Peter Murrell embezzlement trial

[Sunnnyday]

Peter Murrell is in court in Edinburgh today. This is for the preliminary hearing which was postponed from before the election. It will be interesting to see how the criminal proceedings proceed.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/peter-murrell-arrives-at-court-ahead-of-hearing-on-embezzlement-charges/ar-AA23Ybuy?ocid=msedgntp&pc

I think it was a lack of curiosity. She didn't care. She didn't care enough to ask questions about why there was a £125k asset on the balance sheet she didn't know about. She didn't care/notice what Pete was up to for whatever reason as her head was elsewhere. She turned a blind eye as her attention was occupied by positioning herself as some sort of global stateswoman rather than doing her day job. And she created/perpetuated the culture whereby people were strongly discouraged from asking questions.

I’d really like to see a proper investigation into the rest of the SNP finances, particularly in relation to tax payers money. I think a thorough look into any poor governance or wrongdoing over finances is necessary given the levels of corruption.

I think the old guard should resign as tainted and make way for new leadership, probably Stephen Flynn.

I think an investigation also needs to look into the dual position of the Lord Advocate as this has also been called into question by the handling of a number of court proceedings in which the SG or the SNP have been involved

Personally, I’d get rid of Holyrood now as surely one incompetent dishonest government is all we need not two

Agree - and that lack of curiosity or care isn't enough of a defence.

Yes - and she is being quite canny with her "poor wee woman" defence. She is right that she is not the first woman to be deceived by her husband. And whatever you think of her, I personally don't believe that she is brazen enough to have been "in on it" consciously.

But she is glossing over her other role away from being his wife, her role as leader of the party where she should have picked up what was going on, or at least fostered a culture where people weren't terrified to approach her and say "Err Nicola, there's something we think we need to tell you about".

They did tell her though, and she shut them down

Well quite. She made an active decision to block any investigation - and not just once. She had a duty of care and she failed, presumably because she was so sure of her position and knew she could block all scrutiny as it suited her.

So the SNP may have defrauded the taxman too who claimed this was none of our business? 🤔 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r2kkex75no

I very rarely reply to you. But if I want to, I will. Here's a tip. Give me nothing to reply to. I bet you a £100 you will reply to this.

Do you think her head was in a book or maybe - hear me out - RUNNING A COUNTRY.

Oh it just gets better and better.

Bit like you shut me down when I pointed out that Neil Gray managed to become an MSP at the time JC said the rule change was about her. She wasn't the only one who complained btw. Philippa Whiteford did too. There were 10 MPs at the time who wanted to become MSPs. They were ALL subject to the rule change. The only one who made it about her was JC.

Surely they must have an accountant or someone in finance who knows whether they reclaimed VAT or not? I'm not an accountant, but would expect that to be reflected in the books.

I think the fact that Swinney has proactively contacted HMRC indicates that they absolutely have reclaimed the VAT.

I'm unsure of you get this. The SNP are the victims here.

How were you shut down?

Stephen? Who is part of the "old guard".

I was speaking to someone else.

@GargoylesofBeelzebub don't allow yourself to be derailed. This thread is about SNP shenanigans and nothing else.

What do you all do for a living btw? You don't have to answer. Just curious.

Derailed by whom? Someone with a different opinion? If you can't handle different opinions then I don't think this forum is for you. I have seen more tolerance for differing opinions on the threads about that poor boy dying in a way that no person would ever want for their son.

Sorry, she ignored me. Which imo, is shutting down. At least acknowledge that I was right. I would if it was anyone on this thread.

Oh dearie me, you never ever want to mess around with HMRC as the last thing anyone wants, even those with nothing to hide, want an HMRC audit.

Quite. Even in a company/organisation with nothing to hide it'd be hugely stressful and time consuming.

Ok. Here’s my take. As an SNP member. Before the referendum the party had about 10k members, and that’s being generous. I think they had maybe 6 MPs? Could be wrong.

Then, within months, they had 125,000 members and 56 MPs.

So all the new member fees plus all that short money from WM.

But, they didn’t update their processes to deal with it all. Big mistake, “huge” to
quote JR.

Then Alex decided he just couldn’t be arsed and left it all to Nicola, knowing that Peter was dodgy.

I’m not trying to minimise Nicola’s role in this, but I can understand it.

She should have got a new CEO.

But she didn’t. Because she was dealing with all the new members, all the new MPs and Alex fucking off to WM and leaving her to it.

I think she was a tad overwhelmed so she trusted Peter.

And continued to be "overwhelmed" for the next 10 years?