Sturgeon deleted ALL WhatsApp messages

[GintyMcGinty]

I don’t know why but even after everything I am actually still shocked by Sturgeon

It’s the holier than thou whilst all along she was just plain lying (and maybe thriving). She’s right up there with Boris on pure scummerry .

UK Covid inquiry: Nicola Sturgeon's Covid WhatsApp messages 'all deleted' www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-68032233

It is so frustrating…. As was when she had ‘no recollection’ about almost anything when questioned etc etc and yet the party faithful will have a ‘poor Nicola’ answer to back this up too. Drives me mad!

Yawn...@FizzingAda basically nothing can ever be guaranteed deleted from devices and the cloud so if the enquiry truly want any of the covid messages in Scotland or the uk it would be possible to get them.
I don't know why this is constantly fudged.
There was a whole uk directive during the pandemic that all public sector WhatsApps should be deleted daily and this was a complete extra faff and pita.
However when NS resigned surely she gave her phone back to security and it was wiped? What do they do with old FM phones ?

That's what I want to know, it's exactly the same as the iPad scandal. Yes, all the staff/ ministers etc should know better but how come the Scottish Parliament IT is so utterly shite????

Ismu, that is a good point about handing their redundant phones over to security, hadn't thought of that.

I agree. Why on earth are our politicians using WhatsApp in the first place?

I don't really have an issue with them using a free messenger app like WhatsApp. Many organisations do this. It would cost a fortune for there to be separate apps for everything when there is software like Zoom, Teams, Google Sheets or WhatsApp. Why reinvent the wheel at cost to the taxpayer when someone else has done the work already.

But what is definitely wrong is the configuring of the messenger to delete messages - with Leitch's "pre bed ritual" comment it's fairly clear this was a standard procedure.

After giving evidence at the Scottish Covid Inquiry, I wanted to close a door on it all and move on. However, to find out yesterday at the UK covid inquiry that Nicola Sturgeon had retained “no what’sapp messages whatsoever in connection with her management of the pandemic”, means it is really hard to do so. I, and so many other covid bereaved families want to know it ALL, not just what the Scottish government chooses to show us. It’s very disrespectful and, in my opinion, speaks volumes.

I feel that significant decisions would have been made outwith WhatsApp.

I do not feel that we should be able to access WhatsApp under FoI - it should be for informal chat only. Or low level decision making.

While I agree that politicians should be transparent I also feel that they are entitled to some privacy - informal messages via WhatsApp should be something that they are allowed to have just like any other person.

But they are not "like any other person"

I'm always inclined to think that if a politician deletes everything from their phone, there's something they don't want us to see. And then I'm inclined to think we really ought to see it!

Sure, informal WhatsApp messages like "does anyone want a campervan for cheap" they're workplace messages of the Scottish bloody government of course they should be kept.

So sorry to all here who lost loved ones 💐

I couldn't stand Boris Johnson, but I'm sick the double standards. The SNP and Welsh nationalists have the same unbearably smug and sanctimonious attitude that you find among left-wing people. They really do see themselves as the 'goodies' and the conservatives as the 'baddies'. In my experience, however, they are every bit as nasty, intolerant, unreasonable and hate-filled as those on the far-right, but because the target is different, somehow that's OK.

You see it in comedians like Frankie Boyle and Russell Brand. Boyle has said, and Brand has done, utterly vile things. Yet Boyle is a left-wing SNP supporter, and Brand has written a (dreadful) book calling for revolution, so somehow their viciousness 'doesn't count'.

I think what people are missing here is that the entire public service were directed to delete WhatsApps daily. Initially the directive was not to use it on work phones or any government device similar to rules around zoom. Both a massive pita and the daily delete rule was the price paid for being "allowed" WhatsApp.
I'm guessing Jason Leitch and all of his team would have been extremely diligent about it though.

I'm public sector. All my messages delete automatically after 24 hours. I dont need to keep them any longer once I've read them. It's good information governance not to hold info longer than u need and it stops the clogging up of ur phone memory.

I'm not saying politicians delete for the above reasons

Stated in the Times today …”..In Sturgeon’s case , even the minutes are lacking- none seem to have been taken during meetings of the “ gold command “ group , which held discussions before the cabinet meetings. There is a pattern emerging of a first minister whose methods involved tight control of information and a centralised system of decision making that preferred secrecy to disclosure. When the first hand evidence that might have cast light on life and death decisions has been destroyed we are in the realms of autocracy . The public has a right to know whether those decisions were made wisely or not “. I agree. with all of this and feel so sorry for those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.

The Times again. “ However transitory WhatsApp messages appear, in recording ministerial exchanges they are critical evidence of how decisions are made “

The messages are critical in showing that - as they said - no decisions were taken on WhatsApp. So the fact that they have been deleted stinks to high heaven.

I'm highly disappointed in the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon, I honestly thought they were the good guys (stupidly). It's like everything something terrible comes out, then followed by something worse and it doesn't stop. It doesn't matter what the SNP do or say bow, they'll never have my vote again. I feel so disengaged with it all, they have lied and lied and lied, and I believed them.

Seriously who still has their WhatsApp messages 3-4yrs later?

And if it's a work phone and you move jobs, or leave a job, you delete everything and hand your phones back.

Another question that we should ask is why the enquiry is focusing so heavily on WhatsApp. Have they asked about facebook or instagram messaging?
Unless they can broaden this it just seems to be because Westminster used WhatsApp.
Most work comms would have been in Teams chat as it has a message function. It also deletes messages after a time limit, although this is quite a new function. Why aren't they focusing on that too?
It's such a narrow search it's easy to say this is smear tactics. If the enquiry wants to get to the bottom of this they should broaden their scope.

Anyone who is a government minister who has publicly and repeatedly promised to retain all messages to give to the inquiry.

That's who should still have their messages.

They are not just focusing on WhatsApp. They were asked to give info on all informal messging

Here is sturgeons submission where she confirms she did use WhatsApp for conferring with some ministers.

As well as texting.

https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/223263ef-16ca-48bb-b44e-58e2ba8a7212_1045x753.png

Nicola Sturgeon said on camera that she would allow all her What’s App messages to be scrutinised. How can anyone now believe a word she says .?
What do they have to hide ? The arrogance to think they are answerable to no one . Surprised anyone can try to defend this. If you want an independent Scotland you can do much better this . Such contempt shown to the people of Scotland and especially those affected.

This. And Sturgeon should have said they were deleted at the time she was asked for them not to leave until over a year later to notify them.

Q: How do u know Nicole Sturgeon is lying?

A: Her lips are moving.

She was the fucking first minister during a worldwide pandemic!!! Hardly a “delete and hand the phone back” situation ffs