Inside the SNP Bunker at Bute House; Nicola Sturgeon’s Office accuses Team Salmond of 'smear' campaign against Sturgeon as bitterness engulfs supporters on both sides, allegedly a ‘Salmond insider’ has told the press, ‘She already knew about the inquiry. She knew.’ if Nicola Sturgeon hasn’t got the backing of her own SNP MSPs, then you have to wonder seriously about the SNP Westminster crowd

Dear All

The ‘war’ between Scotland’s unpopular First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and ‘vengeful’ Alex Salmond appears to be boiling up considerably. The panic in the Sturgeon Empire after the collapse of the case against Alex Salmond in the Court of Session has left Sturgeon on the back foot.

'Toxic' Nicola Sturgeon has dodge her own party’s National Executive Committee and referred herself to the Standards watchdog, there is even said to be a criminal investigation in the leak in her inept government.

You get the feeling that there is an outstanding stench of alleged sleaze and alleged criminality swirling around the place that threats to choke the life out of anyone caught up in its stream. In an attempt to play the ‘victim card’, Nicola Sturgeon’s Office has claimed she is the victim of a “smear” campaign by friends of Alex Salmond.This is one time that the Nats have used the ‘victim card’ and there isn’t a sign of race or homophobia attached to it. 

The pressure is on Nicola Sturgeon personally to sack her top civil servant and the investigating officer in the Alex Salmond case. It literally beggars belief that the investigating officer in the Alex Salmond case still has employment after what has happened.

As the silence by SNP MSPs showed at FMQs in Holyrood, the support for Sturgeon is on a very sticky wicket, even the silence outside the chamber speaks volumes which no one can ignore.

Where are the SNP MSPs saying they stand with Nicola?

Where are her MSP friends?

Clearly her manufactured ‘popularity’ can’t even be made to work for her in this case!

There is a bunker mentality, a sense the tide has turned against her administration and the feeling that a ‘reckoning’ is coming. Even the press in multiple papers such as Herald Scotland and The Scottish Sun sense blood in the water as Sturgeon has to repeatedly deny that misled the public and parliament. You can smell the fear as the First Minister’s office flatly rejected reports in two Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers about her role in the botched sexual misconduct investigation.

A statement issued by her official spokesman said of the actions of Salmond’s supporters:

“This appears to be an attempt to smear the First Minister.”

What is now becoming a focus is a report that Sturgeon's chief of staff Liz Lloyd had tried to advise Salmond against a return to elected politics. Her rationale for this last March was by the mentioning possible complaints. Apparently Ms Lloyd did discuss misconduct complaints with one of his friends in March, the bit that may confuse people is the fact that she insisted that it had been in the abstract.

Abstract?

How many times has someone just made up a story of someone?

It appears that Ms Lloyd’s ‘get out of jail free card’ was that a report said:

“Any reference to allegations or complaints of harassment against Alex Salmond in that discussion was in the context of media enquiries made around the time the #metoo campaign began. Ms Lloyd did not know of any complaints against Mr Salmond or of a Government investigation.”

This is an SNP government full to the gunnels of SNP Special advisers who operate like NKVD Russian Commissars.

In a retort back from the Team Salmond brigade, they hit back insisting that Ms Lloyd "knew of the existence of complaints some time before" she and Ms Sturgeon met Mr Salmond on April 2.

If I was Liz Lloyd, I would be looking for employment opportunities in Wales just in case everything goes pear shape, as the old story goes, when you become the story, you have got to go.

Allegedly it has been said that Nicola Sturgeon’s Chief of Staff is on the Salmond’s wanted list. In what may seem to others as pure schadenfreude, Salmond has confirmed he would be "happy" to cooperate with the looming investigation into whether Ms Sturgeon broke the ministerial code.

Surely he must be called as a witness in that investigation?

Team Salmond are hopping mad, they want revenge, full revenge, not an apology, not an intern goat staked out, they want the full bhoona, They also want ‘The Return of the King’, which means the Sturgeon Empire must fall, and the Scottish purges can take place by Salmond. It’s the old ‘let’s put the band back together’ scenario. The ‘war of words’ illustrate the bitterness of the feud between the SNP’s two most successful leaders which now threatens to split the party. Sturgeon’s success however was made on the back of everything Salmond done.

Sturgeon referred herself on Sunday to her external ethics watchdogs is to buy time from the questions from her own party. Sturgeon has maintained that the first she knew of the probe into Salmond was when he told her himself at a meeting at her Glasgow home on April 2. According to the Scottish Sun, they cited a “Salmond camp insider” contradicting this to claim that Ms Sturgeon was aware in advance of the April 2 meeting.

The paper said:

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

If this account is true, it would mean Sturgeon has misled the public and Holyrood about the chronology which prompted the First Minister’s spokesperson to quickly deny the claim. The plot seems to thicken as Team Salmond have been ‘making the rounds’ of the press to get their version out into the public domain, which has Ms Lloyd advised Salmond, via an intermediary, not to stand for election because of harassment allegations against him. The contact was on March 6, this would also allegedly point to prior knowledge by Ms Sturgeon’s closest political aide according to The Times’ piece.

On Monday, in a furious attempt to rebut both stories, Sturgeon’s official spokesman issued the following statement:

“This appears to be an attempt to smear the First Minister. Suggestions by Mr Salmond’s ‘insiders’ that the First Minister knew about the investigation before April 2 are not true.

The suggestion put to Ms Sturgeon’s Chief of Staff by the Times, that she knew of complaints when she met someone who could be described as an intermediary for Alex Salmond on 6th March, is also not true. 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."

See what I mean about Nicola Sturgeon buying time, problem is that time is short in a relative sense, and in the meantime, Team Salmond will be not calling a truce and the artillery shells will still keep falling.

Nicola Sturgeon needs to get rid of bodies from the bunker!  

Sturgeon’s official spokesman added:

“At the heart of this matter remains the fact that complaints were made that could not be swept under the carpet – and the First Minister and Scottish Government will not say or do anything which might risk prejudicing the police investigation.”

It seems that the Sturgeon Empire have been reduced to hoping that Police Scotland will be their saviour and led them out of the political wilderness, if that case doesn’t materalise into charges, the pressure will be ramped up on Nicola Sturgeon like a boiler on the verge of blowing.

Salmond's spokesman said:

"We will not be commenting on the content of private meetings or discussions on or off the record but Alex has made it clear that, if asked, he will be happy to give evidence to the panel of independent advisers. This then is our first and only comment on this issue of the Ministerial code. In the interests of accuracy, it is the case that the First Minister’s senior special adviser knew of the existence of complaints against Alex some time before the meeting of April 2 and that she initiated the first contact through an intermediary. They then arranged the meeting which Alex asked for. Alex has no certainty as to the state of knowledge of the First Minister before then. In any case we regard this controversy about these meetings as of secondary importance. The substantive issue right now is not the possibility that Nicola Sturgeon may have broken the Ministerial code but the fact that despite repeated warnings the Scottish Government behaved in a manner which was “unlawful”, “unfair’ and “tainted by apparent bias” and further that their decisions have been struck down by the Court of Session at a cost to the Scottish people of over £500,000. The responsibility for that institutional fiasco lies at the door of the Permanent Secretary not that of the First Minister. It is high time that the Permanent Secretary accepted it”.

Let’s cut to the chase, if this was a chess game, it would possibly seem to some that Alex Salmond wants is to take out the ‘pawns’ before attempt to take out the ’Queen’. Has Salmond taken a multi strategy approach in fighting on many fronts which his ‘supporters’ are doing some of the heavy lifting? For Team Sturgeon, recent events show that they are in a bunker mentality, unaware when the next grenade will drop through the door but they know and sit and wait for it coming.

Finally, if Nicola Sturgeon hasn’t got the backing of her own SNP MSPs, then you have to wonder seriously about the SNP Westminster crowd.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University