Salmond v Sturgeon round 4. What next?

[Cismyfatarse]

New thread.

Thank you 🙂

I'll have a read quickly in case anything happens to it.

@user1487194234

It is so annoying when the Nats all pile in with what about Boris/Hancock/Patel 2 wrongs don’t make a right and if that’s all the mitigation they have then I think she is in trouble

Exactly. They seem to have this bizarre idea that anyone who doesn't vote SNP is a Tory sympathiser.

Pretty much everyone thinks Boris and Priti are corrupt devious shits.

By not resigning Nicola is aligning herself with them and their bad behaviour. You'd think she'd want to put clear water between her behaviour and theirs and lead by example. After all Scottish politicians are supposed to be morally superior to those in Westminster.

Like that arch Tory Jess Philips? Perhaps Sturgeon will now brand her as part of Salmond's old boy's club 😉

By not resigning Nicola is aligning herself with them and their bad behaviour. You'd think she'd want to put clear water between her behaviour and theirs and lead by example. After all Scottish politicians are supposed to be morally superior to those in Westminster.

Exactly. I think this is becoming more of a feature in politicians - setting themselves up as morally superior but when the shit hits the fan, suddenly they need to dip below their rivals deficiencies to even shrug in acknowledgement. The whataboutery that's going on is quite pathetic.

WM SNPs slating the Scottish Parliament committee turning into "a thoroughly discredited racket" is certainly an interesting take.

@TheShadowyFeminist

I've just caught up with events - turns out that the statement I linked to earlier on the anonymous complainant defending LL against the accusation of 'interference' in the civil service Salmond investigation was sent by RCS who didn't redact the name of the complainant from the metadata on the document sent out.

The knee jerk reactions from RCS are just as farcical as the absurd levels of incompetence of scotgov's handling of the whole salmond complaints.

The committee leaking the decision on sturgeon & her misleading them/parliament is also farcically undermining their work & feeds into the SNP/sturgeon's knee jerk response to the findings of the committee that she was previously content to allow to do their job & accept their findings.

It all hinges on James Hamilton being able to haud his wheesht until his investigation & findings have been completed. Is it too much to hope that this will be an independent & reliable report?

Watched the panorama program too - so many attribute the conspiracy theory to Salmond when he's I think the only person who didn't say that. And the appalling situation that civil servants are left in limbo over with the farce of the salmond investigation & outstanding complaints, leaving no one able to be confident they can make a complaint & know it won't be weaponised for political purposes.

This entire spectacle is just an embarrassment to witness. They should all be bloody booted out.🤦🏻‍♀️

Sorry to just quote rather than put up original thought but I cannot improve on what @TheShadowyFeminist says here. It is appalling!

I bet the MSPs on the committee are thoroughly pissed off to be branded as biased/ prejudgemental or whatever. I know in the Chamber there is expected to be a certain amount of voting on party lines, but committees I think are much less party political. It's quite normal for cross party agreement/ consensus on things based on the evidence heard. It depends on the believability of the evidence/ witnesses. There are enough lawyers or people with legal training in that room to realise that, surely!

Obviously the report hasn't been published yet (Tuesday I think they said) but if NS has discounted it out of hand when it comes to its opinion of her evidence, what does that say about her respect for its decisions on the rest of the evidence heard? It is astonishingly arrogant for her to assume it's all about her.

And yes... the "8 hour" thing is strange. Yes, she was there for 8 hours, but she could have sung nursery rhymes to them for 8 hours and the same could be said. 8 hours of lies or misrepresentations doesn't suddenly make them the truth just because of the time she said them for.

Is any clarity to be gained from watching the Panorama show?

The 8 hours was full of waffle, avoidance, memory lapses & whataboutery. She had very little recollection for much beyond 'Salmond's behaviour'. If she thinks her testimony says anything positive then she's quite deluded. It's definitely embarrassing that the committee (Jackie Bailey excluded) couldn't get her to stay on track but having the ability to take the piss out of a parliamentary committee for 8 hours isn't quite the badge of honour she thinks it is.

Sadly, so many Scots think that because Sturgeon pitched up to conduct daily televised briefings and sit for 8 hours in front of the committee that equates to effective, honest governance.
Talk about a low bar.

SNP politicians definitely have a script to follow.
They regurgitate the same old stuff in every interview.
To date, this has been an effective strategy as they are rarely properly challenged.
Hopefully that is changing, as demonstrated by QT last night.

Given how shambolic most things the SNP has done, whoever is behind their comms certainly has had a very strong handle on how to manipulate/ spin the message.

I read the 8 hours obsession as their weird idea that NS is a super special person who should be above being asked to the things normal mortals are asked to do

Yes, "she's so important and busy but she gave up 8 hours of her precious time to explain this to you numpties"

Except she explained very little.

Lots of people work 8 hour or longer shifts in all sorts of mental or physical stresses. It's hardly unique. If you are telling the truth and answering the questions then it shouldn't be a strain either. The strain and marathon of it is trying to remember what lies you've already told and to try not to trip yourself up or dump the people that you've said you'll protect in it.

Shadowy and Muffins and Wax. Well said .

Yes indeed.

And most people manage to avoid getting involved in such shady goings on that they need to spend eight hours giving evidence

They've been pushing the line consistently that 'answering' questions is ventilating the issue. That, and constantly going on about old boys clubs.

The SNP are the old boys club here.

So in spirit of the op.. What is next?? Is the James Hamilton thing., and if it is do we know when that's likely to report.

Re the SNP MSP script: 'Wheesht for Indy' is alive and well.

Hamilton report is due on Tuesday I think @frasersmummy ?

I think the official committee report on all points is maybe this coming Tuesday? I don't think we have a date for Hamilton but he'll need to either give a date or publish before the purdah starts or we'll need to wait until after the election.

So worrying seeing Sturgeon trying to undermine the democratic process of the committee now. Did she not constantly silence everyone criticising her telling them it was for the committee to judge her? Now they have and she doesn't like the outcome. I suppose the SNP MSPs voting in her favour were all impartial but the others weren't? Anyone with a brain can see the Salmond stuff stinks and NS has not been whiter than white. Now she is going to cling on regardless of official findings against her. Absolutely power crazed.

They said on the news last night that Hamilton was due "in the coming days" and the committee report on Tuesday. I think purdah starts on 26th March (next Fri?) so fingers crossed both do get reported by 25th!

Ah, sorry thought it was Hamilton on Tues.
I too hope H Report is in before Friday otherwise it might get pushed back till after Election. NS will still do well in that (sigh!) and then it will be 'move along, nothing to see, I've won again'. Sickening frankly.

Hamilton must be feeling the pressure. If he exonerates Sturgeon, he'll get so much pushback from anyone not on team sturgeon cos we've all seen her obfuscate & try covering up the fact she's lied. If he is satisfied she's lied/misled Parliament & done so knowingly, then he'll get a massive pushback from the sturgeon loyalists. If he says she's misled parliament but not knowingly, he'll get it from everyone!

Whatever the outcome is from the committee & Hamilton, sturgeon has been exposed in all her weaknesses - even if her loyal supporters are happy to live with her shortcomings. She's incapable of admitting blame or fault where appropriate & expenses much energy in whataboutery instead of having some self reflection. She is inflexible in terms of decision making, even when that decision ends up in disaster. And she'll happily smear anyone who goes against her. Her response to Salmond's witnesses corroborating his claims was I think one of her many low points. But more so given Aberdein's very conciliatory effort not to throw sturgeon under a bus, given she immediately did that to him at the 1st opportunity.

The SNP are gambling a lot on her general popularity & handling of Covid. I think her exposure in this confirms that she's not been as competent as she's been made out to be re Covid either - the care home deaths are still a shocking issue that I've yet to see explained & we have had very high death rates compared to other countries. But Sturgeon stood at a plinth & grimaced a lot over Qs being asked by media so yay for her handling 😒

The state of politics in general is poor, especially in Scotland. But Nicola sturgeon isn't the great saviour she thinks she is. I'm dreading the new influx of MSPs as there's a lot of guard changing going on. Who knows what level of fuck up is coming our way. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Ianrankinfan

Shadowy and Muffins and Wax. Well said .

Hear hear. Alex Salmond’s evidence session was about 6 hours in the end, I think? And he had facts and dates at the top of his mind.

@WouldBeGood

Oh, *@Happinessisawarmcervix* is that the voyeurism allegation?

That’s the one! If we must believe the 9 women we must surely also believe that this happened without bothering to wait for those tedious things like evidence, testimony, and the decision of a jury.