I can see why you might roll your eyes...

[Donny osmond]

... but the politics in Scotland right now is just one of those moments in time that will defy explanation for future generations.

Alex Salmond is due to give evidence to a parliamentary inquiry this week and had been expected to make serious accusations against Sturgeon and others at the top of the SNP. He's just handed in his statement.

He appears to have gone all in. One member of the inquiry, a Conservative MSP, has just tweeted this:

First thought on the Alex Salmond evidence: given the number of individuals in the SNP he names as conspiring against him, he must have evidence of his claims, or he will be facing several expensive defamation actions. IF they don’t sue, that tells its own story.

A prominent left leaning lawyer has tweeted this:

Have read all the Salmond evidence twice. First of all, since it is careful to identify no complainers, huge questions should arise now about the intervention of wholly SNP publicly funded "Third Sector" organisations who demanded it not be published. Without apparently seeing it

But it is also a legal tour de force. The final paragraph of page 10 would be hugely defamatory if untrue. Except truth is, of course, a complete defence to defamation.

It also leaves Sturgeon in a very difficult position before her evidence on oath after Salmond. Does she continue to lie hoping it would be impossible to prove otherwise? Or does she cash in her chips and go down the "I made mistakes" road

Either way, things should now be in the hands of independent prosecutors. Get that it can't be "England", so how's about Australia or Canada?

Either Salmond is making an utter fool of himself, again, or Sturgeon and most of the SNP hierarchy are surely about to be exposed as corrupt to the core. This lot are truly putting WM to shame in the "Worst Politicians Imaginable category.

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[Donny osmond]

That paragraph in full:

It has been a matter of considerable public interest whether there was ‘a conspiracy’. I
have never adopted the term but note that the Cambridge English Dictionary defines it
as ‘the activity of secretly planning with other people to do something bad or illegal.’
I leave to others the question of what is, or is not, a conspiracy but am very clear in
my position that the evidence supports a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and
concerted effort amongst a range of individuals within the Scottish Government and
the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned.
That includes, for the avoidance of doubt, Peter Murrell (Chief Executive), Ian
McCann (Compliance officer) and Sue Ruddick (Chief Operating Officer) of the SNP
together with Liz Lloyd, the First Minister’s Chief of Staff. There are others who, for
legal reasons, I am not allowed to name.

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[Donny osmond]

I have the pdf of his submission but Tapatalk won't let me attach it

https://parliament.scot/HarassmentCompl ... ission.pdf…

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[Digby]

From the outside my belief would be Salmond is guilty and is lucky to be making the complaints he is and Sturgeon isn't remotely credible in suggesting she doesn't remember conversations about Salmond, a political mentor, her former party leader and the biggest name in the SNP and possibly Scottish politics and the charges around him. Sturgeon would seem to have been very daft and to have committed sins that should see her resign, but as we've seen through 2020, whether with Cummings or Patel or ..., it's often the case people don't go where they consider they're more important than the job, and people think they're very important these days

[Donny osmond]

From the outside my belief would be Salmond is guilty and is lucky to be making the complaints he is and Sturgeon isn't remotely credible in suggesting she doesn't remember conversations about Salmond, a political mentor, her former party leader and the biggest name in the SNP and possibly Scottish politics and the charges around him. Sturgeon would seem to have been very daft and to have committed sins that should see her resign, but as we've seen through 2020, whether with Cummings or Patel or ..., it's often the case people don't go where they consider they're more important than the job, and people think they're very important these days

I whole heartedly agree. Nats up here do have the added kick that their entire political career is spent sneering down their noses at England while encouraging us to believe that we could be doing better.

Imagine if Farage had made it to the HoC on a wave of popular anti-EU sentiment, and there been exposed as a sex pest (Salmond) and/or told lies directly to the HoC, and got his wife to lie under oath to a parliamentary enquiry (Sturgeon). That's where we're at in Scotland. It's still hard to find someone who cares more about this than about how much they hate Johnson. It seems it's all fine, or at least it's not worth caring about, when we do it.

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[Galfon]

He must have something more to have made those claims against snp officials maybe as part of the earlier police investigations ( e-mails, sources of leaks etc.)
It all appears very personal and the attempts to slow things down and block evidence being published does bring a whiff or two.
The Scottish elections ( where campaigning/canvassing is under lockdown restrictions) and the IndyRef follow-on could be totally unhinged if this blows up anything more that has been seen already.
The FM doesn't look like the sort of person to walk if there is any possible reason for her not to, and as already pointed out 'Code of conduct' thing appears to be open to interpreation across the board currently.

u/d: The Crown Office has apparently asked Holyrood to remove Salmond's evidence from their website now, over earlier Court Order concerns (claimant anonymity).
[ when the sh!t hits the fan...]

[Donny osmond]

He must have something more to have made those claims against snp officials maybe as part of the earlier police investigations ( e-mails, sources of leaks etc.)
It all appears very personal and the attempts to slow things down and block evidence being published does bring a whiff or two.
The Scottish elections ( where campaigning/canvassing is under lockdown restrictions) and the IndyRef follow-on could be totally unhinged if this blows up anything more that has been seen already.
The FM doesn't look like the sort of person to walk if there is any possible reason for her not to, and as already pointed out 'Code of conduct' thing appears to be open to interpreation across the board currently.

u/d: The Crown Office has apparently asked Holyrood to remove Salmond's evidence from their website now, over earlier Court Order concerns (claimant anonymity).
[ when the sh!t hits the fan...]

Yes.

The bit that has caused it to be pulled is the bit about Sturgeon, it will be re-published with that bit redacted.

Of course, that means that the enquiry members will be unable to ask Sturgeon about that bit when she appears in front of them to "give evidence".

This lot are making Trump's White House look honest.

The Lord Advocate, who heads up the Crown Office which has demanded this evidence be pulled, is a member of the Cabinet and the Scottish Govts top legal advisor.

The same Scottish govt who carried out an unlawful investigation into Salmond that merited him getting a cool £half mill in fees and compensation.

The same Crown Office who tried and failed to prosecute Salmond for being a sex pest.

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[Digby]

They are not making Trump's WH look honest, that's a little too harsh

[Donny osmond]

They are not making Trump's WH look honest, that's a little too harsh

Really?

Lying under oath? Lying to the chamber? Manipulating evidence given to an inquiry? Accused of giving misleading evidence to the public prosecutions service?

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[Donny osmond]

The same Lord Advocate who last week had to apologize to the Scottish parliament because his Crown Office undertook a malicious prosecution that has so far cost the tax payer £24 million in fees and compensation and is widely expected to end up costing many tens of millions more, not related to Salmond but nevertheless an indication of a man, a dept and a govt that thinks it can do what it wants to whoever it wants.

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[Galfon]

The UK government should have concerns about all this within a devolved arrangement but are staying quiet for now, as are the opposition in the Scottish Parliament. It is almost like a car-crash in slow motion, and they are happy to look on.
Still haven't got my head round the flags on official buildings thing,
or some of the proposed hate-crime definitions, but that's from an outsider looking in.
Don't remember Embra being like this when I spent time up there
a few decades back.

[Donny osmond]

The UK government should have concerns about all this within a devolved arrangement but are staying quiet for now, as are the opposition in the Scottish Parliament. It is almost like a car-crash in slow motion, and they are happy to look on.
Still haven't got my head round the flags on official buildings thing,
or some of the proposed hate-crime definitions, but that's from an outsider looking in.
Don't renember Embra being like this when I spent time up there
a few decades back.

No one has their head around the hate crime defs or the flags thing, and if you were here a few decades back, you wouldn't remember as it simply wasn't like this back then.

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[Digby]

They are not making Trump's WH look honest, that's a little too harsh

Really?

Lying under oath? Lying to the chamber? Manipulating evidence given to an inquiry? Accused of giving misleading evidence to the public prosecutions service?

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At worst that puts them on a par in some limited fashion with team fat orange wanker

[Galfon]

it simply wasn't like this back then.

true, anglo-bashing aplenty but usually confined to pubs, take-aways and stand-up comedians ; biggest divisions were footy related....which is another unfortunate cross-over to recent unravellings involvin a large Glasgow fc.

u/d: now accused of leaving Bo-Jo's 4-Nations Covid recovery meeting early yesterday, not just to give the scheduled daily televised briefing, but to do a 'pre-emptive strike' against Salmond by means of other tv interviews. good gweef.

[Donny osmond]

Aaaaaaand like that, Salmond pulls out of giving testimony to the inquiry for, I think the 2nd or 3rd time? Which means Sturgeon, if she deigns to appear at all, will not be asked about the redacted evidence or about whatever Salmond was going to talk about, rendering the entire inquiry pointless, and allowing her, her lapdog Lord Advocate and the whole Scottish Govt to get away with lies and corruption... again and again and again.

But remember everyone *glares at England* we can do sooooo much better

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[Tobylerone]

They`ve taken incompetence in government to new levels.
Propaganda machine good though, reminiscent of thirties Germany (incl.flags).

Even managed to cock up framing "No Angel" Salmond. At huge legal expense already.

[Digby]

Aaaaaaand like that, Salmond pulls out of giving testimony to the inquiry for, I think the 2nd or 3rd time? Which means Sturgeon, if she deigns to appear at all, will not be asked about the redacted evidence or about whatever Salmond was going to talk about, rendering the entire inquiry pointless, and allowing her, her lapdog Lord Advocate and the whole Scottish Govt to get away with lies and corruption... again and again and again.

But remember everyone *glares at England* we can do sooooo much better

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There is of course if you ever did part from the union those running the show in Scotland could be permed from those with a braincell rather than those fixated on a single issue that presents as populist dogma. I don't particularly take a stance on the issue myself, I do wonder how it makes economic sense, but another recent vote suggests that's not an important consideration for most voters and then I merely conclude 'whatever'

[Donny osmond]

Ooooooooh he's back in the game. Salmond invited to appear before the inquiry on Friday.

The Mail* has apparently published the redacted version alongside the non-redacted version of his submission. If it's accurate, then what's been redacted is merely to protect Sturgeon and heehaw to do with complainant identification, as predicted

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[Donny osmond]

Sullied myself by going onto the Mail website, but there are both version published there for all to see...



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[Digby]

Ruth is not taking this one lying down, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives are likely to fall in behind her so the FM will find it hard to sweep it under the carpet now, certainly harder

[Donny osmond]

Salmond appears to have accepted the invite to appear on Friday. Feck knows if he will or will not actually appear.

Someone at parliament seems to have grown a pair... The Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair is to use the parliament’s power to compel the production of documents held by the Crown Office, says the Herald.

This could shape into a real battle between parliament and the Crown office. Or not.

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[Donny osmond]

The committee have also agreed to approach the high court as a matter of urgency over what evidence would and would not breach court orders on anonymity

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[Galfon]

Notice a brave SNP councillor stuck his head above the parapets yesterday and sent an open letter criticising the glorious leader..
his name will definitely be in ze book..
The Lord A. answered questions at Parliament today, still leaving everyone pretty much in the dark about the basis of the late intervention and bits removed. The can is truly getting kicked down the road, it appears.
Can't see AS turning up if his full evidence no longer exists on the
Committee website.

[Sandydragon]

Salmond appears to have accepted the invite to appear on Friday. Feck knows if he will or will not actually appear.

Someone at parliament seems to have grown a pair... The Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair is to use the parliament’s power to compel the production of documents held by the Crown Office, says the Herald.

This could shape into a real battle between parliament and the Crown office. Or not.

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I can see entirely why the UK government would love to help out the Inquiry.

[Galfon]

Phew, 6 hrs. questioning ( of variable standard it has to be said ) is some ordeal for anyone of pension age with a recent chest infection.AS conducted himself with dignity throughout I thought, and appeared to have a better grasp of the evidence discussed than most of the committee.Whether they take up his offer of additional evidence ( that NS is ironically demanding ), what they choose to do with it and what happens after their conclusion is anyone's guess. This internal squabble is causing more harm to the common cause than anything, though if it looks like one, waddles like one and quacks like one ...