Jump to content

 

 

The SNP's sordid little war


Recommended Posts

I suppose it was always highly likely the SNP's final days would be marked by chaos and ignominy. At our cost of course.

 

Make No Mistake, the SNP is in a Civil War

Allegations against Alex Salmond have split the nationalists into two camps — and they may not be easily reconciled. There were two distinct reactions among supporters of independence yesterday when Alex Salmond won his case against the Scottish government over its investigation into alleged sexual misconduct. One was a kind of appalled dismay at the message this sent, not just to the two women who had come forward with complaints about the former first minister but to women in all walks of life who might be wrestling with the dilemma of whether to act on their own workplace experiences. The other was a roar of rage at the way Mr Salmond had been treated, fuelled by a suspicion that he had been deliberately set up by political enemies within and outwith the SNP. The stark difference between these two reactions bodes ill for the SNP and the broader independence movement. One of the biggest questions in Scottish politics this year is now whether this divide deepens into a damaging schism within Scottish nationalism. A marked split in opinion has been clear from the moment the accusations first emerged last summer. Some independence supporters instinctively sided with Nicola Sturgeon and praised her solid backing for the investigation. Others leapt to Mr Salmond’s defence and claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy. Donations to his legal fund topped £100,000. This split runs right through the SNP, taking in activists, staff and elected parliamentarians. As a sexual misconduct inquiry gave way to a police investigation, the disagreements became increasingly personalised. The actions of Ms Sturgeon’s closest advisers have been called into question by Mr Salmond’s legal team and neutrals have become hard to find. You are either for Mr Salmond or agin him. And this has come to mean you are either for or agin Ms Sturgeon. There is a pattern in how people have taken sides. More socially liberal folk have tended to ally themselves with Ms Sturgeon. Less socially liberal folk, the kind dismissed by Hillary Clinton as “deplorables”, have tended to take Mr Salmond’s side. If this split sounds familiar it is because it is the same divide disfiguring civic societies across the western world. This is our domestic manifestation of illiberal populism rebelling against what it sees as the political correctness of an out-of-touch elite. The kind of nationalist who feels an affinity with Mr Salmond is predominantly the kind who is irked by modern mores, who is sympathetic to Brexit, who believes Scotland was cheated of independence in 2014 by a combination of the BBC and MI5 and is impatient for a re-run. There is a culture war going on across western democracies and the Scottish “deplorables” supporting Mr Salmond are on the opposite side from the young SNP feminists who showered Ms Sturgeon with praise for standing up for the principles of the #MeToo movement. When I last wrote about this case back in September I said a crunch moment was approaching for the SNP. I warned that there was a risk of the divide between Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon being overlaid with a political disagreement about the strategy for winning independence. I asked this simple question: what if Ms Sturgeon stalled on a new referendum and Mr Salmond said her decision not to press ahead was wrong? The split would then be personal, cultural and ideological. Would those not be the ingredients for an unprecedented schism in Scottish nationalism? The crunch moment was meant to arrive at the SNP conference last autumn but Ms Sturgeon kicked the can down the road, claiming not unreasonably that it was hard to come to a judgment on Brexit when the method of the UK’s exit from the EU was so mired in confusion. That crunch has only been delayed. This week Ms Sturgeon said she would update the nation on her intentions about a new referendum “very soon”. So my question still stands: what if the first minister puts the brakes on a new independence referendum and her predecessor accuses her of being a faintheart rather than a braveheart? What if the two most powerful personalities in Scottish nationalism come to personify different paths? The SNP would not be the first nationalist movement to divide over how to achieve its ultimate goal. I suspect the cultural clash exposed by this saga can only intensify as the police investigation comes to a conclusion and a decision is taken as to whether Mr Salmond, who denies any criminality, faces any charges. What should worry the first minister in the meantime is a growing restlessness among independence supporters at her apparent reluctance to press ahead and use Brexit as a springboard to achieving a sovereign Scotland. There is a tetchy mood within the movement, with some bloggers questioning Ms Sturgeon’s judgment in delaying a new referendum. In the Holyrood chamber yesterday, Ms Sturgeon said it was “simply ludicrous” to suggest that an SNP civil war was being played out in court at the taxpayers’ expense. The suggestion is not at all ludicrous. Personally, culturally and ideologically, this looks like an SNP civil war.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/make-no-mistake-the-snp-is-in-a-civil-war-k92dwvlgf

Edited by Bill
Link to post
Share on other sites

ALEX BELL: Nicola Sturgeon all but washed up

Nicola Sturgeon has a tough year ahead. May and Corbyn may not survive the year, or the season, but Sturgeon will still be in office come 2020. However, she may look damaged beyond repair in 12 months’ time. Theresa May once looked the dogged public servant, but now appears spaced out on stubbornness. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn is engaged in an act of self-immolation. Not for any great cause you understand, but just because he couldn’t be trusted with the political matches. In comparison Sturgeon looks serious, competent and sympathetic. This is in keeping with a performance which has made her the best first minister. No one can take the Founding Father title from Donald Dewar, but we forget his time as FM was marked by endless Labour spats and no policy fireworks. Henry McLeish followed, and while he could play at confident leadership in public, he was dithering in private, and thus lost support. Jack McConnell came in as the party apparatchik yet hinted at radical change in office – his bid for a reformed education curriculum was sincere, and took on vested interests – but will be remembered for “doing less”. Salmond followed and Alex gave the office swagger and a higher level of political wisdom. As time goes by, it’s hard to see his great achievements beyond winning the mandate for referendum. In contrast, Nicola Sturgeon is able in parliament, a confident leader, and has a grip on policy and process. She commands an obedient party, and a lot of respect across the UK as a serious person. It is true that her budget decisions have cut at local government and education, but she has diverted money to generational change in the form of early years. We may not know for a decade or so if this strategy has worked, but in committing to it she has done something more radical and compassionate for Scotland than any FM before her. Yet she has made two huge mistakes in office. The first was to think the EU referendum result would fundamentally change Scotland, the second to set a timetable on another independence referendum. In some ways it’s astonishing she is still in office – bad calls like hers usually ignite rebellion. She survives because the SNP is still loath to break ranks in public, while the opposition in Richard Leonard’s Labour is so ineffective it might as well not exist. She cannot, however, afford another mistake. Pressure within the SNP is building for an Indyref date. The days of fundamentalists versus gradualists are returning – this divide split the party in the 1990s over devolution. The Fundies want action quickly and mutter about needing a new leader if she won’t deliver. I doubt this will amount to a real challenge, but further erodes the loyalty which has preserved the image of a competent party. Her problem is that for all the words and opposition, she has had no bearing on Brexit – no political trophies to hang on the wall. In the absence of any influence on Brexit, she is left with Indy as her default option. Sturgeon will keep pushing the date away for the simple reason that the polls haven’t shifted in Indy’s favour. Which cuts to the heart of her difficult year, and possibly the reason she will ultimately be judged a failure by her party. The SNP is still a policy averse party, and one which prefers stunts to content. An example is how the Westminster group of MPs appear much happier with Ian Blackford’s buffoonery than they did under Angus Robertson’s measured leadership. This is still a movement that would rather flick two fingers at the UK than seriously plan Scotland’s future. Which is why the polls haven’t moved. The section of the electorate who see Brexit as an economic matter also see Indy as a question of money. Brexit has warned them not to rely on bold assertion about things being better. They need some solid research which sets out the financial risks and rewards of big change. The only work existing says things will be worse. Andrew Wilson’s Growth Commission has destroyed the old Indy argument (he rightly says Scotland’s economy will shrink on independence), but replaced it with nothing. There is literally nothing on record which supports the idea that the working class will be protected, or public services better, under Indy – a core part of Sturgeon’s political mission. When Patrick Harvie of the Greens calls for a quick Indy referendum, he does so with no supporting policy material whatsoever. Sturgeon commissioned Wilson et al and she was right to do so – the argument badly needed some honesty. But in so doing she has, paradoxically, left her own vision of Scotland as a fairer society in tatters. Britain may look more feeble than ever before, her political system a thing of mockery and leadership a thing of the past. But none of that has changed the political arithmetic of Scotland. Thus we are likely to see Brexit go ahead, but no Indy referendum and no sign of a stronger Indy case. She might still be in office, but in power?

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/opinion/alex-bell/795374/alex-bell-nicola-sturgeon-all-but-washed-up/

Link to post
Share on other sites

Don't think there's much doubt whose side leaked this to The Sun.

 

If she did know before April 2 then it's game over for Mrs Murrell surely?

 

ACCUSED 

Nicola Sturgeon ‘knew about government’s sex probe into Alex Salmond BEFORE meeting him at her home’, it’s been claimed

Sources alleged the First Minister was aware of a Scottish Government investigation into her mentor when the Nats icons met last April

EXCLUSIVE
By Andrew Nicoll, Associate Editor
14th January 2019, 12:02 am
Updated: 14th January 2019, 12:04 am

NICOLA Sturgeon was accused of misleading the public about when she learned of Alex Salmond’s sex pest probe.

Sources alleged the First Minister was aware of a Scottish Government investigation into her mentor when the Nats icons met last April.

PA:PRESS ASSOCIATION
5
The First Minister has come under fire over the probe

It emerged as Ms Sturgeon referred herself to watchdogs over cla­ims she had flouted parly rules.

Top Tory Jackson Carlaw said: “This stinks.”

Sturgeon has insist­ed she first heard about the harassment inquiry from her former Nats boss during the talks last April 2.

But a Salmond camp insider said Ms Sturgeon was aware ahead of the summit in Glasgow.


Fury after Nats MP Angus MacNeil claims former First Minister Alex Salmond should be welcomed back to the SNP


The source claimed: “She already knew about the inquiry. She knew.”

Ms Sturgeon’s spokesman denied today's allegations but refused to answer three simple Yes/No questions posed by The Scottish Sun.

 
 
Play Video
Former SNP leader Alex Salmond wins judicial review into Scottish government's inquiry into sexual harassment allegations

He was quizzed on whether the First Minister knew about the government’s investigation before April 2.

We also asked if she was aware of either sexual misconduct allegation lodged by two women.

He did not resp­ond when grilled over whether Ms Sturgeon or her aides req­uested the meeting rather than Mr Salmond’s camp — amid claims talks breached ministerial code.

The spokesman said: “These claims are not correct.

GETTY IMAGES - GETTY
5
Mr Salmond is subject to claims from two women

“However, given that issues around the First Minister’s meetings with Mr Salmond have been referred to the independent advisers to consider, we will not comment further.

“At the heart of this matter remains the fact that complaints were made that couldn’t be swept under the carpet.

"The First Minister and Scottish Government will not say or do anything which might risk prejudicing the police investigation.”

We told how Ms Sturgeon held three summits with her mentor during the probe which the government admitted was unlawful last week.

GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR
5
Chief of staff Liz Lloyd

The ex-Nats colleagues gathered on April 2 and July 18 at her Glasgow pad and June 7 in Aberdeen.

She revealed her chief of staff Liz Lloyd was pre­sent in April but insisted the talks were not “government business”.

Ms Sturgeon said she had kept quiet over fears she might taint the inquiry but eventually told Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans, who was overseeing the investigation.

She told MSPs last week: “Alex Salmond informed me of the investigation at a meeting on April 2, 2018.

“I was so anxious not to even inadvertently create any impression that I was seeking to intervene that I did not immediately tell the Permanent Secretary that I was aware of the investigation.

“I changed that judgement when Alex Salmond asked to meet me a second time. It was clear he was considering a legal challenge.”

5
Our front page over the secret meetings

Ms Sturgeon was previously quizzed on the matter last August.

BBC reporter Glenn Campbell asked: “When did you first hear about the nature of these allegations and what action did you take?”

She said: “I heard about the fact of the investigation initially from Alex Salmond himself in April.” And Ms Sturgeon’s spokesman repeatedly said the April 2 meeting was instigated by the Salmond camp.

In a Q&A with journalists last week, he was asked if Mr Salmond contacted Ms Lloyd to set up the talks and how he did that.

The spokesman replied: “Through an intermediary.”

5
And our splash when the claims were made

Scots Tory interim leader Jackson Carlaw said the claims by Mr Salmond’s allies raised more questions about the bungled probe.

He said: “Why is Nicola Sturgeon dodging the question?

“Is it really the case that her top civil servants were happy for her to carry on holding private chats with Mr Salmond while they were investigating him? Was the Permanent Secretary only told about these ext­ra meetings after they took place?

“We don’t know because Nicola Sturgeon won’t say so.

MOST READ IN ALEX SALMOND

 

NINTCHDBPICT000460912318-e1547164571257.

COMMENT

SCOTTISH SUN SAYS

 Nicola Sturgeon is treating the people of Scotland like idiots
 
 

Untitled-collage37.jpg?strip=all&w=300&h

EXCLUSIVE

NOT HAPPY

Salmond's allies brand Scots Govt’s botched sex pest claims probe 'witch hunt'
 
 

Untitled-collage30.jpg?strip=all&w=300&h

REVEALED

SEX PROBE

 Govt conceded Salmond’s legal challenge after Sturgeon aides' grilling under oath
 
 

NINTCHDBPICT0004284885561-e1535114603434

GREAT SCOT!

 Who is Alex Salmond and he been accused of sexual misconduct?
 
 

NINTCHDBPICT000460483003.jpg?strip=all&w

 

SPEAK OUT

 Watch as Salmond fights back tears after court win as he calls for resignations
 
 

Untitled-collage22.jpg?strip=all&w=300&h

LATEST

IN COURT

Salmond wins court battle with Scots Govt over handling of sexual misconduct probe
 
 

NINTCHDBPICT000457620128.jpg?crop=0px%2C

EXCLUSIVE

BREX ITS TARGET

Brexit board game hits £10k funding target after being backed by Salmond
 
 

nintchdbpict0003660753751.jpg?strip=all&

NEW CLAIMS

 Cops investigating two new historic Alex Salmond 'sex pest' claims
 
 

NINTCHDBPICT000435532063.jpg?strip=all&w

'CAUTIOUS'

 Alex Salmond in Russian TV dig at SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon over IndyRef2
 
 

NINTCHDBPICT000247943732.jpg?strip=all&w

APPEAL SLAMMED

Campaigners brand Alex Salmond’s legal fundraiser as show of 'power'
 
 

NINTCHDBPICT000429713830.jpg?crop=276px%

PLEA ENDED

 Alex Salmond halts sex claims legal crowdfunder at £100k as rivals blast appeal
 
 

eckck.png?strip=all&w=300&h=192&crop=1

'DISGRACEFUL'

Alex Salmond's accusers hit with vile slurs from sex claims legal fund donors
 
 
 

“This affair stinks — and Nicola Sturgeon needs to come clean.”

Mr Salmond is being probed by cops over the harassment claims, which he strongly denies. His spokesman declined to comment.

andrew.nicoll@the-sun.co.uk

Link to post
Share on other sites

Think I'll stock up on popcorn.

 

Salmond was alerted of sex claims to stop election bid, allies say

Kieran Andrews, Scottish Political Editor

January 14 2019, 12:01am, The Times

Alex Salmond with Nicola Sturgeon in 2014. She says she “acted appropriately and in good faith” in her dealings with him
Alex Salmond with Nicola Sturgeon in 2014. She says she “acted appropriately and in good faith” in her dealings with himANDREW MILLIGAN/PA
Share
Save

The split at the top of the SNP has widened after Nicola Sturgeon’s chief of staff was accused of advising Alex Salmond not to stand for election because of sexual harassment allegations made against him.

According to sources close to Mr Salmond, the phone call was made by Liz Lloyd, Ms Sturgeon’s closest political adviser, days before the former first minister knew there was a government investigation into his conduct.

 

Ms Lloyd denies that she phoned an unnamed intermediary on March 6 last year amid rumours that Mr Salmond was considering standing in a potential election, but the public argument will do little to quash rumours that relations between the former leader and his party are at a new low.

 

A meeting was arranged for April 2, after an approach by Mr Salmond’s team, where Ms Sturgeon has said she learnt of the allegations against her predecessor.

 

The first minister yesterday referred herself to an independent watchdog that will decide whether she breached ministerial rules by not reporting contact between herself and Mr Salmond to the civil service.

 

Ms Sturgeon has confirmed that she discussed the investigation with Mr Salmond twice in April 2018, and only informed her permanent secretary on June 6 when he requested another meeting. She spoke to him three more times between June 7 and July 18.

 

Last week she told parliament that the first she was aware of the government investigation was when Mr Salmond told her in April. She says that she acted “in compliance with the ministerial code”, which states that ministers must report all discussions about official business to their private offices as soon as possible.

 

The SNP leader said the pair discussed “party matters”. Her spokesman stated that the government investigation was the main topic of discussion and that Ms Lloyd arranged and attended the first meeting at her home in Glasgow.

 

In June, Mr Salmond, 64, made a surprise appearance at an Aberdeenshire East constituency meeting. Asked if he would stand for Gordon again if there was a snap general election, he said that he had set his sights “farther north” in a reference to Banff and Buchan, the seat he held before becoming first minister in 2007.

 

“This takes it straight to Nicola’s office,” a source close to Mr Salmond said.

 

A spokesman for the first minister said: “These claims are not correct. However, given that issues around the first minister’s meetings with Mr Salmond have been referred to the independent advisers to consider, we will not comment further.”

 

Ms Sturgeon referred herself to the panel on the ministerial code amid opposition calls for a parliamentary inquiry into her dialogue with Mr Salmond while he was under investigation by her government.

 

The panel will meet in private and previous investigations have taken about three months. Mr Salmond was investigated six times as first minister and was cleared on each occasion.

 

Ms Sturgeon said: “I have acted appropriately and in good faith throughout, and in compliance with the ministerial code. However . . . it is also important for parliament and the wider public to be assured of that.”

The news came hours after it emerged that an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office into how details of the complaints appeared in the Daily Record was being treated as a criminal inquiry.

 

Mr Salmond denies allegations that he sexually harassed two civil servants while he was first minister in 2013. A police investigation is continuing.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.