Dear All
First up, glad to be back, and secondly, sorry for going away again after this post for another couple of days.
In a previous blog, I stated that I wasn't sure if I wanted to get involved in the Holyrood election campaign of 2021. I wanted to get a few things on the go, and take some time to be a little bit selfish towards myself for a change, that plan went up in flames rather quickly. What a lot of people don't realise is that political campaigning takes up a huge amount of your time, and it isn't simply a 9 to 5 affair. As I start to write this blog, I haven't had my dinner yet and its already after 9 pm. In a few of the campaigns which I have done recently, I have been headhunted to take part in because of my expertise. So, when I was asked to help someone out with their campaign, I decided yet again to push back my plans and get back into the trenches. I thought it would be like camping out in a quiet sector, that notion was rocked when the artillery opened up.
Interestingly, I have been recognised by the "enemy" as a 'threat' due to my campaigning skills. Someone had setup a smear campaign against me. I have many 'friends' in the Nationalist community of course who are waiting to do me in politically, but they aren't in the frame for this one. The circle of suspects or group is somewhat smaller, and less gifted in their approach. In fact, I would hazard a guess and say you can count the suspects on one hand. Although, I am not standing for election for Holyrood 2021, I assume someone held my quality of work and work rate in such high regard they decided to see if they could cause harm. The general gist was to smear me, by attempting to accuse me of wrongdoing. I can't go into the nuts and bolts of this at present, but sometime down the line, I will probably do a blog post on this little gem. Needless to say, the smear backfired, a clumsy attempt at psyops which reminds me of a Silence of Lambs quote,
"Ah yes Dr. Chillton. Gruesome isn't he? Fumbles at your head like a freshman pulling at a panty girdle."
The second thing which has sidelined me is helping to assess some peoples suitability for a position, and like in the movie Highlander, 'there can be only one'. I know that some of you when reading this will probably burst out laughing, I am 'vetting' people. Anyway this is a task I take seriously, and as people who know me know, they will understand that my choice of the person who ends up getting selected will be based entirely on merit. Doesn't fate throw some curve balls my way? Of course I will have help, and I am grateful for that but I think I will make a good panel member. Maybe I will do a follow up post on the winner of that race in a later blog post too. The third issue which popped up is something of a personal nature, so although that may or may not end up being ongoing, it won't affect blogging.
So, now that out of the way, let's get to back to scandal, in the Alex Salmond affair, the stakes could not be higher now. What we are looking at is the biggest political scandal in Scottish political history, every day produces a new layer of toxicity which is strangling political life in Scotland. The Scottish Government is seen as corrupt, our Crown Office is seen as corrupt, tainted and biased, and ruling party, the SNP are seen as vile and despicable. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon keeps proclaiming her innocence to anyone that will take notice of her ramblings, while evidence is being withheld from the inquiry into her government's illegality. Not only is the SNP Government "bent", the Crown Office is also "bent", people like myself regularly over time have made that case of corruption, usually to a very hostile audience. The difference is now that having laid the foundations, and with exposure from others, people who were seen as neutral commentators are popping out the woodwork so fast you would think they were all on the way to a free BBQ Buffet. It's like trying to fight your way through traffic coming out of a football match at Ibrox.
https://gordondangerfield.com/2021/01/21/a-political-witch-hunt/
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/01/an-incredible-omission/
https://wingsoverscotland.com/nothing-for-you-to-see-here/
And that above doesn't take into account people like Andrew Marr from the BBC who didn't appear too impressed with Sturgeon's answers either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHDlCLrpB9E
Several things to notice here, Sturgeon's reactions and body language, and her evading to answer questions properly. Note how Sturgeon keeps raising the 'alphabet women' in her defence, when a jury of Alex Salmond's peers, both men and women found him innocent.
Found innocent means innocent Nicola!
One might think that Sturgeon was trying to have a third 'trial by smear' using the media to buy her time. Is it 'trial by smear' Nicola because you have worn out your welcome at the Courts? No one is buying into 'trial by smear', and it only makes Nicola Sturgeon look even more loathsome than she already normally is. And look at her face, tense, lips tense, looking trapped and panicked, even unable to put on her custom fake smile. You can see the visible aging caused by stress, the cracking in the voice, the body and mind are breaking down. When Sturgeon said she 'would never apologise', you have to wonder what goes on in her idiot head, an apology isn't enough now. We are well past an apology, that window closed when she had the opportunity to halt an illegal procedure and then didn't. What is required now is resignations, Nicola Sturgeon, her husband, Peter Murrell, the Permanent Sec, Lesley Evans, the Lord Advocate, James Wolfe, and the 'team' in the Scottish Government who 'helped out'.
Everyone of them gone, no Nuremberg defence for them for remaining in a job.
We are at the point, where the dam under pressure for some time has sprung several leaks. Prosecutors have now been asked formally to investigate whether Nicola Sturgeon’s husband misled the Holyrood inquiry into the Alex Salmond affair, and whether he committed a crime. This has taken a bit longer than it should have to be raised as an issue, but Scottish Labour has asked the Crown Office to examine evidence given under oath by Peter Murrell, the chief executive of the SNP. Inquiry member Jackie Baillie is demanding an "urgent" check into whether Murrell could have “perjured himself” when he appeared before MSPs. And if convicted, the chances of imprisonment for wilfully making a false statement under oath is punishable by up to five years in jail seems extraordinary high. I doubt that prison will appeal or indeed endear itself to Murrell, and he would have no chance of 'Club Fed' aka open prison. Murrell would be neck deep beside murderers, rapists, kiddy fiddlers and even bike thieves. Murrell is being recalled to give a second round of evidence to the inquiry after criticism of his evidence last month.
The latest concerns relate to Murrell denying the existence of text and WhatsApp messages regarding allegations against Mr Salmond, his former leader. He stated under questioning there were no other text or WhatsApp messages on this issue. Now comes the interesting part, the inquiry has since heard other messages do allegedly exist and are currently being held by the Crown Office. Why would the Crown Office hold onto messages if they had no bearing on the case? Either these messages are 'evidence' or they may point the inquiry in the direction of evidence or they point towards an individual or individuals who maybe could give evidence. If the messages were nothing, the Crown Office wouldn't be holding onto them, because that wouldn't make no logical sense. We are now at the stage where last Friday the inquiry took the unprecedented step of ordering the Crown Office to release the material to them.
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie has now upped the ante not just on Sturgeon, not just on Murrell but directly on James Wolffe, the Lord Advocate. So, can we expect a court case from the Crown Office to fight against handing over evidence? And if they did go a legal route, what would the public think of the Crown Prosecution of Scotland acting in this way? Even if law wasn't your interest, you would certainly raise an eyebrow if Wolfe takes this avenue and what would his motive be? Iain Macwhirter hits the nail on the head when he wrote, "Like a fish, Scotland's Crown Office is rotting from the head down". The integrity of the Crown Office has been breached already as the Lord Advocate, James Wolffe QC, will make a public apology to the two men for having pursued a “malicious prosecution” against them “without probable cause”. Now, we asked ourselves, how many other “malicious prosecutions” have been done, and to whom by the Crown Office?
Why hasn't the Lord Advocate, James Wolffe QC resigned?
In Jackie Baillie's letter to the Crown Office, she reproduced testimony Murrell gave on December 8.
She said:
“During my exchange with Peter Murrell... I asked him about the existence of other text and Whatsapp messages, beyond the two messages from him in the public domain. He denied that there was anything else, other than the two text messages under discussion by the Committee. It would seem to be the case that, from information recently placed in the public domain, there were other text and WhatsApp messages. Indeed the Committee has written to you using its Section 23 powers, set out in the Scotland Act, to request sight of those messages, so they evidently exist. Given that his evidence was taken under oath, I regard this as a very serious matter and I understand from parliamentary lawyers that committing perjury is considered to be a criminal offence.”
Baillie added:
“As the Crown Office have all the text and Whatsapp messages secured during the evidence gathering phase of the criminal trial against Alex Salmond, you will be in a position to know whether any more exist than the two already in the public domain. If that is the case, and particularly if there are more in which Mr Murrell is involved, I am concerned that his evidence to the Committee was not accurate. I would therefore be very grateful if you would confirm that you will undertake an urgent investigation into whether Peter Murrell has committed perjury.”
Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said:
“What is clear is that Peter Murrell’s story simply does not add up and he has serious questions to answer”
Murrell previously said:
“I can tell you only that I know nothing about a WhatsApp group. I am not on WhatsApp; it is not a social media platform that I use.”
Later on it transpired that a WhatsApp account linked to his mobile number had been used the previous month, and he admitted he was on WhatsApp but didn’t use it.
So here is a video of how to set up whatsapp for you to watch, so please watch it and follow the steps it takes to set up. In the video, you can see, you can download whatsapp to your phone, but you physically need to enter your phone number and receive a text message to verify it is you. So, this raises an interesting question, if Murrell's number is linked to whatsapp as has been reported, why would he allegedly set up his phone for an app he says he doesn't use?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j5yrurWKuw
Why would he allegedly set up his phone for an app he says he doesn't use?
Finally, you see the list of questions regarding the Alex Salmond scandal just keep on growing, and then that leads to other questions, and the only way to stop those questions is by withholding evidence. And why would someone wish evidence to be withheld if there are claims of innocence flying about the place? If Peter Murrell's phone was seized, what evidence could be ascertained from the device, what evidence could be ascertained from his service provider and their servers? Should the committee use their powers to comply Peter Murrell's service provider to hand over all data sent by Murrell and received by his all electronic devices, and devices available to him at his place of work, and at any other location?
Yours sincerely
George Laird The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
28 comments:
Glad to see you back, George.
Her constant reference to the victims is highly misleading, isn't it. The victims, the alphabet women, weren't victims were they. The most serious accuser, who accused Salmond of attempted rape after a Bute House function, wasn't even at the function.
Also, I agree, her body language, appearance and general demeanor give her away. She's been caught lying and she knows that the press know that. The Times, Daily Telegraph, Sky News and Andrew Neill have run stories on this case in the past few days and so the pressure is building.
Sky News have 'deepthroats' within the SG; at least 4.
Andrew Neill tends to follow his own agenda sometimes and I have never been his biggest fan. However, he knows, as we all do, that Sturgeon is a fraud an I'm sure he will want to play a full part in bringing her down. He's London's favorite Scotsman after all. He's far from being an investigative journalist, but Kieran Andrews from The Times is.
Just as we thought, it's the English press who are leading this.
It's got similarities with Watergate hasn't it. That started with a paragraph or two in the Washington Post and grew within weeks to bringing down the entire US Government and sending 30-40 of them to jail.
I can tell you, there is a great deal of disquiet amongst the legal profession about the public perception of them nowadays. They appear to be an organ of the Scottish National Party to be given instruction on what to do and what outcome to deliver by either one of the Murrell husband and wife team.
My favorite was the investigation into the high number of Scottish Care Home deaths due to Covid-19 patients being discharged from hospital straight into Care Homes. The Inquiry concluded that there was no case to answer and that the case numbers were statistically irrelevant. I'm afraid the legal profession are taking us all for fools and they have good reason to be worried about where that leads.
I'm just hoping that this all moves quickly now. That would be just in time for the May election and will give Scotland a chance of electing a more balanced, honest and accountable Holyrood. What we have just now is just organized SNP gangsterism.
By the way, you forgot Iain Livingstone in your list of folk to be bagged. I would include him too. Other than that, I am in full agreement.
James Wolffe QC has recently been involved in another malicious prosecution; that of Charles Green and Duff and Phelps, the administrators of Glasgow Rangers.
That resulted in pay-outs of approximately £10m for each. Quite astonishing that this takes place and little or no press coverage follows it.
You can imagine what Alex Salmond stands to make out of this in the coming year or two.
You have to ask yourself...how many malicious prosecutions is James Wolffe allowed to make in a year. Also, Police Scotland have been harassing folk identified by Murrell as 'Enemies of the Republic' for ages now. Mark Hirst was cleared a few weeks ago and another (probably) innocent chap is facing the courts within the next few days. It has to be said that these are all SNP men....they've just been condemned, for whatever reason, by the Murrells.
Gordon Dangerfield is another QC and one who has not been got-at by the Murrells. His views on this disgraceful episode in our history are more or less in line with your own.
What a pathetic bunch the SNP are. Their poll-riding can surely be just because nobody has challenged them, and they've set out a disgusting anglophobic lynch-mob of a propaganda campaign (seriously, I've heard stuff about lynching Tories from lamp posts on twitter) in the midst of a pandemic that's killed 2 million worldwide. That's sick. The SNP are disgusting, and it's about time that someone stood up to them.
Also George, you're doing a grand job. Glad to hear that your expertise is being called upon! Don't run yourself to death over it though, you're too valuable for that.
Can't see how Sturgeon's tenure as FM is tenable now. Even Wings over Scotland think she's way past her sell-by date. Frustrating thing is the wider UK press believe Scotland is in lockstep with her and headlines of Independence are foregone conclusions. If only people would occasionally delve a bit deeper behind the news they see she's as slimy a politician as any Westminster can produce.
Jackie Baillie is an age-old politician that only backs winners and so my guess is that this story is probably true. In which case it is enough to bring the Holyrood/Victoria Quay house of cards down.
I have experience of dealing with Scottish Government lawyers and they work for the SNP, not for the public. A clear-out of the Lord Advocate and the Crown Office is required. If that happens, then the perjury accusations will gain traction.
We need a whistleblower.
Hi Folks
Interesting stuff on the Wings site.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/justice-in-chains/#more-123703
It is a superb timeline of the serial corruption of the SNP government, and as Wings admits it is incomplete. Plenty of more stuff to fill that piece to come out.
George
Talking about whistleblowers; maybe we have one. This from George Galloway earlier today:
“Things are about to change. I know things that I can’t say here because of the flurry of legal moves that have been made by SNP leaders to protect themselves.”
This as well:
“The truth is coming out. This coming week there will be a dramatic event, which may bring the house down for the Murrells, for the First Minister of Scotland.”
This is what will lead inevitable to an exponential drop in the worldwide reputation of the Scottish legal profession. It has become a delinquent profession. The problem is, once a critical mass decide to publish a story then it is unstoppable. I seem to remember the same thing happened during the Westminster expenses scandal.
Anyway, your readers politely demand you remain at your post, George. We politely demand it.
It was Sturgeon who abolished free legal aid. Saved 3 or 4 million per year which is really nothing. A lawyer friend of mine told me that about 5-years ago.
How much are all these legal gagging-orders costing us now and are they they in the public interest?
Surely the public want to know about malfeasance in public office. They don't want to pay for it to be covered-up.
George Galloway is just maneuvering his way into a position where he can say 'I told you she was a crook and her husband was a fat arsehole'. Good luck to him.
Dear Anon
I agree that we are nearly at critical mass for the press to decide to publish a story. It seems the whole rotten corrupt House of Murrell is on the edge of toppling. Nicola Sturgeon seems to be drowning in despair and guilt, and I certainly don't want to miss out.
Published these Nationalists were corrupt for years, all the signs were there, and only now others step in, a thank you would be nice from the press, and glad you think highly of the blog, some people tell me they really enjoy my posts. Even Nicola has read it I was told in the past. Maybe if she had paid more attention to my articles on truth, she wouldn't be in the sewer of her own making.
George
Nicola may have read it, but she didn't pay any attention to it. I've met some of thee senior civil-servants, close to Swinney, and the way they think is: 'We're the Government and you are fuck-all'.
I have worked with another three Governments, two of them you would call semi-authoritarian. I've never come across anything as bad as this. This is a delinquent Government which should be closed-down for a few years.
Anyway, I understand that Sky News are our Washington Post. They will help rid us of this pestilence. They work 24/7. Jackie Baillie only works on Tuesdays. No contest is there.
Let's hope that critical mass is reached soon, she didn't look too clever on the Andrew Marr show puffy face and all that. I seen the bit by George Galloway on twitter I'm watching with interest.
“Despite reasonable requests, he has been refused any assistance with legal costs but has been expected to provide extensive assistance to your inquiry, which could not and cannot be done without legal advice. That advice has proven necessary particularly in light of the risks of prosecution he continues to face if he provides you with all the relevant information you have requested, a situation which he considers unacceptable in the context of a public inquiry which is specifically designed to establish the truth.
“This, despite the fact that the Scottish Government has pledged full co-operation, yet apparently continues to renege on that undertaking for reasons which appear only to serve their interests and not that of the public.
“For the avoidance of doubt, that approach has nothing to do with preserving the anonymity of complainers. It was our client who sought the initial anonymity orders at a hearing on 4 October 2018 which the Scottish Government did not even attend and also approved the section 11 Order of Lady Dorrian at the trial.
“Unlike the Scottish Government and the witnesses they have chosen to support, our client does not have the benefit of a state funded legal department or external legal advice provided at public expense.”
Glad to be back on this brilliant, truthful blog.
This is the reason that STURGEON and her group of liars are pushing the referendum garbage, it is to DEFLECT the attention away from this LYING PANTOMIME OF THE MURRELS SCANDAL,,,,RESIGN STURGEON!!
I understand that Peter Murrell is investigating with lawyers the possibility of refusing to attend.
I wonder who is paying his legal fees? Not Peter Murrell anyway.
It leaves the possibility of Alex Salmond refusing to attend?
What a mess the Scottish National Party are in.
I am close to tears reading this surely the time has come for this corrupt party to be taken down they act the way they do because no one has tried to stop them now is the time what more evidence do you need
I think I am correct in saying that we have had 4No malicious prosecutions in the last year in Scotland. Nothing has been reported in the press and the Chief Law Officer continues to sit round the cabinet table with the rest of the SNP spoofs.
Independence would lead to real problems for Scotland. Forget about it for at least another generation. When our lawyers are this bent, forget it.
Please can someone get the MSM onto the cirruption within the SNP before they drag Scotland further into the gutter. The public both in Scotland and further afield are totally sucked in by the Nicola Sturgeon show.
If this cesspit of corruption was occurring in England there would be General Election by now pandemic or not.
When the Washington Post were about to publish a story implying that the country's top law officer was bent, they had little evidence. They thought it was enough but they weren't sure. They published anyway and the rest is history.
Is our top law officer bent and do we have the evidence?
There are a few media outlets pondering over this just now. Regrettably, none of them are Scottish. When foreign media starts doing the job of the Scottish media, then we have real problems.
I understand the malicious prosecution of Duff and Phelps looks set to cost us up to £100m. Why is that not in The Herald or Scotsman?
Ditto the farcical contract awarded to Fergusons on Port Glasgow to built two tiny wee passenger ferries. Another £100m.
Nothing to see here?
It's not only the government and legal profession that are shite, the newspapers are bent too.
I wonder if wee Professor Rat-Fart were still around, what he would make of all of this. When lawyers sniff the arse of politicians, and he undoubtedly did plenty of that, then it all goes bad very quickly.
That said, I doubt if there isn't a Scottish lawyer alive just now who isn't ashamed of what his/her profession has become.
Let's hope there are no more of these vexatious John Swinney prosecutions of the innocent.
This morning's Court case involving Craig Moore was a timid affair and Craig Moore appears confident enough that he will be vindicated.
George Galloway was promising some news before the end of the week. My reading of his post was that it would involve the Murrells and James Wolffe. He also said that there were multiple Scotgov gagging orders doing the rounds. That means fuck-all of course; as soon as there is enough confirmed data, the press will run with it instantly - everyone from The Sunday Times to the Courier.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/01/my-sworn-evidence-on-the-sturgeon-affair/#click=https://t.co/aKTSdRl3Bm
This tells you all you need to know really.
I would urge all readers to pay attention to Craig Murray's article. He published it immediately after today's Court appearance. It goes-on for bit, but you'll understand more after reading it than you'll understand from probably any other source.
I wouldn't be surprised if this takes-on an international dimension now. Anything published from an overseas address isn't covered by the gagging orders in place here. There is obviously a large amount of information and what I've seen of it has shocked me.
Only been living in Scotland for three years but it really does feel like a one party state. As one of the hated English, I was told to foxtrot Oscar back to England three times in less than a year and it was not 'banter.' If the worse were to happen, hopefully there will not be any ethnic cleansing carried out. Obviously any reference to 'new Scots' refers to anyone not English.
Boris should ask Sturgeon if she would like Scotland to continue being part of the UK vaccine roll out, or if she would rather switch to the EU scheme.
Alex Salmond to give his evidence to the Fabiani Inquiry on 9th Feb. Sturgeon on 16th Feb. Listening to Sturgeon repeating an oath is bound to result in convulsions of laughter throughout the country.
Let's hope that events overtake this farce of a one-day-per-week Inquiry. George Galloway and Andrew Neill have Craig Murray' article already and are ruminating. Let's send the witch to a nunnery.
Any opposition MSP's complaining about the slow roll-out of vaccine in Scotland are to blame for the slow roll-out...so says Mike Russell...the man's an obvious tool...you just couldn't make this stuff up.
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