Sturgeon's husband arrested.

[Rainbowshit]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65187823

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I wouldn't have said money laundering it's not making dodgy money clean.
Money laundering is like a drug dealer also having a legitimate business, say a sunbed salon, buying sunbed sessions with the drug money, so that money appears to be from a legitimate source. So the legal business appears to have made more profits than it actually did.

Buying stuff on a company credit card is more fraudulent / theft getting the party to pay for private possessions.

Thought this was horrifying….seems to indicate the police were possibly complicit in sweeping it under the carpet. A country where whistleblowers are hounded and intimidated? Doesn’t it make you proud of the open and transparent country we live in 😢

https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23473019.snp-finances-whistleblower-calls-inquiry-police-response/

Is the whistleblower the same person who reported David Cameron to the police too? No wonder he wasn't taken seriously at first if it's who I think it is.

It is terrifying though that they would try to intimidate whistleblowers.

Some clown on the telly last night saying the SNP was the most transparent party out there because they know how many members they have. Honestly, what an embarassment.

Some clown not heard that one in a while 😃

I think that honestly they had become so blasé about using the SNP funds for themselves that they didn't really think about it anymore, their weekly shop is probably on that credit card!

I think a similar attitude pervades their governance too; government money (our money as tax payers) may not be being used to buy a hall rug, but a general attitude of it being theirs to do what they want with.

I think that people can start to justify things to themselves like using the company / party credit card with the logic of martyrdom, especially the political class who are so used to claiming expenses.

'I was taking political phone calls all evening and then I emailed wee Mhairi so I'm entitled to call it work and order a fish supper on the nat plastic', and it soons turns into 'I haven't had time to go proper shopping because I was shouting into a zoom camera about party discipline so I'll just order myself some stuff I need to decompress, a bit of gardening would be nice maybe and some Scottish lobster'.

Everybody needs a line manager or senior civil servant going though this stuff once every month to check for people going 'off piste' - it's standard practice. Otherwise, well, expenses scandals happen.

There was some zoomer on the BBC claiming that the forensic tent and press camping outside NS's house is the height of political transparency. 😂😂😂

The look on the other guests faces was priceless.

Yes exactly @ThatsGenderwang !

@ThatsGenderwang Everybody needs a line manager or senior civil servant going though this stuff once every month to check for people going 'off piste' - it's standard practice. Otherwise, well, expenses scandals happen.

you mean like some kind of “audit”?😂

Do they know what transparent means?
Does the tent identify as a see-through tent?

Joking aside I think they have become blasé about using the 'work card' for everything and anything - 1500 transactions isn't exactly just the odd thing - that's about 10 transactions a week for about 3 years.

It's so bizarre I just find it difficult to comprehend. I know what you're saying @ThatsGenderwang and I'm sure some of it is to do with the culture they are operating in, I just can't get my head around it. I can't understand how anyone would think it at all reasonable to buy eg gardening tools on their work credit card under any circumstances (unless they were are gardener or something obviously!). As you can imagine, the expenses scandal blew my mind 😂😱😬Its fascinating as well as outrageous.

You know they could have covered it up so easily.
Oh shit, just realised I've been using the wrong card for months, same bank, similar cards, there's some money 💰 to we get a chance to give a deep dive into all the accounts.

Let's face it, they have little chance of getting the loan back anyway.

Nearly hitting the thread capacity limit! I think this is the most engaged in ScotGov shenanigans Scotsnet has been since the covid ‘trapped in tiers and mandatory listening to the chief mammy on the tv’ threads of 20/21 😆

Hopefully this means people have finally had a jolt awake to what is happening in Scotland. Hope you start a new thread @Rainbowshit and it may even need a change of title re who is arrested- we can live in hope 😜

With support for the SNP still at 38% it seems that there are quite a few die hard nationalists who need a bit more than this to stop voting for them sadly.

Independence/the Tories are worse is the mantra that isn’t going away. I sometimes wonder about the intelligence levels of the people I share this country with.

I was chatting with a friend last week who clearly thought the police investigation and arrests had been orchestrated by forces from Westminster. I tried to point out that the SNP had pissed off many people here in Scotland and that there were a lot of folk who could have reported concerns but I'm not sure they were convinced. Meantime, a family member who has campaigned for the SNP for many years is deeply saddened by it all.

It shows how much Labour have tanked in Scotland that you have this going on with SNP and the Tories being as unpopular as they are generally atm and Labour are still not cantering away…

Because independence - they have a near cult-like following.

Alba don’t seem to be exactly making much of this either. But a combination of Alex Salmond and not enough distance from the SNP means it seems to be struggling to get off the ground.

It would be interesting to know how many of the people who are currently SNP voters, or have until recently, are in the cohort of those who voted snp but then voted No at Indy.

There was a chunk and I I wonder how many of them feel even more politically homeless with all of this going on now.

The votes do seem to have shifted to the Tories and Labour judging by the poll linked to upthread, but it will be interesting to see if that swing is sustained when the next election comes around. .

We had Willie Rennie chapping the doors here a few weeks ago

LDs must think they have a chance to reclaim E Dunbartonshire so they’ve brought the big guns out

Did you speak to him?

So with Police Scotland very much in pocket of SNP with reluctance of them to investigate the missing money and having been begged to refrain by Mrs Murrells allies from arresting her does anyone think she will be called in for questioning?

Mmmm interesting for whoever is in charge of investigation .