD, would add the gravitas to the “COCK UP THEORY” of history. Everyone is just trying to do their best, but it’s all so complicated. Mangold was so good, he could even create a cockup when a conspiracy had already been proved, e.g. in a police investigation. Just ignore any patterns and timings which would require statistically improbable coincidences (- who can count anyway?)
– I think they will try to write it all up as a “series of blunders”.
nothing to see here, carry on, turned out nice again.
This is endless – Alex is flawless and still remembering in great detail. He will be exhausted by the end.
Andy Pandy can’t even look him in the eye
Well, Alex gave such an informed answer on evidence that should be in the committees hands, all four months of it are missing, that I thought the committee was about to burst into a round of applause.
The committee on evidence they should have or even the knowledge that it exists out there are way out of their depth, Alex is virtually telling them what they should be asking for evidence wise and how to go about it.
Alex Salmond is by far the most accomplished politician in Scotland.
@WhoRattledYourCage
https://www.scottishparliament.tv/
He’s fantastic. But this needs to be rolled over to Monday. He must be incredibly drained.
I think his present answer should just be Occams Razor
Some committee members, well Mr Salmond, you say that but we need evidence, Alex, I’ve given you the evidence, and its also in the public domain. It sounds like some of the committee hasn’t done their homework.
Wightman says AS’s ‘[inevitable] conclusion’ is not inevitable or conclusive at all. AS gives 6 reasons why the conclusion is sound. Is that AS making a proper use of something akin to the Moroov (how do you spell that word?) Doctrine that was misapplied against him in the criminal case, and rightfully thrown out.
If so, nice one from AS!
I must admit I have never been a fan of Alex Salmond. That has changed, measured, professional, that is what a Politician should be. The MSP’s on the panel (with the exception of Jackie Baillie) are a disgrace, the SNP MSPs are beneath contempt, who voted for these people. If anyone votes SNP in the upcoming election thinks they are voting for Indy they are delusional, they are voting for Queen Nicola, pure and simple and that is the end of the story.
Exemption to s162. ——-he’s a total master, completely.
Is Maureen Watt for real?
Meg merrilees says: at 4:05 pm
“What comes across is that Alex is talking freely and openly. Clearly putting across his point. He appears to be ‘comfortable’ in this position. He certainly knows his stuff and all the documents involved.
Compare that to some other witnesses we have watched, nervous, anxious, forgetful, fidgetting.”
Aye, I managed to catch the last hour and that’s my take too Meg.
The committee members barely managing to stumble their way through their prepared scripted questions.
Night and day between them and the way Alex answers off the cuff, when he also has to remember anything he says is constrained by not entering into potential contempt of court areas.
It’s refreshing to finally see someone speaking relatively openly and honestly after so many others dancing on the head of a pin so as not to reveal their lies and covering for their questionable actions.
I haven’t seen any of the AS session but I was hoping he’d use it to reveal as much specific detail about the stitch up as he can get away with. So, reading the comments of folk who watched it, can I ask:
How much info do you think his answers managed to convey? By that I mean not to those of us following the whole sordid scenario, or even to the diehard Sturgeon Rapturists, but to the wider public. Were there any moments where you felt the average Joe would have turned round and said “Wait – WHAT???”
I wonder what is on Nicola’s schedule today?
So Andy Wightman wants to believe that it wasn’t a concerted effort to remove Mr Salmond but rather an extended series of ineptitude, inefficiency and stupidity from a group of imbeciles
Compelling stuff.
‘But life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth’.
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World As Will And Idea (1818)
If I were the Tories I’d get our agent to offer the SNP a mega transfer fee for Salmond.
@Sweep – He was asked for Proof. He went through 6-points of proof; I cannot remember them specifically, but he recited then and no-one questioned their validity.
He was clear that the MC had been broken and he explained why.
I take my hat off to this guy. A lesson to all Scots.
Maureen watts is atrocious. Another mouth full of soor plooms when she asked that question.
Alex, ever polite, but wipes the floor with her, professionally.
.
Chris Cairns,
I love your work.
Please forgive this, but you have a wee bit of competition, this, perhaps sums up today in a Cairnsian way….
https://mobile.twitter.com/FacundoSavala/status/1365264276605313024
Look at the difference where all the committee members are reading and fumbling through their notes and Salmond is so sure, clear and straightforward.
In spite of what he knows is a concerted effort to stitch him up, Alex Salmond has simply refused to go in hard on Sturgeon. He has, to my mind, bent over backwards to soft pedal on her.
The current SNP does not deserve such a gentleman.
And when you see the likes of Maureen Watt, Scotland deserves better.
And don’t get me started on Evans and Woolfe.
Here’s Maureen Watt being a moron yet again
What a laughable parody of a committee; they make the Handforth Parish Council look good. Do you PAY these people?
It has finished the idea that the SNP is worthy of anydbody’s vote, such is their mediocrity, their unprincipled lack of ethics, and their sheer ignorance of their own functions. Get elected off the back of the independence, then sit at Holyrood, do nothing except what you are told, don’t advance the cause or do useful stuff for your constituents. Just sit there and take your bloody wages and expenses and think about sucking up to the blessed leader. What a shower of absolute lickspittles and degenerate amateurs, clueless gormless spineless flunkies. The problem is where in public life in Scotland do we get people worth electing and who are capable of independent thinking and some intellectual rigor? There seems to be an absolute dearth of them. Salmond must be appalled at this legacy of his life’s work.
These things are there to protect the vulnerable not to shield the mighty
I know this isn’t news, but Alex Cole-Hamilton is an incredibly stupid man.
What a final statement from Alex Salmond.
Well, I just watched all six hours of AS’ testimony there.
Never in my whole life have I seen such a display of stamina of human dignity and experience. Seriously, that beats them all in my book, till the day I die. I’ll always remember this.
?????????
Alex played a blinder.
I’m a bit concerned the Mr Salmond’s health. He must be/have been under tremendous stress and his colour suggests he may be suffering; I didnt like him as FM but I greatly admire the way he is conducting himself in the face of this parody of justice
He’s just signed off by lobbing an atomic bomb in!
Alex Salmond just invited the committee to use the Scotland Act to request documents from his legal team.
Forgive my confusion but what’s the point? The Crown Office would surely just refuse to allow the Committee to publish and thus consider those documents.
@Captain Yossarian 6.12pm
Many thanks for that. I think that, like in many other instances in the past, sometimes it takes a ‘public clamour’ to really get things moving so I’ve been hoping AS would get a chance to light that blue touchpaper today.
Alex Salmond shrewdly challenging the committee to get further evidence from his lawyers. This has firmly kicked the ball into the committee’s court, lets see if they pick the ball up and run with it, or as suspected they decide to do nothing and allow the evidence to remain in secret from the public and the committee’s eyes.
Committee do the right thing and contact Salmond’s lawyers.
Oooops, my comment was a series of thumbs up and clapping hands
Gain yersel big man
RT Hon Alex Salmond was professional and poignant in all information and I hope the committee forces his solicitor to release more information. 10 out of 10, mr Salmond.
The ending, the ending – he left them with no where to go but to his lawyers – an absolute genius.
He was magnificent. What a loss for Scotland.
Just finished watching as my tablet kept freezing , well done mr salmond , what a bunch of fannees , especially the wee fat midgie , I stole that from an earlier poster , thank you for the laff
AS- Solution to info being blocked. Ask my solicitors. So now if they don’t ask his solicitors, we know they don’t want the truth.
He has them by the short and curlies.
I’m a Tory, anti-independence, anti-SNP bloke and I have listened to every word today. I might add I’ve hated AS over the years and through INDYREF too, but today he has given a fantastic account of himself and again I think the peopel should be referring to him as The King of Scotland. He’s in a class of his own.
@Roddy Macdonald 26 February, 2021 at 11:18 am
“Or give answers in parliament such as “To the very best of my knowledge, I do not think that that happened.” when questioned about a meeting you previously could not recall even happened
You are suggesting anyone could actually forget a meeting at which you were informed the previous FM, someone you had known most of your life , your own mentor who you were so close to and spent decades working closely with was to be charged with sexual offences ? Thats a meeting another FM or anyone really could just “forget” and you want us to take that seriously ?
WOW!
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
What a gentleman and what a loss to Scottish politics that he is not in the front line.
That was a marathon but he was polite, knowledgeable, concise, detailed, and above all convincing.
Get well soon, Alex and sleep well tonight. You have cleared the air, and I hope got a lot ‘off your chest’.
The dream will never die and maybe you will return to politics???
You have my vote anytime.
Well that was a masterly performance by Alex Salmond. He even offered the committee a solution. I don’t suppose they will take it. As an Englishman I think Alex Salmond would make a superb Prime Minister for the UK. Unfortunately we have Boris, and the Scottish people have a Pound Shop FM.
Maureen Watt, what a bundle of HR fire. Star of the show, but only by a short head from her SNP fellow committee members.
McMillan and Allen, hold your heads high.
Christ, Alex was magnificent. Not one of them could lick his boots.
Any idea what happens in the “closed session”?
What a performance, but it was not a performance, he was just telling it as it is. And what a grasp of his brief.
I wish him well.
The contrast with NS is stark and disturbing.
Frank @ 6.28
I can only second your comment.
Wow.
Amazing – the calm, considered, heartfelt case for the parliament as the people’s champion to look into every aspect of government.
The intellectual and moral integrity and capacity over 6 hours to lay bare the disgraceful behaviour of certain civil servants, spads, and government ministers.
How I wish Alex Salmond was FM.
Meanwhile all the SNP skunks badmouthing him apparently. They wouldn’t know how to be honest and principled. If no MSP speaks out now then the SNP is not worth a single vote in May.
Absolutely amazing, powerful and compelling testimony from AS there. Disgusted that evidence (and truth) can be suppressed so easily. He went easy on NS but he knows she already has enough rope. Roll on next week!
Watched the whole lot. Wow. Calm, measured, detailed and incisive. I asked the wife if he he came across as believable. Yes. And she doesn’t know half the story
Ian Mac says:… think you mind find Ian that we’ve been under the cosh for centuries, drained of talent, ridiculed-abused-downtrodden blah, blah feckin blah. Until we get a grip and think for ourselves we’ll always have those parasitic filth incumbent in Wm lauding it over us. I greeted a few times watching AS. Hope Ian he gets back to full health because he looked pufft-oot to say the least. Lets see if the SP bite and request the docs AS referred to in his conclusion. Won’t hold my breath. But if I see John Smith’s daughter on telly again the remotes gettin a new trajectory…..
Better late than never!
https://www.parliament.scot/HarassmentComplaintsCommittee/General%20documents/Minute.doc.pdf
.
Crikey,
Gaun yersel Alec.
That final bombshell was a stunner. Paraphrasing Alec as my jaw is still on the deck as he addressed Linda Fabiani…
“If you serve the appropriate order from this committee on my solicitors to appear before this committee they will respond positively”
I think Penfold Murrell just went to his bedroom and changed his soiled underwear.
Mrs Sturgeon has bought a brown courderoy dress from her favourite shop, Toty Rocks so that the evacuation of her bowels at that the final words from Alex doesn’t show the stains on the brown skirts she will soon be wearing as a mainstay of her wardrobe.
Alex Salmond did not miss his targets. Thank goodness for a decent, honest politician.
I would vote for Alex Salmond. But as I live in an SNP marginal without Alec standing or leading a Pro-Indy LIST party, I struggle to find a season to vote SNP at all.
Masterclass.
A lot of debate about oor Nic resigning,
NFC, she’ll do a Gordy Broon and have to be dragged out kicking and screaming, better watch those fingernails on the door jamb.
Pity to have wasted all that cash on them, the eyelashes will cause a bit of bother too.
Well done Alex – what a giant and how different from the lying misremembering Perm Sec – none of them hold a candle to him and even so he did not go for the jugular on NS and even gave her an out. I don’t think I shall be able to say the same of her after her performance at the ‘Covid’ briefing this week.
I didn’t see the live feed so I’ve been following the live updates on The Guardian. They had a synopsis of the days events and on the very last paragraph and indeed, the very last sentence, it says:
“He said he had also remained silent when Sturgeon appeared to question the high court jury’s not guilty verdicts. “Still I said nothing. Well today, that changes.”
Fucking BRILLIANT!!
Glued to my screen watching this all day. Was supposed to be working but screw it, this will prove to be one of the most important days in Scotland’s modern history. What a masterclass from Alex, who has shown so much dignity over the last three years, and the “twist” at the end was magnificent.
Alex we all stand behind you.
Bravo Alex, bravo!
Well, that was some astonishing session. Salmond was effectively in control from beginning to end. Those that were actually asking pertinent questions were actually asking him whet they should include in their report – just incredible.
As for the final nuke he dropped in – wow. Either ask my solicitors for the evidence (which is within your remit) or we’ll know you’re part of the conspiracy. Damned if they do and damned if the don’t.
What a master. He’s still head and shoulders above any other politician in the UK. Any. Other. One. Bar. None.
I realise anew why Alex Salmond is a giant of Independence and Scotland. Decisive, incisive ,articulate and very very knowledgeable.
The master of his craft. Nobody in Scotland can touch him.
What is so tragic is that after that performance I have no doubt if AS was still FM we’d be Independent by now.
Also his “use the Scotland Act to compel my Solicitors to comply and they’ll release all the information they have that is of interest to the committee!”
He has just offered them the detonator to blow the lid clean off this.
Will they take it?
Squeaky Bum time for an awful lot of folk!
And he did it all as ever the Statesman.
Mist001 You can catch up here – give it an hour or so and it should be up https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meetings
Disgusted by the conduct of the SNP members in particular with their coordinated #MeToo-loaded questions and relentless attempts to smear him. Who could vote for these scunnersome slaters now?
Great performance from AS, under huge pressure, resisting the goading and showing he was master of his brief.
To adapt Iain Crichton Smith’s original phrase, today he was “an emperor surrounded by prairie dogs.”
Turgid dross from the yoons on Twitter right now.
https://twitter.com/alexmassie/status/1365281578130235392?s=20
I watched the whole thing and found it amazing.
I did wish that I could fast forward certain questioners as I found them tedious.
Someone asked further up if you could watch it online.
I believe you can catch-up here after a short time.
https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meetings
Lucky people watching it on catch up they will be able to fast forward Maureen Watt, Alex-Cole Hamilton & Alistair Allen.
The other questions are not too bad but it would be just as interesting just listening to Alex Salmond’s answers.
NS is poor on detail – it is all wibbly feelings with her hence why she staked her career on the identity stuff.
I would not fancy her ‘forgetting’ against the recall of Duncan Hamilton.
Interesting that he appointed the person who will ultimately decide if NS broke the MC. That could be significant.
I think it would be fair to say that none of the SNP members on this committee today who are seeking re-election in May will in fact secure re-election.
Jackie Baillie came across very well and whilst I do not agree with her unionist politics I believe she will, based upon today’s performance, be returned to the Scottish Parliament in May with an increased majority.
As to Alex Salmond, a man horrendously wronged, by a cabal of vicious political pygmies, he came across today as a man at the very top of his brief, with all of the qualities you would expect of a statesman.
And yes, it is not the offices and processes of state that are failed here but rather the corrupt and malign leadership that has temporarily taken residence of them.
Change is coming.
Alex’s protracted ordeal at the hands of people of inferior moral,political and intellectual calibre in the SNPG,CS,MSM and elsewhere might have taken their toll on him physically and no doubt emotionally but his mental acuity remains undimmed , as does his spirit and despite the shameful and ongoing attempted assassination , his character .
” No saint ” aye ,he never claimed to be , who is ?
Whatever the future holds for him , a return to the fray or a desire for a more restful existence – who could grudge him that ? We are in his gratitude for exemplifying the standard of person we require to create the country we aspire to be
An observation. Contrast the evidence given by Lord Wolffe, to that given by AS.
I am not saying anything about Lord Wolfe’s integrity, but he knew the integrity of what he was saying was at best flawed, and more probably knew he was being compromised. AS clearly just stuck to the truth. An ordeal but maybe liberating.
Balaaargh says:
26 February, 2021 at 6:57 pm
Turgid dross from the yoons on Twitter right now.
He’s not wrong though is he?
After spending thousands coaching witnesses to answer the committee’s questions, why on Earth did they not spend a few quid more teaching their MSPs how to ask questions? Or more importantly, when not to ask them?
I watched from from beginning to end then headed out to work in the garden as I had to think about the fact that Scotland would be independent by now if Alex Salmond had still been our FM. I was so comfortable listening to him once more and seeing him at the helm – for apart from Jackie Bailie he was the only one there with intelligence and ability. What a difference compared with Nicola Sturgeon’s limited and extremely boring presentation.
Please return to Scottish politics, Alex. We need you.
C4 News – Alyn fucking Smith again. He says evidence is thin on the ground but fails to mention that its being suppressed.
Sarah Smith – Alex Salmond said NS should resign – he said no such thing.
I don’t think Wishart watched any of it today by this inane comment. Oh and by the way Pete, its not a conspiracy Alex produced the evidence to back it up.
“Didn’t see all of it (busy) but lots of assertion, too much on process ‘film flam’ before we got into the unsubstantiated ‘he said, she said’ about ‘these’ meetings. But absolutely no evidence of any sort about this conspiracy.”
https://twitter.com/PeteWishart/status/1365368995940040714
Silver Darling, thank you for the link.
I really don’t envy the Rev doing a write up of the nearly 6 hours of Alex’s evidence. So much to cover!
Great stuff from Salmond. I was very surprised at the line taken by Cole Hamilton in the second set of questioning at about 5.05pm. The questions he asked seemed fair and actually aimed at finding out the truth, and neither they nor the answers he got will make things any easier for Sturgeon.
The sad fact is that he probably checked his reviews on Twitter and changed line for klout.
“Balaaargh says:
26 February, 2021 at 6:57 pm
Turgid dross from the yoons on Twitter right now.
https://twitter.com/alexmassie/status/1365281578130235392?s=20”
But he is correct.
Quote:-
“The move to independence, which I have sought all my political life … must be accompanied by institutions whose leadership is strong and robust and capable of protecting each and every citizen from arbitrary authority”. ie, is not at present.”
unless of course…
I always get a dry throat & cough when I’m stressed.
This must have been a very stressful day for Alex Salmond.
I noticed his cough improved towards the end of the session so perhaps his cough was stress related.
I was really glad that he came back after a short break.
Eh it never happened according to the Off the wall gang over in La La Land
The boss isnay well so it’s all kissy kissy get well petal talk
The unfolding drama in Edinburgh never happened , oh well stick yer fingers in yer ears, shut yer eyes and shout LL La La very loudly .
And guess what nothing is happening it’s bliss .
Next they will be believing the snp are delivering eh Indy ref 2 you know the word that is never said
That was worth waiting for – an effortless Rolls Royce performance
We have not heard a word from him (apart from his written submissions)since he exited the Court after being found Not Guilty on all charges nearly a year ago.
The restraint that he has shown over these long months is magnificent.
Anybody out here prepared to make a bet as to what Nicola’s Diary for today will say?
TBH never liked AS much in the past. Found him too pugilistic.
After today, he has become someone I admire and respect.
A huge loss to Scottich political life.
What I have been able to keep track ofof todays naked expose of parasiticism has left me feeling angry.
I cannot express how angry I am.
But I have £100 for whichever force will give a better Scotland.
And when that £100 is spent I’ll find £100 more.
There’s tens of thousands like me, the union is dead.
Chief tosser alyn Smith on ch4 news. When informed that the earth is not flat and indeed it is a globe, opined, “the evidence is pretty thin on the ground.’ Wanker.
Class pure class.
We live in interesting times and there is a light, a very strong beacon.
Salmond I salute you.
The idea that all the activity to find complainants was all to stop the judicial review is something new to thinking about.
Blimey, that was epic…
Doesn’t matter if he makes a comeback or not, Alex has single-handedly reset Scottish political culture with that performance.
After that, we can’t allow even the possibility of such disgusting behaviour happening again.
What a positively rutilant, total ratiocination, miasma clearing, human individual.
och it’s only Big Eck, wit did ye expect ?
😉
Good authority has it that the Lord is indeed a fine lawyer: do they have something on him that makes him lick his lips.
I never thought Alex could ever rise any higher in my estimations but he managed that today
Class act
Come back Alex we need you man
TNS2019 says:
TBH never liked AS much in the past.
I’ve always like Alex Salmond and found him to be very interesting. There is no other politician who could entice me to sit in front of a computer for four hours listening to their every word.