High Level Corruption in Scotland Continues 214


The threat of imprisonment for contempt of court again looms over me if I tell you (again) too much of the truth about the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell. But I can make a few observations.

As I stated on twitter on March 19 (I am not going to repeat all my tweets here but you can go searching down my twitter thread), Police Scotland delayed their investigation into SNP corruption for the duration of the SNP Leadership election campaign.

That campaign was triggered by Sturgeon’s sudden resignation, which was itself precipitated by her being told by Police Scotland the investigation was going to proceed. Whether she was told in terms her husband would be arrested I am not sure, but the implication was obvious.

For police to warn the suspects in an investigation in this way of how the investigation is proceeding – and to agree a pause for the leadership election – is deeply corrupt.  It has at least two seriously damaging consequences.

Firstly, the high profile searches today at the Murrell family and other domestic properties in Scotland, and at SNP HQ, are a charade. They have had a month’s warning to destroy any evidence, should any alleged crime have been committed.

Secondly, by delaying Murrell’s arrest (on charges of which we must presume his innocence), Police Scotland have influenced the outcome of the SNP leadership contest.

By pausing their investigation, Police Scotland gave the Murrells time to get their self-proclaimed “continuity candidate” in place. Had the investigation and thus arrest not been delayed, “continuity” would have looked a great deal less attractive to the SNP membership.

The mainstream media is widely reporting that the investigation relates to the missing 600,000 pounds Indyref2 fund. I understand that while that was the starting point, the allegations may now go much wider.

I am afraid that’s really all I can safely say today. Please be equally circumspect in comments.

Except I am feeling well vindicated.

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214 thoughts on “High Level Corruption in Scotland Continues

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  • nevermind

    This has all the hallmarks of a go slow/long grass investigation, i.e 18 month looking at it., schooing it on the backburner during this selection burn up of the SNP and the silenced investigation from now on.

    Will the next job selection of Mrs. Murrell also be treated as judicial purdah? will she be asking him for a right honorable divorce for a possible high-ranking job?
    If I would be in the SNP I would join Alba now.

  • Bob (original)

    Curious.
    From a rather reluctant position to investigate SNP finances, Police Scotland then goes in totally overboard.
    With the big tent, tape and high number of officers and vehicles present, you’d think that someone had been murdered in their front garden?

    Yes, it seemed to be for show.
    So, who gave Police Scotland the instruction to do this?

    Has Sturgeon served her purpose?
    Is London now starting to crush her reputation in a very public manner, and perhaps reneging on any pre-agreed, personal deals?

    Or is that just wishful thinking?

    She deserves nothing better…

    • nevermind

      They buried the SNP Bob, its obvious…:)
      and in my puny political view, based on running elections in the past, it is now vitally important to attract every possible support for Alba; this vacuum should not be Starmer’s walkover.

      Plans for Independence, currency and recovery of national assets, social plans and what relationship with Westminster to strive for, existing plans for future communications with all of Scotland, and a timeframe to oust Nato nuclear forces, should all be laid bare to the public.

      I leave the readjustments to the existing power structure to those who know, but it is clear that the existing closeness between Government and judiciary does not work; it is too openly close and must change to stop corruption at all levels of politics, diverting any sensible ideas of a more communitare democracy. Decentralising some societal functions would be one option available.

      It is indicative that a leadership presents a positive outlook and a plan on how to get there ASAP. Time is of the essence to foment a campaign to get behind and be ready to change Scotland.
      SNP members who support the ideas and visions for an independent Scotland should come to Alba and be welcomed.
      This is the best opportunity one will get, not Goetterdaemmerung.

    • David CT

      The marriage is fake anyway. As the entire political class in Scotland are aware, Nicola Sturgeon is lesbian and Peter Murrell is gay. Their “marriage” has always been 100% fake. They don’t even live together.

    • Andrew Paul Booth

      A project to unite Western Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania into a large and militarily-powerful Federal or Confederal NATO and US-obedient State in Eastern Europe “balancing” Franco-German power in the EU and confronting and threatening invasion of Russia?

        • Urban Fox

          Such a state would have so many internal issues, it’d expend a lot of resources invading itself.

          All these “map dreams” don’t account for human terrain. Poland absorbing Ukraine. Would be like South Korea absorbing North Korea.

          A relatively rich, stable & functional country taking on an impoverished, mindfucked & dysfunctional mess.

          It’d ruin Poland, without balancing anyone. Even Lithuania would be a burden on Warsaw. And it’s both far smaller & better off than Ukraine.

          Also I doubt the Lithuanians are keen on such a Polish dominated modern union, whatever their historical sentiments.

          • terence callachan

            Urban Fox, you do know that before USA and U.K. meddled in Korean affairs there was no North Korea or South Korea there was only Korea. North Korea is a construct of that meddling, much the same as Pakistan and India.

  • Alex Birnie

    When Alex Salmond ran a crowdfunder for his judicial review, he raised over £500k, £100 of which was from me.

    He was awarded costs.

    When will I be getting my £100 back?

    • Cynicus

      Closer to topic: I had a bet on Forbes to win the leadership which she would certainly have done in a fair contest as specified by the SNP constitution. Instead we got a corrupt and hurried process designed to shoo in the Murgeonite ‘continuity’ candidate.

      • Wiz

        But the Murgeonite continuity candidate is apparently a poison pill that will destroy the whole notion of independence.

        That is apparently why the British state is leaning on Police Scotland – to ensure the continuity candidate wins so the SNP dies.

        Are the Murrells in on this corrupt motivation? Are they actually closet unionists?

        There are too many weird theories and none of them make any sense. However I do agree the police operation was crazy and pointless. At the end of the day why would the Murrells want to damage the party? Why would they be on the same side as the British state? If they weren’t on the same side as the British state, why were they all trying for the same thing?

        • Dean Clark

          They can be on their own side – when all your money is short money coming from the “state”, then your own side can seem remarkably similar to the side wishing to do the party harm.

  • Goose

    The sad thing, is in how Labour could pick up wholly undeserved support as a result. Even with this mess, recent polling shows independence support remains uncomfortably high for unionists. Labour realistically need to regain Scottish Westminster seats to have any chance of forming a majority. The atrocious Sir Keir Starmer seemingly views the Labour party as necessary evil; needed to prop up the facade of UK democracy, required to give cover to the one-party state we call a democracy. Anyone voting Labour while the party is led by this devious impostor is a dolt.

    As for the SNP, Humza Yousaf shouldn’t wait for these inquiries to finish before being seen to act. He should proactively get ahead of things by implementing full transparency to the SNP’s finances immediately, and promise full future transparency on membership numbers. Also, promise support for reforming the dual, conflicting role of Lord Advocate. Then challenge Slab and the Stories to do the same. Quite why Murrell was allowed to pursue his strategy of concealment and deception, it beggars belief.

    • Goose

      On the subject of falling faith in UK politics:

      Britons have same level of trust in political system as Russians, survey shows

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-boris-uk-politics-trust-russia-b2315220.html

      Not really surprising given how Starmer’s New Labour 2.0 are only interested in attracting ‘red wall’ reactionary right-wing Tory voters, while pandering to right-wing newspapers and City elites. Polling shows overwhelming dissatisfaction and a feeling of disenfranchisement with both major parties. The London establishment and intel community response is to accuse our demoralised citizenry of somehow being traitors; conspiring with foreign powers, for not showing sufficient enthusiasm for this one-party rigged system. This, rather than accepting the fact we need proportional representation for Westminster, along with reform to the unelected Lords; to open the political system up to new parties, new ideas; new thinking. The people doing the most harm to the UK, ironically, are those tasked with trying to preserve this broken status quo.

      • Tom74

        And even those “Red Wall Tory voters” are quite likely a media creation – as a cover, perhaps, for widespread election fraud to install Johnson for the far right.

        • Goose

          The most obnoxious development is in how people in the intelligence community are trying to imply domestic opposition to the system has to be foreign sponsored. So incapable are they at seeing the glaring faults in the system. Demanding a proportionate system, a written constitution and a democratically elected second chamber – the sort of stuff most civilised western democracies take for granted – shouldn’t be seen as subversive. Everyone who considers themself progressive should support these things.

          Even the hereditary class system and specifically the monarchy, are being revived, promoted and defended; becoming off-limits for criticism. The Government has unveiled an £8 million fund for schools, for portraits of the new king. What sort of message does a portrait of an aristocrat, who owes his position purely to inheritance, give to kids about the UK being a meritocracy and opportunity being there for all citizens (subjects) in the UK? The UK is regressing backwards, the state defending a rigged system and medieval, regressive values.

        • Bayard

          “– as a cover, perhaps, for widespread election fraud to install Johnson for the far right.”

          More likely to hide the fact that Johnson was swept into power by Labour Leavers voting “Leave”, i.e. Tory rather than being loyal to Labour. Starmer put Johnson in No 10 in order to get rid of Corbyn.

          • Dean Clark

            Scotland has a system of proportional representation (mixed with FPTP) and to be honest, its voting is similar to the UK overall in that it’s tribal. Even when it was pointed out that the SNP heads were most likely corrupt, not only regarding the missing cash but the Salmond frame up – people saw it as some conspiracy by the deep state rather than the obvious – Politicians, especially ones that were lawyers, are dubious characters. In defence of the Scottish electorate, the lack of any real serious competition might encourage you to defend the best possible “worst” option but that’s hardly a democracy and regardless of which system is chosen to tick a box every 4 or 5 years, that isn’t going to change.

      • Al Dossary

        Whatever the trust level is in Russia, Putin’s satisfaction factor sitting in excess of 80% – although I fail to see exactly how Russia is relevant here.

        • Urban Fox

          Toxic, deranged, obsession. That’s the relevance.

          It’s also worth noting that apparently some Russians are picking up the idea that Anglo attitudes to Russians aren’t entirely dissimilar to historical anti-semitism.

          I also note the article didn’t feel the need to factor in the difference in political history, political climate and the respective trends in the two countries.

    • Lapsed Agnostic

      Re: ‘Labour realistically need to regain Scottish Westminster seats to have any chance of forming a majority.’

      Should they fail to gain any Scottish seats, Labour need a swing versus the Tories of around 12% relative to the 2019 GE result to be able to obtain a working majority of one in the Commons (321 seats), Goose. The polls are currently indicating 15-17% swings to Labour:

      https://twitter.com/britainelects

      Of course, a lot can change in a year.

      • Goose

        LA

        I don’t believe the recent UK polls showing big Labour leads. Lots of shy Tories and Labour’s support is very, very soft, or shallow: a mile wide and an inch deep. More a reaction to the Tories being unpopular than nailed-on support for Labour.

        The biggest problem Labour will face is voter apathy. To date, in by-elections, local elections plus the last Holyrood election, Starmer hasn’t shown he and his party can generate voter enthusiasm. This lack of enthusiasm could cripple the party’s chances, if folks shrug and simply say ‘no difference’ then can’t be bothered to turn out.

        Many forget the whole problem with New Labour c.2005 -2015 was their timidity and lack of attractive policies. If the right-wing PLP can’t produce an attractive manifesto; one that gets their core vote to the polls, they’re stuffed. A six week election campaign, with Starmer pushing a dud manifesto, robbed of all Corbyn’s radicalism and none of the 10 pledges, will see the Tories draw neck and neck in the polls.

        • Lapsed Agnostic

          Thanks for your reply Goose. I too think the polls are exaggerating the swing to Labour. However, even smaller swings could still leave Labour with a reasonable majority. This is the latest in-depth GE model (9th Feb*) from Britain Elects (which aims to account for non-uniform swing effects at ward level etc.) which gives Labour a massive Blair-like majority on a similar swing as in today’s polls (16.5%), even if you subtract the 12 or so Scottish seats they’re forecast to gain:

          https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1623624897124524037L

          In terms of voting numbers, the main problem with NewLabour 2008-2015 was that, rightly or wrongly, they were blamed for trashing the economy – and there was the long shadow of Iraq as well. I think the key upcoming election question is: will most of the 6% or so ReformUK (i.e. Richard Tice ego trip) supporters switch to the Tories at the next GE? And if not, will Tice do a deal with the Tories, like the Brexit Party did at the last one? That might be enough to produce a hung parliament which, in certain circumstances, may be good for Scottish Independence.

          * BE haven’t produced any more recent models as they’re currently looking for a developer to account for tactical voting

          • Goose

            Everyone knows their support is soft.

            There are quite a few variables that are unknown. People who are broadly apolitical may be supportive assuming Labour will offer them something in their GE manifesto. The bland, anodyne reality of reheated New Labour, sans all the Corbyn manifestos’ discernibly socialist policies, may slump their support.
            Starmer will find it hard to campaign in public too, that is, without being heckled, jeered and called a liar. Can you imagine Starmer campaigning in Scotland? It’d be Jim Murphy c.2014 post-referenda, all over again.

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks again for your reply Goose. Would Sir Keith campaigning in Scotland go something like this?

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roandsH_EdI

            Publican: “You have failed me.” Starmzy: “Thank you.”

            Apparently, Jim Murphy is now a paid adviser to Blair, in case anyone thought he was trying to make a living out of his human pterodactyl impressions.

          • glenn_nl

            A huge problem for Starmer personally is complete lack of integrity. He has handed a winning comeback to any Tory he debates, who has only got to ask, “Why should anybody believe anything you say? You have already abandoned all the pledges you made on becoming leader of your party.”

          • glenn_nl

            Cheers LA.

            It’s also kind of hard to credit Starmer with much integrity, when he goes around rubbishing Corbyn, his supporters, and all that they stand for. The very same Corbyn he spent years working for, and publicly praised at the time.

            He even spread lies about Corbyn leaving the office in a complete mess, handing yet more anti-Corbyn propaganda to stooges in the corporate press (such as The Guardian, in this case).

            Anyone who watched, even in passing, The Labour Files would know this man is anything but honest, loyal or principled.

        • Bayard

          “The biggest problem Labour will face is voter apathy. ”

          If you recall, Craig did a piece recently on how the political parties are abandoning their constituency parties as they no longer need their funding, nor do they need people to go round and bang on doors come election time as it can all be done on line. If that doesn’t translate to widespread voter apathy, I don’t know what would.

          • Goose

            On democracy. Today’s guardian Exclusive:

            John McFall says upper house is in danger of falling ‘out of sync’

            Out of sync? Was the HoL ever in sync? With whom, and based on what electoral mandate? The whole chamber is a pompous, illegitimate monstrosity. I don’t know how the old duffers have the cheek to stand there pontificating and indeed legislating. It’s an insult to the very idea of democratic accountability.
            How far has the guardian sunk in publishing someone’s concerns about the HoL public image problems due to ex leaders stuffing it with cronies? This newspaper used to demand abolition full stop.

          • MrShigemitsu

            Voter apathy is no problem for Labour.

            Losing the next GE is no problem for Labour.

            The Labour Party has one job; preventing a socialist, and socialism, from ever coming anywhere near power in the UK.

            That mission has been accomplished.

            The job is done.

          • frankywiggles

            Yes people like Starmer, Mandelson and Blair have won either way now. Any Labour Right / centrist media opposition to Tory rule is merely performative. London Mayor Sadiq Khan spoke for them all when he congratulated the public on electing the Tories in 2019.
            https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/sadiq-khan-says-voters-got-it-right-by-not-backing-labour-at-general-election
            These so-called moderate liberals are anti-socialists to their core and above all else.

  • Vivian O’Blivion

    Yousaf has an off pat response. There’ll be a “governance and transparency review with external input”. It’s a mantra. It’s in the written statement from the latest NEC meeting. He repeated it three times in a short BBC interview yesterday.
    The key here is “external input”. Who will provide this service?
    My guess would be the spook “adjacent”, John Smith Centre for Public Service.

  • Derek Thomson

    Aye, and what about the ferries, eh? A disgrace, was it no? Worse than any government anywhere in the world. And some money has disappeared? Bloody hell! And the membership numbers? Off wi their heids! You muppets. You absolute muppets. Such a parcel of fools in a nation. Played like Neil Gow’s fiddle. It’s over, but not because of Nicola Sturgeon, or Alex Salmond or Peter Murrell. It’s because of YOU. Every one of ye.

  • DGP

    So from performance politics we have now arrived at performance policing. Indeed everything is becoming performance. I am not sure how performative the small boat occupants are, but the politicians who get to pontificate pompously in parliament are certainly performative pricks.

    The performer, Kirsty Wark, masquerading as an incisive, heavyweight political performance critic, was last night on Newsnight asking the question (about the missing 667K quid),
    Was the money ‘ring fenced’ as the donors believed, or is it legitimate for the party to simply absorb the money into their party finances, the convenient thinking in the party being that the primary objective of the party is Independence, so by definition the party management’s financial actions are concerned with independence. In other words – the party administration are immune to scrutiny.
    TBH there are several problems here.

    1. the 2/3 million quid was not just ‘money’. ( I suspect Wark, Sturgeon or Murrell could simply pull out their cheque books and sign a cheque for the amount.)

    The money represents of the aggregated aspirations of people whose resources and influence are limited, and whose political agency is negligible. By joint action, they were trying to redress this extreme power inbalance, an intrinsic deficiency of the form of representative democracy we all suffer under i.e. FPTP or its slight variations. These small actors were aware they were making a personal sacrifice and commitment to a long deeply held political ambition.

    I am pretty sure that the words ‘ring fenced’ suggested to them that the money would be scrupulously reserved for the express purpose of funding a campaign for independence at some time when a 2nd ref. had been established. The underlying attitude of the professional politician journalist class was revealed recently by a tweet by the hack press reporter David Leask who made a contemptuous reference to the person who triggered the police investigation – someone called `Sean Clerkin’, who was referred to by Leask as an ‘Independence crank’. Let me make it clear that until the Leask tweet I had never heard of Sean Clerkin.

    One can’t help but arrive at the impression that the SNP, likewise, held such expressions of uncorralled independence spirit as inconvenient, to the point of plundering the reserve of funds that had been built up by these minor political ‘plebs’.

    The Murrells were in a position of trust and they simply abused that trust. If the words ‘ring fenced’ did not mean what they appear to mean, it places the SNP in the same category of person/organisation as a Ponzi scamster who makes a rather vague statement that he or she knows certain people will find persuasive.

    “Let me deliver benefits you can only dream of – just send me your money.”

    The SNP has in effect descended into the role of confidence trickster under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon and the financial control of her very strange-looking husband. (He reminds me of the Dickens Mr. Bumble character from Oliver Twist, but apologies for referencing his unprepossessing ‘battered football’ looks, which I am sure are a delight to his wife, and which are unimportant unless you believe Roald Dahl’s books for children where physiognomy is a window into the inner thoughts of the character.)

    I strongly suspect that the issue of the money will turn out to be non-indictable. ‘Ring fenced’ will be interpreted as just another random bogus contribution stream and absolutely ok for a party fonctionnaire to plunder for unstated reasons. The only upside of the affair is that has revealed the underlying qualities of integrity of the current manifestation of the SNP. So the lesson, as always, is there for all to take.

    I might add that the ferries fiasco is also revealed by the late Ian Jack’s piece in the London review of books. It reveals a deep seated hopelessly amateurish understanding of such matters. Ms Sturgeon and the SNP were quite clearly out of their depth i.e. knee deep in their petty party intrigue.
    At some point negligence becomes criminal.

    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n18/ian-jack/chasing-steel

  • DunGroanin

    It’s ALL about the optics.

    It is wholly consistent with the Crown&partners, the Collective Waste’s local fascist regime, to stifle all viable genuine independent politics. Natzo wouldn’t like it, the new barons with their grouse moors wouldn’t either.
    The Bonnie King C3Poo and his sister would hate it.
    The list is long of all these who benefit from Scotland’s resources yet claim that they are insufficient for its Peoples.

    What the Great Knight Dope is doing to the Labour grass roots is what Nicola and Co., and now Hamza and the DS media, are equally duplicitously doing to the grass roots SNP – it’s already down to 70k, this will dissolve it much more. Much of that was achieved by the mudslinging at Big Leck. The reputational attack designed to gaslight the supporters, not necessarily the target. Corbyn was subjected to the AS calumny and is being buried alive as a 40-year loyal Labour MP for his constituency because of his wider appeal, by the DS mole he let into his camp.

    Now the sainted SNP leadership of Nicola, and her blind ardent supporters, must be sacrificed – because there are still too many Indy supporters, so it would be hard to pull of yet another vote-fixing result.

    It’s wholly about the grassroots Indy support which has been chiselled away for years since Salmond stood down and handed the reigns to the Unionist mole at his side.

    To illustrate, I was talking to some brainwashed 30-something Scottish teacher in London the other day who really had no idea about Nicola’s treasonous depravity or the wretched self-destructive agenda to divide the Scots. She loved her because she is a she, she likes the trans agenda which is massively being sold in schools … The idea of Independence already receding in her mind due to the narrative that Scotland needs English money, to pay for all these people on benefits! (The people on benefits thus voting against Independence.) And the old saw of Glasgow having the lowest age of death – forgetting that most people go to die in its hospitals from the regions, hence skewing the death rates and ages for both.

    It’s a win-win for the unionist cause – that is why the circus act of the tents. As the declining Roman emperors knew it’s about bread and circuses.

    I don’t have the slightest doubt that any kind of independent policing is actually happening. It’s never going to.

    The Sturgeons will be living it up on caviar all the rest of their lives after a bit of a show. That’s the reward for stitching up your own People and enabling mass murder elsewhere. A billionaire lifestyle, with multi-millionaire dynastic fortunes.

  • amanfromMars

    The threat of imprisonment for contempt of court again looms over me if I tell you (again) too much of the truth about the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell. But I can make a few observations.

    Do what governments do, Craig, and use a proxy/anonymous spokesperson. It aint rocket science.

    WTF is wrong with the truth being known. It’s surely criminal to share anything else.

    Once again, lions being led by donkeys, appears to the fore of the fray, which is crazy, eh?

    • Andrew Paul Booth

      Apparently, it is thought that truth might impede or prejudice the course of justice if published during any and all police inquiries, cf. Contempt of Court Act 1981.

  • Doug

    More proof Sturgeon’s SNP was and is a unionist party – dishonourable members of the british nationalist establishment.

    Vote Alba. Vote independence.

  • wallofcontroversy

    Watching all the news headlines featuring that preposterous incident tent pitched on the front lawn you can find yourself wondering if the media circus has arrived to expose the evidence of wrongdoing or to help to bury it. But that was yesterday’s news anyway… move along please, nothing more to see here! Well, whatever happens next you have definitely been vindicated, Craig, and should now be very loudly applauded. (The silence on that front is deafening of course!)

  • Bob (not OG)

    The only surprise is that anyone’s surprised. At the risk of stating the obvious, the entire system is corrupt. At least from the government down it’s run by, and selects for, brainless mediocrities whose only talents are bullying, self promotion, arse licking their bosses and talking loudly about nothing. (The same is true of most large organisations.)
    Sadly, because the components of these systems only select those like themselves, the situation was doomed to just deteriorate further. So now we’ll have a choice (of prime minister) between Sunak and Heil Schtarmer.
    Yet people still think voting will make a difference. Maybe it did, at one time. That time is long gone.

    • Stevie Boy

      Hear, hear.
      Combined IQ at Westminster below 100, A surfeit of geography and politics degrees, most never had proper jobs, most never went to proper schools. Privileged and out of touch. Who do they represent from their London bubble ? Not the people of the UK.

      • U Watt

        No, they only represent people who hate the NHS (the only decent thing about the UK). People like you, Stevie Boy.

        • Stevie Boy

          Interesting logic. Don’t know where you got that impression from ?
          Let’s clarify.
          The NHS, as the masses perceive it, doesn’t really exist any more. It’s been in terminal decline for, at least, two decades IMO. The absolute last chance to ‘save the NHS’ was the 2019 elections where Corbyn proposed, and costed, saving the NHS; he also identified that the Tories were in discussions with the US to sell off the NHS. However, the masses decided to vote for a buffoon who is a proven philanderer and Liar under the pretext of ‘getting Brexit done’ – how’s that worked out? The people who are primarily leading the push to sell off the NHS are Jeremy Hunt and Simon Stevens, both who have direct links with the USA Medical Markets. Their plans are now entering the final stages thanks to Covid, a gift from the gods for NHS privatisation agenda.
          No, I don’t hate the NHS; I mourn its passing. Current and future generations will suffer for this politically inspired murder. I do hate the Tories though and the other multi-coloured tory parties.

          • DGP

            Agree with a lot of what you say. It seems, superficially, as if there is a covert Tory plan to privatise the NHS, to run it down to point of dysfunction and then say the remedy is a fire sale of assets and an insurance system. The procedures would be very onerous and there are likely to be numerous points of determined resistance. Remember the poll tax events.

            It will be a difficult sell. It will effectively end the idea of an independent democratic UK. There is a lot of politics still to unfold before the NHS is liquidated.

          • Bramble

            I remember when he published the documentation proving that the NHS was being sold off. How did the media react? They all (including the phoney leftish ones, the liberal, Atlanticist, warmongering Guardian and Indie) started howling about the documents having been leaked. As if that was a crime, not killing the NHS. And the idiot voters, suspecting that treacherous Mr Corbyn was being helped by the evil Russians, voted against him. This country’s heart and soul are totally dysfunctional.

          • David CT

            @U Watt

            It isn’t, but it is being deliberately run down to make idiots think it is.

            I basically agree with what you are saying, but I’d put it differently. The rulers are running down the health of the working class and also of many people in other classes too. This is being manifested in many areas and yes indeed the plan is to continue, including in sudden unexpected surges. I may say the NHS is shit but I support the principle of free at the point of use universally available state healthcare, i.e. what is called in Britain the NHS. But the radical left or what remains of it is a million miles from criticising the moneygrabbing and yes-sir-ism that is evident and has always been evident in the NHS. That requires being critical of professionalism and in particular of medics and the medical fraternity, and while there are mutterings in groups of two and three (or one!) such a critique simply isn’t present in Britain on any kind of larger scale or political level.

      • DGP

        truly a hopeless comment. The problem is not low IQ but perhaps a surfeit of ‘high IQ’, high achieving, socially embedded ambitious individuals with considerable abilities as defined by the majority of informed individuals. It’s how those abilities are used that matters. IQ is, besides, a largely discredited concept and in most circumstances, best avoided in serious discourse.

        • David CT

          IQ is and always has been a fascist notion and anyone who believes in it can shove it where the Sun doesn’t shine. There is no such thing as general intelligence. Who seriously thinks those who are good at arithmetic or at answering logical questions of a visuo-spatial flavour tend to be better at emotional understanding? Of course they don’t tend to be anything of the kind. Nor is any type of intelligence differentially distributed at birth. Those ideas are all c*ck, and it’s obvious why the scum who promulgated them promulgated them. Those who are in any doubt should take a look at what Francis Galton, Lewis Terman, H G Wells, Herbert Spencer, Cyril Burt, etc. – and before them Thomas Malthus, and after them Charles Murray and Stephen Pinker – thought or think (or basically assume and then try to justify intellectually) about the lower orders and then they should open their bowels on the concept of IQ and flush it down the U-bend into the sewage where it belongs because – while I do not praise science – IQ is certainly one of the best examples of “pseudoscience” in existence.

        • David CT

          IQ is, besides, a largely discredited concept and in most circumstances, best avoided in serious discourse.

          Unfortunately, practically all schoolteachers in Britain – with the exception of some who are on the point of walking out of the job – believe in the rubbish that is the notion of “IQ” and they act accordingly.

          Know the enemy.

          • DGP

            As a teacher in scotland it simply wasn’t possible to look up a child’s records and find any reference to IQ, It was possible to infer from certain records something that might have hinted at certain abilities although I was always very careful when looking at such material. By the time I left I was trying very hard to develop materials that addressed certain (pupil-centred) skills, which included numerical, language and creative abilities at different levels and exposed the pupils to a wide range of methods and media. Although IQ was avoided as a concept there were usually huge variations in ability in a classroom. In a structured work module there would be children who who would struggle at the first stage, and others who would romp through and be demanding/capable of doing work material intended for two years in advance. The trick was in preparing cleverly differentiated material. Curriculum for Excellence had many good intentions, but the implementation was a difficult, extremely time-consuming process as it called for imaginative teaching materials integrated with or building on the previous levels, and introducing concepts and skills required for more advanced levels. C for E was quite demanding for teachers but was essentially implemented on the cheap.
            It would have required a radical shift away from ‘teacher-led’ approach to a pupil-centred approach but that would have had major staffing/cost implications.

            There was an initiative introduced some years ago (early noughties) called “Assessment is for learning” which was well thought out and attempted to shift the emphasis in teaching away from whole class methods to more individualised pupil-centred methods where assessment was integrated into the learning experience and moved away from rank ordering /test scores. Again, my impression was that it was sold short by the failure to resource the initiative properly.

          • David CT

            @DGP – All of what you say is dominated by acceptance of what the notion of “IQ” represents, even if you don’t use the acronym or words.

            Although IQ was avoided as a concept there were usually huge variations in ability in a classroom.

            You don’t get it, do you? I am not going to argue this here.

          • DGP

            replying to David CT

            > @DGP – All of what you say is dominated by acceptance of what the notion of “IQ” represents, even if you don’t use the acronym or words.
            >
            >> “Although IQ was avoided as a concept there were usually huge variations in ability in a classroom.”
            >
            > You don’t get it, do you? I am not going to argue this here.

            I know quite a lot about the term ‘IQ’ – its origins and the science behind it and why it is often used incorrectly.
            Regardless of how the situation arises a teacher has to help/respond to the individuals he or she encounters.

          • glenn_nl

            DGP: “ Regardless of how the situation arises a teacher has to help/respond to the individuals he or she encounters.”

            They don’t though, do they?

            If a child does well, teachers are more than happy to take full credit. When they don’t, they’ll blame the parents, blame the child, blame the curriculum, blame the government – anything and anyone except themselves.

            https://revisesociology.com/2017/11/01/labelling-self-fulfilling-prophecy-education/

            That’s when teachers take a break from whining and demanding pay rises, and also not on their ridiculously extensive holidays of course.

  • U Watt

    If the police are corrupt and belong to Sturgeon are they likely to act on these allegations that go much wider than the missing 600k?

    • David CT

      I don’t know the answer but the police were certainly engaging in big theatre with the blue tent outside the house and especially the spades in the garden. The message? Probably “We’re so honest, leaving no stone unturned, treat everyone the same”, etc. Then again, he probably didn’t want to be arrested and there are many things the filthy thieving Scottish government don’t want to come out, including about people at the top or close to the top including the of course squeaky clean Liz Lloyd. The big question is whether Murrell and Sturgeon will escape trial and jail. She’s as thick as shit and she has been playing to the thicko market for so many years it’s possible she thinks there’s no level of thieving she can’t get away with…and is about to learn to the contrary.

  • Craig Bryce

    Except Police Scotland’s culture is predominantly right wing. They let the statue protectors take George Square and attack anyone who walked through it, facilitate Orange Walks every year, but let James Connelly marches be attacked, and they fucking hate the SNP. Remember Kenmure St when they were backing the Home Office raid ready to go in heavy on the protesters and, Humza intervened? So why would they back the SNP in any way when they stand on the side of the Orange Order, King and Country and wear Blue Lives Matter badges? If anything Murrels arrest is politically motivated theatre. He isn’t accused of embezzlement or criminal activity for personal gain. Unlike many Tories like Mone. The SNP are skint because they have no financial backers, so they used campaign money to run their party. He could have easily been interviewed without arrest. Well done Craig. Helping the UK Establishment smash up its only real challenger, with smear stories. Again.

    • Ian Smith

      I cannot imagine that the Murrells would have been so keen to have a 20 man, 36 hour forensic examination of the house under the media spotlight without the arrest and warrant.

      The other thing about personal gain in the political world is that it is not usually direct personal appropriation of funds that takes place, just inexplicable judgements, procurements, grants, policies to the benefit of donors and fellow travelers that are followed up a few years later by megabucks books deals for tomes that barely sell a few hundred copies, speeches at tens of thousands an hour, directorships, sinecures on public bodies, posts to international organisations and quangos paying out a very nice pension plus expenses.

        • David CT

          That isn’t all that matters. Sturgeon is a crook like almost every government minister in every country, and a lot of the thieving is based on informal agreements and when they start to crumble there can be fireworks. Others start wanting to protect themselves and then some. One thing that can happen is witnesses are leant on, a necessary ingredient of a coverup in the true meaning of that much misused term.

      • David CT

        Agreed with all of that.

        And the first line is important. Yes it is theatre, but it’s unlikely to be only theatre, and they are extremely unlikely to have wanted the house to have been searched like that and him to be arrested.

    • frankywiggles

      Nor does Nicola have a problem with the Orange Order and its walks. The only hate for which Scotland is notorious was exempted from her hate crime law. You’ve also seen her bent double before her King, snuggling unrepentant war criminal Alastair Camp and given a free pass by Police Scotland and the unionist press for her stitch up of Alex Salmond, a gross conspiracy/crime for which they should have destroyed her. Same unionist press then ran front page propaganda for her cipher Humza throughout the leadership campaign. Anyone who was paying attention could see Nicola Sturgeon was about as challenging to the UK Establishment, the Orange Order or the monarchy as Sir Keir Starmer is .. and Humza Yousaf will be.

      • Bramble

        It’s not really the UK Establishment. It’s the US Imperium. The gangsters who have totally corrupted and demoralised every country and every institution and organisation they have infiltrated ever since WW2 (which probably got in the way of their grand masterplan to back Hitler’s invasion and destruction of the USSR).

    • Lapsed Agnostic

      Re: ‘The SNP are skint because they have no financial backers’

      Does anyone know why the SNP fell out with 160-million-pound lottery winner Colin Weir? This article in the Scotsman suggests that he felt misled over funding for a second referendum:

      https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/police-investigating-snp-over-money-donated-by-euromillions-winners-3271299

      Was that the only reason? It would have been handy for the SNP to have kept in with him since, despite having to hand over £80 million to his ex, Christine, when they divorced, and doing things like giving West of Scotland League minnows Largs Thistle three-quarters of a mill for an all-weather pitch even though the only Thistle he supported was the Partick variety, he still left over £40 million in his will when he died a couple years ago – none of it to the SNP, as far as I’m aware.

      • sadscot

        The Weirs, together, won the lottery, LA. There was no question of Colin “handing over” money to Christine. It was their money, jointly, and was divided between them in the settlement. Their donations to the SNP were also made jointly and not just by Colin, in the beginning anyway.

        • Lapsed Agnostic

          Thanks for your reply Sadscot. Isn’t the rightful owner of UK lottery winnings the person who bought the ticket? In this case, that was probably Colin. I suspect that if he and Christine had only been married for say six months before scooping the jackpot, their assests wouldn’t have been split 50:50.

          Anyway, if Christine is an Indy supporter as well, would it be worth Alba trying to look her up?

          • DGP

            So at what point does a marriage move to a joint arrangement? I suspect it is at the moment the marriage certificate is signed, but maybe you are better informed than I am.

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks for your reply DGP. In Britain, a marriage becomes legally binding when the register is signed. Divorce settlements generally depend on the length of the marriage and the contributions to it made by a spouse, whether there are any children to be supported, and whether one party is legally deemed to be at fault.

  • Wiz

    So Police Scotland, as an arm of the British state, were leaned on to go through a charade in the Murrells’ garden in order to destroy the SNP. At the same time Police Scotland delayed the charade until Yousaf had been elected. Was this to make sure the destruction of the SNP was even more assured?

    Isn’t it more likely that Police Scotland were reluctant to do this kind of thing in the run-up to the vote? Salmond is correct when he says support for independence should be uncoupled from support for the SNP. The SNP can be easily crushed as it is so hopeless, but support for independence is rather more durable, I suspect.

  • Republicofscotland

    This is interesting, I’d imagine the party’s financial position has gone from bad to worse.

    “The SNP’s accounts for 2021 were published on 16 August 2022.

    The party’s total income was £4,510,460, total expenditure was £5,262,032, assets were £1,630,454 and liabilities were £1,055,689.”

    In my opinion the SNP brand has been fatally damaged by this and what Sturgeon and Murrell were up to for eight years. Murrell and Sturgeon “Ratnered” the party’s credibility. It’s over for the SNP.

    • R.McGeddon

      ‘It’s over for the SNP’ – or so the puppeteers would have you think. But is it really?

      Someone alluded to the mean IQ of our Westminster representatives. In truth we are not represented anywhere in government or government departments by stellar intellects. Nor is the voting public, myself included, anything other than amnesiac when exercising its franchise. The prime beneficiary of the Fall Of The House Of Sturgeon would appear to be Labour’s branch office in Scotland, except:

      Sir Keir Starmer shut down the case against Jean Charles de Menezes’ killer on the direction of a higher authority who found it unpalatable to prosecute armed policemen.
      Sir Keir Starmer shut down the enquiry into the death of David Kelly despite the opposition of learned medical opinion.
      Anas Sarwar is part of a millionaire family who (still?) do not recognise unions and until recently did not pay the minimum wage.
      Jack McConnell’s Labour administration was unable to spend the budget allocated from Westminster – so it was ‘returned’ NHS notwithstanding. And don’t get me started on PFI funding.

      But none of that would appear to matter because Labour’s transgressions are WITHIN the establishment and will/did not attract undue media attention. The SNP, however, is perceived in England at least as anti-establishment. And the media money is in England or offshore from England.

      If it were up to the SNP to call on that degree of amnesia perhaps they could return. But as the hacks are fed from London or wherever, it might just be more difficult.

        • iain

          Look who Starmer chose as his consigliere too: one of the most frequent flyers to Epstein Island. All completely above board and normal judging by the lack of media reference to it.

        • Lapsed Agnostic

          If I had a, shall we say, dubious history when it comes to Sir James Savile, RoS, I wouldn’t be authorising attack ads like this:

          https://twitter.com/UKLabour/status/1643973886311297028

          It’s made even more brass-necked by the fact that Sunak has only been PM for five months, only been an MP since 2015, and has never been a minister in the MoJ – whereas I believe Starmer was actually on the sentencing council for part of the period in question.

          Anyway, now the gloves are well and truly off, here’s something for Saatchi & Saatchi’s successors, if they happen to be reading (I’m happy to waive my fee for this service):

          ‘Do you think that people who commit GBH should go to prison or face any criminal penalty whatsoever? Keir Starmer doesn’t.

          Source: The Times, Nov 1990.’

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Spanner#Reaction_and_aftermath

          (Despite what Keith said, it wasn’t the case that the judiciary had “effectively imposed its morality on others”, but of a judge instructing a jury to correctly interpret the law of the land. You’d think that with his expensive forensic legal education, Starmzy would have realised this – but then he is a bit of a spanner himself.)

          • DGP

            Interesting links and perspectives.

            Can I clarify your use of “Keith’ as opposed to keir. Must admit I always hesitate – is it Kier or Keir, but apparently the latter is correct, but certainly not Keith.

            I think you are very kind to waive your fee for the clever reversal of the tables vis a vis Rishi Sunak. Must be worth a bob or two. I wouldn’t normally bother to redress any inequity in a political squabble but I have concerns about the current Labour direction downwards into the lower realms of Dante’s inferno.
            My recent bonnet buzzer is of course the fiasco of Scottish politics.

            Craig M today tweeted to the effect that something much bigger may be unfolding in relation to Ms Sturgeon’s career path and posited this as a possibility

            https://thinkscotland.org/2022/11/theres-not-just-a-ferry-fiasco-the-gupta-scandal-is-even-bigger/

            Interestingly the above link resonates plangently with the late Ian Jack’s piece re the ferries.

            https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n18/ian-jack/chasing-steel

            The Ian Jack article is long, but the politically interesting bits are in the last section.

            Both articles speak of political and business naïveté, general incompetence, and a certain “seediness”/cheapness integrity ‘lite’ in key government individuals, who are clearly not fit for ministerial duties.

            I may dare say that this shake-up may be a necessary prelude to actually being independent – a shift away from the petty grievances and self-obsessed limiting mindsets that typify and energise “nationalism” as we have known it in the recent decades.

            In both these cases there appears to be a reckless failure to secure and protect the Scottish population from possible sharp practicing, financially astute, predatory elements centred around the financial world, that we all seem to be prey to these days, but on which we are also dependent, for access to finance for large-scale shaping of the economy and wider society. It is distressing to think that our democratic representatives are really not up to the kinds of complex, multi-dimensional, globalised perspective judgements that are nowadays called for.

            At some point naïveté, hubris and self-aggrandisement merge into criminal negligence. Recent events seem to me to indicate a very uncomfortable sense that Scottish independence aspiration is not in any way matched by the kinds of deep knowledge and expertise infrastructure that is required for a fully functional self-governing state. I don’t mean that these don’t exist but that our political players are not able to properly articulate this into the decision-making process and arrive at policies that meet the requirements of ethical governance.

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks for your reply DGP. According to Guido’s source, Labour think that their ad hasn’t backfired and is getting the focus where they want it:

            https://twitter.com/GuidoFawkes/status/1644681936093294593

            What? On child sex offenders like Savile, who was notably not prosecuted by Starmer’s CPS with the relevant files subsequently disappearing – and Epstein, whose little black book contained no less than 12 entries for Starmzy’s chief advisor, Lord Mandy, who was also a visitor to his island and attended his birthday party in NYC even after he’d been convicted of child sex trafficking? They must be delusional.

            It’s not as if they’re aren’t plenty of other things they can have a pop at the government about, and it’s not just in Scotland that political corruption and incompetence abounds: look at the billions lost to PPE contract fraud, for example. I doubt that will ever be investigated to the same extent as the Sturrells’ motor-home etc though. Happy Easter.

  • keviano

    Whatever the purpose of Police Scotland’s high profile operation – the public should be told and soon.

    Would it be acceptable in any western democracy for the home of a former national leader to be raided, live on television, with no reason given and threats of contempt of court should the citizenry attempt to guess or even voice concern?

    Even more importantly, as the former FM was not apparently arrested or interviewed, it is even more vital that Police Scotland make it absolutely clear that their investigation does not involve the ex First Minister.

    Can you imagine the fury in England if the Met carried out a dawn raid on downing street, arrested a Prime Minister’s spouse or child, then trolleyed out various files, laptops and other belongings but refused to give a single reason for their behaviors to the public.
    Imagine if they simultaneously invaded the Tory or Labour HQs, seizing various documents, doubtless some of which will be sensitive to individuals, businesses and others, who have interacted with the Party over decades.

    Isn’t this just the sort of thing our media spouts out against Putin, Iran, China while boasting of our free democracy.

    Sure, we have been lured, through hints and winks that this is all about the £600k indyref donations – I’ve always been convinced the SNP could and should spend funds to move the independence destination closer – that may not sensibly by AT a second referendum and more appropriately to get there. A court instructing the SNP when it can spend its funds would be utterly undemocratic.
    No Party would countenance such interference.

    That said, it is for the SNP leadership, responsible for spend, to justify when it’s done, for what purpose and that it is fair and transparent.

    There are many who have a bone to pick with the current SNP leadership and they’ll have years to pick over those bones.
    Meanwhile, the whole SNP should not forget that there are and always will be forces that actively operate to destabilise the movement using any willing tools at their disposal.

    Yousaf and the SNP must now seize back control of the game.
    Police Scotland needs to be challenged loudly and publicly – if they have something to hide, let the spotlight fall on them.

  • iain

    What were the tent and shovels all about? Did Sturge take it the whole way in trying to emulate Hills? Who might be down there?

  • Republicofscotland

    Interesting stuff.

    “Senior SNP figures shut down plans to open the books on party finances when questions were first raised about “missing” funds for a second independence referendum, The Times can disclose.

    Keith Brown, the deputy leader, whom Humza Yousaf sacked from his cabinet shortly after replacing Nicola Sturgeon as first minister, had his proposals to increase transparency by demanding “a monthly written summary of income and expenditure” shelved by the party hierarchy, including Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, in 2021.

    “The main blockers to change were people in the non-elected positions like Peter Murrell and Kirsten Oswald [the SNP MP who was appointed business convener by Sturgeon],” a party source said. “Mike Russell [the SNP president] was supportive so the elected party president and the elected deputy leader [Brown] lost to the unelected Murrell and Oswald.”

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d3146e8e-d58d-11ed-9f4d-c5bd4b89feab?shareToken=6af7ac09651e44cc6ee00bca863242be

  • Brianfujisan

    Might as well share an hours old confab on fbook independence page –

    Brian
    Shocking Abuse and Corruption.. Mind you Nickola said nothing when Craig Murray was Jailed

    Richard Reid
    Brian because he was in contempt of court and was asked several times to desist .

    Brian
    Richard Reid And ??
    Reply 14m
    Brian
    Richard Reid Richard You have Proof Then ?
    Reply 7m
    Brian Keane
    I happen to Know more on this than you Richard .

    • Bayard

      “and was asked several times to desist .”

      Yup, that just about sums it up for today’s “justice”: if you are doing something the authorities don’t like, are asked several times to desist and fail to do so, it’s off to gaol with you and serve you right.

  • Republicofscotland

    It looks like more of the SNP’s chickens are coming home to roost.

    “This is an SNP administration that broke ministerial codes, hid from accountability and battled in the courts to keep Scottish taxpayers in the dark. And all of this in service to Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance business empire, which is now subject to a Serious Fraud Office investigation. Questions are now raised as to why this Scottish Government has proven so eager to go above and beyond to keep the billionaire businessmen happy.

    Furthermore, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that naivety in the face of superrich business moguls is indeed a hallmark of Nicola Sturgeon’s time ensconced in power. In the particular case of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, the First Minister has questions to answer concerning her judgement. After all, as she is so fond of reminding us all, the buck stops with her.”

    https://thinkscotland.org/2022/11/theres-not-just-a-ferry-fiasco-the-gupta-scandal-is-even-bigger/

  • President Xiden

    Perhaps now would be the time for someone from the media to ask the rather obvious question which appears to dare not speak its name namely; ‘what was the reason all those lawyers including the presiding judge, resigned from the Scottish Government’s Covid inquiry?’ What’s going on Nicola? What has been uncovered?

  • David W Ferguson

    One of the ironies of this story is that the cops who have kept the investigation alive – not least by leaking that they were being prevented by COPFS from interviewing the main suspects under caution – will be rank and filers. Many of them Rangers supporters/Unonists/Masons/Orange Order. People whose hatred of independence and anything associated with is is so deeply ingrained that they wouldn’t listen to their bosses’ orders – “Haud yer wheesht guys. She’s on our side!”

  • Louise

    Anyone also feel there is a Skripal stench to all this. Same old tent town and curious lack of urgency or investigation?
    Re the “Red Wall Tory voters”.
    Farage etc. discourse of EU being “Unelected, Unaccountable, Unaudited” significantly empowered by the arrogance, abuse, and contempt towards hapless Theresa May by Barnier, Jean-Claude Juncker, Tusk; Grandma Barbie, Ursula von der Leyen, while civil, remains a most unprepossessing character. Maybe even Boris was a reasonable alternative to this lot.

    AND, were not many Labour voters repelled by the way Starmer cheated Jeremy Corbyn?

  • Fat Jon

    “The matter is active for the purposes of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 and the public are therefore advised to exercise caution if discussing it on social media.”

    Forgive me for being my usual dim self, but how can anyone be in Contempt of Court when there is no case pending or ongoing, and the suspect has been released without charge?

    Comments may be subject to libel laws, but not C of C. Is this an attempt to frighten those ‘in the know’ into keeping quiet?

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