Nicola Sturgeon didn't know her husband stole £400,000

[Imdunfer]

Really? She lived with this guy and didn't know? She had a camper van parked on the drive and didn't know he stole the money to buy it?

I don't buy it.

AIBU

I think this is a particular skill of ruthlessly ambitious people. They know how to cloak themselves in Teflon coating.

'No conscious memory' of the campervan. Oh, aye?

Roughly translates to: we mainly used it for sleeping 🤣

This is the crux of the whole thing.

I can actually buy into the fact that they as a couple had a combined income that expensive coffee machines, pens etc could easily be afforded on their salaries.
And any of those items appearing in the house would not have been unusual.

BUT it's the fact that she was the party leader and was responsible for overseeing her party and that includes how the accounts are signed off etc.

It's widely publicised that she has a bullying nature and she bullied people who were responsible for signing off the accounts into complying. There were a series of resignations from those professionals who were unhappy with the financials of the party and did not want their signatures signing off things in their professional capacity.

This is the CRUX OF IT NICOLA. You were ultimate top dog when all of this was going on. Your husband was cooking the books, the books were not being correctly audited and you were in charge. Therefore, you as top dog then need to take some responsibility for what happened in exactly the same way as a CEO of a public limited company would need to.

Oh my, she really has sold out:

Sturgeon moves to London - as she defends record over husband's crimes

Her explanation about not knowing about the motor home was just ludicrous and LK was too soft on her.

Interviewers need to concentrate on asking her about the discrepancies in the accounts.

AAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

It was in the accounts!

If she had no conscious memory of a camper van existing then the SNP were submitting false accounts!!!!!!!

Two things:

She received and used the proceeds of crime. The Dyson hairdryer was hardly for the baldy yin was it?
Necklaces
Etc

Was it all given back or sold? Did she donate ti charity? What did she do to remedy?

£400k is a substantial amount to see come into a house - I would know.

And she signed off accounts.

There was a complete conflict of interest in him spending and her approving.

Complete corruption and lack of integrity.

You’re guilty of your own crimes Nikki, not his.

She was a bit taken aback at the suggestion of her assets being taken and used to repay the embezzled funds. That's the least she and her ex should do.

I confess to not having watched it.

But if she won’t do that she wants to keep the proceeds of crime. That’s what’s she is guilty of.

Absolutely. All the poring over the list of what he bought is distracting from the key issue of the accounts.

Usual word salad pish from Sturgeon which sounds like a denial but actually isn't.

I noticed that she was trying to frame this as a gender issue. Sturgeon built a lot of her success on identity politics - men bad, Tories bad, WM bad, big bad white straight people and all of that.

But it won’t wash. As you say, this was on her watch and in her marriage in her own house. This has got nothing to do with big bad men making women take responsibility for crimes they didn’t commit.

The toilet rolls!

If she and her husband had been separated and not working together at the top of the SNP forming a power block no one else could investigate I would have more sympathy.

Same as most of these scandals , no one else saw anything, no one else knew anything
lots of people must have known what was going on or should have asked !

Sturgeon:

"It doesn't say motorhome, it says motor vehicles, that could have been the rental of motor vehicles or something like that so it didn't particularly jump out as something that caused me to question things."

It's in the balance sheet. It's an asset owned by the company and depreciated every year. Is she suggesting that, as First Minister of Scotland, she doesn't understand the concept of assets and balance sheets?

Even if she was confused and didn't know what she was looking at, the figure had jumped from zero to £80K over the space of a year in which her husband had loaned over £100K to the party. Wouldn't your first question be "why are we suddenly paying £80K a year for rental cars when we have no money?"

There was some serious blushing at that point, I noticed.

I agree completely with this.

The whole daily mail type glee over pepper grinders, necklaces and pens needs to be put aside. Hopefully it will run its course once people have had their few weeks of fun.

The real issue is how a governing party can have had such a failure of internal governance because if something as fundamental as accounting and segregation of duties failed, what else might have failed?

Given that this issue started before Sturgeon was party leader, I’m looking forward to when we can stop focusing solely on her, and look at the bigger underlying issue.

Apparently an understanding of basic accounting principles is a requirement of her legal qualification?

Given that this issue started before Sturgeon was party leader, I’m looking forward to when we can stop focusing solely on her, and look at the bigger underlying issue.

The motorhome was still being reported as an asset of the organisation at the end of 2023 and 2024, after Sturgeon had resigned as leader, so apparently nobody understood the accounts?

Strangely I watched a clip of them on GB news yesterday, not sure if it is during an election, she is wearing a bright red jacket and to me the vibe between them was very much like a couple, the only odd thing in the body language is that he keeps patting her back as opposed to just holding her or just resting his hand on her back, otherwise they look powerful and there is definitely a "couple" vibe, which stirs the mud even more for me, much harder to deny knowledge then than if it was a "political marriage". I have seen the clip before, but it jumped out at me watching yesterday that there was a vibe there that married couples project.

Yes, there is a cost for spouting that kind of rubbish, she is now gong to pay the cost, it will be hard for her to build a credible public career away from politics I think, unless it is stand up comedy, the tourists would probably lap her up at the Edinburgh Fringe.

I absolutely agree with this
In some ways all the chat about expensive bags and pens is a distraction