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The whole rotten structure

Posted on October 28, 2020 by

It was my birthday yesterday, readers. (Late presents still accepted. The cheapest one is fine.) I got taken out to lunch and there was someone’s new kitten to play with, but mostly what flooded in wasn’t birthday cards but new scandal about the SNP.

It’s hard to know where to even start tackling the avalanche of new information. There were extraordinary revelations from the Salmond inquiry. There were other shocking revelations about the investigation. There was Alex Salmond’s request for the separate independent inquiry into Nicola Sturgeon to determine whether she lied to Parliament (which it should have been doing in the first place).

We’ll get to all that stuff in due course. But because there’s nothing like a good delve through some data, we’ll kick off with the SNP accounts.

Last night we broke the story that what Wings has been telling you since January was (as should go without saying, quite frankly) the truth, despite all of the SNP’s indignant denials – that almost all of the “ring-fenced” money raised in two crowdfunders for a second independence referendum campaign, which the SNP swore blind it wouldn’t spend on anything else, has been spent on something else.

Since we ran that piece we’ve been contacted by SNP insiders with more information about the fundraiser money. Contrary to previous higher estimates, it’s now believed that the second one, launched in April 2019 with the stated intent of producing a book to be called “An Independent Scotland: Household Guide” and sending a copy to every home in Scotland, only raised about £100,000.

(Unlike the 2017 fundraiser, which had a live public running total until it was suddenly closed at £482,000 in June of that year, the 2019 figure was never revealed.)

The guide, of course, was never produced and as far as we’re aware was never even written. (The Wee Blue Book, incidentally, was written by one person in a week in his spare time while still editing a website.) The fundraiser page is still live and accepting donations, but all mention of the book has been removed and replaced with a general funding appeal branded as Yes Scotland but actually going directly to the SNP.

Interestingly, STV News reported in June 2017 that shortly before being closed down, the first fundraiser had also had its text changed, to say “Your contribution will greatly benefit the ELECTION campaign”, one day AFTER the SNP had furiously denied that it would be used for that purpose.

Alarmingly, our extremely well-placed and reliable sources in the party told us that when questioned about the “ring-fenced” money, Colin Beattie – the SNP’s National Treasurer – had given them two completely different stories in 2019 and 2020. Last year he told members that the money was “sitting in party books”, just not specifically identified as such (as you’ll see in the NEC minutes a few paragraphs below this one).

But this year the line from Beattie is apparently that it’s NOT in the accounts, and is kept separately in “a ledger” at party HQ.

The latter version would, of course, be completely illegal. A political party simply can’t solicit hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations and then hide it off the books in a slush fund. There are laws about that sort of thing.

So we’re keen to hear the party’s official explanation for where the “ring-fenced” money has gone, which we’re sure will be coming along at any moment. While we wait, let’s have a look at some other pages from the accounts.

To the best of our knowledge this is the first time the SNP has released a supposedly official membership figure in a couple of years. And it immediately smelled a wee bit off, because membership income has dropped by nearly 20% since the 2015 accounts (from £2.74m to £2.25m) yet the party is claiming to have 20,000 more members than it did in April of that year.

But in fact the accounts themselves tell us that the 126,000 figure is a complete lie. Because on page 22 you find this:

The footnotes explain what a branch levy is. The SNP made two branch levies in 2019 – one for the unsuccessful Shetland byelection and one for the EU election (which is weird in itself, because the EU election was by no means an “unplanned electoral event”). In each case the amount levied was £1 per member.

We know this because we have a copy of the minutes from an NEC meeting in summer 2019. (The word “homologated” just means “approved”. Note also the answer about the ring-fenced funds.)

Those two levies at (3) and (6) are separate items – one is for the EU election, one for Shetland. Levies are taken out on branches, not individual members, so people can’t just decline them. If a branch doesn’t voluntarily cough up its £1 per member, party HQ can simply take the money out of its account directly.

It doesn’t take a maths professor to calculate that if two levies of £1 per member have raised a total of £174,000 then the total number of members must be 87,000 rather than 126,000.

(Well, unless someone has helped themselves to the missing £78,000.)

Page 25 also contains an interesting titbit.

The party’s legal costs almost exactly quadrupled in 2019, from £38,000 to £156,000. No breakdown of that figure is given, but according to our insiders Colin Beattie has explained the huge leap as mainly due to the defamation case triggered by then-MEP, now MP Alyn Smith’s erroneous allegations against the Brexit Party. The hefty bill for that foolish mistake, which Smith initially doubled down on, was seemingly footed by the SNP, not Smith himself.

There was also a failed court case against ITV over the SNP’s inclusion in election debates. (The court case fronted by Joanna Cherry against the UK government over its attempted prorogation of Parliament was crowdfunded.)

This site, of course, knows only too well how insanely expensive defamation cases tend to be. But Wings asked its readers every step of the way whether they wanted their money spent on pursuing Kezia Dugdale over her false smears against us. SNP members were given no such choices.

The last interesting bit of detail in the accounts is the matter of staff costs.

The cost of staffing party HQ, including pension contributions, leapt by a startling £140,000 last year, despite only one additional employee appearing on the books. The SNP is infamously opaque regarding the financial arrangements of its top executives, particularly Peter Murrell, the CEO who’s also the husband of leader Nicola Sturgeon. But we can make a few reasonable assumptions.

Former Yes Scotland staffer Alison Balharry today tweeted the names and positions of current SNP HQ staff. Here’s the full list.

LEADER: Nicola Sturgeon
CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Peter Murrell
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Sue Ruddick
GOVERNANCE AND COMPLIANCE: Ian McCann
SOLICITOR: Scott Martin
TREASURER: Colin Beattie
FUNDRAISER: Jim Henderson
ACCOUNTS: Claire Bennett
EVENTS: Gillian Slider, Heather Wolfe
LEADER SUPPORT: Ria Robertson
MARKETING: Jessica Mennie
CAMPAIGNS: Lorraine Reid
DIGITAL: Ross Colquhoun, Leo Condie, Andrew Barr
COMMUNICATIONS: Erik Geddes, Louise Donegan
POLICY: Jenny Gollan, Richy Edwards
IT: Chris Jones, David Donachie

The leader isn’t paid a wage by the party, and we gather that neither is Colin Beattie (who like Sturgeon is an MSP and would have to declare it), so that leaves us with just 20 people, of whom the big tickets are Murrell, Ruddick, McCann, Martin and Geddes. If we take a ballpark figure of £30,000 each for the others, that comes to £450,000 out of the total of £874,000.

The top five would then be splitting the other £424,000 between them, with Murrell obviously getting the biggest slice. People can only speculate on the exact division for themselves, but there’s basically no way of plausibly coming to any permutation that puts Murrell on less than £100,000.

Alert readers who joined us for the “ring-fenced” money story may have noted the name of Jim Henderson in that list as “fundraiser”. And as it happened that was the second time we’d heard his name today.

Because a reader who donated to the first fundraiser in 2017 happened to email us this morning, telling us how they’d queried the fact that their donation was going to the SNP, rather than to a separate indyref fund as suggested.

They’d received this acknowledgement of the donation:

And sent this reply:

Jim Henderson wrote back assuring them that their money would indeed be used “in the referendum campaign”.

A few months later the reader received more fundraising emails from the SNP, which they’re not a member of and should not have been subject to solicitation from. They wrote back asking for such communications to stop, and asking for reassurance that their donation was in no way to be used as “general SNP funding”.

This time there was no reply. And there has been no referendum campaign. But the money is gone.

Today’s Times contains an extraordinary column from Kenny Farquharson, in a full-blown panic at the thought of Nicola Sturgeon being deposed as leader of the SNP.

By this point even the most dedicated of party diehards might be beginning to wonder why the Unionist establishment is so desperate to keep her in place.

.

EDIT 1.30pm: The SNP has issued a very aggressively-worded email insisting that all the ring-fenced money – supposedly totalling £593,501 – “remain[s] earmarked for the referendum and [is] ready to be fully deployed at a moment’s notice”.

Curiously, it neglects to offer ANY sort of explanation as to where it might be identified in the formal accounts of an organisation whose total net assets are less than half of that figure. It gives the cash a grand title: “The Referendum Appeal Fund”, with capital letters and everything. So given that they know exactly how much it is down to the last pound, why not just have that as a line in the accounts? Colour us unconvinced.

(The line about the donations being “woven through” the accounts is purest cobblers. They all came from the same place and they’re all the same category of thing. None of them are supposed to be spent on party stuff. So why and how would they ever come to be scattered randomly around different bits of the figures?)

However, we attach the full email below for the record.

We note that the National Treasurer says at the end “if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me”. Readers may wish to take up that invitation.

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  1. 28 10 20 13:57

    The whole rotten structure | speymouth
    Ignored

197 to “The whole rotten structure”

  1. P
    Ignored
    says:

    I’d forgotten about Alan Smyth and his brexit faux pas – and he didn’t pay a penny??

  2. Andrew F
    Ignored
    says:

    They’ve had all year to work on their explanation – these are their own accounts, and they knew the “ring fenced” money wasn’t there, and they knew the question had been asked.

    So the explanation will be…interesting.

  3. Abalha
    Ignored
    says:

    In reply to Rev Stu ABOVE the line,you say, Former Yes Scotland staffer Alison Balharry today tweeted the names and positions of current SNP HQ staff.

    Cough cough, I most defintely WAS NOT a ‘Yes Scotland staffer’ One of my two main conditions for going in to help out the threadbare media desk, who knew fuck all about broadcast, was 1/I did not want to be employed by Yes Scotland 2/I would not sign a confidentiality waiver.

  4. Bugger Le Panda
    Ignored
    says:

    Boulting Brothers film with

    Criminals, stolen and hidden loot, intrigue and double dealing, all in raucous belly laugh with Prison heaving involved

    Yup

    Sounds like the SNP

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten_to_the_Core_(film)#:~:text=Rotten%20to%20the%20Core%20is,Alex%20Vetchinsky's%20production%20design.

  5. robertknight
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev Stu…

    “By this point even the most dedicated of party diehards might be beginning to wonder why the Unionist establishment is so desperate to keep her in place.”

    I think Sun Tzu said something along the lines of “Never interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake”. Sums it up neatly.

  6. clem fandango
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy beleted birthday fella.

    This is one of the best pieces yet

  7. SilverDarling
    Ignored
    says:

    This is a party that has lost focus and has not capitalised on the goodwill and financial support it gained in 2015.

    That can only be attributed to NS’s leadership.

  8. 1971Thistle
    Ignored
    says:

    Kenny F is such an arse it’s unbelievable

  9. Gordon
    Ignored
    says:

    I would also suggest that the hike in audit fees from £18k to £39k is worthy of question.

  10. Kenny
    Ignored
    says:

    Flabbergasting. This is astounding stuff. Don’t know how to effectively comment or contribute to these further revelations.

    Thanks for this work, Stuart, and the team – we’re heavily indebted to you and this site.

    Farquharson unable to conceal his allegiance, and panic -the msm on Sturgeon’s side, of course I (we) knew this.

    Is it all kicking-off now, or what? Let’s keep pressing these villains.

  11. Kenny
    Ignored
    says:

    ps; Happy Birthday, you torn-face old shite! ?

  12. Kenny
    Ignored
    says:

    That q-mark is an emoji…

  13. red sunset
    Ignored
    says:

    One item from the post last night bothers me – the balance sheet shows an asset of over a million pounds for “debtors and prepayments”.

    Now debtors would be money that people owe you. In the case of a political party, which presumably is not selling a lot of goods and services, what would that be ?

    And prepayments would normally be where you pay the gas or electricity up front, for example. There might well be some rent paid up front, but that couldn’t be any more than maybe £50,000 I’m guessing.

    So basically, what is the million pounds ?
    It could be a loan receivable. Maybe the party loaned a big amount of money to someone, which is where it would show up.

    But I still can’t understand a million pounds of “debtors and prepayments”.

  14. The Dissident
    Ignored
    says:

    Well, the Treasurer is a National Office Bearer role (like Leader) rather than an employed role (like CEO) so I doubt Colin Beattie is paid anything more than reasonable expenses – and he probably wouldn’t ever claim them anyway.

    At least one of the other staff members listed works for a parliamentarian also. So that is a P/T rather than F/T role.

    The ‘average’ F/T salary just went up a bit more.

  15. red sunset
    Ignored
    says:

    Staffing costs per month are more than the reported cash in the bank.

    That’s called living hand-to-mouth.

  16. Kenny J
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy birthday to you
    happy birthday to you
    happy birthday, Dear Stu.
    And I really really mean that.

  17. McHaggis69
    Ignored
    says:

    It looks like the SNP truly are a shambles right now.

    They KNOW there were going to be questions on the funds.
    They publish accounts without reference to the funds.
    They deny the money has been spent and are doubling down that its stashed somewhere else.

    Why -the fuck- not just simply publish the separate accounts then? Job fucking done.

    Whats with all the screeching denials but not simply doing that?

  18. James Caithness
    Ignored
    says:

    I have said this many times over the last few years, never believing it 100%, BUT maybe I was right.

    I have long thought that Sturgeon was recruited by MI5 at university and injected into the SNP.

    In 2013 Margo MacDonald said that there were MI5 operatives inside the SNP.

  19. Davie Oga
    Ignored
    says:

    Id be very suspicious that the “debtors and repayments” million doesnt really exist in a recoverable form and is just on the balance sheet to cover up the fact that the party is bankrupt and running at a huge loss.

  20. James Caithness
    Ignored
    says:

    Sturgeon will not resign in near future because that would mean she’d lose control.

    While still leader with her pretend husband as CEO they still have control.

  21. red sunset
    Ignored
    says:

    Any forensic accountant looking at this might want to query where are the funds held by HQ on behalf of the branches.

    The branches need that money to pay for campaigns – like Holyrood 2021.

    A fag packet estimate might make that about a million pounds.

  22. Stoker
    Ignored
    says:

    WOW! What another top class article backed up with appropriate archived links. No wonder they hate and fear you. Love it! LOL

  23. Liz
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy birthday for yesterday.
    Keep up the good work.
    Can she survive for much longer.

    I see Jessica Mennie’s name. This would be the unadvertised post that Kenny McAskill was going on about

  24. Kenny J
    Ignored
    says:

    Just got to the levies section.
    My former branch (I’m ex) lost approx 25% of members till Jan 2020.
    So I was reconing 90,000 members at that point. will be now a fair bit less.

  25. John Walsh
    Ignored
    says:

    This is going to be like political “Jenga” if nothing is done via an independence referendum or senior people resigning. Their arrogance will bring them down .
    The chickens will come home to roost over Salmond very soon. If Jackie Baillie has her way.
    When not so cleaver people in SNP try to play Machiavellian games the result is catastrophic.
    Interesting the English establishment is so keen on keeping Mz Sturgeon in situ .

  26. Jason Smoothpiece
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy birthday old bean.

    I just love the apparent serious misconduct and the lack of accountability. Hats off to the SNP how do they manage to avoid being held to account?

    I thought a new party would be required to replace the SNP if they didn’t heavily promote independence within the next year. I have changed my mind new party is required now.

  27. shug
    Ignored
    says:

    Does she have a quick exit plan that will not impact polling results??

    It is a real shame that having broken the gender divide in the polling results we lose a leader.

    Have to say I like Cherry and Whiteford

    I do hope Salmond will stand in a list party

  28. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    It would appear that Kenny Farquharson does not understand the nature of English Torydum, which pretty much promotes the same sort of populism that brought Hitler to power, and is supported, to a large extent anyway, by the same sort of white supremacists. Perhaps this sort of populism is more to Kenny Farquharson liking.

  29. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    Shout out to our tragically beleaguered FM:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FD2SfQJOK08

  30. somerled
    Ignored
    says:

    @Davie Oga

    You might be right but even Prepayments and Accruals must be based on reasonable estimates with 3rd party documents if possible and the Auditors should check the paperwork for all items in the Balance Sheet plus most high value expenditure on theP & L

    The Treasurer says accounts are prepared on a Going Concern basis so if they are bankrupt/or expect to be without enough funds to pay debts then the Treasurer its not aGoing Concern should and the Auditor would Qualify the accounts. Possibly somebody has been lying to the Auditor and its interesting the audit fee doubled which suggests a lot more work involved

  31. newburghgowfer
    Ignored
    says:

    When the Unionists have a diehard Unionists in charge of the SNP why would they want to get rid of the 1 person guaranteed not to have a Indy Referendum!! The SNP diehards have been played but can’t see it.
    We have more chance of finding life on the moon than Wee Nic getting us a Indy ref whilst they milk Joe Public for more money?

  32. Dave Albiston
    Ignored
    says:

    Just as well you archived the story in the National. It has disappeared from their website..

  33. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    A honest question as honestly seems to be at a premium just now.

    With all that’s been uncovered recently regarding the SNP I would have thought the Unionist Media would have been on this like a dog with a bone , the gifted chance to stick the boot in must be overwhelming it’s a wide open goal so why not go for the throat kill to birds with one stone ? .

    Right now a seasoned actress is given her daily Def Con 4 address on Council TV anyone still watching or listening to the daily changes in your House Arrest Instructions , personally I can’t be arsed taking any notice anymore ,

    I say one thing a performance worthy of a Oscar with all that’s going on around her you have to admire the cool performance it’s breathtaking and truly detached quite spectacular actually

  34. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Want to understand populism? I would suggest it would be best to ignore Mr. Farquharson then, who simply appears to be a bit of a sock-puppet for the radical rights.

    https://ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-shows-how-the-populist-right-can-be-powerful-without-winning-office/

  35. Astonished
    Ignored
    says:

    I thought it would be bad – I was unprepared for how bad it is.

    I see the wokeratti get lawyers and costs all paid for by the proles like me. Anyone outwith this wokeratti sept has been thrown under a bus.

    I would suggest those getting the SNP to foot their legal bills better start liquidizing assets to pay us back.

    And to end on a ray of hope – The murrells and the wokeratti simply cannot survive this.

    “It is always darkest just before the dawn”.

  36. David Lyon
    Ignored
    says:

    Nicola Sturgeon has clearly been promoting and rewarding incapable but pliable people into her inner circle. Negative selection based on how easily compromised and influenced they are, rather than their ability. Shades of Thatcher with the paedophiles.

    The result of that is the party has been transformed from an agile, sharp and robust entity into a lumbering, incompetent, incapable beast that can’t plan for even the slightest scrutiny even when it has 2 years notice.

    She’s basically turned it into a variant of Westminster, although I couldn’t see even them being stupid enough to try and imprison one of their own in this manner.

    May Darwinism take its course on this one.

  37. Abalha
    Ignored
    says:

    Acht in a semi-defence of fellow Dundonian Kenny Farq, he’s oddly naive re the SNP, I’d say, as he’s a decent journalist apart from his Scottish politics analysis. Honestly he’s not a BAD person,we vaguely know each other from many, many moons ago, I was at school with one of his, as I understand it, still best pals.

  38. Stoker
    Ignored
    says:

    shug says on 28 October, 2020 at 12:32 pm:

    “Have to say I like Cherry and Whiteford.”

    Me too! Cherry for SNP leader & strategist and Whitford for FM.

    shug also said: “I do hope Salmond will stand in a list party.”

    I would like to see him, either on his own or in cahoots with Stuart Campbell, set up a list party. I don’t think he should ever go anywhere near the SNP again, he has had his day there. Time for fresh faces going places & able to oust the current rot.

  39. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    If Mr. Farquharson was not so partisan in his politics, he might understand the danger his British nationalism poses to open society. Though of course, he might actually be proud of supporting right-wing and authoritarian totalitarianism.

    https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/06/17/right-wing-populists-threaten-business-interests-in-liberal-democracies/

  40. Garrion
    Ignored
    says:

    Well, you have to hand it to them. They’ve gone fron lean mean independence machine to the bloated corrupt and nepotistic New Scotlab in astonishingly short order. I guess its down to the Scottish electorate to see if they have any more appetite for a completely self serving political class who survive on the basis of wringing their hands and pointing at Westminster and telling us how bad they are.

  41. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    Oops forgot to wish Stewart a happy happy ,
    maybe he still is young enough and might see a Independent Scotland in his lifetime I am afraid it’s not going to happen for the majority of us born in the 1950s we were conned into believing it was possible , silly us for thinking it was only Unionists that were the obstacle again how gullible, its a empty feeling knowing you have been deceived , and its sickening to have to confront it .

  42. Astonished
    Ignored
    says:

    “Dave Albiston says:
    28 October, 2020 at 12:42 pm
    Just as well you archived the story in the National. It has disappeared from their website..”

    Thanks for this, Dave.

    Police Scotland could you stop what your doing ( Most folk think that is ‘fitting up’ independence supporters) and investigate this misappropriation of a substantial sum? Asking for a nation.

    Obviously no journo will touch this story as it will greatly aid the removal of the murrells and thus independence.

  43. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Robertknight: “ I think Sun Tzu said something along the lines of “Never interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake.”

    I think you’ll find it was Kojak, circa 1976, when he was investigating a go-go dancer that he suspected of being a jewel thief.

    Anyway, my head hurts. There’s too much going on. If only we could somehow regulate the flow of SNP disasters…

  44. Masslass
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday Stuart. and thanks for your hard work. All the best to you.

  45. Bob
    Ignored
    says:

    It’s like trying to survey a house by looking through the keyhole with grandma refusing to leave so hides behind the curtains with her feet sticking out.

    As far as membership numbers are concerned. I can only speak for myself and my experience of ending membership with the SNP a couple of years ago. I allowed my membership to lapse and cancelled the monthly payments. I think however that I am still registered as a member.

  46. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Given the NEC’s determination to expunge the legal identity of women in Scotland, I think there may be more to this lack of funds than general incompetence. There is a strong illiberal element within the NEC, which means the SNP is unable to support the principle of “equality in law”, or defend Scotland’s interests from expansionist and xenophobic English nationalism.

  47. DonnyDarko
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday Stu…

    As always, illuminating stuff, denied ad nauseum , but always proven true. It’ll be interesting to see just how bad it actually is and gets before the rats begin to leave the ship.
    Crimes have been committed, there’s been libel, perjury, embezzelment, Fund raising fables, and then of course the gross mismanagement of Party funds. Will Westminster protection extend that far ? Or is the discrediting of the SNP enough ?
    The cracks in the SNP are your reliable sources. Hope they multiply and the House of Murrell falls soon. BTW , does that b****rd ever do anything official or make speeches… He’s invisible almost.
    Still a very bitter pill to realise that the stench from Hollyrood and Bute Hse is just as foul as Westminster’s.
    keep up the great work.. won’t buy you a pint, but I’ll stick a bob or two in the WOS coffee jar.

  48. Abalha
    Ignored
    says:

    In reply to David Lyon at 1247, who says;

    ”Nicola Sturgeon has clearly been promoting and rewarding incapable but pliable people into her inner circle”
    ————————————————————

    You’ve hit the nail squarely and accurately on the head.
    That is EXACTLY what the Sturrells have done, all the super smart Salmond people I came across in 2014 buggered off and in their stead the mediocre of mediocrity recruited and promoted.

    Let’s take Erik Geddes, in 2014 he was a very average player on their comms team, now in the job of the extraordinarily smart Kevin J Pringle, and he in turn was first replaced by the exceedingly dull and mediocre, ex Salmond bag carrier and bagpipes’ player, Fergus Mutch, who looks like will, maybe, get to be an MSP next year in his second or third attempt in Aberdeenshire West BUT i predict the Tories may hold that one.That would be funny.

    And of course Erik Geddes left the SNP for the Edinburgh Airport comms job from 05/15 to 10/16 before returning to his current post.

    Having spent time looking at Chris Jones CV and past posts I’m struggling to see why he was thought the most qualified to take up the NEW post of ‘Head of Data and Technology’ in December 14 he also is a part time public law lecturer at Edi Uni AND is doing a PhD on data and elections,where the hell does he get the time to do all that?

  49. Livionian
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m Indy till I die but gave up on the SNP long ago. This has to be the final nail in the coffin for those on here still on the fence.

    If I’m being honest over the last wee while I have been migrating towards a position where I want an independent Scotland in which the size and scope of the state is reduced. And this is a microscopic view of the reason why; big government leads to corruption and an abuse of power. The SNP are a glaring example of what is wrong with big government.

    They have no interest in preserving our free speech and civil liberties. they have been on a nanny state agenda for years (minimum pricing etc). And look how the party of big government handles it’s finances: complete and utter corruption and theft. They are profiting off of individual contributions now, the end game is that supporters and cronies are rewarded financially by the machinery of the state.

    I want independence for my people and my nation, but I want to throw weight behind a movement that respects civil liberties and personal freedom. The SNP are not and never will be the answer again

  50. shug
    Ignored
    says:

    Stoker
    Totally agree

  51. susanXX
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy belated birthday Stu. Well done for the cutting investigative journalism.

  52. Vivian O'Blivion
    Ignored
    says:

    So, POPULIST is now a dirty word, just as it is deemed by the corporate Democrats in the US. I for one would be proud to own the tag POPULIST. Fuck the phoney Left posturing of the SNP apparatchiks.

  53. J Galt
    Ignored
    says:

    “Ms Baillie might want to reflect on the broader consequences of her actions” Kenny Farquharson.

    How right he is – Ms Baillie might, by bringing about the fall of Sturgeon and the whole rotten structure around her, inadvertently help to replace Sturgeon and her cabal with people who are going to fight for, and win, independence.

    Then again, might that perhaps be the real meaning of his “warning”?

    There are certainly “unholy alliances” afoot, however they just might not be the ones that Mr Farquharson would have us believe in.

  54. Kevin Kennedy
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday Stu !!!

  55. somerled
    Ignored
    says:

    A possible explanation for the missing £400k could be that it is sitting in a Deposit bank account ringfenced, and the Current Account is in overdraft eg

    Deposit + £400k
    Overdraft (£304k)
    Balance Sheet + £96k

    Its not the way i would show it (eg O/D in Current liabilities) but it can be shown combined but there is no note about an overdraft in the accounts. However the bank charges are quite large £70k in 2019 and £50k in 2018 which seems high & in my experience its normally overdrafts that make up a lot of bank charges.

    Note 15 Sundry costs of £22k risen too, i’d want to know more about that. Could it be penalty costs of some kind

  56. Facundo Savala
    Ignored
    says:

    The scandals are serious, and they appear to be a daily occurrance now too.

    But they have not made even a slight dent on Sturgeon’s approval ratings. She continues to soar above the levels experienced by any other UK politician for decades.

    There is of course some discontent with unionists, and other prominent Independence supporters such as yourself. But with every proven lie or clear evidence of shady behaviour, her overall popularity keeps rising.

    My question to you Stu, or anyone else on this site – do you really think she will ever resign unless her approval ratings dip quite significantly?

    For me, I just can’t see it happening, no matter how many smoking guns are on the ground around her.

  57. Liz
    Ignored
    says:

    Treasurer saying kept in separate account.
    This account should be published.

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/18828133.snp-try-quash-rumours-independence-fighting-fund-already-spent/

  58. Black Joan
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday, Rev, and thank you.

    As all these corrupt chickens come swarming home to roost, are MSPs, MPs & party officials not in danger of falling foul of the law through association with what looks like outright criminality? Are they content to stay silent? Even if consciences are in short supply, what about self-preservation?

    Are those Civil Servants who have been revealed as lying or developing selective amnesia under oath not open to prosecution or, at the very least, dismissal for serious deviation from the Civil Service Code?

    And how ironic that the Daddy Bear should be in trouble for defamatory allegations about another Party’s accounting.

  59. Marshall Adair
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert Graham at 12:43 says “cool performance” on her Covid update today. You should have kept watching … this is the angriest I’ve ever seen her!

  60. Giesabrek
    Ignored
    says:

    Kate Forbes as SNP leader and First Minister asap please.

    Sturgeon is set to down as one of those despised, hated figures in Scottish history. She took our movement for independence and has tried to destroy it for ego, grubby money and power without any purpose. So upsetting. Snake.

  61. Harry mcaye
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve just searched my email account for Jim Henderson. I got the same reply dated 29th March 2017. Just as well I have some proof as I can’t find my bank statements for that period. Seriously thinking of going to the police.

  62. Scott
    Ignored
    says:

    superb journalism Stu. please setup yr own indy party!!!

  63. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve not finished with Mr. Farquharson yet, who does not appear to be a fan of liberal democracy.

    https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/the-revenge-of-farage-right-wing-populism-at-the-2019-uk-elections/

    “While the UK Independence Party and the Brexit Party performed poorly in the 2019 UK elections, the right-wing populism they espouse is not a spent force. Rather, in what may be the most important British election in decades, their presence was a deciding influence on the course of the election, and on the eventual victory of the Conservative Party.”

  64. Robert
    Ignored
    says:

    Still need to bottom out what the “prepayments” are. I think that it includes the ringfenced money.

    https://www.myaccountingcourse.com/accounting-dictionary/prepayment gives a definition of “Prepayment means an obligation has been paid for in advance of its due date”. Here the obligation due to be paid for is indyref2, and it’s been paid for by ringfencing the money.

    I do hope I’m right …

  65. Johnny Martin
    Ignored
    says:

    Is it just me or is Kenny Farquharson’s plea tantamount to begging for a whitewash?

    Where the hell are the ethics?

  66. Lizg
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday for yesterday Rev … and many more of them 🙂

    Even though we’ve been well warned ( thanks Rev ) the demonstration of the truth of it is still a bitter blow.
    What to do now ?
    Well while the SNP is hopefully going to sort it’s self out …and fast… we, the Yes movement, need to get our arse in gear too.
    Firstly the Indy Ref two money is gone and I don’t see why we should have to pay again to exercise our right to vote.
    So can we now demand that the 2021 election that is going to take place anyway will be the de facto referendum?
    Plan A is skint they can’t insist on a separate vote when they blew the funds to have it,so Plan B it is !
    Also….. there are plenty of qualified people and groups around to set up a central fund that doesn’t hand our campaign money to the SNP or to any other cause.
    It’s surely not beyond us to secure a fund and have it distributed out in the run up to the election for Yes activities only…… A transparent fund and one that’s locked down tight….
    If it is possible to do then surely we should….we can’t allow Indy to slip into the ten year time frame some would like for the lack of a few baw bees.
    Has anyone any knowledge of how this could be done ?

  67. Abalha
    Ignored
    says:

    Here a cut and paste of the recently posted SNP rebuttal story as helpfully flagged up by Liz at 1322, is that LEGAL, accountancy types?

    THE SNP has emailed all of its donors in a bid to “quash rumours” that money supposedly ring-fenced for indyref2 has already been spent.

    It comes after the Electoral Commission published the SNP’s 2019 accounts late last night.

    The paperwork reveals that the SNP has just under £97,000 in the bank, despite two major fundraising drives for an indyref2 fighting fund.

    However, the party’s treasurer, insists that there is £593,501 in the “Referendum Appeal Fund” which is ready to be deployed “instantaneously”.

    The pro-independence Wings Over Scotland blog has long accused the party of having spent the money “on something else.”

    READ MORE: Covid in Scotland: These are the factors in deciding levels of restriction

    This morning, in an unprecedented intervention, the SNP’s treasurer, Colin Beattie wrote to all those who have ever handed cash over to the party and to the party’s indyref funds.

    He said: “I felt it was important for me to get in touch today to quash rumours spreading on social media about one of our fundraising appeals.”

    Beattie insisted the funds “remain earmarked for the referendum and are ready to be fully deployed at a moment’s notice”.

    He added: “Since becoming national treasurer, I’ve worked hard to ensure ongoing prudence and financial control, striving to use your donations in the most effective and efficient ways possible.

    “The current strength of our financial position, for example, enabled us last year to win a landslide in the General Election, secure our best European election result ever, and contest a parliamentary by-election.

    “All three of these events were unforeseen, but thanks to donors like you and our inherent financial strength we were able to allocate £1.4 million at short notice to contest these elections.”

    He said the pary had moved “from being heavily in debt” to “operating in the black and with zero commercial borrowing.”

    “And that’s why I simply will not have this hard-won progress trashed,” he added.

    “Like all other political parties, the SNP does not separate out restricted funds in annual accounts. Any such donations are woven through the overall income figures each year.

    “The Referendum Appeal Fund has a current balance of £593,501 and we can fully deploy those funds instantaneously – guaranteeing maximum impact when vital funds are needed most.

    “I’ll leave our opponents to the social media conspiracies, but I wanted you to get the facts direct from me.”

  68. Allium
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy (belated) Birthday to You!

    These are strange times. I never thought I’d cheer on Jackie Baillie, but she’s the best performer at the committee by far.

  69. MaggieC
    Ignored
    says:

    Abalha @ 1.08 pm

    You said ,

    “ And of course Erik Geddes left the SNP for the Edinburgh Airport comms job from 05/15 to 10/16 before returning to his current post. “

    Erik Geddes was in the job at Edinburgh Airport from Oct 2015 to May 2017 according to his LinkedIn page ,

  70. Liz
    Ignored
    says:

    BTW I haven’t received any email and I did donate to the indy fund.
    Have emailed Colin Beattie asking for proof.

  71. 1971Thistle
    Ignored
    says:

    @Abalha @12h50

    Well, Kenny reacted – I thought – rather badly when I asked him to condemn Linklater’s defence of David Steel about Cyril Smith in The Times a few months back.

    https://archive.vn/OQAyv

    Aspersions cast about me, my company and my contractors, bit of name calling on his part. And he still wouldn’t condemn that article.

    So I think he’s a shit-stirrer of the first order, enjoys starting fires and running away.

  72. Giesabrek
    Ignored
    says:

    What has to happen =
    1. Sturgeon GONE
    2. Murrell GONE
    3. Colin Beattie GONE (obviously isn’t fit to be treasurer)
    4. Sue Riddick GONE (no need for COO)
    5. NEC trimmed of all student union politics positions and the entryists who hold them
    6. No more SNP councillors representing regional associations on the NEC. Get ordinary party members on there, councillors are just yet more paid party nodding dogs and Nicola’s pals
    7. Get the party constitution sorted out and bring back the National Council
    8. NEVER let Sturgeon and Murrell anywhere near the party again.

  73. SilverDarling
    Ignored
    says:

    So the lumbering slumbering SNP machine has been cranked into a response at last regarding the ring fenced funds.

    Quite sad to see NS at the briefing today still trying to suck up to a press that sense a wounded leader and are going for the kill.

  74. James Che.
    Ignored
    says:

    I am not familiar with kenny farquharsons background history and his origins, and wondered why he emphasised the Nicola sturgeon and Alex Salmond division of Scots people as if to keep the fire hot,
    When without doubt gaining independence has bonds that are stronger for most Scots, he does seem to be fanning flames in the media, how many others within the SNP are raising a divide, perhaps these are some of the ones messing with the snp funding, leaking info to MSM outlets, the hanging judges setting up AS, and perhaps trying to nail NS. Time will tell wether she was one of them or not.
    We can assume at this point that Margo was correct, in her statement that the SNP had been infiltrated.
    Well done stu for all your hard work and many hours of investigations, and to all those contributing to help route out the infiltrators trying to stop independence.
    At the end of the day it will come down to the people to make the move to gain their own independence, not a political party, as this shows, political parties can be infiltrated and redirected away from their purpose,
    One day we will be brave enough choose whom governs us, one day all across Scotland we will see banners, posters and signs stating that we, the people are withdrawing from the treaty of the union, due to the treaty having been broken.And that we choose a new government, beening the people and nation of Scotland.
    Until that day,
    we are owned by by England’s governance.
    Wishing you Belated happy birthday greetings stu.

  75. Abalha
    Ignored
    says:

    Acht cheers MaggieC, you are of course correct, I can no longer get into his LinkedIn knew May and October were in play,thanks for the correction.

    And Liz, exactly the point I’ve just posted on twitter how the hell can they have emailed ALL the people who’ve EVER donated not only to that fund but also, the article, claims EVER donated to the SNP. Bollocks and that Andrew Learmonth and the bloody news comic just print it, well, nuff said.

    https://twitter.com/ABalharry62/status/1321448226206162945

  76. MaggieC
    Ignored
    says:

    Abalha @ 1.36 pm

    Here’s the National article archived about Colin Beattie’s email to members in case it disappears from their website ,

    https://archive.vn/mEPtr

  77. Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    red sunset says:
    One item from the post last night bothers me – the balance sheet shows an asset of over a million pounds for “debtors and prepayments”

    It is specifically the Prepayments and Accrued Income driving the increase and it is an extremely mysterious number. It has also grown exponentially in recent years.
    2016 – 45,496
    2017 – 290,640
    2018 – 805,597
    2019 – 879,488

    I suspect it is more Accrued Income than Prepayments that has grown.

    However I don’t know because this is by far the least explained number in the financial statements. Especially considering how much it has grown in such a short time. I can’t find a damn word in the notes explaining it.

    I don’t think it is related to the crowdfunding money. I think as someone mentioned above they are finding ways to bring income forward to window dress the accounts.

    The fact it is so unexplained makes me a little suspicious. 2018 in particular looks like it may have been a worse year than the accounts lead us to believe. That is when it really leapt up.

  78. Saffron Robe
    Ignored
    says:

    Many thanks for all your hard work Stuart. So it seems the SNP are running on empty? Whoever would have thought!

  79. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    re. my sticking the boot into Mr. Farquharson. I’m not simply hostile towards Conservatives, I’m simply not a supporter of racism or exclusionary nationalism. However, Scotland’s future must apparently suffer in order to accommodate xenophobic English ‘exceptionalism’. So here’s a peek at “The politics of nationalism and white racism in the UK”.

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1468-4446.12311

  80. Graeme Hampton
    Ignored
    says:

    I’ve been praying for Woodward and Bernstein types to get into this story. Looks like you are both of them Stu, “Follow the money”.

    Oh and Happy Birthday 🙂

  81. Nigel
    Ignored
    says:

    Where I live on the inner Moray Firth, the local YES campaign group was given the distinct impression that the incumbent MP expected some of its funds to be handed over for SNP election campaigning. this happened a few years’ ago.
    Also, when out campaigning one Saturday for YES in the inner Moray coast town in question, a Saturday which co-coincided with an ‘SNP day of action’, the MP indicated that he was less than pleased we were not out campaigning for the SNP instead of YES, even though some of us were not members of the SNP.

    Funds held by our local YES campaign group were raised though events held outwith local SNP branch activities, so why it should be handed over for election campaigning is beyond me. Donations were made to it from non-SNP members and indeed supporters of other parties who want indy. The funds were intended/used to support local YES campaigning – leafleting, paying for meeting venues, film shows etc.
    It caused a bit of a row at the time…left a bad taste in my mouth…

    Anyone else experienced that from their local SNP bods?

  82. mogabee
    Ignored
    says:

    Belated birthday greetings! 😀

  83. Rev. Stuart Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    “Still need to bottom out what the “prepayments” are. I think that it includes the ringfenced money.”

    The “Debtors and prepayments” figure for the 2017 accounts is only £378,000 so it can’t be that, because they got £482,000 in 2017 from the fundraiser alone. Where’s the other £104,000?

    http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/20553

  84. crazycat
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Harry McAye at 1.27, and Liz at 1.42

    I’ve just searched my e-mail for “Jim Henderson”, and he’s written to me 3 times. The first is the message that has been quoted above (from March 2017), the second is a very similar message from May in that year, after I made a donation for the GE campaign, and the third responds to a complaint I made about having been sent raffle tickets (and a conference booking form) despite not being a member of the SNP.

    He said “You are not on our system as a member of the Party, it is purely your donations earlier this year that have been recorded.
    I have marked your record so that you do not receive any tickets in the future.”

    Like Liz, I have not received anything today from Colin Beattie, even though JH’s e-mail implies that I am “on their system”. CB’s mails should surely all have been sent simultaneously, so it would be interesting to know if anyone has actually received one.

  85. Tony O'Neill
    Ignored
    says:

    I predict that in the next 24hrs that the part of the earths crust that covers Scotland is likely to be compressed by at least six inches,by the shear weight of the amount of snp members and voters who Will be burying their heads in the sand.

  86. Calum
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday yesterday Stuart. When I win the lottery I’ll get you a Pong table!

  87. Rhoan Jagger
    Ignored
    says:

    Was just discussing this with my dad regarding the excuses given in the National.

    Do you think that the £593,501 that can be “instantaneously” accessed is in fact alluding to a suggestion that they can take out some sort of loan for that sum if needed?

    Otherwise, all that piece did was confirm that the ringfenced money is gone imo – particularly given it referenced that the party was heavily in debt prior.

  88. James Caithness
    Ignored
    says:

    Giesabrek says:
    28 October, 2020 at 1:49 pm
    What has to happen =
    1. Sturgeon GONE
    2. Murrell GONE
    3. Colin Beattie GONE (obviously isn’t fit to be treasurer)
    4. Sue Riddick GONE (no need for COO)
    5. NEC trimmed of all student union politics positions and the entryists who hold them
    6. No more SNP councillors representing regional associations on the NEC. Get ordinary party members on there, councillors are just yet more paid party nodding dogs and Nicola’s pals
    7. Get the party constitution sorted out and bring back the National Council
    8. NEVER let Sturgeon and Murrell anywhere near the party again.

    ===================================================

    And put Independence back as the number one objective of the SNP

  89. red sunset
    Ignored
    says:


    Nigel says:
    28 October, 2020 at 2:02 pm
    Where I live on the inner Moray Firth, the local YES campaign group was given the distinct impression that the incumbent MP expected some of its funds to be handed over for SNP election campaigning. this happened a few years’ ago.
    {snip}
    Funds held by our local YES campaign group were raised though events held outwith local SNP branch activities, so why it should be handed over for election campaigning is beyond me. Donations were made to it from non-SNP members and indeed supporters of other parties who want indy. The funds were intended/used to support local YES campaigning – leafleting, paying for meeting venues, film shows etc.
    It caused a bit of a row at the time…left a bad taste in my mouth…

    Anyone else experienced that from their local SNP bods?

    Don’t start me Nigel. It’s a real bone of contention in our YES group.
    Half of our group are either members of A.N.Other party or not a member of any. The local SNP officialdom hold up sprigs of garlic if they happen to be anywhere near us. In fact many of our non-aligned members routinely campaign for SNP candidates. But still get side-swerved.

  90. Elmac
    Ignored
    says:

    What happened to the supposedly ring fenced money raised in 2017 to fund the next independence referendum is the question everyone is asking. One explanation may be that the funds were banked to a separate account which has not been included in the SNP annual financial statements. This would have dubious legality particularly if, as appears to be the case, no mention of the receipt and treatment of those funds has been made in the annual accounts. Time will tell whether this is the case and if the funds remain intact but I have severe doubts.

    If the funds were reflected in the SNP figures then the place to look would be the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2017 (which are available from the Electoral Commission site) as the initial fund raiser appears to have started and concluded within that year. Bearing in mind that there was a UK general election and local council elections in that year you would expect to see an increase in fund raising over the previous year. In fact all income streams appear relatively steady except for donations which are up from £402,502 in 2016 to £1,423 687. The increase of £1,021,185 more than exceeds the total increase in income from all sources in 2017. If the Indyref money is in the accounts then this is where it is, as none of the other income headings offer much scope in terms of size or description. Donations oddly include a small amount of commission but otherwise are a mix of donations above and below the threshold for reporting to the Electoral Commission and no further info is available. There is obviously scope for the “missing” £480,000 + to be included here.

    Campaigning costs for 2017 were a massive £1,538,464. This was on top of a serious overspend for 2016 when an operating deficit of £1,301,007 was recorded. The party was in no fit state to sustain further losses given it started 2017 with only £52,856 in the bank and outstanding loans in excess of £500,000. The temptation to use the Indyref money to fund the election campaigns and pay back £400,000 of loans must have been great. The fact that only £7,906 remained in the bank at 31 December 2017 indicates that this money was spent on non Indyref purposes. There appear to be no other Balance Sheet headings which would conceivably have any effect although I do find the increase in the Prepayments and accrued income figure very odd.

    In short, unless the Indyref funds were/are held off balance sheet, the money has gone. I see Colin Beattie has said there is £593,501 in the “Referendum Appeal Fund”. I suspect that this is this simply a book record of what was received for Indyref purposes and which has not been separately invested. Otherwise Colin – show us the money!!!!

  91. Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    Liz says:
    Treasurer saying kept in separate account.

    Is he saying that? There is something very odd about that statement.

    I am finding it hard to believe that nearly 600 grand is sitting in some bank account which the SNP don’t have to account for.

    Who is the legal custodian of the funds?

    He then says the funds were not specifically identified in the income section of the accounts, they were intermingled.

    “Like all other political parties, the SNP does not separate out restricted funds in annual accounts. Any such donations are woven through the overall income figures each year.”

    He is contradicting himself here. If they recognized the income at the time then the donations were on the books and so is the cash and thus clearly the money has been spent. It was spent by year end 2017.

    Note the weird term ‘earmarked’ now and not ring fenced. Ring fenced meant you didn’t spend it. Earmarked is a lot more vague. Earmarked out of what? Money you get this year, next year? It is not the same as ring fencing the original money.

    Ready to be deployed at any time. From where? It sounds good but what does it actually mean. They have no money. So who legally owns / has the 600k or are they just playing with words here.

    These folk sound like utter bullshite artists.

  92. Davie Oga
    Ignored
    says:

    Colin Beattie is lying.

  93. Saffron Robe
    Ignored
    says:

    Apologies for going slightly off-thread, but fraud may be the least of Nicola Sturgeon’s worries compared to corporate homicide:

    78 patients were sent to care homes after testing positive (for Covid-19) between 1 March and 21 April (along with many, many others who were not tested at all).

    And yet the First Minister says the PHS investigation had found “no statistical evidence” that hospital discharges were associated with care home outbreaks.

    Eh?

  94. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    Came back from America in 2016 after nearly 11 years living there, thinking the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon were great, that Mhairi Black was a firebrand who should be next FM, etc. Looked that way from across the sea. The truth quite quickly became apparent, at least in some ways, when I sensed how much the FM and her coterie did not like men, and had zero time for the white working class. This got my back up, for obvious reasons.

    I confess, I still don’t entirely know what has happened to the party (and by extension, to the country, to a degree). However, it is a tragic measure of my loss of trust in the FM and SNP and Scottish-caring politics that I, and many initially uncomprehending others, can sadly believe that the party is skint, corrupt, woke-and-Westminster-infiltrated, and uncaring of independence. And all the depressing rest.

    I feel a sense of angry devastation, and I confess what I once thought this country was, and who its people and politicians were, had been totally destroyed. I desperately wanted the old, rheumatic, alcoholic, bitter, violent,’kent yer faither’angry Scottish mentality I grew up with/alienated from to be a pale fading anachronism, to have the country being led out of an insular, parochial 20th century mindset.

    And it was.

    Oh by fuck, was it ever.

    I could never have bad-dreamed that the new, deluded, screen-grazing wannabe-American youth of Scotland would despise and spit on myself and many others for no reason. Or that a messiah complex misandrist conwoman despot, somehow having lost her roots and mind and integrity along the way, would hatefully strut and crow at all the oestrogenerated vengeful chaos she and her halfwit cabal had created, tossing ordinary Scottish people under the bus of personal ambition, minority sexual obsession, and wannabe-modern-Scotland-personified narcissism.

    Ah could fucking greet, ah really could.

    And so could many angry confused others.

    Sure our newfound slight bit of national post-indyref (watched the vote in a Scottish pub on my 45th birthday, devastated) self-confidence was due kicking out of us, in case we got above our wretched trayslapper stations, eh? Ironic that the wannabe-therapeutic intersectionalist healing the FM aspired to has had precisely the opposite effect.

    That’s what you get for copying American extremist madness, and trying to ram it down our SCOTTISH throats.

    A pox on you and all your fucking simpering whimpering gibbering cult-blinded kind, Nicola Sturgeon, for all the damage you gave done to a country you would once have said you loved. You and your husband and halfwit cabal of useful American-minded idiots can fuck off and die forever.

    I have a lump in my throat.

    A great many Scottish hearts are broken tonight.

    But they won’t be forever.

    Onwards.

  95. Harry mcaye
    Ignored
    says:

    On your update, just checked my email, nothing from the SNP. I stopped my membership payments in 2018 but they still send me raffle tickets ( they go straight in the bin). As I donated £105 (over six separate donations) I should have this email. I’ll give them another day to get their act together.

  96. Effijy
    Ignored
    says:

    Many Happy Returns Rev !

    If you receive a parcel from SNP HQ, listen for a
    Ticking sound and soak in water overnight.

    They won’t be sending you an Xmas card that’s for sure.

  97. Margaret Lindsay
    Ignored
    says:

    Belated happy birthday. Excellent piece as always. I’m feart tae say much more in case the bold Humza has me up on hate crime charges.

  98. Alastair Ewen
    Ignored
    says:

    Belated happy birthday Stu! Your belated birthday gift might suffer the same chronologic constipation as the 2019 SNP accounts…. but it’s the thought that counts surely?

  99. stonefree
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Hatuey at 12:57 pm

    Napoleon

  100. Hatuey
    Ignored
    says:

    Napoleon like Sun Tzu didn’t even speak English. Kojak did.

    And I could probably find the video clip of Kojak saying it — can you find a video of Napoleon saying it, in English?

    I rest my case…

  101. Fairliered
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy birthday Stuart. Do you think the SNP have a ring fenced fund to buy you a present?

  102. susanXX
    Ignored
    says:

    O/T but I think Yousaf has let personal opinions run away with him wrt the hate crime bill. Talk of making views said in your own home liable for prosecution. FFS!

  103. SilverDarling
    Ignored
    says:

    Colin Beattie seems to be juggling chinese plates.

    Not sure if this has been posted again recently –

    https://archive.is/6Q9wx

  104. Karen
    Ignored
    says:

    1) “Ear-marked” is not the same as “ring-fenced” 2) Releasing the accounts on Stu’s birthday? I smell a conspiracy! Lol

  105. red sunset
    Ignored
    says:

    Now here’s a thought – just a wild thought – some will call it conspiracy theory.

    What if, WHAT IF –
    there was a limited company, maybe say run by an ex SNP MP, for the sake of argument,
    and What If – the SNP entered into a contract with that limited company, to provide, let’s say for the sake of argument, campaign services of some sort at some future time,
    and What If – the SNP paid the full amount of that contract up front, in advance,

    THEN : that amount could be called a “prepayment”.
    Such an amount would appear in the balance sheet as a prepayment and those funds would not be in the bank.

    Such a wild idea, obviously wouldn’t happen. I mean, why on earth would anyone do such a thing?

  106. Garavelli Princip
    Ignored
    says:

    I don’t think we’ll be having that referendum any time soon.

    Mr and Mrs Murrell have to go pronto!

  107. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    I suspect the simple two times £1.00 divided into the political levy of £174,000 gives the true membership number of 86,000. That is also consistent with declining membership dues.

    That these are end of 2019 figures and not end of 2020 I think we can take it that the decline in membership is now even greater. Over the recent months as utter dissatisfaction against a rotten leadership has accelerated decline, I would not be surprised if SNP membership is down to around 50,000 members.

    It is a New Labour style collapse presided over by Murrell and the clique. And all in such a short time.

    And for so many of us long term members we are only hanging on by the skin of our teeth. Were it not for a lifetime commitment we too would be gone, and we will be come another party. All ruined utterly by corrupted careerist scum.

    And if we can’t retain the members in a New Labour scale slide do we’ll hold the voters in May next year. I don’t.

    Time for a new movement. And in the meantime not one friggin penny more to this rotten charade that masquerades as our Independence Party.

  108. Sarah
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev – many happy returns. And thanks again for all you do.

    As of now I haven’t received Colin Beattie’s email – I will let you know when I do. However I expect the money must be somewhere in the accounts because he wouldn’t say the money is safe if it isn’t. Because there would be no defence from such a public statement if it were false.

  109. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Margaret- Did you see Humza yesterday at Holyrood.

    He looked like many other SNP MSP’s. Stony faced and grim. Something is going down behind the scenes.

    Surely any MSP worth their salt can’t stand back and watch this shit show any longer. A couple of thousand was enough to put Natalie McGarry in jail.

    The SNP lifted not a finger to help her.

  110. Helen Yates
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy belated Birthday Stu, another great article if not you’re best yet, it really beggars belief how we have been taken for mugs by these shysters but somehow I’m not overly surprised, thought I’d mention that I’ve posted quite a few times over the past months on how the SNP have lost 11 votes from my family alone, well strangely I was talking to others in my family last night who didn’t believe a word of what you have been warning us about the party, anyway as it stands right now through family members discussing the goings on with the SNP they have now lost 17 votes and I am not long in after going for a walk with my sister who I haven’t seen for months and she was telling me that all the people she knows who are yessers can’t stand Nicola Sturgeon now and won’t vote for them next year, It will be really interesting to see just how much support they have lost come the election, I can’t see the party being saved now and I’m at the stage I’ll be glad to see the back of them if the rogues remain in place however it’s not like we have a choice so I know I will just not bother to vote at all on the constituency and I’d personally like to see them win with a minority and a higher presence of Indy seats in Holyrood, at the moment I’m torn between ISP who I have joined and Action for Indy, I was hoping you could give us an idea of which would be the better option.

  111. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Sarah – It is safe.

    It’s in a Wonga account!

  112. SilverDarling
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday Rev!

    This isn’t just a gotcha or SNP bad as it is being portrayed by some SNP diehards elsewhere, this is about being IndyRef ready. It is about knowing that if NS ever decided to go for a referendum we are as ready as that huge Trojan Horse sitting in Edinburgh or BT mark2 with all its dodgy funding and funders.

    FGS SNP hierarchy just tell the truth! Tell us if what is holding us back is funding or what. People just want to know.

  113. SOG
    Ignored
    says:

    From a position of financial ignorance I have the viewpoint that a sum of that size would be mentioned in the annual accounts. Even if it were Kept in a Safe Place. Lest people ask about it.

  114. Davie Oga
    Ignored
    says:

    Sarah 3:22pm

    “As of now I haven’t received Colin Beattie’s email – I will let you know when I do. However I expect the money must be somewhere in the accounts because he wouldn’t say the money is safe if it isn’t. Because there would be no defence from such a public statement if it were false.”

    Colin Beattie is lying. The money is gone, you will not get an email from him.

  115. Willie
    Ignored
    says:

    As for the Party paying tens of thousands of pounds to support Alyn Smyth following his defamation of the Nigel Farage party, why did he not pay fo4 this himself.

    Why did the party pay to defend his wrong. Is the party a legal insurance machine for members or does this instance just simply show how the clique can stick their stover into the members funds without any controls whatsoever.

    Well if the members think a four fold increase in legal fees to £156,000 in 2019 wait until the figures for 2020 come in. £156,000 may have just been a taster.

  116. Big Jock
    Ignored
    says:

    Helen – The party can be saved.

    However it requires the immediate removal of the Murrells and their clique. Someone needs to stand up to them and drain the swamp. If Sturgeon is still in charge after December then you are correct. It will be too late , and it will prove to me that there is not one MP or MSP with a backbone.

    We know there are good people higher up in the party. But as you know. Bad things happen when good men do nothing.

  117. Lenny Hartley
    Ignored
    says:

    Big Jock Mcgarry won her appeal on grounds of a miscarriage of justice, there is to be a retrial

  118. Sarah
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Big Jock, Davie Oga – emoji with quizzical eyebrow!!

  119. Daisy Walker
    Ignored
    says:

    @ Red Sunset re Prepayment theory.

    In which case that information could have been shared at senior party and branch level – and put everyone’s minds’ at ease.

    Further more a break down of intended use could have been issued, you like a 6 month billboard campaign – costed and planned out, posters, TV adverts, T shirts.

    In addition – a 1/2 million quid is quite a sum of money to hand to a company to ‘look after’ on a yearly basis. How much interest could it have accrued in that time period?

  120. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    I think there is going to be a political bloodbath over the next few weeks or months, both in the SNP and the Conservatives, for very different reasons but with the same result.

  121. Abalha
    Ignored
    says:

    Aye see people talking about bloody Humza Yousaf and his bill I will NOT be taking any lectures from someone who presents themselves as holier than thou, yet managed to and choose to deceive his wife for two years, 2014/16 oh and not with the woman he is now married to, indeed the woman got married in the middle of the affair in 2015! I don’t normally call out private life shit like that BUT his faux piety is just too much.He is a fucking chancer charlatan of the highest order.

  122. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    The disappearing indy funds aside, I became even more suspicious of Sturgeons allegiance to the indy cause when the British nationalist media began giving her oodles of airtime.

    The SNP party are in a shambles riven with corruption greed and deceit at the top end, reading this I feel sorry for the membership milked of cash and taken for mugs.

    Its a pity your inside sources couldn’t give you info that would deal Sturgeon and whole stinking lots of them a coup de grace, and get them out.

    Oh and a belated Happy Birthday.

  123. holymacmoses
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday + One Day Mr Wings. Your feathers are obviously well preened and you’re ruffling the feathers of others very nicely.
    Thanks for all your hard work.
    I long for the day when I see you running your own daily newspaper in a free Scotland

  124. Lorna Campbell
    Ignored
    says:

    Had long suspected something like this going on. So much foot-dragging and excuses. Any clear, blue sky up there, Rev? Happy belated birthday greetings, by the way. Another day, another dollar. Except it’s not.

  125. Margaret E
    Ignored
    says:

    I have not received an email either. Although I am not and have never been a SNP member, I have donated to the indy-ref2 fund (hundreds in fact). I have in the past received several messages from Mr Murrell and from Ms Sturgeon, but nothing so far from Mr Beattie.

  126. Sharny Dubs
    Ignored
    says:

    Belated happy birthday Stu.

    No need to comment on the accounts, as predicted, no real surprises, good job.

    For those who doubted! Time to eat some humble pie eh?

  127. Ian Brotherhood
    Ignored
    says:

    I have £20k ‘earmarked’ for roof repairs.

    Just have to wait for that well-off relative to croak it.

    Harsh, mibbe, but technically ‘true’.

  128. Abalha
    Ignored
    says:

    I alerted Andrew Learmonth to the fact that ludicrous claim in the article that all donors EVER had beem mailed was patent nonsense, he has now taken it out, but thanks to the wise MaggieC at 152pm, here’s the archived original, so no one forgets what utter BS they expect folk to bloody well swallow.

    https://archive.vn/mEPtr

  129. dramfineday
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy birthday Stuart. The last few days of output are well worth a wee boost to the ‘keep Stuart going fund’ this month. Forgive me for being an unalert reader but did you announce you were coming out of holiday mode? Jings, you’ve certainly been on full revs (see what I did there) for a while now. Not enjoyable reading but my goodness I’m glad you burrowed into this and exposed what’s been going on.

  130. Daisy Walker
    Ignored
    says:

    Re reading the Rev’s article – as always there’s a lot of detail.

    Why pull a campaign fund with about 50 days still to go… there could be 2 or 3 pay days in that time period.

    For the wording to change to ‘election’ campaign just a day or 2 before they pulled it, indicates they knew exactly what they were intending to do in terms of dipping into that fund, right from that point.

    That is deeply, deeply incompetent.

    They should have worded the initial fund raiser in a more flexible / open to interpretation manner.

    Scotland In Union failed to produce accounts after 2017 GE election, inspite of having posters and billboards aplenty.

    The Electoral Commission on reviewing the complaint against them, stated that as there was no current Independence Campaign ongoing – they could do what they liked, including not publishing names etc of large contributions.

    Our Stupid SNP – could have legitimately utilise this verdict…. this legal verdict, and lawfully campaigned through the years using this fund, on Indy issues – which would almost certainly have had a joint benefit for the SNP.

    But then that would not have feathered any nests would it. And it might have brought Indy nearer.

    A trustworthy, reputable party would have shown that ring fenced fund, fully identified as such, in its yearly accounts, not just because they are legally obliged to do so, but because people – from all sides – were always, always, always, going to ask about it.

    STUPID.

    To all the decent elected reps within the SNP – you now need to be very, very publicly getting some rock solid accountable answers about this, and if not, YOU need to go to the Police and report it as a suspected crime. This is being done IN YOUR NAME, YOU ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS BEHAVIOUR.

  131. Daisy Walker
    Ignored
    says:

    Abalha says:
    28 October, 2020 at 3:56 pm
    Aye see people talking about bloody Humza Yousaf and his bill I will NOT be taking any lectures from someone who presents themselves as holier than thou, yet managed to and choose to deceive his wife for two years, 2014/16 oh and not with the woman he is now married to, indeed the woman got married in the middle of the affair in 2015! I don’t normally call out private life shit like that BUT his faux piety is just too much.He is a fucking chancer charlatan of the highest order.’

    ——

    Did he drive her car without proper vehicle insurance too?

  132. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    I can see some influential unionist, or British government department, temporarily loaning the funds to the SNP so they can say we told you they were there, and they’ll be deployed come the indyref, which will happen very soon.

    After all the fuss is blown over the funds will be returned to whoever loaned them in the first place. Membership fooled yet again job done.

  133. Bobby McPherson
    Ignored
    says:

    Belated happy birthday Stu, thanks for everything. I am currently working my way through shed loads of humble pie. My eyes are open and weeping for what we appear to have lost, and direct debit to your good self restarted.

  134. David F
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m slightly concerned that this has been an elaborate setup. What better way to destroy the last bastion against the Wokerati than to wreck his credibility through this?

    A sudden TA-DA! Look here’s all the money!

    And that’s WOS holed beneath the water.

    Against that, the only place the money could possibly be is in a third party account that the SNP don’t control, paid out under these “prepayments”. But I don’t see who could authorize that or how could possibly be legal without consulting or informing anyone. On the other hand, as far as politicians and huge sums of money are concerned, the law doesn’t seem to matter much any more…

  135. Skip_NC
    Ignored
    says:

    Red Sunset makes an interesting observation. I believe the 2017 fundraiser for a referendum raised around (all numbers in pounds sterling) 480,000. The 2017 central party accounts (page 20) show cash in hand and at bank of 7,906. Debtors and prepayments are 378,402. If the prepayments and accrued income is where the money is supposed to be, that number is only 290,640 (note 20 on page 31).

    If the cash is kept in another “ledger” where are the accounts for that Accounting Unit? It’s not a difficult question, but may be a very difficult answer for someone. Surely to goodness a party fund that raises 480,000 would have to report that to the Electoral Commission? Indeed, a review of Cash Accounting for Accounting Units (page 13), available from the Electoral Commission website says that you must include Transfers In from other parts of the party. The Accrual Accounting publication says the same thing at page 14.

    I am not an expert on political party financial reporting, but it seems to me that the SNP has much explaining to do, either to the Electoral Commission for lack of reporting, to those who donated to what they thought was an independence campaign fund or both.

  136. Robert Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    Maybe time for Stu to keep a eye on anything or anyone who is paying undue attention because it looks like he is definitely on someone’s radar and interest List right now he’s causing a lot of people some real embarrassment , the obvious ones might not be the problem e.g. SNP management it’s possibly the ones who are making sure the show goes on without undue interruption , the Unionist media kid glove treatment is a little puzzling,
    The English state obviously has something planned for us and I guess we will get to find out in dribs and drabs so as not to scare the horses as they say I just wonder what part the management of the SNP has in it ,As for the unionist media it’s way to quiet and that’s a bit concerning.

  137. Oneliner
    Ignored
    says:

    @Robert Graham

    He’ll be alright as long as he doesn’t go looking for the Tory dark money.

  138. Luigi
    Ignored
    says:

    The fact that the BritNat media are not jumping on this already is highly suspicious. Could it be that they have suddenly acquired some discipline and are actually holding fire, keeping their powder dry until the right moment?

    Nah I don’t think so, it would be so completely out of character.

    No, it seems that they have been instructed by their masters to hold off and go easy on Nicola et al. Now why would that be?

    A very worrying situation.

    I always try to give the benefit of the doubt, but there is no smoke without fire and we already have a volcanic eruption’s worth of smoke in the atmosphere. This smells so bad.

    The SNP leadership need to come clean right away and clear this up. If not, more and more people will ask why? This is serious and time is short. Real leaders move when things get tough, they don’t try to hide. SNP politicians are known for their walkabouts and meet the people. If this is not cleared up, they won’t be able to face the public for fear of their own safety.

    If, no IF it turns out that the SNP leadership has squandered all the momentum (and cash) and leads us to snatching defeat in the jaws of victory (majority now for YES), they will never be forgiven. There is little time left to sort this. If there are genuine independenistas left in the party, they have to act now.

  139. Colin Alexander
    Ignored
    says:

    Stu Campbell

    Happy belated birthday wishes, Stu. Thank you for sticking with it through the hard times of the last year.

    You’ve started the next year of your life on top form. More power to your keyboard and investigations.

    It’s been a long and difficult journey but maybe now there is a glimmer of light to be seen at the end of that long, dark tunnel.

    Thank you for keeping on track.

    It would have been much easier to walk away and let the crooks at the top of the SNP get away with betraying the people of Scotland.

  140. Stuart Insh
    Ignored
    says:

    Stu, if the SNP had one bank account with £600k in it and another £500k overdrawn, would that show as £100k cash on the balance sheet?

  141. Oneliner
    Ignored
    says:

    Just as a by the by.

    I find it interesting that the Britnat press didn’t follow up on the official line of a handcuffed suspect shooting a police sergeant in Croydon.

    He wasn’t handcuffed.

  142. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Is there any truth in this statement with regards to the indyfunds.

    “Like all other political parties, the SNP does not separate out restricted funds in annual accounts. Any such donations are woven through the overall income figures each year.”

    “In other words, there wouldn’t be a place on the “balance sheet” where the fund would be identified.”

    It can be found here in the comments section.

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/18828133.snp-try-quash-rumours-independence-fighting-fund-already-spent/

  143. cirsium
    Ignored
    says:

    thank you for this great investigative reporting, Rev.

    As Graeme Hampton mentioned above, you are our Woodward/Bernstein. The situation with the SNP can be summed up by Deepthroat’s line “they’re not very bright guys and things got out of hand”.

  144. Davie Oga
    Ignored
    says:

    David F says:
    28 October, 2020 at 4:33 pm
    “I’m slightly concerned that this has been an elaborate setup. What better way to destroy the last bastion against the Wokerati than to wreck his credibility through this?

    A sudden TA-DA! Look here’s all the money!

    And that’s WOS holed beneath the water.”

    Beattie is lying about sending the emails. He is lying about the funds being available. A normal national press would crucify him over this. Same with Tricky Nicky. She has told so many proven lies that a normal national press would have her afraid to leave Bute House.

    No accountability in Scottish politics and civic society will do more to damage the cause than the removal of a corrupt and dangerous government.

  145. Beaker
    Ignored
    says:

    Humza is now trending on Twitter over Hate Crime, where he allegedly says that hate crime discussed over the dinner table at home must be reported.

    Welcome to North Korea.

  146. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    re. genuine independenistas. This most certainly does not apply to the NEC, who appear to be as hostile towards international law and human rights, as the Tories. So here’s a look at “Phenomenology and Embodiment: Husserl and the Constitution of Subjectivity”, which is a perspective the NEC is hostile toward, as they are intent on denying biological reality. So the NEC are simply no longer a democratic body. let alone genuine independenistas.

    https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4cbhkv

  147. Carol Jardine
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday for yesterday, Stu

  148. twathater
    Ignored
    says:

    HAPPY belated birthday Stu , and thanks for ALL your hard work

  149. Skip_NC
    Ignored
    says:

    Republicofscotland @4:45pm, the first statement is believable, at least in principle (and this is as far as the e-mail from the National Treasurer went). The second statement does not follow on from the first. Timeline:

    2017 – Campaign for independence referendum donations launched and closed. Do I have this correct? If not, what follows is irrelevant (quiet at the back).

    2017 – said campaign raises somewhere in the region of 480,000. Could the 480,000 or so be spread over various income sources? Yes, it could and that is believable.

    End of 2017 – SNP Central party closes its books for the year. Real pound notes have flowed from supporters’ and members’ bank accounts to the SNP. So where is the money? For that, we need to look at the balance sheet (p20 of 2017 accounts).

    Intangible Assets – this is software etc that was largely in use at the end of 2016 (note 17 on p30). Let’s be charitable and allocate the whole of the 24,655 in Software Development to the independence campaign fund.

    Fixed Assets – office furniture and equipment (note 18 on p31). Again, let’s be charitable and allocate all of that towards stuff needed for an independence campaign – another 55,101

    Investments – static at 479 quid. Not worth bothering about.

    Debtors and Prepayments – Trade and Other Debtors are people who owe the SNP money. There should not be anything there that relates to the fundraising. The prepayments and accrued income is where it could be, just possibly. At the end of 2017 it was 290,640 and at the end of 2016 it was 45,496. So this account group went up by 245,144.

    Cash at Bank and in Hand 7,906. Charitably, let’s assume this is all ring-fenced.

    So, even taking the most charitable view for the SNP leadership, the above amounts to 24,655+55,101+245,144+7,906= 332,806.

    So, no, the second point you quoted from the National simply is not borne out by the facts.

  150. Mike d
    Ignored
    says:

    Davie Oga, there is no accountability in Scottish politics or its legal system,
    because both are unionist to their rotten cancerous core

  151. Mike d
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy belated birthday auld yin.

  152. Jim McIntosh
    Ignored
    says:

    I think I agree with someone else up the thread. There is no money. The SNP will undoubtedly have an overdraft facility. Probably for £500K that was maxed out. The Indy fund has paid that to reduce interest charges.

    That’s why the phrase “fully deploy these funds” instead of “ring fenced” is used. They don’t actually have the cash they’ll just use the overdraft facility to “deploy” the money.

    This is also why Beattie says he’s using donations in the “most effective and efficient ways”. God forbid the bank reduces the size of the overdraft due to Covid.

  153. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    re. the corruption of Scottish politics. As the Lord Advocate is “the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament”, he is ultimately responsible for Scotland’s drift towards fascism. So here’s a peek at “Naturalized Epistemology and the Critique of Evidence Theory”, which I think only highlights the moral incompetence of his legal practice.

    http://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1276&context=faculty_publications

  154. yesbot
    Ignored
    says:

    “A sudden TA-DA! Look here’s all the money!”

    Bitcoin perchance?!! We’ve made a fantastic return if so, it’s soared in value in since March!

    Really great work Stuart. I too hope you had a very happy birthday yesterday.

  155. Elmac
    Ignored
    says:

    Skip_NC @ 5.32pm

    See my post at 2.29pm. We are on the same wavelength. Unless there is another bank account outwith the financial statements then clearly the money was spent in 2017 on non Indy purposes. A review of the closing 2017 balance sheet suggests the funds could only have been treated as income and realistically they must be recorded in the donations income for that year – unless we are willing to believe the financial statements were manipulated by dispersing the income over other headings!

    The only way the SNP can refute this is to produce details of a separate off balance sheet bank account showing the missing funds were held there at the end of 2017 and continue to exist untouched. Fat chance of that and they would then have to explain why this arrangement was adopted and why it was not referred to in their financial statements. They are over a barrel. Expect nothing but further obfuscation, lies and delay. I would like to see the Electoral Commission and, if possible, the Police involved to get to the root of what could be a fraud on the Scottish public.

  156. maureen
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy belated birthday Stu!

  157. Ian McCubbin
    Ignored
    says:

    Ha ha as a current member I have not received the National Treasurers rebutal letter about rumours on social media.
    I guess he knows better than sned it to me.
    🙂

  158. Skip_NC
    Ignored
    says:

    Aye, Elmac, I do believe we are on the same wavelength. I can readily believe that the SNP has a line of credit of about 500,000. There were line entries in the Notes from earlier years that hinted at that. However, if a further 100,000 was raised in 2019 (total 580,000 or so ring-fenced) and cash on hand was 97,000 the SNP is basically broke.

  159. Robert Hughes
    Ignored
    says:

    WRYC . Devastatingly brilliant comment . Thanks for articulating with such passionate insight exactly how I feel about the whole excruciating shitshow we’ve ended-up with . Onward ! Indeed bro

  160. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘susanXX says:
    28 October, 2020 at 3:13 pm
    O/T but I think Yousaf has let personal opinions run away with him wrt the hate crime bill. Talk of making views said in your own home liable for prosecution. FFSS!’

    Aye, get the weans tae clype oan ye fir the adulterer. Here’s suhhin ah wrote aboot this disgusting subject last year. This government is built on nuhhin bit personal ambition n revenge fir past slights against hardcore feminist women, and sexual and ethnic minorities. It’s yin ay the maist pathological cabinets ah’ve seen in ma life. Great joab thiv done, tae, blindit by rage n greed. Scary. N hilariously shite. Better off laughing it them thin greeting:

    https://whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-bleat-generation.html

  161. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    Stu, ye fancy reprinting an updatit version ay the link above (n here again) in yer Soapbox column? Lit me ken if ye dae.

    https://whorattledyourcage.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-bleat-generation.html

  162. Republicofscotland
    Ignored
    says:

    Skip_NC Thank you for clearing that up.

  163. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    Robert Hughes, thanks. The bastards will NEVER get us down. The desire for independence will NEVER go away, despite a shower of corrupt shite thinking it owns a centuries-old idea and ideal.

    Nut.

    Simply…nut, yese dinnae.

  164. Mac
    Ignored
    says:

    Interest Costs
    2016 – 126,506
    2017 – 101,577
    2018 – 76,315
    2019 – 87,282

    They seem to be paying a helluva lot of interest costs even in 2019 with no visible debts.

    Notice how it starts to fall in 2017 and then takes a big dip in 2018. What caused that drop I wonder. Maybe some money that was raised in 2017…

    So as suggested above there might be a sizeable overdraft embedded in the cash number which is offsetting the RAF money.

  165. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    Looked it Friendly Wee Yousaf’s sweet treat Tweet aboot getting the weans tae clype oan ye, or yer pals, or yer faimly, or whaeivir feels like they huv a grudge. Kinnay fascinatit noo. Is he pits in in the Tweet, responding tae a Times headline (which reads ‘Hate crime bill: Hate talk in homes ‘must be prosecuted’):

    ‘Beyond headline. If you invite 10 mates round & it can be proven beyond reasonable doubt that you intentionally stirred up hatred against Jews, why should this not be prosecuted. It would if you did so down the pub but not in your house?’

    Beyond headline ay a right wing rag? Jesus. Sorry, ah shouldnae say ‘Jesus,’ cos he wis Jewish, wis he no? Why the fuck is this banger bringing up Jews? Is he no Sikh? Whit an odd religion tae quote.

    Mind ye, ah suppose ye could ask Grouse Beater, or Count Dankula, why he chose that particular eywis-persecutit group tae yaise is an illustration ay his hilariously shite, utterly unworkable idea. The useless prick firgets yin hing: the working class ay this country dinnae gie twae fucks aboot being fucking politically correct, n nivir will! Iviry day it ma work confirms this. Hink ah’ll go oan a wee hatred reporting spree the morra! Shair tae endear me tae ma coworkers n company! Thill fucking love it! Ah’ll be a pure untainted expression hero!

    This hail bill is utterly unenforceable fucking drooling subnormal pish. Laughable. Shows ye how ootay touch wi reality n normal, sane, average folk the dippit middle class cunt is, n eywis will be.

    youtube.com/watch?v=ytoJAL20Rr8&ab_channel=ZechSimpson

  166. G H Graham
    Ignored
    says:

    So the most likely number for membership is now somewhere between 80,000 & 90,000.

    SNP die-hards might ask their Dear Leader, Sturgeon if she thinks losing anywhere from 20% to 35% in just 2 years, is a reflection of her extraordinary success or abject failure.

    Maybe if Sturgeon had retained the party’s laser like focus on achieving independence (like it had done under Salmond’s leadership) instead of gender identity politics, vengeance feminism, bandwagon virtue signalling, all woman shortlists & misguided, poorly conceived nanny-state policies, perhaps there wouldn’t have been a stampede of disgruntled members heading for the exit?

    And if this latest scandal doesn’t coerce her to sneak out the back door of Bute House along with her kinky cabinet, I guess nothing short of an election loss, ever will?

  167. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    WhoRattledYourCage
    There is nothing wrong with feminism, so long as it remains critical rather than pander to sexism. In fact, you can’t be a post-colonialist without being a bit of a critical feminist. That’s because cultural imperialism, sexism and racism, are ideologically linked. So please stop conflating the NEC’s anti-founadtional totalitarianism with feminism.

    https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Colette-Guillaumin-Racism__Sexism__Power_and_Ideology.pdf

    Racism, sexism, power and ideology argues that there is nothing ‘obvious’ or ‘natural’ about our ideas of sex and race; and their historical evolution is one of the key concerns of this collection of essays.

    Colette Guillaumin contends that the slow crystallization of ideas on human ‘races’ over the last few centuries can be traced and understood through the study of signs and their systems.

    But clearly, race and sex are more than just symbolic phenomena. They are the hard facts of society: to be a man or woman, black or white are matters of social reality. To be a member of a particular race or sex brings with it different opportunities, rights and constraints. The study of semiotic systems must therefore be complemented by an examination of such material constraints, of how they operate and shape our life experience….”

  168. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    Why am I so confident that neither our justice system or the SNP’s NEC are fit for purpose? That’s because I’ve a background in social epistemology and critical legal theory. So here’s a peek at “Rationality: a social-epistemology perspective”, if you need further convincing that Scots are getting pumped from both ends.

    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00581/full

  169. Joe
    Ignored
    says:

    @Whorattledyourcage

    It is completely unenforceable.If the intention is to enforce it evenly across the population.

    That is not the intention

  170. Skip_NC
    Ignored
    says:

    Mac, the Interest Costs includes Bank Charges. Much of that, I suspect, is credit card fees for member subs. Interest on hire purchase or other leases can be expected to decline over the term, much like a mortgage payment does – more of the fixed monthly payment goes to principal as the term progresses.

    It seems they have stopped borrowing from party members, because notional interest has gone completely.

  171. Saffron Robe
    Ignored
    says:

    Republicofscotland makes at very good point at 4:25 pm:

    “I can see some influential unionist, or British government department, temporarily loaning the funds to the SNP so they can say we told you they were there, and they’ll be deployed come the indyref, which will happen very soon.”

    This occurred to me too, that the British establishment could well bail out the SNP by providing the missing money in a separate account but attach it to the SNP. The SNP would then point to this account and say, look, the money was there all along, thus making anyone who had questioned the SNP leadership look foolish. However, if this does indeed transpire, then we now know precisely why!

  172. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘CameronB Brodie says:
    28 October, 2020 at 7:58 pm
    WhoRattledYourCage
    There is nothing wrong with feminism, so long as it remains critical rather than pander to sexism. In fact, you can’t be a post-colonialist without being a bit of a critical feminist. That’s because cultural imperialism, sexism and racism, are ideologically linked. So please stop conflating the NEC’s anti-founadtional totalitarianism with feminism.’

    Shut yer piehole, Fido, naebidy asked you.

  173. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    WhoRattledYourCage
    Well I’m telling you, and I’ll continue to tell you every time you punt sexist mince.

  174. john rose
    Ignored
    says:

    Just to note: the cost of employing someone is not far off double their wages when you include ni, pension and other employer taxes.

  175. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘Joe says:
    28 October, 2020 at 8:30 pm
    @Whorattledyourcage

    It is completely unenforceable.’

    Ye coulday jist stopped there. Let’s see the cunts try tae tell me whit tae say or dae or hink. Been a free speech advocate fir ma hail life, donatit money fir that very reason in 1987 in America is a teen:

    https://qz.com/210900/the-obscenity-trial-that-made-h-r-giger-an-icon-for-punk-rock-and-free-speech/

    Ah’ll be FUCKING DAMNED if some soulfree middle class haufwit is gonnae try tae neuter me. If he wants tae bring it oan, BRING IT OAN. Yousaf looks like his beard wid melt if ye sae much is fartit in his hypocritical, sniffy direction. N is fir stirring up hatred, well, his shitey wee “ah goat battered is a wean” revenge bill is daeing exactly that. Except thit random normal average sane folk cannae try tae push thir long-term pathologies intae law.

    FUCK HIM. AND HIS BILL.

  176. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘CameronB Brodie says:
    28 October, 2020 at 8:47 pm
    WhoRattledYourCage
    Well I’m telling you, and I’ll continue to tell you every time you punt sexist mince.’

    Filing that in the circular file is usual. Ah couldnae care less aboot yin single syllable ye’ve goat tae say aboot onyhing oan the face ay this planet. Sexist Mince wid be a guid band name. 🙂

  177. Jockanese Wind Talker
    Ignored
    says:

    Off Topic:

    UK Union Unit appear to be trying to set the framing for blaming Scots Gov for any damage caused by (or even for causing) No Deal Brexit!

    https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/uk-government-lacks-access-to-crucial-brexit-data-from-scotland-gove-claims-39678647.html

    This appears to have gone out at 16:31hrs across multiple media as diverse as the Belfast Telegraph, Shropshire Star, Suffolk News, MSM etc. looks like PA Scotland Editor (I assume the PA = Press Association),

    Nae doot a Gove press release issued without fact check or challenge (as we are used to in Scotland).

    Stand out lines from the article are:

    “Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been invited to “regular meetings” of the cabinet committee dealing with preparations and operational readiness for the end of the transition period, Mr Gove said.”

    and

    “But he (Gove) told Mr Russell: “I note that despite this intensified engagement, UK Government ministers and officials have not been invited to any operational readiness meetings of the Scottish Government.”

    A Sleekit Slimey Bastard Gove is.

  178. paul
    Ignored
    says:

    Joe says:
    28 October, 2020 at 8:30 pm

    @Whorattledyourcage

    It is completely unenforceable.If the intention is to enforce it evenly across the population.

    That is not the intention

    Totally agree/disagree, it is drawing the lines as far back as possible.

    So choice of enforcement lies with the executive (limited focus of resources and all that bullshit).

    Its a sniper rifle, not a lockdown water cannon.

  179. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    WhoRattledYourCage
    You don’t even care to hind your chauvinism and “white male victim-hood”. So I simply can’t take you are being ‘one of us’, as this is exactly what the radical-right exploited in order to deliver Brexit.

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aaronfreedman/false-victimhood-kills

    “The belief that you are a victim of society, despite all evidence to the contrary, is a driving force for violent white nationalists across the world.”

  180. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    ‘CameronB Brodie says:
    28 October, 2020 at 9:05 pm
    WhoRattledYourCage
    You don’t even care to hind your chauvinism and “white male victim-hood”.’

    I don’t ‘hind’ from anybody, bangbusser. Genuinely laughing here. And I categorically PROMISE you that this will be the last time I ever respond to any of your utter shite that a great many other people here hate as well. It doesn’t annoy me, or anger me, or make me think, or make me read your wackjobby faux-academic gibberocity links you post that nobody cares about.

    Guzzle ma boaby, fartslapper.

    Pity you can’t block people on this site. Anyway, I’m fucking off back to watching The Stuff, cos I am on a Larry Cohen kick. See ya! 🙂

    CRUNCH, CRUNCH!! 🙂

    Raising a beer to you, Doc Brown! 🙂

    youtube.com/watch?v=VF26z8vjH4c&ab_channel=ScreamFactoryTV

  181. Joe
    Ignored
    says:

    @Whorattledyourcage

    I really like what you are saying and I admire the spirit. Im personally angry to a degree I could never have imagined just 2 years ago. Its well past anger anger in fact and entering the realms of hatred.

    However we are currently living in a country where we are being dictated to, having our lives damaged, our personal relationships harmed, our kids psychologies damaged all apparently because of a bug with a very low fatality rate.

    When the police kick in my door because I said something truthful about a minority group and take me away my neighbours will do fuck all and if this comments section found out about it half of them would cheer. That’s not to mention the even more clueless normies outside this blog. As for resisting? That’s not going to happen as we are too enlightened, liberal and trendy to believe in having at least some the more upstanding of us armed.

    Unfortunately westerners (western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand) have had it too free and too easy for so long that the sheep now believe that the shepherd keeps them out of the goodness of his heart and that wolves really just have had bad press and are actually naturally peaceful and loving to sheep if the sheep would just open their hearts.

    The larger amount of historical tyranny that mirrors the minor stuff we may have creeping into our lives is unknown to most because there was never a BBC fucking documentary on it and therefore have no idea what to look for outside of some vague quotes from Orwell.

    Even now, while they are being ‘locked down’ and controlled like criminals, it’s an act of inventiveness to get some ugly truth to seep into their soft heads.

    People will get wise but only after they have been burned. Then the next generations can spend time forgetting and getting naive all over again.

    …and to go into Orwell again ‘He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past’.

  182. Joe
    Ignored
    says:

    “The belief that you are a victim of society, despite all evidence to the contrary, is a driving force for violent white nationalists across the world.”

    I could go into that. But I wont.

    Say ‘White people are so stupid and ugly’.

    Not feeling edgy?

    Now replace ‘white’ with any other group.

    Yes. You’ve got it.

  183. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    WhoRattledYourCage
    There’s WhoRattledYourCage and Joe performing a right-wing circle-jerk. What a pair of roasters. 🙁

  184. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    I’m not just picking on WhoRattledYourCage or Joe, but I get the strong impression they’re both coming from pretty much the same place. Which is not a place that respects reality.

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/du-bois-review-social-science-research-on-race/article/under-siege-in-any-era/2F441F60F00020886A0D44C7DC04C0C2/core-reader

    “Whites’ sense of their racial vulnerability has been established as a key facet of U.S. post-civil rights racial ideology. This paper analyzes Whites’ victim claims attached to a historical era, via recent in-depth interviews with elder White Southerners, and argues that, through invoking civil rights-era racial vulnerabilities – mistreatment from social changes and African Americans – White Southerners downplay institutional racism, delegitimize the Civil Rights Movement, and construct White innocence and Black pathology.

    In contrast, younger Whites’ victim claims assert Whites as racially innocent and equitably vulnerable to racism, but these narratives of the racial past achieve similar ends. By constructing the civil rights era as dangerous and unjust, elder White Southerners lay claim to a lifelong nonracist identity and deny systemic racism. This analysis suggests that White threat and victim narratives are not products of a post-civil rights milieu, but rather are generated by Whites’ use of racial framing to construct a sense of self, other, and society.”

  185. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    youtube.com/watch?v=8Redmx2x4Z0&ab_channel=goneunderground77

  186. Joe
    Ignored
    says:

    @Cameron B Brodie

    I could say that its quite cute how completely oblivious you are on that academic cloud.

    Except you are not even on that.

    That academic cloud is metaphorically really just the largest cardboard box you could find and then prit-sticked handfuls of cotton wool on the side while you sit cross legged on top of it.

    You are a piss poor impersonator of piss poor academics 🙂

  187. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    Joe, do you really think yer gonnae get the average bog-standard Scot to go along with this pish? I don’t, not for one single solitary second of a minute. Bear in mind, that, on ground level, the general public is getting heartily fucking sick of lockdown measures, and contradictory diktats, and daily fuck-knows, notice-preening-me telly briefings.

    If this whole thing has demonstrated one thing, it’s that practically fuck all can unite a populace left to its own devices for too long, spoiled, fat, bratty, weak, bored, boring as it is. They wouldn’t even have the energy to burn dissenters. Yousaf and his shite? Laughable. It’s like the ultimate PC farewell nod-and-a-wave.

    The government this fartslapper is part of is coming apart at the seams, and he’s holed-near-water-level still screaming wannabe-dictatorial diktats that nobody gives a fuck aboot! It’s hilariously appalling how out of the loop these sociopath(et)ic narcissistic clowns are. I could say more, but…fuck it. I still believe in the Scots. Some of them. The ones not from Scumza’s societal background, mostly. 🙂

  188. CameronB Brodie
    Ignored
    says:

    WhoRattledYourCage
    I’m pointing out that Joe simply appears to be a racist, and you appear to share a number of opinions. So here a look at how harmful to society your shared outlook is, with respect to “R4pe, Racism, and the Law”.

    https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234108733.pdf

    “The history of r4pe in this country has focused on the rape of white women by Black men. From a feminist perspective, two of the most damaging consequences of this selective blindness are the denials that Black women are r4ped and that all women are subject to pervasive and harmful sexual coercion of all kinds.

    This Note examines the historical legacy of the racist social meaning of r4pe and its consequences. Part I describes the history of the legal and societal focus on punishing Black men when the r4pe of white women is claimed. Part II discusses the denial of the r4pe of Black women. Part III argues that the narrow focus on one racial combination of r4pe obscures the significance of the sexual coercion all women face. Part IV argues that feminists must go beyond traditional r4pe reform measures to stop sexual coercion.”

  189. Joe
    Ignored
    says:

    @Whorattledyourcage

    In case you haven’t seen it this is very funny and apt:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC68SlujPuI

  190. WhoRattledYourCage
    Ignored
    says:

    Joe: many a very true word is said in jest. Brilliant. Thanks for that. Ya (probably) white bastirt.

  191. Polly
    Ignored
    says:

    I join with everyone else in wishing you a very happy belated birthday and hope you have many more of them so I remember to proffer the wishes on the day itself from now on. Also hope you had a lovely day with friends and lots of fun with that beautiful kitten.

    The article is a very good one. At your best you always know how to hit all the marks. Keep it up.

  192. AwakeNotWoke
    Ignored
    says:

    Happy Birthday geezer.
    It’s a proper tornado of crap. And still there are the “shoosh for Indy” ostriches with their heads firmly in the sand defending the staggeringly indefensible.
    Seriously…how did it come to this? It seems power ultimately corrupts… everything.

  193. Jacqueline McDowell
    Ignored
    says:

    Why am not surprised at any of this? The same is happening at branch level.

  194. Peggy
    Ignored
    says:

    @Stuart Insh ‘Net worth/total equity (assets – liabilities) would be £100,000’, but a balance sheet would also report the ‘cash at bank’ as £600,000.

  195. Kate
    Ignored
    says:

    I suspect all this uncovered dishonesty explains why so many rats have already announced that they are leaving the ship/won’t be standing for re-election next year. Maybe someone should sue Sweet Cheeks Smith to get that money back – or at the very least explain why the party paid for his misdemeanour. That might be very interesting.

  196. Stuart
    Ignored
    says:

    Rev. Stuart Campbell says:
    28 October, 2020 at 2:08 pm
    “Still need to bottom out what the “prepayments” are. I think that it includes the ringfenced money.”

    The “Debtors and prepayments” figure for the 2017 accounts is only £378,000 so it can’t be that, because they got £482,000 in 2017 from the fundraiser alone. Where’s the other £104,000?

    =============================================================

    Rev Stu,

    You’re confusing assets and income. The 482K from the fundraiser is income, whereas the 378K debtors and prepayments is an asset. It might be that some portion of the 487K fundraiser income was outstanding at balance date and formed money owed to the SNP – pledges made but not yet paid over. Possible, but I doubt it. IMHO it would be incredibly reckless to count pledges as funds raised until the money is actually in the bank, since some of those who pledged money in the heat of the moment will fail to follow through.

    No, I think that asset has to be something else. I haven’t gone back to 2017 but the 2019 accounts have a similar large amount described as “Prepayments and Accrued Income”. We are all agreed that unless Murrell & Co are demanding that their fat salaries be paid 12 months in advance the prepayments can’t possibly be more than a fraction of this figure. Consequently the Accrued Income must make up 98% of it. I think this can only be Short Money and Holyrood grants that the SNP is booking as Income in 2019 but not actually due to receive until 2020.

    Since my family emigrated when I was a wean and I grew up in Australia I don’t understand all the minutiae of the Short Money and Holyrood grants systems. If they are intended to partially reimburse the Parties for election campaign expenditure then it would be appropriate to book them as income in the same year you incurred the campaign expenses. But in that case why was there a similar amount in the 2018 balance sheet when I don’t think there was an election in 2018? (remember I don’t live in the UK)

    Besides, my understanding of the rationale of the Short Money scheme is to allow non-Government MPs to employ staff so they can analyse legislation on a more level basis with the sitting Govt which has the civil service to do it for them. This would seem to mean that Short Money is paid in advance not arrears, so why is the SNP recording 2020 money as 2019 income? I’d also point out that if the SNP HO income does include Short Money and Holyrood grants then it’s being spent on the HO apparatchiks not the MPs/MSPs’ support staff.

    Until the SNP come clean on what exactly the Accrued Income is then all this is conjecture. Maybe the IndyRef money is squirreled away in one of the 291 other “accounting units” but I rather doubt it. The very lack of clarity and disclosure about donations, accrued income, etc is very concerning.

    BTW if you want to read it I made a lengthy comment about the questionable items on the balance sheet on the “You’ve been Robbed” thread. I still need to analyse the Income & Expenditure but a quick glance suggests that’s a bit dodgy as well.

  197. StuartM
    Ignored
    says:

    In reference to my post of 1 November @2:48pm I’d like to correct the reference to my analysis of the 2019 Balance Sheet. That analysis was posted as a response to the Rev’s “The Telescope’s Eye” piece, not “You’ve been Robbed”. Sorry about that.

    You’ll notice that I’ve changed my screen name to StuartM to avoid confusion with all the other Stuarts on WOS.



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