To think that the Alex Salmond evidence story deserves to be given more importance by the U.K. news channels.

[Tamingofthehamster]

For a story all about corruption and overreaching power, which could potentially bring down the Scottish First Minister, why is it only ranking 20th in Sky News?

@roundturnandtwohalfhitches

I have spent days trying to work out whats going on with this Salmond thing. I'm not a member of any political party so I don't have any skin in the game. As far as I can work out, Salmond is a man seeking revenge. He got accused of the harrassment stuff, thought he could rely on NS et al to support him. They did the only thing they could politically by stepping away from it. Possibly because they knew he was what my mother would call 'handsy'. On a personal level he felt betrayed by his friends and political colleagues and has tried to find some sort of massive conspiracy behind it. He's now hell bent on getting his revenge and bringing NS etc down with him. I don't think it helps that he has people inside the party cheering him on. As for NS all I can see is that she is accused of speaking to him earlier than she said she did by a few days and judging by the texts published yesterday, I think she was trying to get out of speaking to him at all.

@roundturnandtwohalfhitches

Yes, this is pretty much my understanding

I don't quite understand why it matters so much if NS first heard about it on 29 March or 2 April. Can anyone explain this?

I think another issue is that, if she discussed it in her capacity as First Minister, then the meeting should have been recorded (which it wasn't), but if she discussed it as leader of SNP, then no need for it to be recorded

Anyway, I have great respect for NS, and hope she'll be found to have acted properly, but AS has muddied the waters and may bring her down with him. Agree he seems he'll bent on revenge

I don't understand it either OP, but it seems to happen a lot in Scotland. The media isn't really very good at holding the authorities to account over matters that would become scandals elsewhere. Things just seem to dissappear here.

The statutory notice scandal in Edinburgh that involved council officials obtaining bribes to order compulsory work of tens of millions of pounds all over Edinburgh was hushed up, even though the BBC covered the story. No parliamentary enquiry, even though there was, and remains, special legislation allowing the council to force repairs on homeowners in Edinburgh. Its bizarre.

The fact that the parliament is unicameral (has no revisory chamber) and its power is only checked by committees composed of those same MSPs it is checking.

The fact that the SNP have been able to talk about joining the EU on independence as a done deal, despite no support or indication from the EU that this is likely to ever happen. The lack of SNP support for the ECHR. The Named Persons legislation, which swiftly disappeared when it was challenged for breaching human rights in court. The EU court decision of the Advocate-General, stating that the minimum alcohol pricing legislation. The terrible economic disaster affecting Aberdeen and the crash in house prices there.

None of it ever seems to be covered by the media here in much detail and is therefore not picked up by other news media as a result. Even Scottish people don't seem to know about much of this stuff in their own country. So many people, when asked what they think of the Named Persons legislation only a couple of years ago, say "whats that?"

This is quite a good summary, if anyone is interested

www.politico.eu/article/scotland-alex-salmond-nicola-sturgeon-fight-explained/

I think it's all fascinating. I know for absolute fact that Salmon is NOT a shining example of appropriate sexual behaviour, and I admire NS, so I've been forcing myself to take a step back and query my own leanings.

I don't live in Scotland but find politics really interesting so I have been following this. I agree that it's not really been prominent in UK news, and it's a shame because it matters. Without wanting to minimise the nature of the Scottish nation AT ALL, the unicameral, SNP-dominated Scottish Parliament reminds me of my London borough, which is 100% Labour councillors - no challenge, no effective scrutiny. Whatever my own political leanings, that is NEVER a good thing.

I also don't live in Scotland (I'm in England), but have been following this as best I can. Although I used to live in Scotland and have met both Sturgeon and Salmond (bit of pointless trivia there!).

I'll keep following, but I'd need to see a lot more to condemn Nicola Sturgeon, as it stands. I do think that there needs to be some sort of resolution to get back on track with not only running the country and focusing on that, but also forming a strong bid for independence for the best chance of success this time.

I did read the daily mail article about this and was a bit confused by it all.
I came on here to see if I could get any answers as to why I found it so confusing!

It's the leading headline on BBC radio 4 World at One Today

@Tamingofthehamster

Maybe, but surely more in the public interest than ‘football academy’s and young dreams’, ‘radio dh’s sister leaves hospital,’ ‘Prince Phillip is slightly better’ ‘David Attenborough says something on climate change again’ .

And believe me, I am not belittling these stories, I really aren’t, but they are nothing compared to the massive scandal going on in Scotland right now, which stinks of corruption.

Yes ... it should 🌺

[quote notanothertakeaway]This is quite a good summary, if anyone is interested

www.politico.eu/article/scotland-alex-salmond-nicola-sturgeon-fight-explained/[/quote]
Thanks. So 29th she was asked to meet Salmond on 2nd April and was told it was about his groping habits. She referenced her meeting on 2nd. He's fine to grope anyone, but she mustn't forget how much outline of a meeting she was given. It's pitiful.

As for her husband encouraging the police to prosecute - if he heard the allegations and did anything else we'd say he was corrupt and serving the SNP's interests before the law.

When you delve into it a bit more it becomes much, much more shocking and murky. The current legal situation has not been driven by Alex Salmond AT ALL, he is merely giving evidence at an inquiry into the mishandling of the SGs clear vendetta against him. To be clear, the government were trying to put a man in jail for fabricated crimes. The group of women accusers were coordinated in their complaints and the laws were changed to protect their anonymity. The women making the complaints are likely to be powerful women who work closely with Nicola sturgeon, going by the various reports by the bbc and others into the allegations. The women have been proven in court to have been either lying or that there’s no credible evidence against AS. The meetings that NS is trying to expunge from history are ones where she is proven to be lying about her involvement and what has been put on the record. Instead of offering her resignation she is covering it all up, refusing to comply, kicking the can up the road to avoid scrutiny. She is essentially filibustering until the committee is dissolved in March. The whole thing absolutely stinks. There are a great many other corruption issues going on not least the takeover of the NEC, the disappearance of significant ringfenced funds, the complete disconnect between members of the SNP and the leadership, the smearing and sacking of perceived threats such as Joanna Cherry and Joan Mcalpine and the general steamrollering of women’s rights. There’s a thread here on Scotsnet for those who are interested in looking a bit more deeply into it. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/scotsnet/4153007-Does-it-matter-if-Sturgeon-is-guilty-do-you-know-or-care?pg=1

As someone said it was the lead story on the radio 4 news at 1 with an impressive speech by Ruth Davidson explaining why we should all be concerned. She and Alex Salmond are unlikely allies.

I thought Davidson had given up politics to spend more time with her family but glad she's back (and wish she'd move south and shake up the Westminster lot) .

Good list here mobile.twitter.com/ChrisMcEleny/status/1363240706945519616

Some of the comments on here from those who age following this story closely are quite telling. I wasn’t so close to this story but it sounds like SNP leadership have an autocratic attitude, and power always corrupts. SNP will end up where labour did due to the grip of a deluded, incompetent, authoritarian leader. With any luck.

SNP are rotten to the core. I include both Salmond and Sturgeon in this. Salmond may be guilty of some of this stuff and if he is he should’ve been found guilty. That’s outwits our control. However there was found to be fabrications and it looks possible that govt had something to do with the whole thing. They said they didn’t, have been caught out on a few things, challenged him to provide the evidence, then when he did it was redacted. To protect the FM. Today she got cocky because he was shut down but we’ve seen what he had to say, and what was redacted and now it looks 100% like she has something to hide. The two highest people in the Scottish Govt are married. Who do they answer to? Nobody has ever held them to account and it’s sickening that people say so what, it doesn’t matter, we just want independence. Great idea. Then these people will have even less to answer to. They will tell us what to think and do. Look at their record on that. Look at the money they’ve had for furlough that’s been stashed for their campaigns. This is an urgent matter, not an after the pandemic matter because they insist on the elections going ahead and if they are not stopped they will take it as a green light to keep putting money into Indy instead of building the country back up first.

Alex Salmond was acquitted of all allegations against him in a trial.

whether you agree with this or not.. that is a fact.

@BlueThistles if that was to me I actually agree in principle. However, I wanted to state that if you think he is guilty it is still doesn’t take away from her part in it.

Nicola Sturgeon should be removed from Office

I agree it should be a much bigger story. I saw the DM is covering it too. I also think the SNP is not held to account and can do what they please. Whether you think AS is a sleaze or not is an opinion, the court found him innocent and that's a fact. I do believe people should have a right to provide evidence and it's up to the other party to refute it, not redact it. And I am not an AS fan, at all. This just seems wrong on many levels.

As for her husband encouraging the police to prosecute - if he heard the allegations and did anything else we'd say he was corrupt and serving the SNP's interests before the law.

Salmond alleges a lot more than this though. He says he has evidence that Mr Murrell emailed large numbers of former SNP staff and an email went to the members basically asking anyone who wanted to allege inappropriate behaviour against Salmond to come forward.

Salmond claims that the SNP/Scottish Gov encouraged the court action because they knew they were losing the judicial review into the original handling of the complaints - the process was found to be ‘tainted with bias’ - and the hope was that the judicial review would be paused while the court case went ahead.

I’ve also seen but haven’t confirmed that some of the women had their complaints passed to the police without their permission by the Scottish Government. That’s a pretty low move.

It all needs a proper investigation, not this mickey mouse inquiry that can’t even see all of Alex Salmond’s evidemce.

There’s a lot of information and analysis here for those that are interested in detail gordondangerfield.com/

I agree, it should have much more prominence. It is a huge scandal.

Sturgeon has looked very rattled these last couple of days when talking to the media about it.

@Happinessisawarmcervix

Sturgeon has looked very rattled these last couple of days when talking to the media about it.

She's shitting her breeks.

Well - what does it say about the separation of powers between the judiciary, the Government and the prosecuting authorities? It is a little frightening to imagine that criminal justice in Scotland could be manipulated as Salmond alleges, because if he is right, there will have been a criminal conspiracy at the highest level of government.

If he is right, Scottish justice and government will be revealed as corrupt. And he is a very powerful person, so what's to stop similar happening in an independent Scotland if true?

If their was independence, we would need to have a second unelected chamber imo. Not sure how you would choose the right people for if though.