Up The Hill And Down The Slope
On Sunday, Nicola Sturgeon told Laura Kuenssberg that the SNP’s accounts “went up and down” as her excuse for not noticing that hundreds of thousands of pounds had suddenly vanished from them overnight.
Several things leap out immediately from that clip.
One, there absolutely very much WAS “something glaringly suspicious in the accounts that I should have seen” – the party she led had raised almost £700,000 in two “ring-fenced” fundraisers that wasn’t there any more, which ought to have made its leader at least mildly curious.
And two, attempting to fob responsibility off onto the independent auditors simply won’t wash. It’s not their job to determine whether the SNP has kept its political promises or not, their job is simply to match up money coming in against money going out and produce a set of numbers to show what it all adds up to. It makes no odds to them if it was spent on a party conference, a fancy motorhome or a 50-foot golden statue of Danny La Rue. All they can see is numbers.
(In any event the party’s longstanding auditors resigned in 2023 rather than risk being caught up in any more dodginess. It took months for the SNP to find anyone else willing to take the job on.)
But even leaving those things aside, if we’re going to learn anything about how The Great Indyref Swindle got to this calamitous point unchecked we need to examine just how hard Nicola Sturgeon had to look the other way to fail to see what was going on literally under her nose and literally in her own back yard.
(Long-time Wings readers will have to forgive us a degree of repetition in this piece, because this is the full story of Operation Branchform with all the dots joined up for the first time ever anywhere. If some of it is a little familiar, just bear with us.)
Let’s start with 2015, the first year that Sturgeon started as SNP leader. Since we’re mainly concerned with events from 2017 onwards, we’ll just skip through the first couple quickly for background.
Sturgeon inherited a very healthy party from Alex Salmond. Even after fighting the 2015 election the SNP had over £400,000 in the bank, and a recently-quadrupled membership that would bring it millions of pounds in additional funding every year.
(For perspective, 2013 – Salmond’s last full year – saw the party receive £585,691 in membership income. For Sturgeon’s first full year the figure was £2,743,413 – almost five times as much. She was in charge of a golden goose on an amphetamine rush.)
2016 was also an election year, and having spend a colossal £2.4m on the election campaign (£800,000 more than the previous Scottish election, and £600,000 more than on the 2015 Westminster campaign), only to lose Salmond’s groundbreaking majority at Holyrood, the bank balance plunged accordingly.
And here’s where we really come in. With Theresa May’s snap UK election meaning that the SNP had had to run four big national campaigns in four years, the coffers were understandably almost depleted.
But just a minute. 2017 was also the year of the “ref.scot” fundraiser, which made £482,000 and which the SNP angrily swore had NOT been spent on the election.
So where was it?
Readers may note that the accounts list “Fundraising income” and general “Donations” to the party separately, and the amounts are such that the ref.scot cash must be in the latter category. But it’s fairly academic anyway, as the money was all just dumped in the same pot – the SNP only has one bank account.
The 2017 accounts make clear that there’d also been a large debt repayment.
And we know exactly what it was – £500,000 had been returned to Chris and Colin Weir, specifically £250,000 each. (The other £100K was another separate loan from the Weirs, and would be repaid in March 2018.)
The Weirs had loaned the party £1 million in March 2016 to fight the forthcoming Holyrood election, exactly a year before the SNP launched the ref.scot fundraiser to create a “ring-fenced” independence referendum campaign fund.
Half of it had been paid back in 2016. The £1m of total loans from the Weirs is shown in the 2016 accounts, as is the £500,000 first half of the repayments (plus another £8,126 of other loans).
And the December 2017 repayment was the outstanding balance.
(The Electoral Commission website lists the repayment date of each loan as 1 December 2017 because that’s when each was fully repaid. It makes matters seem more complicated than they really are – in 2016 the party paid each of the two Weirs HALF of their loan back, rather than paying back, say, Chris’s in 2016 and Colin’s in 2017. They did the same the following year. So each loan – Chris’s £500,000 and Colin’s £500,000 – wasn’t considered as cleared until the second halves were paid back in 2017.)
So while you could argue the toss about whether the money had been spent on the election campaign or on paying back the Weirs, it was a pretty moot point since it all came from the same bank account – what matters is that it definitely HAD been spent.
2018 was the first year in five when there hadn’t been a referendum or a general election to spend money on, so the SNP’s funds got a hefty boost. It should be noted that this WASN’T fundraiser money, though, because there was no fundraiser in 2018, and in any case it wasn’t enough – it was £71,000 short of the amount the ref.scot appeal had collected. It was simply the bounty from the huge membership.
Still, if you were the SNP leadership there now seemed a very good chance that the difference could be made up next year, in which there was also no scheduled election, so that all the missing money would be back in the bank before anyone noticed and they’d have gotten away with it all.
But at that moment Boris Johnson – with, astonishingly, the enthusiastic help of the SNP – threw a whacking great spanner right into the works.
Strangely, when it came to the vote no SNP MPs actually voted for the second snap election in two and a half years. Angus MacNeil voted against and the rest abstained or were absent.
Perhaps the leadership had realised the ramifications and panicked, but by then it was too late and the vote carried by 439 to 22, effectively sealing the party’s financial fate there and then.
Because 2019 was the year things got really murky.
You’ll remember from 2017 that the ref.scot fundraiser income was actually listed on the accounts under “Donations” rather than “Fundraising income”, and the same appears to apply in 2019, because receipts from the latter are only £35,000 higher than in 2018 (when there was no special fundraiser) even though the yes.scot one launched in April of 2019 is known to have generated around £185,000.
[Reminder as you read the rest of this article: the ref.scot fundraiser was for the indyref2 campaign fund, while the yes.scot one was to produce a booklet about independence to be sent to every home in Scotland.]
(We know this because Colin Beattie confirmed in 2021 that the total raised was just short of £667,000 and the ref.scot total of £482,000 was publicly visible, leaving £185,000 to have come from the yes.scot appeal.)
Yet having raised £667,000 in “ring-fenced” funds for a referendum campaign and for the “Household Guide” booklet – money which it by definition wasn’t allowed to spend on anything else, because that’s what “ring-fencing” means – and having produced neither thing, the SNP only had £97,000 left in the bank.
Nicola Sturgeon tells us now that she did not find that fact “glaringly suspicious”, and the only reasonable explanation for that is that she already knew she’d broken her promises and spent the money, and therefore had no expectation of the money being there and wasn’t at all shocked when it wasn’t.
But even when we know that the 2017 fundraiser proceeds were actually used to pay off the Weirs, the SNP should at least have had the £185,000 from spring 2019 still in the bank at the end of the year, yet it had barely over half that sum.
Inescapably, half of the “ring-fenced” money had once again been spent on general SNP business, not the thing it was expressly and specifically solicited for. And under Scots law that is, unambiguously, a serious crime.
We’re told that the specialist fraud detectives from the Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh were furious from when the Crown Office declined to prosecute Sturgeon despite her refusing to answer their questions for seven hours, but we don’t know whether it was in relation to the missing fundraiser money, or suspected complicity in Murrell’s embezzlement (or both, or something else).
We can understand their anger.
With no general election in 2020, the SNP’s bank balance recovered to the point where the £185,000 from the yes.scot campaign had effectively been replaced.
However, the “Household Guide” still failed to appear.
(We passingly interject at this point that in Wings’ opinion, the “Household Guide” campaign was a cynical attempt to piggyback on the popularity of our own “Wee Blue Book” from 2014, which has been much-imitated since.)
The party did however purchase £615,270 of what it listed as “tangible investment assets” that year – an almost ninefold increase on the previous year.
It can be deduced from the accounts that the sum is in fact the total of the amounts spent on new office furniture and computer equipment, which tally to exactly £615,270. Let’s just keep that figure in mind for a while.
Remarkably, it’s more than the combined total spend on the same things (£496,652) during the entire other eight years of Sturgeon and Murrell’s joint reign combined.
It may or may not be coincidence that 2020 was the peak year of Peter Murrell’s embezzlement, in which he’s now admitted to stealing over £150,000 from party funds.
Wings noted at the time that these sums seemed astronomical, and it now looks very much as though the figures may have been artifically inflated in a crude attempt to disguise how much money Murrell was stealing.
In the most recent 2024 accounts, the figure is just £3,038.
By the time the 2021 accounts were published in August 2022, the cat was firmly out of the bag. Operation Branchform had been under way for just over a year.
(Incidentally exposing the lie of Nicola Sturgeon’s assertions to Laura Kuenssberg that she couldn’t respond to concerns about finances from the NEC because there was a live police inquiry. There simply wasn’t. Her notorious video telling the NEC to shut their faces was in March 2021, but the police didn’t open any sort of inquiry until that April, and did not escalate it into a full-scale investigation until July, by which time John Swinney had already, in May, reassured viewers of The Sunday Show that there was “a huge amount of scrutiny of party finances” within the SNP “day and daily”.)
The police would very soon know better. (Although as the last line below shows, they still had much to discover.)
After paying for yet another election campaign (£1.65m this time), the party’s reserves were back down below the level of the yes.scot fundraiser, at just £145,000. The “Household Guide” had still not been published (and indeed still hasn’t).
Despite 2022 having no general election, the accounts took another £100,000 hit – in itself a significant red flag for a party still trousering £2.3m in membership fees alone – leaving just over £46,000 in the bank.
Nicola Sturgeon resigned as party leader in February 2023 and Peter Murrell followed suit as chief executive a month later, though ostensibly for misleading communications chief Murray Foote over membership figures.
So the finances for the Sturgeon/Murrell reign look like this.
At no point during their eight full years in charge did the SNP have as much money in the bank as even the 2017 “ring-fenced” fundraiser brought in. (Though of course that’s fair enough in 2015 and 2016, as it hadn’t happened yet.)
No referendum happened and no “Household Guide” was published, so unless both of those fundraisers were deliberately and knowingly fraudulent (SPOILER: they were), the full £667,000 ought still to be there.
Yet at least £621,000 of it – 93% – has unarguably disappeared. It has never been identified or in any way accounted for in the books. It is not there, and nobody has ever answered for its absence. To this day, Nicola Sturgeon insists there is no “missing money”, as have a string of other senior SNP office-holders.
(Though in June 2021 Colin Beattie did grudgingly admit that just under £52,000 of it had been spent on unspecified “campaigning”.)
Sturgeon even tried to deflect by telling the quite audaciously false flat-out lie that the discrepancy was explained by the fact that the SNP’s accounts were managed on a “cash flow” basis (a term which doesn’t actually exist in accounting, it’s simply “cash basis”) rather than the alternative, less transparent “accruals” method. But the SNP’s accounts have been done on the accruals basis for decades, and still are.
Peter Murrell embezzled around £340,000 from the party from 2017-2022 inclusive. Even if we notionally attribute every single penny of it as having come from the fundraisers (which is a nonsensical idea as there was only one pot of SNP money), that still leaves an almost identical sum – £327,000 – as having been separately stolen from the “Independence Referendum Campaign Fund” (sometimes the “Referendum Appeal Fund”) that the SNP was still soliciting donations for as recently as the summer of 2020, and which can only have been deliberately and knowingly stolen by the rest of the SNP leadership, not embezzled by Murrell.
Yet inexplicably both the Crown Office and the SNP alike appear to think this is no big deal, and not something that anyone should bother asking any more questions about – even though, as noted above, the crime has already been admitted to by the party’s former treasurer and, as recently as yesterday, by a pompous dim-witted oaf of a former MP and one-time broadcaster who’s – incredibly – being sent out to do the media rounds, blithely insist that there’s nothing to see here and sneer “Well, whit yeez gonna dae?” at those who were conned out of their dreams as well as their money.
(Curiously, the Scottish media has no apparent interest in having the story explained by the only journalist who’s been on it for six and a half years.)
But you can’t steal from people and then just give them a vague IOU and pretend that makes it alright, especially when you simply don’t have the money to make good on that IOU. The SNP has only once in its entire history had £667,000 in the bank (the end of 2011, when it had slightly over £1m in cash reserves – the previous year it had just £1,241). At present it’s £621,000 short and hovering on the brink of bankruptcy.
(And in the wildly unlikely event that Keir Starmer agreed to Swinney’s demand for a second indyref tomorrow, what sort of criminally reckless organisation would lend the SNP 600 grand to refill the pot, or extend it an overdraft facility of that size? With membership in freefall and donations almost non-existent they’d have next to zero chance of ever getting it repaid.)
Not only is the fundraiser money gone, it ain’t ever coming back – despite Ian Blackford’s assurances to the Commons in November 2021. (In which, interestingly, he made it very explicit that the stolen money hadn’t only come from SNP members, shattering the lie that John Nicolson is telling everyone in the media who’ll listen.)
It is, however, a remarkable coincidence that that £621,000 is almost the exact same amount as the party supposedly spent on office furniture and computer equipment in 2020, Murrell’s peak year of embezzling. If those particular numbers were (as we strongly suspect is the case) mostly fiddled to try to hide his super shopping spree, they effectively kiboshed the SNP’s only chance of ever replacing the stolen fundraiser cash. One crime exposed the other.
The suicidal hubris of the SNP in demanding another snap UK election in 2019 was the other big blunder that buried them inextricably in the hole they’d dug themselves. Wings, of course, had tried to warn them.
Fighting that election cost the SNP £1.6m, for precious little benefit.
So you can take your pick, really. The SNP’s finances do indeed go up and down, although there’s been a lot more down than up recently. But even so, long after spending the fundraiser money they still had, and squandered, multiple chances to escape the clutches of Operation Branchform. (Chance-squandering seems to be Sturgeon’s main political speciality.)
They could have stopped the 2019 election, which dealt a hammer blow to their bank balance, by doing a deal with the Tories to pass a soft Brexit – as this site repeatedly suggested – and they might well even have managed to negotiate a second indyref as part of the deal. Even if not, they’d at least have saved themselves a fortune.
(They’re very unlikely to ever get a better chance to exert some leverage rather than just fruitlessly begging for another Section 30, certainly. Johnson was on the ropes and desperate for the escape route of an election.)
Or Nicola Sturgeon could have paid some attention to all the people warning her about the party’s finances – again prominently including this site – and thereby might have stopped Murrell splurging two thirds of a million pounds on possibly-imaginary office chairs and laptops to try to cover his tracks.
(Instead she sent her bag woman out to suggest they were fifth columnists.)
Either one would have left the coffers healthy enough to replace the missing fundraiser money long before Sean Clerkin filed his fateful complaint with the police, and none of the traumatic events of the last half-decade would have happened. The SNP would still be a golden goose, not the pitiable, scrawny, abused factory chicken she left it as.
But Sturgeon couldn’t bear listening to anyone else’s advice, and now her husband’s in jail and she’s a broken figure of mockery and contempt, who’ll be looking nervously over her shoulder for years to come in fear that her sins will catch up with her one way or another.
Her ups are over and she’s looking at nothing but slope for the rest of her life. With a fat Holyrood pension she’ll have plenty money to keep her company, of course, even after she’s had to give all Murrell’s little presents back – unless she wants to join him in prison for reset – and her house has been sold to pay his debts. (He’ll also be entitled to a fair chunk of her wealth in the divorce, assuming they ever get round to it.)
At least she won’t miss the kitchen, which she was apparently never in. But with any luck, and certainly if we’ve got any say in the matter, there’s still plenty of heat coming the way of the great betrayer.
Pedantic accountant here – The reference to the 2020 asset additions should only be tangible assets not “Tangible investment assets” -which are something completely different.
Greedy eyes, Beady eyes she’ll be absolutely seething. Remember she’s doesn’t take criticism at all.
There are reports Sturgeon is planning to leave Scotland to live in London. Not far enough if you ask me.
She’s the soul reason Scotland is still in this union and the only reason Swinney became leader.
If there is ever a border between Scotland and England I hope she never allowed back in.
Everything seems to point back to 2016 and something changing in her perspective.
Nothing she did after that year makes any sense if you want Independence. It only makes sense of you want to stop it.
Was that the year of the flying iron??
2017 I think. After Brexit. Theresa May visited Sturgeon in March 2017 and then did the weird trip to Crathes. Then Mr Salmond lost his seat. I have ALWAYS thought that was where the rot started.
‘Why the British state protects Nicola Sturgeon’
(Phil Boswell, Through a Scottish Prism, 30 May 2026) –
link to youtube.com
It’s clear that Phil Boswell’s mind has been well and truly decolonized when he says:
What Phil doesn’t say, but probably is well aware of, is that Sturgeon and the rest of the cabal, will be rewarded and protected by the British state for many years to come for their part in saving the union.
An independent Scotland, however, might pursue Sturgeon and Co for crimes against Scotland and the Scottish people – who knows?
Thanks for the link, Fearghas.
It was May 2017 Theresa May visited Scotland
Thanks for all that, Stu.
Well done, a brilliant account. What chance of your expertise in this matter being aired on TV and radio?
A bawhair above nil. (There was a 30-second clip of me on STV News last night, though.)
Filleted.
“Nicola Sturgeon resigned as party leader in February 2021 and Peter Murrell followed suit as chief executive a month later”
————————————————————
Excellent work Stu – one minor point – Sturgeon’s term ended on 29 March 2023, following her resignation announcement on 15 February.
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU MEAN
It’s just a typo of the year – did she resign in 2021 or 2023?
If I wore a hat I would definitely take if off as a salute to you for this work..just brilliant!
I can imagine that every computer screen in Holyrood has viewed this today…and no doubt a few heads are being cradled in hands at the realisation of a very soon (hopefully) investigation being raised about the ‘ringfenced’ missing money.
They are really, really hoping that the Murrell smoke-screen is distracting enough to keep it away.
Why on earth are our so-called ‘media’ not being more vocal about this is beyond me.
Very well done Stu…
It’s all there, and has been on this site for more than 5 years – the arrogance and short-sightedness of Journalists and Politicians not to pay attention to what Wings has been saying about this, pretty calmly and always backed with irrefutable facts and realistic inferences, is galling. They are still getting it wrong – if Kuenssberg had spent 25mins on this site she’d have stuffed Sturgeon at the weekend. What worries me is that since this requires 15-20mins of hard concentration Sturgeon et all will ‘get away with it’ in terms of the huge personal humiliation they deserve (and more) by bluff and bluster, but the UK generally will take a hit in terms of everyone believing that all politicians are cynics in it for themselves and voters will be increasingly seduced by populists who are at least willing to acknowledge their frustrations, but propose horrific non-solutions.
Excellent work. No notes.
I’m in no doubt that Sturgeon was an Accessory After The Fact. She was complicit in concealing Murrell’s crimes and therefore also culpable. Evidence? Murrell refusing to allow the Treasurer and the Finance and Audit Committee to view the accounts. His wife and Party Leader Sturgeon supported him in this. She went further by closing down debate or even questions about this from NEC members. Allison Graham who was on the Finance and Audit Committee read out a statement of concern at the NEC meeting and there is video evidence of Sturgeon bullying her for doing so. Sturgeon worse than ignored the legitimate concerns. She ‘played the player rather than the ball’.
Absolutely informative detailed piece Rev Stu. This is journalism as it should be.
No one should be in any doubt about what has been going on in the SNP. And no one should or can be in any doubt about who was behind the maladministration of funds. This as this detailed piece shows is more than just Murrell embezzling money. It is about the misuse and disappearance of money that was specifically donated for specific funding for a second independence campaign.
So two heads of criminality all wrapped up in dodgy accounts and a blizzard of denial and obfuscation. Sean Clerkin’s complaint that fired the starting gun for the police investigation has not been addressed.
Neither has the issue of the public exposure of serious criminal activity and the pursuance of those who participated in the whole corrupt enterprise been addressed.
This is a stain on the Scottish legal system. It exposes how thieving and the misstatement of legally required accounts can be disregarded.
Crime it seems is something that COPFS willfully disregard and or cover up and there can be no confidence in the integrity of the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service.
There are folks involved in this whole criminal saga that need and should be brought to trial. And this article exposes that there are unaddressed that should, and would in an honest legal system be brought before a court of justice.
.
Y’know Stuart, in my former career as a plod, there were many miscreants for whom I and my colleagues had to investigate, including the “no comment” brigade. Most of whom ended up getting caught and convicted after a decent amount of evidence was ingathered and put before the Procurator Fiscal.
Stuart, you were eviscerated and pilloried when YOU broke this case that the SNP had £700,000 missing in their accounts. I suspect you are NOT a forensic accountant? I am definitely NOT a forensic accountant. Yet your writing skillset and research abilities are impeccable and you explained the logic; you gifted the accountancy evidence you uncovered with the efficiency of a very good detective. Now, Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell is about to see the full face of the law when it comes to sentencing. Murrell is most certainly in custody at this very moment, something which few folk thought would ever happen.
It will be fascinating to see what sentence the learned sheriff imposes on SNP CEO Peter Murrell.
Stuart, when you broke the £700,000 SNP fraud case, and were castigated for it, yet you had a dogged determination born of powerful people breaking the law. It sickens the vast majority of us to see abuse of power in this way.
Today, I just read your same determination in this article focussed upon the inept, irrelevant ex-FM Sturgeon. Someone’s goose is currently headed towards the proverbial oven for a good roasting.
In fairness, I think Nicola should use some of the vast book sales revenues, which she is obscenely boosting off of her husband’s free jail-house publicity, and deploy those funds in getting the best legal advice she can afford.
The received wisdom is Nicola Sturgeon was not cut out for a good career as a lawyer. Newsflash, political mastery is no excuse for questionable conduct in public office, whether you are a dud lawyer, or an over-promoted FM.
Inexorably, Ms Sturgeon seems unable to help herself. She turned her chair to the wall at police interview and followed her legal advice to remain silent. She kept her mouth shut. But now, her craving for publicity, for her need to be relevant and important is her downfall. She just cannot stop blurting out incriminating statements.
Stuart, the UK legal system has been harmed. The Scottish judiciary has been made a disreputable bad joke under Sturgeon. Thankfully she no longer has her grasping politically incompetent claws on the levers of power.
Stu., please keep on doing what you do so well, and thankyou for all you have done so far. There is a reassurance in seeing political creatures such as the SNP CEO Peter Murrell being made to obey laws the rest of us must consent to.
Now, it appears, time for Nicola Sturgeon to be “Murrelled.”
By that, I mean time for Nicola to receive some of the (gerrymandered) legal malfeasance onslaught that Peter Murrell brought down onto the head of Alex Salmond and which, I believe within my own DNA, was part of the cause of Alex Salmond’s premature death. The strain Murrell put on Alex Salmond was disgusting given the end result.
This is for Nicola, we all know you read Wings Over Scotland Nik, so here is some free legal advice – you should have quietly retired to a small cottage in the country and faded away from the mess you made.
Now, because of your need to have more publicity than Donald Trump, you have, and you continue to incriminate yourself hen.
Heaven help you Nicola Sturgeon, because you also have PI Stuart Campbell on your case. The star private detective of Scotland is onto you Nicola, and you really do have a case to answer.
Thank you Stuart.
Superb reporting, do not let up , do not let them away with
Any of it.
Alex and his family must get their day in court.
I can see a collusion with the crown office and this shower of ("Tractor" - Ed)s.
I look forward to other journalists ‘discovering’ these facts in the next day or two.
A trenchant explanation that will hopefully see others held accountable. We were betrayed by those entrusted with the cause of independence.
What rankles me the most is that we were sold out for a vapid lifestyle aesthetic. My only consolation is that whoever buys books from Sturgeon’s home library might actually read them and educate themselves.
Perhaps, one day, she can avail the prison library towards the same end.
Superb summary.
Can you give me your thoughts on the following:
All payments for the motor home were made in 2020, although it wasn’t delivered till January 2021. I wonder if it is included in the huge figure of additions to Office and Computer Equipment in the 2020 accounts as it was paid for in that year. Or, due to its delivery in the follow January, or to hide it for another year, has it been carried forward as a prepayment in the 2020 accounts, and then included in the additions in the 2021 accounts in Office and Computer Equipment.
It is/was certainly included in that heading in the Notes. You will of course be aware , after some fancy accounting footwork, to get round the software,it then appears on the face of the balance sheet under the heading of Motor Vehicles.
Yes, I believe at one point it was designated as office equipment in the accounts.
link to facebook.com
This is not Nicola STURGEON.
link to shinylife.co.uk
We would not wish to bring sex into Scottish politics….would we?
“In any event the party’s longstanding auditors resigned in 2023 rather than risk being caught up in any more dodginess.”
——————————————————–
I wonder if they resigned because of contact by Operation Branchform team?
Great article – cracking read!
As you say, the irony being that quite possibly in an attempt to cover his tracks, Peter Murrell actually highlighted the fact that something was wrong, which led to his embezzlement being detected.
Another thing I think we’d like an answer to is, if she wasn’t in on it, when did she have enough information to know that something was seriously wrong and what did she and other senior officers in the SNP do about it? Resign/suppress it seems a very very odd reaction for someone who is innocent, a victim of the crime, and is trying to protect the integrity and trust in the SNP as an organisation. Did the SNP bring lawyers in, were there major governance changes? Did they launch an independent investigation?
One gets the impression that, despite the SNP (organisation) being the victim of this crime, those currently leading the SNP would far rather that this whole thing had never been discovered. Quite possibly even if that meant the fraud carried on.
There duly sits a big MASSIVE door almost off its hinges just waiting for a certain Stephen Flynn to boot it down and remove all of the Circle the Wagons clique.
Sadly its more likely the control will get even tighter and vision even myopic apart from eyeing up “kulture” jollies over to The World Cup of course.
Forenstic journalism at its finest, Stu.
Forensic journalism at its finest, Stu.
Good work, as ever.
What is clear from Murrell’s plea is that the accounts for this whole period are unreliable and will need to be restated. It has been admitted there was false accouting during the period – when and how will this be done. Surely this is something the Electoral Commission must require. VAT and other taxes have almost certainly been incorrectly delcared.
It seems incredible the Electoral Commission seems reluctant to investegate the audited statements in relation to policy development grants etc. It has no basis to state the assurances it received remain reliable in face of the facts.
D
The only policy development seems to have been field testing multiple expensive coffee machines to see which best “pepped up” Tricky Nicky in the morning! 🙂
nice
One wider issue – given that it has now been established Murrell is a fraudster, i.e. a dishonest person, we can now legitimately enquire about other things (without being called “conspiracy theorists”) – for example, Humza winning that leadership election – didn’t Peter COUNT THE VOTES? And since Humza is a “pet” of theirs, would there not be incentive to prevent unfriendly eyes seeing what they shouldn’t? NB without humza, there would be no Swinney getting back in.
– what would Swinneys position be if it came out Murrell rigged the ballot?
I have an awful idea that the fraudster is going to be found to have a ‘mental health problem’ – as in kleptomania or compulsive hoarding syndrome – and that jail time has now been considered to have been served , much like the chap who worked for the Guiness family who recovered from Alzheimers disease.
Ernest Saunders was a medical miracle and should have been a goldmine for medical researchers.
I think it was Ian Hislop who remarked at the time that the gentleman in question got Alzheimer’s and then ‘forgot he had it’.
I think with the conviction an jailing of Murrell it is crystal clear that there will be much much more to be exposed under the Sturgeon Murrell regime.
The circumstances of the pursuance of Alex Salmond is but another rotten cess pit to be exposed. Or the gerrymandering of candidates for office. And once a thief, always a thief. What other dirty dealing by the ” Sturrell ” gang lies waitng to emerge.
One thing for sure this sick stain of the ” Sturrell ” is not going away. Rather Sturgeon, like her husband, may be going away.
That’s a great name for the dynamic duo and their little helpers. The Sturrell gang it is, but every gang needs a leader. Could I suggest Butch Cassidy?
Suggest gang leader’s name….Miss Andre…..
I met Nicola once, in 2012 when I was coming back down Calton Hill following the first march and rally for Independence. I saw her as the future and enthusiastically asked if I could get a photo with her, she happily agreed and one of the friends I was with that day took the picture. My admiration deserted me after she became leader, coming out on stage with a new power dressed image, all shoulders and heels. I can remember how my brow furrowed at that sight and I thought, who’s this ?
Many times after I couldn’t reconcile her words and actions and as a devoted Wings supporter I was reminded often of the glaring hypocrisy of the SNP’s stated position and the actions of the party as mentioned towards the end of the article above. Once faith is lost it becomes near impossible to recover. I am so angry with Nicola, Murrell and elected members to both Parliaments who I have had exchanges with. In 2012 I and millions more dared to dream what seemed like an impossible dream, I campaigned, donated, knocked on doors, until it finally dawned on me that the SNP had an agenda that was not in line with my previous understanding, and I left the party. How history will finally reflect these last 10 years, we’ll have to wait and see, but there’s an avalanche of shit still to come, of that I’m sure.
The end of the coitus interruptus phase of Scottish nationalism?
Might we now expect the real thing?
We can live in hope.
It’s incredulous that someone leading a large, complex organisation like the SNP didn’t look at the low cash in hand figures and at least start asking about managing potential cashflow issues. And once you’ve asked that question, the very next question would always be ‘Hey didn’t we have over 600K ring-fenced in the bank somewhere?’. And therein lies Nicola’s problem. Just asking that means she subsequently lied about the health of party finances. Not asking that means she knew something was amiss.
Hopefully the broad ranging supporting cast over the past decade will also have some serious light shone on them. Maybe that’ll come when the legal focus turns to those other big matters that need as much exposure as possible if Scotland is to ever clean up it’s own house.
Would it be right to assume that it is likely that Murrell stole a lot more than the £340k he has been convicted of?
Some items might have been removed from the charge sheet as part of a plea bargain (or under pressure from Nicolas friends) and other items might never have made the charge sheet due to the evidence not being quite so strong.
One consequence of this affair, and which must have been noted by all in the “sturgeon gang” – loyalty is a one-way street, nothing will be spared to “protect the queen” and anyone will be thrown under the bus, if required.
– I think that concentrates the mind if you have been “up to stuff” for Nikki. For example, the Salmond affair – it will all eventually come out (right now their names are being written on bog walls across reekie) the identities of the alphabetties, so everyone will know; then it is just possible there will be more legal trouble (courtesy of the gun guy). People might start to think “how can I protect myself?”
If it came down to it, would Leslie Evans or Liz Lloyd (or someone else) be willing to “throw themselves on the hand grenade” just so Nikki can continue to pursue a literary career? They do not seem as pathetic as Murrell.
Mind that only the first one to rat will get the deal. When women turn on each other, it can be highly entertaining, claws drawn.
Note that structurally it is close to impossible for underlings to organise high level conspiracies (with the use of resources) without the implicit approval of their betters; they are cut-outs, there to do the dirty work and to catch the bullet if necessary. But it should fool no one.
Just to add another thought. The issue that Peter Murrell resigned over was pretty trivial in the scheme of things, providing misleading numbers (lying) for the party membership figures. Is that really a scandal he thought he couldn’t survive, who would have otherwise sacked him, his wife?
Those of us who’ve done training on spotting the signs of workplace fraud will be well aware of some of the warning signs: not taking leave, working odd hours, keeping documents and information closely guarded etc. Was he not concerned that his successor in the role would uncover the substantial fraud he had just committed? Even a few more years in that post would have allowed him to keep control of the parties books, manipulate or destroy documents, and beyond the mandatory 6-year record retention period everything can go in the bin which would have made it much more difficult to detect and prove. In contrast, his successor might immediately realise something was seriously up, and both call the police and the lawyers themselves.
Or was some deal done in 2021 for Peter Murrell to quietly shuffle off and the SNP would try and keep it under wraps as much as possible. I have no evidence for this, beyond that this theory would seem to align with the facts of the case, but I find the behavior of the SNP and its supporters very hard to explain.
The eyes say it all…. she has learned how to,lie that she even believes her own lies! She was protected and enabled by MI% handlers in the SNP Doors opened for her and now one can deny her metioric rise through the SNP ranks to such prominance. Any other SNP emerging talent was closed down if they were a threat to her progression. Look at her ‘career’ within the SNP, every photo oppertunity, every chance to profile taken. The brit states best asset groomed and ready to serve the state when the time was right.
Wee question – where does Murrell’s hiding of the fall in SNP membership numbers fit into this?
Were Sturgeon and Murrell worried about being seen to be trading whilst insolvent and therefore artificially inflated the membership numbers to give the illusion of enough income to offset outgoings?
If Murrell was able to create invoices for expenditure was he also capable of creating false income? Was the outgoing expenditure in part money laundering to re-pay the fake membership income?
Or was it just an attempt to stop further loss in income to try and stop the party going bust?
Murrell loved Sturgeon, and most likely still does, but her love for him was a lie… this is the truth that sits at the heart of this sorry tale, this Shakespearianesque ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ tragedy – for even though Sturgeon and Murrell’s mutual suicide was not framed in terms of mortality, it was a suicide of sorts nonetheless.
I am sure that if the public knew of Murrell’s heartbreak; knew of his great suffering; knew of the pain he endures at the loss of his one true love they would, in an instant, forgive him his misdemeanours and set him free.
For it is that heavy madness (or Kleptomania as some call it) invoked by unrequited love that is the source of Murrell’s disgrace.
The object of his great love is to blame, not he.
For unbeknownst to Murrell his true heart’s desire found all men repulsive creatures – she preferred her favours be given only to her own kind.
Murrell’s desperate, tho hopeless, attempts to reclaim a love that never was drove him to borrow – for I believe he fully intended, if time had not betrayed him, to repay what coin he took from the purse of the SNP – money not his own with which to purchase a vast array of trinkets.
Trinkets that might sway the object of his love to return in kind his great affection for her.
But, alas, such an outcome was not to be, and so we have arrived to this sorry place – this place where a decent and loving man stands before us in the dock draped in dejection, tormented by an impossible vision of what might have been, his reputation in tatters… and all hope of a life wrapped in happiness embraced in the arms of his one true love forever lost.
We can only hope that on this occasion the blindfold worn by Lady Justice slips a little way and, with a tear in her one exposed eye, she sees fit to release poor Murrell to his private agony and spare him an unjust incarceration… perhaps with a subtle wink given by that eye hidden from public view.
Northcode: she did have a miscarriage, so she must have lent him her favours at one point. I do agree that he is probably in a mentally deluded state. People steal for reasons of greed mostly, but an emotional void can also cause it. The multiples of the things he bought would suggest some kind of breakdown.
However, he also was vindictive towards Salmond, which suggests malignancy to some degree. Perhaps he wasn’t able to stay out of the limelight while Salmond and Sturgeon hogged the show or, perhaps, there was some other reason. Anyway, I think Sturgeon may well be bi-sexual rather than solely lesbian, but what do I know?
I also think she knew that the ring-fenced funds had been used to repay the loans and tried to keep the lid on it all, but, as well as that, there were rumours that money from the SNP had been used to pay for individual politicians’ (not Salmond’s!) court cases. Whatever, she must have known that other money – outwith the loans – was missing because she would have had to sign off on the accounts. Who knows?
Superb forensic analysis, Rev. So, so sad that the party had to come to such an ignominious end – and it will end. The other thing that is truly ironic is that all that membership money came, partly, from the influx of new members after 2014, many of who were former Old Scottish Labourites. A number, however, were hard leftists who infiltrated the party and brought the ‘woke’ nightmare with them, ensuring the likely demise of the old independence dream.
“It’s bringing tears of laughter to my gless eye…”
Judging by the poor quality of your retorts my wit must be bringing tears of laughter tae baith yer gless eyes.
L
Immaculate conception equals IVF..
Or did she not see what was happening?
It’s bringing tears of laughter to my gless eye, Northy, to witness you paying homage to The Bard.
Not thinking of flitting to England are you?
The taxes are lower!
Apologies, Lorcal. My comment was meant for this guy.
“It’s bringing tears of laughter to my gless eye…”
Judging by the poor quality of your retorts my wit must be bringing tears of laughter tae baith yer gless eyes.
What’s your excuse for savaging poor Lorncal like that, Northy?
Too much weeping into your dram?
Try to hit the right Shakespearianesque note next time around.
Try to hit the right target too.
“What’s your excuse for savaging poor Lorncal like that..
You MUST have known I would correct my mistake and yet you were unable to restrain yourself from taking the opportunity to make some weak attack against me for my simple posting error.
I don’t believe I’ve ever witnessed a mind so thoroughly outpaced by the speed of its owner’s unthinking fingertips.
* And more apologies to you Lorncal… for getting your name wrong and calling you Lorcal.
“You MUST have known I would correct my mistake”
Sure. Fanon predicted it.
HMcH
“The taxes are lower”..
Not for most “old boy”..
In the long run no one gets away with it. The past will catch up with Sturgeon and the other thieves and liars. We have to be patient. Already, Sturgeon is tripping herself up because of her own lies.
What is the original (coffee machine parody) painting?
Click on it and you’ll see – a funny spoof by ‘Canavaggio’
Reported in the record, Noel Dolan said the SNP should appoint a KC from outside Scotland to chair a probe that should have police involvement.
I don’t believe one single person was committing fraud I also don’t believe everyone in the leadership was blinded to the fact fraud was being committed.
Is there the possibility of a class action lawsuit by all those poor people who donated money only for it to completely disappear?
As Stu notes, this is blatant fraud.
Is there any possibility of monies paid for the mythical super injunctions?
This all makes me wonder even more why Kenny MacAskill abruptly and unexpectedly brought down the ALBA party without consultation of any sort with members, weeks from an election where there most certainly would have been MSPs elected. He could see the writing on the wall for Murrell, Sturgeon and the SNP, so why destroy ALBA, a party described by auditors as a going concern.A party people would have been signing up to in their droves at this point. A party who would’ve driven independence forward. He remarked in an article that the Electoral Commission may at some time want money returned.Why would they? All the EC require is a run down of how grant money was spent on policy development. Not rocket science to provide this.So, why destroy ALBA?
Kenny MacAskill did not destroy ALBA.
ALBA also suffered from a fraud which prevented them fielding candidates in the HR elections and resulted in their demise.
Isn’t that a coincidence now – its the second independence party brought down by fraud.!!
That’s the story being told anyways. The books were in the black even if there had been fraud (which is questionable).Kenny was offered full indemnity by a group of members which he refused to take up. He was determined to close the party down.
I have to say you have done a consistently good job in exposing this. Why no media or TV gigs related to your investigation ?
So the issue is not just that Murrell committed fraud, but that the Party committed fraud?
In which case, surely they must have lied to the Electoral Commission? (Which is bad, isn’t it?)
I mean, I know all regulators are shit, but the best* case scenario here is surely that the SNP effectively “loaned” the ref.scot money to itself to fight the 2017 election intending to pay it back. They couldn’t declare that because it was a fraud on the donors so.. they didn’t declare it. That seems to me to be a situation “where a breach involves a criminal offence” and the E.C have a duty under PPERA to do… something?
“unlikely event that Keir Starmer agreed to Swinney’s demand ”
well this would be the perfect time for him to do that of course if he wanted to see the SNP off completely.
I am no accounting whiz. But on that ridiculous office equipment sum in 2020, do we need to add the equally absurd figure for ‘audiovisual’ at their conference in the 2022 accounts. That makes nearly £1m of vastly inflated expenditure for which there was no actual evidence.
If Murrell’s embezzlement was 400k, what hole did the remaining 600k disappear down?
Or was the repayment to the Wiers? But why hide that? None of it makes any sense to me, other than the whole top tier of the SNP should resign now, so tainted are they by acquiescing in and approving of the Murrell/Sturgeon fraud. The SNP will take years to recover, if they ever do, all that work done by loyal supporters and of course Alex Salmond, flushed down the drain of iniquity, incompetence and dishonesty.
The way Murrell was apparently thrown under the bus by his confederates reminds of that famous scene from The Maltese Falcon when Bogart says they need to give somebody to the police to pin everything on and get them off their backs; “let’s give’m the gunsel.”
What else were they going to do? The indyref fund had been blown, the promises all clearly broken. Was it premeditated? Maybe, but that doesn’t really matter. The fact is they blew it and it would have taken the police less than 5 seconds to establish that damning fact.
You can imagine the discussions that must have taken place; we’ve got to give them something, etc. — the alternative, jailing a bunch of them (including Saint Nic), would have raised a million awkward problems, and effectively have closed down the government.
So, easier to give them the gunsel, Murrell. I leave open the possibility that Murrell consented to be the fall guy (he’s definitely weird enough).
As for the embezzlement, it’s all sort of crap. The camper-van was accounted for in the accounts as a company asset (who cares if it was defined as a van?). All the other stuff could easily be explained away as needed for party purposes, even the salt and pepper dispensers. (I know enough about company accounts to know [with the right accountant] you can pretty much define anything as being needed for business purposes.)
I’d be interested to know more about their VAT claims; did they claim VAT back or claim exemption on the stuff he bought with party funds? More capable crooks than this bunch have unraveled on basic tax obligations.
There have been three captains Murrell / Sturgeon / Swinney on the bridge of the SNP, and their positions and regard for one another mean they lost sight of all rational judgement.
Part of what happened in 2021 is Peter Murrell, his party leader / Nicola Sturgeon / boss and John Swinney had growing signs of work & family occupational burnout condition.
They knew all along, and were juggling the stresses, of the multiple strains and demands of her then husband’s finances, Scottish Government and the SNP finances.
The couple’s growing occupational burnout and financial juggling may have been discussed as part of their evening and daytime discourse since 1988 when they met. That is a long time. Swinney knew Murrell since the 1970’s or thereabouts, and made up the third partner of the firm.
Sturgeon and Swinney may also have known about the previous financial stresses and strains for Murrell and SNP in Aberdeenshire, where monies appear to have absented themselves.
John Swinney, who would have known about everything else as well, as he grew up at school etc in Edinburgh in 1970’s with Murrell, was then neatly able to suggest he come back in 2023 – 2024 and the veil would remain firmly draped over the previous thirty or more years events.
Humza had little time to lift the veil.
Swinney is now defending the veil of absolute secrecy, the fraud(s) by his childhood friend. The fear of Swinney and his personal responsibility as Murrell was his first appointment to lead the SNP.
The trust between one another in the three people, some since 1970’s, enables assumptions, enables abuse of trust and fraud to develop. Friendship / politics is a facilitation to the fraud as well.
The three most senior people in SNP do not question one another, and a cover up ensues as no questions are asked. The fraud(s) have all been carried out under their noses.
This is not Fujitsu and the Post Office, it is these three people and the SNP.
Swinney appointed Murrell as the party’s chief executive in 2001. They were childhood friends, and despite the bad financial background and potential missing Aberdeenshire monies, the appointment is made. Theirs is a joint and several venture.
How many times has Swinney been to the Uddingston Sturgeon / Murrell home since 2000 and used the salt and pepper / mower / other choices from list of xxx items ?
The three have all protected each other, and their actions, for 35 political years. Will that change now if more cases are started to retrieve further missing monies ?
The three people involved, have lived in each others pockets for 55 years, two of them since school. This is joint and several responsibility.
These people are The Three DisGraces of Scotland. NGS has a graceful version.
Banksy could be invited to create an artwork to stand outside Holyrood. The recovered monies might pay for it.
Buried in a couple of lines in an article I read was a assertion by MacAskill that Salmond kicked Murrell out as an office bearer of one of the branches in 2006 for pinching money . He was not kicked out of the party.
Unfortunately, I’ve read so many words on this I can’t remember where I saw it but no doubt MacAskill could verify this one way or another.
If this were true then it would be negligent if people knew of his past and still let him have seemingly unfettered access to large sums of money.
The Scottish Information Commissioner v The Scottish Ministers
Jun 3, 2026
Lady Poole today delivered her judgment in the case of a petition brought by the Scottish Information Commissioner against the Scottish Ministers.
Conclusions
The court found that the Scottish Ministers deliberately failed to comply with the Commissioner’s notice within the specified time limit.
The court was satisfied that the failures by the Scottish Ministers amounted to contempt of the Commissioner. The court held that it should invoke powers available to it in respect of contempt of court in order to impose a sanction.
The court admonished the Scottish Ministers for their failure to comply and awarded expenses against them on an agent-client, client-paying basis.
3 June 2026
link to judiciary.scot
————————————————-
SNP lose in Court yet again!
Link to Alex Salmond.
link to pressandjournal.co.uk
“Sources told The Press and Journal that Alex Salmond repeated allegations about Murrell from when they worked together in the north-east.
Mr Salmond was Banff and Buchan MP in the 1990s.
Murrell was active in senior party roles at the time locally, including as SNP Peterhead branch convener.
One source, who knew both men from the time, said Mr Salmond raised concerns about Murrell including allegations of money going missing.
It was alleged this related to computer equipment in the Peterhead office.
On Monday, Murrell admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022.
He was taken from the High Court in Edinburgh and remanded in custody before sentencing in June.
After the charge was admitted, former diplomat Craig Murray shared another past allegation on social media.
He claimed Mr Salmond – who died in 2024 – told him Murrell allegedly took about £500 funds while in the north-east.
Mr Murray alleged Mr Salmond replaced it.
“I told Alex his kindness was admirable and covering for Murrell I understood, but continuing to employ him was nuts,” he added.
Meanwhile, The Sun reported former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill’s concerns from Murrell’s time in the north-east.
“Alex let him off with his earlier sins. Some money went missing and Alex decided to cover it and move him on,” The Sun reported.”
In 2019 Alex Salmond raised concern about SNP 2019 finances and urged donors to question where their money had gone – “vanished into the maw of the party machine”.
He was also election agent in 1992 council elections and was research assistant to Mr Salmond in 1994.
It was 2020 when Alex raised concerns about the 2019 accounts.
Truly superb work, chefs kiss.
With regard to the media not going after her, remember what her new employment role is, something which can be questioned even less than troonery, if that is at all possible.
John Swinney admits £600k independence ‘fighting fund’ has been spent.
link to archive.ph
Well done Stu , Wings is the best political website in the UK and as a Scotsman based near Bristol it’s the best way of keeping up with the stramash that is Scottish politics, even as “yoon” I consider this site essential reading, many of my English friends are impressed by my detailed knowledge of Scottish politics all gleaned from your excellent pages, keep up the excellent work.
I don’t give a damn about ‘The Murrell Affair’ – some guy nicking £400K is small beer in The Plundering of Scotland
I would have given Murrell and Sturgeon a £100 million quid apiece (cheaper than £150 billion or the price of a wee ferry) and immunity from prosecution in the Scottish courts just to stand up in public and broadcast to us Scots and the world who they really worked for (hint: it wasn’t the Scots) and when and why and how and then I would have paid for their train tickets to London where they could live out their lives in luxury.
The Murrells are low hanging fruit in the colonial media’s ‘let’s trash the Scots’ feeding frenzy. All of Scotland’s political class are. They serve the objectives of Scotland’s coloniser.
It doesn’t matter how much Holyrood costs – £1 Billion, £10 Billion, £20 Billion… who cares when the illusion of a Scottish Parliament repays Westminster with a £150 Billion (minimum) annual bonanza, it’s Scotland’s money, anyway?
And if you haven’t already spotted the subtext running through this whole *pointless exercise in blame here it is in bold…
It was the Scots wot done it to themselves by supporting a ‘Scottish’ national party – those thick sweaties aren’t capable of running an independent Scotland.
If you believe that pile of imperial Anglo-pish, and if you believe Murrell is actually going to do serious jail-time, and if you believe Sturgeon will suffer much more than some embarrassment before being brought into the protective fold of the ’empire’s metropole, you’ll also likely believe that Scotland and England are partners in a mutually agreed, mutually beneficial union of equals….
… and that the moon is made of cheese.
* (It wouldn’t be a pointless exercise in blame, of course, if Scotland were independent and not a colony – a non-self-governing territory (NSGT) in United Nations speak – ruled over by a foreign power; the power Sturgeon and Murrell were, ultimately, employed by, and probably still are…)
Well said, Northy and a relevant link, too.
“It was the Scots wot done it to themselves by supporting a ‘Scottish’ national party – those thick sweaties aren’t capable of running an independent Scotland”.
Right on the nail; the usual nodding dog unionists – and some new ‘names’ too – have already been punting this pish for a few days now.
Yes Northcode, and here again we witness the inevitable well timed colonial show trial, such events long favoured by imperial powers in their ever more desperate efforts to quell the rise of independence movements.
As was Alex Salmond’s show trial in a similar vein, also occurring at a decisive moment, i.e. when ‘colonialism is imperiled’ (Fanon).
Here the colonizer seeks to again demonstrate that the “deficiencies of the colonized give rise to their need for a protectorate” (Memmi).
“those thick sweaties aren’t capable of running an independent Scotland”
Harsh, but fair.
The underlying condition that causes it is that an army of “thick sweaties” refuse to rid themselves of the comfortable blanket of victimhood. And hence, “it’s always somebody else’s fault” (Mummi).
BTW, Northy. Something else that has obviously eluded you.
If a “thick sweaty” believes a bloke is a woman because he says so, then the moon is made of cheese.
“Harsh, but fair.”
Good God!
I don’t believe I’ve ever witnessed a mind so thoroughly outpaced by the speed of its owner’s unthinking fingertips.
I’m touched that you maintain a stock response ready to cut and paste, just for me, Northy.
But it would look so much better translated into Scots.
I’m afraid your original plan, to foster an illusion of sane erudition by submitting posts nae cant could understand, really was better than what you’re trying now.
Here’s an idea. Why don’t you plug Alf’s book in Scots?
“I’m touched that you maintain a stock response…”
You indulge your own ego, I think… my stock response is available for use against all unthinking bores.
You draw an incorrect conclusion because you dominate the ‘unthinking bore’ space in this place for the moment and are, therefore, currently the most deserving of the sentiment.
Aw, Northy, now I’m hurt.
So now you’re going to translate your stock response into Scots and deploy it on some undeserving cant who’ll never appreciate you as much as I do.
That must be your damnable Pictish genetic inheritance coming to the fore. Overwhelming any superior Scottish genes you might have been gifted from that long ago miscegenation.
But I forgive you. You’re grieving and lashing out blindly. Like a wounded animal, you’ll need time to lie low and heal.
We pure-bred Scots can afford to be magnanimous to the lesser races.
People still wishing that the UK government had saved Scotland from itself while also wanting independence. Ironic.
I wish the focus beyond the excellent WoS was less on Sturgeon being a humble, unwitting little wife and more on her undeniable understanding of the accounts as party leader.
Ironic.
And endemic.
Great work Stu. When you go back and look at things again it often becomes clearer what was going on. Exactly what you have done. One issue I’m wondering about is the timing of Sturgeon’s resignation. At the time it was unexpected and no convincing reasons were given. How does that fit in with the timeline of Branchform? Did she know more than she is admitting to and decide to get out?
According to her majesty she was suffering from occupational burnout. A serious psychological disorder.
The pulling together of years of labour – great stuff.
The timing though, is raising more questions than answers for me.
‘Buying’ people is an art, some folk do it every day.
This article is truly a masterclass in editing, never mind the dogged endurance and attention to detail over the years of corruption. For readers of Wings, Murrell’s and Sturgeon’s denouement comes as no surprise, but shame on the MSM whose job I thought was to speak truth to power, but apparently not. They, together with the judiciary have also been bought.
Among all the infinite machinations of this thorough betrayal of a nation, I think it gets forgotten what the effect of someone lying to you feels like as a human, because when you are lied to, you are wilfully disrespected, your intelligence is insulted, any trust has gone and any social contract is broken (just ask any parent of any addict) and for good measure money is usually asked for by the person lying to you. Just amplify that feeling a millionfold.
I am glad she’ll get her comeuppance in time and the alphabetties too over the Scottish government’s manufacturing of the Salmond case. I know she and others complicit will also get their comeuppance over the ring-fenced monies.
I just don’t know how you can do it though, Stuart.I cannot listen to her lying voice taking us all for fools, let alone look at her lying face and i probably never will watch that lavender interview.
I know this is an old-fashioned word, but even a fool can see that Idolatory is indeed a very dangerous thing.
Kudos to all those lone voices who mistrusted her years ago, unfortunately some of us are only human and not so wise.
It is absolutely shocking that such a wee smout could terrify the media and the police into not burning her arse years ago. Where were all the so- called‘ investigative journalists.
I can understand that ordinary people like myself risked being stoned for raising concern.
I was barred from the Herald when a reporter stated she, “Sturgeon”, just needed a bit more rope and I suggested “ about six feet would be enough”
What were they all afraid of?
Kendyl Kearly to be next SNP CEO?
Aye, I know – Daily Record.
link to dailyrecord.co.uk
“One source said: “Alex would hint at impropriety by Peter when he worked for him in the 1990s. He would say money went missing and say it was down to Peter. He said to me ‘Peter tells lies’.”
A second source said: “Alex told me money went missing when Peter was based in his MP’s office. He mentioned it a couple of times. I think it was a bit more than £500, not an insignificant amount back then. He said it was him.
“But Alex brushed it under the carpet for the sake of the party and then Peter was appointed as chief executive a few years later.”
A third source said: “Alex told me Peter had always been a thief and said he stole money from his constituency office. He would joke about it and also blamed him for furniture belonging to [his wife] Moira’s mum going missing.”
A fourth source said: “Alex said times Peter stole money from his office but he gave him a second chance.””
I some how reckon if all the true Scots hadn’t left the SNP, who would have been stitched up for Murrel’s crimes.
Today, JS admits the big fraud by him, SNP and NEC on donors in the Herald on June 3rd 2026 – he explains a way and says ‘indyref2 has never happened, may never happen, but spending lots of money on my mates and shiny toys is the same as spending money on indyref2 because I say so’.
Is he saying to the donors, ‘see yous all in court’ ?
Or is he saying there is a camper van MkII with indyref2 livery in his driveway, strategically parked that is actually, yeah, well all about best mates governance of the future SNP camper van campaign for indyref2 ?
Has possibly Swinney said to the NEC that he has strengthened the future campervan finance governance policy of the SNP, by requiring Elvis signature on any future cheque ?
Herald
John Swinney: The SNP have spent Scottish independence fund
The SNP’s £600,000 fund ringfenced for Scottish independence campaigning has been spent on general party business, John Swinney has admitted.
Scrutiny over the independence funds kick-started Operation Branchform, the police investigation into SNP finances, which culminated in former chief executive Peter Murrell pleading guilty to embezzling £400,310.65.
In 2017, a high-profile independence campaign fundraiser reached £482,000, with a second appeal in 2019 taking the total to £667,000.
In 2020, senior SNP sources dismissed allegations that the indyref2 funds had been spent on election campaigning as “utter nonsense” and “categorically not true”.
But speaking to LBC and Bauer, Mr Swinney admitted the funds were gone.
Asked if all of the £600,000 had been spent, he said: “It’s part of the ongoing activities of the Scottish National Party and we are the party that campaigns for independence.
“We just fought an election campaign in which we had a very, very strong anchoring of our campaign for independence so if that’s not the use of the resources then I’m not sure that I understand what the resources are for.”
It was put to Mr Swinney that people who donated to the independence fund were not just SNP members, with donors told the funds would be specifically used to fight a referendum.
In response, he said: “What is important is that the SNP resources are used for the purposes for which they are intended, and that is exactly what I want to make sure is the case.”
When the ref.scot fundraiser was launched in 2017, the SNP said it would “only be used for the specific purpose of a referendum campaign”.
“In that regard, the money is earmarked,” the party said.
Jackie Baillie, deputy leader of Scottish Labour, said: “After spending the past week angrily shouting at opposition politicians and journalists, John Swinney has finally admitted that the SNP have defrauded their members again.
“SNP members and supporters donated their hard-earned money believing it would be used for a future referendum campaign. John Swinney has now admitted that it became part of the SNP’s general resources.
“People will rightly ask whether they were misled. They will rightly ask why the SNP continues to resist scrutiny. And they will rightly ask why John Swinney is so desperate to avoid a full inquiry.”
The latest statement from our dear departed leader was that with regard to Murrels gifts
“ These were gifts mat to me and I shall not be returning them or giving them to repay the money wot Peter went and stole, ergo, I am keeping them. They’re mine all mine.
I thought that regardless of who you are or were, in law, you cannot benefit from the proceeds of a crime, besides they’ll be no use to her in jail.
I have been waiting a long time to read this article Rev. A long time. As one commentator said ‘Its the comedy show that just keeps giving.’ Even the post colonials agree there’s only one possible outcome. And just because you are on the Telly doesn’t mean any less detail on the autopsy.
Swinney has now effectively admitted that all this is true. What I still don’t understand is what the police investigation of this decided. Did they just get sidetracked when they found Murrell’s embezzlement? Produce a report saying it was all too difficult? Or is it just the SNP won the election, don’t make trouble?
Is there any indication what the “Miscellaneous” income category consists of?
It seems pretty high each year, more so than several of the other categories. 864k in 2019, 980k in 2018, 813k in 2017, 537k in 2016…
What’s bringing in so much money that’s not donations, memberships, conference income or grants?
How often do you kick a rock over and see ONE cockroach?
– no, there will be a load of them, and not only that – woodlice, spiders, snails, slugs, fuckknowshwat creepy crawlies you dont want to know … its an entire eco-system
yet : Murrell pulled it all off, all by himself because his control-freak wife suddenly became catastrophically disinterested in all that “money stuff”.
Nicola has been extraordinarily graceless about all of this – if Peter “took one for the team”, some sympathy at least for her “poor wretched husband” might be in order … nope … anywhere there is a literary festival and/or women in dungarees – there she is. Even such a pathetic beta male as Peter might turn on her – it depends on what kind of sentence he gets, and how he will be taken care of once he gets out.
searched for : most lenient sentence fraud 400K Scotland –
One of the most lenient sentences handed out in Scotland for a large-scale fraud near the 400,000 threshold was given to a Highland property developer who was sentenced to 13 months in prison at Inverness Sheriff Court in April 2023.The offender, Michael Maggs (52), pled guilty to attempted fraud after he deliberately set fire to three of his own unfinished properties near Nairn in November 2017 to claim a pounds 400,000 insurance payout.
Despite the premeditated nature of the crime—which involved arson and significant destruction—the sentence was heavily reduced because he was a first-time offender and his defence counsel argued he was under severe financial and personal stress. Under standard sentencing guidelines, major fraud and embezzlement in Scotland of this scale can often result in custodial sentences ranging from 3 to 7 years.
– so, we shall see what he gets in relation to the 13 month record; to be fair, Murrell never set fire to anything. Still, 3-7 is more usual.
cunning plan : Swinney sets fire to SNP HQ to claim the insurance – just like that, all our problems were solved.
BTW : what happens if a political party is bankrupt? Do they get relegated and have to play in the lower leagues. Or do they lose points next election?
would we see sheriff officers entering holyrood and lifting laptops? Or maybe the SNP could “work it off” forming the world’s ugliest brothel (some of them might be into it).
I would have liked to see the spectacle of a real trial – maybe Lord Findlay of Handlebars would take the case and get it knocked down to “culpable homicide” (no matter what you do, donald will get you a culpable) – and watch the shenanigans : “the glove didn’t fit”; Findlay is also capable of producing mental health diagnoses in court for which no medical professionals can vouch – would Murrell be suffering from “cheekyboy-ness”, and would Findlay attempt new innovations in Scots law, the defence of “daft boy” or “we’ve all done it” (a variation of the English Law defence of “a bit woo, a bit wee”) – in this trial Findlay would on his own reintroduce the 3rd verdict and also introduce a 4th – the unique verdict of : “aww-come-oan”. Or, it could all go disastrously wrong – in a evidential mixup of legendary proportions, Murrell is banged up for the Jodi Jones murder and Luke Mitchell, released, becomes CEO of the SNP (- not to worry, an appeal and case review is scheduled for 2029).
Utmost R-E-S-P-E-C-T to you for this Stu.
A question. The other day the BBC proudly produced a long list of items Murrell had admitted to purchasing fraudulently. But in their explanation they stated they had removed from the list all items he hadn’t pled guilty to. Do you know what additional items he was accused of but did not admit? Even if those are not proven frauds it would be good to know, also the total sum involved.
Not sure if this helps but sharing in case. I was one the people who donated to the Independence fund. This the email I got after I donated
“Thank you for your recent donation to the Scottish National Party. We are now entering a very important time for the Party, first with the Local Council Elections and then onwards to the Independence Referendum.
Our job over the next 18months to 2 years is not to talk to each other, it is to reach out to those not persuaded – to put ourselves in their shoes. To understand the hopes, fears and ambitions of all our fellow citizens and to do what we can to establish common ground.
We all want the best for our country – we just have different views on how to achieve it, so let us resolve to argue our case with passion and commitment, but – at all times – with courtesy, understanding and respect.
Yesterday the Scottish Parliament voted to allow the Scottish Government to take forward discussions with the Westminster Government on the details of a Section 30 Order which would allow a second Independence Referendum to be held as it is important to us all that Scotland’s future should be in Scotland’s hands.
As Article 50 is triggered, change for our country becomes inevitable. We don’t yet know the exact nature of that change. Much will depend on the outcome of the negotiation that lies ahead, but we do know that the change will be significant and profound.
When the nature of the change made inevitable by Brexit becomes clear, it should not be imposed upon us, we should have the right to decide. The people of Scotland should have the right to choose between Brexit – possibly a very hard Brexit – or becoming an independent country, able to chart our own course and create a true partnership of equals across these islands.
So if the choice we face is an inward looking, insular, Brexit Britain, governed by a right wing Tory party, obsessed with borders and blue passports at the expense of economic strength and stability or a progressive, outward looking, internationalist Scotland, able to chart our own course and build our own security and prosperity, then that is a case we will win.
We are starting now to build the resources that will ensure we are not outspent in the referendum campaign. Your generosity and support will be vital to making that happen.”
However I also asked for donation to be refunded in May 2021 by sending the following email and to which they did refund pretty quickly
“I would like my donation returned.
The donation was for a referendum campaign that you have not progressed. The SNP have stood by and allowed article 50 to not only be served but for Scotland to leave the EU and still no referendum. Recent statements from SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon and other party represenatives imply there is no fixed date for a referendum despit the nature of Brexit being a known fact.
I also believe the the recent resignations from SNP NEC call into question how this money has been used and if it has been used for purposes other than what it was intended for.
Please refund my money forwith”
So why refund my money if the donation wasn’t for a referendum campaign? Never heard of any body refunding a donation unless they knew they got it wrong. The refund was requested on 30th May and responded to on 1st June. Clearly by then they knew they had a problem
Write to the SNP and demand a refund. If not forthcoming, give notice you’ll take action in your local Sheriff Court under the Simple Procedure:
link to scotcourts.gov.uk
The scene shifts swiftly to the motorhome.
Peter has just forked an 8 oz Tesco rump steak off the LeCreuset granite grill (could have been the George Foreman – don’t hold me too it.)
And poured a few glugs of box wine into a Waterford.
But between him and sinking his Monsoon steak knife into the beef is an imposing dilemma.
A vast stockade of salt and pepper mills rises before him.
Each beckoning “hey big boy, give us a twist.”
The Cole and Masons, the Peugeot Balis, the Sauveur Paris Irones, the Pontarliers, the Saveur d’Espices or the Laliques.
So many choices so little time. And the dang meat is getting cold.
I feel your pain, Peter. I feel your pain.
PS, in hindsight John Swinney could have used that squirrel defender for the SNP finances.
The arrogance of Swiney is breathtaking…
The SNP has poisoned the well, shat the bed, whatever you want to call it… they’ve killed Indy for decades!
I gave money to a ring-fenced campaign that at no point indicated that the money would be used for a single political party to actively campaign not only for its own benefit, but actively against a party of which I was a member.
That baldy excuse for a human being has got more neck than a f**cking giraffe!!!
I could go on but I fear my language is simply going to slide off the end of the scale into nothing but ******* **** ****!!!!
Angry doesn’t come close!
Great article. This is what telling truth to power looks like.
I’m no accountant, but if there’s £600k missing from the coffers and chummy has admitted to pinching £400k, who’s had the other £200k?
This needs a book Stuart.
Reverend, you’ve got to be one of the few, finest journalists anywhere in the UK today. I don’t agree with your politics but I admire your objectivity and honesty. Well done. 0