Salmond v Sturgeon Round 2.

[Cismyfatarse]

As the conversation is interesting and the thread is nearly full. Does it matter if Sturgeon is guilty - do you know or care? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/scotsnet/4153007-Does-it-matter-if-Sturgeon-is-guilty-do-you-know-or-care

So now we get salmond appearing a 2nd time in private

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9308865/Alex-Salmond-twist-knife-Blow-Sturgeon-prepares-new-evidence.html

Following.

@Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow

Where is Aberdein in all of this? Surely his evidence/statement is crucial?

I can see Sturgeon resigning shortly. What else can happen

I haven't been following this closely, and have no idea who Aberdein is. Both Salmond and Sturgeon give me the dry boke.

Alex Salmond is a clever guy and a consummate professional politician. It's not for nothing that he's referred to as Sturgeon's mentor - he taught her everything she knows and moulded her into what she is. A chip off the old block. In terms of style there's nothing between them.

There has definitely been some jiggery pokery going on with he said, she said, forgetting about things, lying. My take on it is that if someone comes to you and says that your oldest friend and someone you've worked with for 25 years has been accused of rape and sexual assault, that's not something you forget about.

The whole Murrell / Sturgeon / Salmond dynamic is odd on a personal level. Dysfunctional relationships on personal level.

Just hope that the in-fighting and lying stops people voting for them.

@TheShadowyFeminist sorry, just a rubbish joke.

I see the word on Twitter is that Leslie Evans and Peter Murrell are to be sacked to save NS?!

Aberdein was AS's Chief of Staff
I think Evans at least will go,but not sure it will,or should be,enough to save AS

@user1487194234 I know this is all confusing, but think you mean NS not AS?

yes sorry,NS will go
AS has gone !

I really hope she does go because for a lot of people she IS the SNP. Her and Salmond. The rest of them just kind of melt into the background. Swinney's clearly incompetent, the health woman is stepping down at the election. Who'd replace her?

She'll cling on with all her might though, be sure of that. I also have grave concerns about the independence of the committee doing the investigations into what went on.

Nice wee summary here:

@RaspberryCoulis Geoff Aberdein was, as pp said, Alex Salmond's former chief of staff. He's important in all of this because he was essentially the go between so can potentially corroborate AS story. It was him who was supposedly contacted in early March to arrange the meeting of the 29th , him who attended that meeting, and him that was supposedly told the identity of one of the complainants.

He gave evidence at Salmond's trial and that evidence is still in the public domain, I've seen it on twitter a few times in the last few days.

Because of the way things were reported around the time of the trial his evidence was redacted - or just pulled- but I think the committee might have it again but not be publishing? Not 100% sure what's going on but his evidence is pretty central to the "when did Sturgeon know" question.

Ha Brilliant!
Not to diminish the talents here but:
'Et tu, Nicola?' Surely?

@daisyfraser

Ha Brilliant! Not to diminish the talents here but: 'Et tu, Nicola?' Surely?

Difficult to say as they are both ceasar and brutus at the same time.

True dat.

This has also lifted the lid on how an independent Scotland’s government could look . Hopefully it will make some voters realise what they could be voting for . Brilliant thread and thank you to all who have taken time to spell it out so clearly .

The schools report being held back is quite damning.

Been out for a new tub of popcorn

Latest poll shows support for independence has dropped.

It's going to be an interesting week

As someone who hasn;t followed the ins and outs of the whole thing, there are two main points which stick out :

1. We are supposed to believe that even though Nicola Sturgeon is married to Peter Murrell, the chief exec of the SNP, and they live in the same house together, meetings happen with one of them and the other one doesn't know. Because wives and husbands don't talk about things.

1. Nicola can't remember being told something so explosive and so potentially damaging and so serious about her closest friend and ally. Come on.

Despite recent protestations that they don't talk work at home, a journalist dug up an old interview when she said that there was a lot of political talk in the house, as you'd imagine there must be. So if both those things are true, there must have either been a point at which they stopped or a gradual reduction in chat. It's suggested that it's a marriage of convenience but I obviously don't know that.

Even if all of things are the case, it's still very difficult to believe that they did not discuss this.

Especially when Murrell Whatsapp messages are all about ''the more fronts he [AS] is having to firefight on the better for all complainers."

“Totally agree folk should be asking the police questions… report now with the PF on charges which leaves police twiddling their thumbs. So good time to be pressurising them. Would be good to know Met looking at events in London."
The second message read: “TBH the more fronts he is having to firefight on the better for all complainers. So CPS action would be a good thing.”

Yeah right,for the 'complainers'.
Then they got the police to make at least 400 interview trying to get more dirt on AS.

What is he getting involved for anyway? They were administration staff, not SNP staff - he is CEO of the SNP.
TBH I wonder often how many of their voters are actually aware they are married. Different names and they've now stopped the hand-holding going to the polling-station together.

@RaspberryCoulis I agree with you on these points .

Yep, my son is studying politics at university and didn't know they were married so a lot of people might not know, especially the younger voters.

just in it for the jokes wouldbegood McBorgias :) but yes, it's utterly without credibility that NS didn't know about all of this quite a way before early April.

What is he getting involved for anyway? They were administration staff, not SNP staff

I think the complainants were a mix, Garavelli gave a breakdown in an article. I want to say it was 1 SNP politician and the rest were about a 50/50 split between civil service staff and SNP but I might be a bit off. I'll try to find it

I actually didn’t know about their marriage and the stuff about it until last year, probably. I feel quite duped on that too.

No Nicola at today's briefing