The Day of Reckoning For Sturgeon Draws Near, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is a failed experiment in party and governmental leadership, as the massive scandal of abuse of power continually mounts over the Alex Salmond case, Sturgeon sees parliament, press, civic Scotland, and both Nationalists and pro Uk supporters call out her and her husband as ‘liars’, at present the Sturgeon regime is playing for time, hoping that they can put distance between them and Salmond, is there anyone that Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell won’t sacrifice to cling to money and power?

Dear All 

You can't have failed to notice that this week has been the worst week so far of Nicola Sturgeon’s career, she has failed to contain covid, she has saw people have die again, made up ridiculous rules over the hospitality industry lockdown. Her husband, Peter Murrell finally confessed to the infamous whatsapp messages, where he pushed for the imprisonment of an innocent man. This is also the week the mainstream press commentators upped their game over the Alex Salmond case by dramatically coming off the fence. They said publicly they didn’t believe Nicola Sturgeon or her husband’s versions of events. Sturgeon has now been called a 'liar' both inside and outside of the Holyrood parliamentary chamber. 

The leaking of the whatapps messages was the crucial moment in shifting the opinion of the press to be less timid. When people like Holyrood Mandy and Alex Massie come off the fence, and join the rest of us, you can see the winds of change blowing. The refusal of Nicola Sturgeon to not sack her husband is telling, just as the Nationalist ‘campaign’ to destroy Margaret Ferrier’s livelihood is telling but in a different way. When Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister, she proclaimed her government would be open and transparent, a model of democracy in action. Now, the majority take a different view of her promise, they see a secretive, unhelpful, deceitful and nasty operation using the levers of government power. If there was ever a government which needed to be removed from power, this SNP Government is it. What the SNP did fundamentally wrong was bring their nasty vicious modus operandi of how they operate their party into government of this country. 

If there is a court of public opinion operating at present, the fact a ‘jury’ of its peers outright say that Nicola Sturgeon and her Husband Peter Murrell, SNP Chief Executive are liars, is an extraordinary state of affairs. Done in parliament, it tells you, that we could be seeing the weight of public; press and parliament literally crush Sturgeon’s reputation to dust. This week is bad, but going forward, you get a sense that worse is to come, Salmond allies are pressing for a judge led inquiry, SNP MSP Alex Neil is of course right to call for one, as Sturgeon and Murrell desperately fight to stop the truth coming out, the stakes need to be raised higher. 

As the SNP fight during the retreat, they thought they could do their ‘battle of the bulge’ in the Margaret Ferrier ‘sector’, a by-election which could encompass several months allowing Sturgeon to push through to Holyrood 2021 election. So far, Ferrier is refusing to move on Sturgeon’s first request; and then campaign to attempt to unseat. Ferrier’s defiance is her own little Bastogne line. Former Nationalist ‘friends’ who have been shell her position with calls to resign are meeting defiant opposition and a stone wall of silence. 

In what must be seen as a probing action under cover of the pro UK ‘allies’ advancing, Alex Salmond has also been manoeuvring, today, he emerges to say that Nicola Sturgeon's government is trying to 'malign my reputation'. In a post Sturgeon war, the hunt for suspected members of what some are calling a plot will happen. But in order for Salmond to get his ‘Nuremberg trials’, he needs a Salmond led government, or a Salmond ally led government. 

Any other hue of government, will not act! 

As twists continue, Salmond is keen to cast doubt of the legitimacy of Nicola Sturgeon’s government. He has accused her government of trying to reverse his civil court win over it by the backdoor. Sturgeon’s ‘war room’ have come up with the idea that if they put potentially explosive material into the public domain which had already been ruled unlawful and defective. Tainted evidence will not save Nicola Sturgeon, Peter Murrell or the ‘alphabet’ women who have been strangely quiet as the tide of public opinion has been turning. Do the ‘alphabet’ women have a plan or a range of options in a post Sturgeon world? As pressure keeps mounting, how long can it be before Sturgeon’s advisors throw them into the trenches? When the ‘alphabet’ women started their quest, did they think they would end up being drafted in Nicola Sturgeon’s Volkssturm? As Salmond and his russki allies roll their armour ever westwards, they will find themselves between it with their backs to the Sturgeon bunker. 

And the bunker door will be locked! 

In new developments, David McKie, of Levy & McRae, told the Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair that the Government’s actions were “extraordinary” and an attempt to duck responsibility for his own failures. McKie urged MSPs to make it clear that the inquiry did not want to be part of the “unjustifiable” attack on Salmond. I think after what has happened recently between the inquiry and Sturgeon’s government, there is no chance of the inquiry carrying Sturgeon’s water. Although some people might think that removal of Sturgeon and Murrell solves ‘the problem’ and ends the matter; the truth is a little starker than you think. We are looking at removal of high profile figures in the SNP HQ and Scottish Government, one thing which I suspect will not be in doubt are people willing to cooperate at SNP HQ in the lower ranks. I get a sense that they are keeping their heads, getting ready to shift allegiance to the new regime in waiting. 

If you look at SNP deputy First Minister John Swinney, especially in pictures where he is around Sturgeon, you see a defeated man, loyalist to the party, but appearing from my read not to be a loyalist to Sturgeon. Swinney’s career is tainted, by the Salmond case, the cover up and his disastrous tenure as Education Sec trying to defend sexualisation of children. He looks like a prisoner working for the regime, unable to escape, and handed tasks that he knows are morally indefensible. If there was ever a beaten man who has become a shadow of his former self, John Swinney is that man! 

Finally, Ruth Davidson’s giving Nicola Sturgeon another roasting, Nicola Sturgeon's evidence was branded 'beyond belief' at FMQs. Her claim to have forgotten about a life-changing meeting about sexual misconduct and Alex Salmond was said to be highly unlikely because of Sturgeon’s memory for detail. Davidson was right to accuse the SNP of “taking people for fools”, and that is exactly what they are doing, the contempt is obvious. Alex Massie, the pundit ventured a similar view on her husband’s explanation of what he wrote in the whatsapp messages. As the slow painful political death is played out in Scotland, Sturgeon ‘allies’ have seen that Nicola is willing to push anyone in front of the speeding car to escape. I would not be surprised if people are already making plans, new alliances and getting ready to jump. Each day in the bunker, Sturgeon will find it less crowded to a point she will say, ‘where is everyone, why aren’t they responding and getting back to me’? Then she will realise she hasn’t broad support to remain in power, either as SNP leader or First Minister.

Maybe she will even shout out, ‘where’s Peter’!

Yours sincerely

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University