A person of ill-will, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon puts up a video begging people to 'come back' to the SNP as she admits people are leaving in 'droves', at the same time, former UK Ambassador Craig Murray faces two years in jail as he reveals under oath that there was a conspiracy against Alex Salmond, he names senior SNP members as being involved, is SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon seriously going to sit there and let an innocent man be convicted and sent to prison for exposing the alleged wrongdoing of others, is Sturgeon completely without morals?

Dear All

Over the last weeks, numerous evidence has been placed into the public domain regarding the Alex Salmond affair, each day, the new revelations are like part of a massive jigsaw of what many people call corruption. The more you read, the less likely you are inclined to believe the protestations of Nicola Sturgeon and her claims of innocence, I am not saying she is guilty, I am saying I don't believe her. Nicola Sturgeon has repeated the used the narrative, 'I am supposed to be plotting against Alex Salmond, and plotting with Alex Salmond'. The idea behind using this narrative is to place in your mind how absurd that proposition is, its weighted to make you believe in her case. But you may have considered another proposition over the Salmond/ Sturgeon meetings, have you considered that the meetings may allegedly have been used by Sturgeon to gleam information which was then passed onto the alleged conspirators to be used against Salmond?

As people know, I campaigned for Nicola Sturgeon in the 2011 Holyrood election, I had of course met her many many times prior to that election. After she won, I was invited to the victory party celebration at the campaign rooms because I am put in a decent number of campaign days for her victory. This is me, with Sturgeon in the picture above getting my photo taken at the event by Austin Sheridan. One thing I try not to do is dislike a person on sight, but every time I was around Nicola Sturgeon, I could never shake the feeling that there was something wrong about her. In order to campaign for her, I fought against my sixth sense, I couldn't point to a single instance which triggered this, but it was like an alarm bell going off in my head. What that alarm bell told me, was she was a bad person, and a bad person who was also dangerous. It was like looking at someone who could suddenly switch and release so much pent up hate, to me it looked like it was sitting there just waiting to explode. Her false friendless, her media training, her make over couldn't always cover up the real Nicola Sturgeon. People post tweets, media etc on her sometimes with the comment, 'the mask slips'. Sturgeon is a woman drowning in evil and hate, and keen to harm others in my opinion because she is intolerant. What also flagged up for me early on was the group of people she had around her who were nasty and vicious, what type of person hangs around people like that unless they too were damaged? The term some use publicly that I have seen is that she is allegedly narcissist psychopath. When you look at the traits of a narcissist psychopath, they include:

Grandiose sense of self-importance.

Lives in a fantasy world that supports their delusions of grandeur.

Needs constant praise and admiration.

Sense of entitlement.

Exploits others without guilt or shame.

Frequently demeans, intimidates, bullies, or belittles others.

If I was on a jury judging Nicola Sturgeon's handling of the Alex Salmond scandal, not only would I find her guilty, but I would get the rest of jury to find her guilty as well. When you sit and read the continuous flow of evidence, you would possibly come to a strong conclusion that there was a conspiracy against Alex Salmond to destroy him. You also would also possibly think that there was a further conspiracy to put him in prison when Plan A at Scottish Government level blew up in their faces. In previous blogs, I said that Alex Salmond shoulders part of the blame for what happened within the SNP, and in allowing a festering cancer to grow up around him, he seeded his own destruction. How many articles did I write on the 4 groups which control the Nationalist party? I have literally lost count. Four groups that make up the SNP are, lgbt, muslim, sein fein lite and the rich. It now transpires that Alex Salmond has now come round to the George Laird view that I was right. He failed to recognised what people like Sturgeon, Murrell, Lloyd and McCann were all about, he was the leader, and as leader he failed his duty of care to the party and to its members. Alex Salmond never stamped out lying, bullying, deceit, hatred, evil and the abandonment of public standards. Despite all of his failures, and you could write a book on that, he didn't deserve to be treated illegally. Alex Salmond had rights, and those rights should have been respected, not because he is Alex Salmond but because his rights were enshrined by law. His entitlement to fairness is absolute. It is a pillar of how our society operates, and must operate if it is to be free and democratic, how you treat others is a measure of integrity when you are in power. Our Government, our Courts and our Crown Prosecution Service must be beyond reproach, standards upheld yes, but the purity of the institutions is essential and paramount. Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done!       

Craig Murray, a supporter of Alex Salmond was on trial yesterday, he was charged with contempt of Court. I wished him good luck on twitter, because he shouldn't be on trial. If found guilty, the injustice of that would be a national disgrace, the Crown Office should desert the case. The Government of Scotland is compromised, that is a fact, the Crown Office is compromised, a documented fact. Do we now see our Courts' integrity shattered by another attempted jailing of an innocent man? If you can't recognise that Craig Murray is innocent, you must have had a very lax upbringing. Ages ago, I found this clip of Roland Freisler and Nazi Sham Trials, Freisler was a star judge of the Nazi era. He never made it to the Nuremberg trials, I believe he would have made the 'main event' alongside Herman Goering. Freisler missed getting hanged when he was killed during an allied bombing raid in February 1945. A masonry column crushed him to death while he was still in the courtroom. A foreign correspondent reported, "Apparently nobody regretted his death." The point I want to make is about the suppression of truth, and the State being used to witch hunt enemies of the ruling class. Our Government, our Courts and our Crown Office cannot be used like this, because they're ours, held in trust not by the Government but by every citizen of Scotland.

I would like to highlight some of the lengthy submission by Craig Murray for his trial that he submitted as evidence, and pick out parts that caught my eye. The full version, he has placed on his website, and you should read all of it. Once you do, you will never look at Nicola Sturgeon the same way ever again, it's like the Kevin Spacey scandal, once you heard the accusations, you know there is no way back from them. Nicola Sturgeon's position as First Minister and SNP Leader is untenable. I can't do all of his submission on this post due to limits on the word count, but I want to give you a sample of how he alleges conspiracy against Alex Salmond. 

Popcorn ready, feet up?

Point 12,  Craig Murray alleges that Alex Salmond told him that "Nicola Sturgeon had been behind the process designed to generate false accusations against him. He said as well as Mackinnon and Evans, Liz Lloyd was responsible for the actual orchestration." Craig Murray will make several references in his submission regarding Liz Lloyd, Sturgeon's Chief of Staff. In fact he also alleges in point 9, over the leaking of a anti Salmond sex story:

"To my surprise, I discovered with a high degree of certainty that the leaker was Liz Lloyd". Lloyd, he alleges had a personal history with the journalist concerned, which is provable by photographic evidence. And we are not talking bumped into each other in the street , we are talking about a trip aboard.

The next three points by Craig Murray come in order and you can see why:

"24. In June 2019 (I do know the precise date, time and venue but to give it might aid identification of my source with deleterious consequences for them) I met with a person well known in the Independence movement who informed me that they had been present at a meeting with Nicola Sturgeon and key members of her inner circle, including ministers, which had gamed the possible outcome of the Salmond affair. My source was trusted as a Sturgeon loyalist.

25. The view of the meeting was that if Alex Salmond could be convicted on just a single count, he would be destroyed politically forever, which was explicitly the objective. He would be on the register of sex offenders and branded a rapist in the public mind, even if the actual offence convicted was knee touching. I was also told that the Law Officers were confident of a conviction for something, which is why the multiplicity of charges. They apparently advised that, faced with a whole raft of charges, juries tended to compromise in the jury room to reach agreement and convict on a lower charge.

26. What struck me, both at the time and still, was that it was impossible to understand the account as given without it involving of necessity corrupt collusion between Nicola Sturgeon’s ministers and aides and the Crown Office over the handling of the Salmond case and the charges being brought."

So, if that person exists, they can recount the event, but more importantly, they can recall all the names of the people in the room. If that person was to testify in open court how would Nicola Sturgeon's claim of no 'conspiracy' stack up? And although out of numbered sequence, it is worth looking at point 15, and the comment that " all the accusations emanated from the same small coterie, there was not a single accusation from an outside or independent source". It reminds me of the SNP modus operandi of setting up phoney wee groups in order to claim wide spread support, when the actual support came from a smaller group. Given the SNP operate in this mode, did the same idea happen here? If you have police interviewing 400 people, on a fishing expedition, and 'catch' is only people close to Sturgeon, it rather makes you wonder, does it not?  

"15. He said those interviewed by the police had included all the personal protection officers he had as First Minister. They had all said they had seen him do nothing wrong, and they were watching him very closely, as was their job. At least one of these policemen, now retired, had been given a rundown of the evidence by the policeman sent to interview him. The retired officer challenged the interviewer as to how he could be involved in such a corrupt stitch up. He stated that the fact it was a stitch-up was evidenced by the fact all the accusations emanated from the same small coterie, there was not a single accusation from an outside or independent source."

"17. It had been impossible to follow the judicial review case without concluding that a very unfair process had been undertaken against Alex Salmond, and that it was impossible this could have happened without the knowledge and approval of Nicola Sturgeon. That was a shocking realisation to an Independence supporter like myself. But what Alex Salmond was now telling me went further, which was that Nicola Sturgeon was involved in the orchestration of fake complaints against him. This was fairly astonishing on first hearing."

I am going to skip down to point "39. In November 2019, I was told by a senior contact within the SNP whom I have known for many years (not the same source from June) that a deal had been struck between Peter Murrell, redacted and redacted whereby redacted would make an allegation of attempted rape against Alex Salmond, and Murrell would redacted return to front line politics redacted. The cold-bloodedness of this infuriated me. By around this time I had learnt the identities of, I believe, all of the complainers, not from a single source but by asking around my contacts. It was not difficult." It's interesting to read this, and then look at the appearance of Peter Murrell who gave evidence at the Alex Salmond Inquiry, It was pure Sergeant Schultz, "I see nothing! I hear nothing!" Looking at both accounts, by Murray and Murrell, and given the claim of yet another third party is said to exist in Murray's sworn testimony, where would you place your bet on who is telling the truth? If these alleged witnesses were to swear an oath in Court, how would Sturgeon's husband fare in the minds of the public?

"40. I realised that something extraordinary and morally disgusting was happening. If the public knew the identities of those being put up to make allegations, and just how close to Nicola Sturgeon they were, they would immediately understand what was happening. But the convention protecting the identities of those making allegations of sexual assault, made such allegations the perfect vehicle for a positive campaign to frame on false charges, while the perpetrators of this conspiracy to pervert the course of justice had the protection of the courts against exposure."

This point 40 is something, I have wondered about constantly, if the public knew about how close to Nicola Sturgeon and the accusers were, the MSM press have been exceptional vague to the point on non comment. You could argue they did so to not fall foul of the Court. But I would contend their omission was to give an impression of random women across a vast Scottish Government and Party network being abuse. Given that 'Operation Trawl' failed, that narrative couldn't come into play, so the MSM choose to keep silent. In the light of the Salmond verdict, their role must be questioned, and of course the Kirsty Wark documentary was just an out and out hatchet job. It was like watching vultures biding their time to get their 'feed' of the Salmond corpse, there was Kirsty sitting around the table with others like they were waiting for a meal to be delivered. But Alex Salmond wasn't found guilty, like a Phoenix, he rose from the ashes.

Finally, I hope I have given you a fair taste of Craig Murray's article, should he be set free, without a doubt, he should also get full costs and an apology, without hesitation. On the day, Craig Murray is on trial for his freedom, Nicola Sturgeon in an apparent empty office, which I presume is in Govanhill, she made a video about injustice. I watched it, and I invite you to watch it too, in a way it is a remarkably sad video, not because of the content, but because she knows now that her false persona has been destroyed forever. Nicola Sturgeon knows Craig Murray's testimony is the end of her career. Sturgeon in the video talks about people leaving the party in 'droves', and says "come back", it's embarrassing because she calls them 'friends', but I doubt she knows the meaning of the word. She talks about her message is "unplanned, unscripted and I haven't consulted with armies of advisors". How do you weigh that up against point 24, is Sturgeon trying to construct a narrative, 'it's just little old me by myself'? Especially woeful when someone has delivered sworn testimony of not just alleging conspiracy, but of her and her senior staff at the heart of it. Craig Murray gave his testimony under the 'Sword of Damocles', his liberty is at stake, he could be put in prison for two years. Speaking further on justice denied, at the Alex Salmond inquiry, the SNP have attempted to block the work of the committee on a staggering 55 separate occasions according to Wings over Scotland. When it comes to crime, the police look for 'means, motive and opportunity', are you up for playing 'detective' in the Alex Salmond scandal?

Yours sincerely

George Laird                                                                                                                        The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Could SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell be heading for Prison: SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell faces calls for the Crown Office to investigate whether he has committed perjury over evidence he gave to the Alex Salmond inquiry, Inquiry Member Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser stated “What is clear is that Peter Murrell’s story simply does not add up and he has serious questions to answer”

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://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19034561.iain-macwhirter-like-fish-scotlands-crown-office-rotting-head/

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

We regret the loss of our normal programming, our techs are trying to get the system back up and running as soon as humanly possible, the good deed virus has surfaced so please think happy thoughts in the meantime

Dear All

Sorry I haven't been blogging for a few days, a couple of things came up of a personal nature which requires me to do a bit of non political thinking. So please bear with me, I will try to get back full time, but expect things to be patchy till end of the month.

Oh and a few domestic chores as well need done.

I will get cracking back as soon as possible, trying to help out a few people get where they want to go in life, good deed time.

George

Scotland, a Country Crying for Justice and Salvation; The Alex Salmond case goes deep into whether Scotland has integrity as a Nation, the pillars of justice in Scotland are now so compromised that there can be no trust in SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon, her SNP Government, and no trust in the integrity of the Scottish Civil Service, we have a Scottish government that acts maliciously against the people who they see as a threat to their position and power, the word to describe them is corrupt

Dear All

At some time in your life, you will experience an injustice done to you, either deliberately or accidentally. Whether deliberately or accidentally, you feel a tremendous sense of loss, anger  and injustice both physically and mentally. I have a few in my time, which is why you are reading this blog, it got started because I suffered one. In the case of my injustice, it was the University of Glasgow closing ranks to protect liars and abusers. If I had been rich, I would have got justice because simply I would have been able to sue Glasgow University and expose what they had done to me in a court of law. I never got my day in court, and I never got justice, this is a reality for many poor people in Scotland. In the case of Alex Salmond, his rights were abused by the Scottish Government, then the same Government led by Nicola Sturgeon closed ranks to cover up their behaviour and protect those who had abused his human rights. Salmond experienced what happened to me, but he was rich and able to use the Courts, in the both attempts to destroy him. Salmond found out the hard way, that so called decent people in positions of power were open minded to abuse their power.

Many people now are coming to the conclusion that there was a plot against Alex Salmond to destroy his reputation, his career and to ultimately put him in jail for the rest of his life. His crime was that his return to political office would endanger some people's position and status. If you had a fundamental belief in the pillars of justice that hold up Scottish society, your belief has now been shredded. No one in their right mind can trust the Scottish Government, The Crown Prosecution Service or the elected politicians serving as Ministers in the SNP Government. Trust in the two leaders, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney has gone, trust in the Permanent Sec, Leslie Evans has gone, trust in Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell has gone, trust in the officials who said one thing and when found out the evidence wasn't true, trust in them has gone.

Although a lot are focused on seeing SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon resign, others need to be removed as well not just from elected public office but also from public life. To stop at Sturgeon resigning would be a major injustice, everyone who had any role must be removed. Integrity of government is at stake here.The SNP under Nicola Sturgeon have smashed integrity in public life, because more and more people know about the cover up, the lies, the attempt to jail an innocent man. The identity of the Alphabet women remains a secret by order of the Court, but these women are closely connected to Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon wasn't standing up for some minor female public officials. The feeling now across the political spectrum is articulated by people like Robin McAlpine as such that there was a 'coordinated plan of action created by a powerful group of people, developed and executed in secret but using public resources'. McAlpine further states that the plan had the 'sole purpose of forcing a perceived opponent out of public life in Scotland'. His view is shared by many people, when Sturgeon signed off on a code of conduct to allow complaints about former ministers, she must have known as a trained lawyer, this was wrong and open to abuse.

When the 'in house' plan to destroy Alex Salmond by the Scottish Government failed, they hadn't reckoned on what would happen in a judicial review, they panicked. Having failed, the new urgency was to cover up what they had done, because the plan was at risk of collapsing and exposing all those who were involved and what their exact role in perpetrating it. To protect their power and position became their number one priority which is why they instigated what was said to be a wide-ranging cover up. They must have thought destroying Alex Salmond would be so simple, just get him into a rigged hearing, find him guilty, destroy his reputation. If they had achieved their objective, then Nicola Sturgeon would have been safe from any attempt by Salmond to return to public life. Alex Salmond wouldn't have been so completely destroyed politically he could never be able to stand as a candidate under the SNP banner. If Salmond had returned, several people would stand to lose out, up to and including their lucrative jobs, they had no guarantee their positions would be safe.

So, from a rigged hearing, matters progressed to a criminal level, the second bite at the Cherry. Having lost the civil case, they escalated to get the criminal trial going, a mere stitch up which they regarded as routine because they held the levers of power now became an intention to seek to jail Salmond. Salmond jailed would have welded shut any investigation into the cover up. Everyone would be then be safe and secure, but when the jury returned their verdict, Alex Salmond walked from court as a free man. People who operate the levers of power in Scotland had committed the greatest ever abuse of power to attempt to arbitrarily to remove someone’s liberty. As others pointed out, this wasn't the usual “rough and tumble” of politics, it was something deeply sinister. It was the type of thing used in Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany, where a civil service allegedly neutral had been corrupted to its core and acted for the benefit of certain members of a political party.

There is a wider issue here for all Scots, Salmond is the lightening rod, he is just the trigger which led to the cascade, just like Peter Cadder was the lightening rod which forced the Scottish Government into making the Crown Prosecution Service restore human rights taken away by them and police. Cadder was someone whose case  caught my interest about 10 years ago, the Scottish Government fought 'tooth and nail' to deny suspects the automatic right of access to a lawyer. As I said back then in 2010, Peter Cadder has made the biggest legal breakthrough in Scotland in 30 years.

http://glasgowunihumanrights.blogspot.com/2010/10/peoples-champion-peter-cadder-no-law.html

The Scottish Nationalist Party don't do justice, they don't respect rights and they don't respect the purity that must be upheld by governance. Fairness, Equality and Human Rights aren't deeply held beliefs, they are convenient hooks to use to advance their political agenda. In 2010, Alex Salmond led the SNP Government, perhaps he should appointed better Ministers, and perhaps he should have taken more interest in detail. In part, he is to blame for his own misfortune because the integrity of government and organisations were allowed to slip on his watch. It should have been drilled into the backs of people's heads that when it comes to justice, not only will it be done, respected, but it will also be seen to be done. The SNP chipped away at government turning it into their own little monster and attack dog. Bring in and keeping poisonous people in positions of power who lacked integrity and could be used as the SNP saw fit.

In the case of Salmond, details are so important, which is why I recommend a visit to read the coverage on the Wings over Scotland website, neither of us are fans of each other, but we both share two things in common, we believe in justice strongly and we each think the other is a wanker! Wings is getting access to some very interesting material which you can read, and for ease he has highlighted relevant parts so you can home in on and ponder. As I said previously, I was in the SNP, and I met Salmond many times at elections, he would say hi nd chat to me in quiet periods, when the allegations surfaced, I didn't he would be found guilty, and I wasn't inclined to believe the witnesses, and as the public record shows, neither was a jury. I am staunch anti SNP now, but I believe in all the Nolan principles of conduct in public life, and stitching someone up is totally wrong even if they are your political enemy. There is a duty on all of us, people in Scotland to demand our government and public bodies aren't corrupt and always act in good faith. My view for a long time is that the SNP are unfit to be the Government of Scotland, they are corrupt every aspect of government and its various arms and they are spreading their poison downwards and into every organisation in Scotland that they can.

In an article on Wings, Robin McAlpine says he is of the 'decided view that people in a position of power in Scotland misused that power in a manner which is not acceptable'. In reading his article, he makes strong opinions that, the 'complaints procedure was created and designed to target a specific individual'. He also concludes that 'in a position of power, you should never create laws or procedures for a purpose related to the pursuit of an individual; it represents a gross misuse of those powers'. The bit which will interest many and rightly so is that was as he terms “grooming” of complainants against the same individual", and recently we know find out that witnesses from the Scottish Government got 'coaching' before they gave evidence to the Holyrood Committee investigating the Scottish Government processes, its generic name is the Alex Salmond Inquiry. Witnesses against Alex Salmond being allegedly 'groomed' and those questioned by the inquiry getting 'coaching' before they give evidence. Generally people who tell the truth don't need 'coaching', so what do they need coaching on, they are senior figures in the Scottish Government, educated to degree level as a minimum. Who is the company that gave the 'coaching'? Why is their name being kept secret from the public?

The phrase use by many online about what has happened to Alex Salmond is, 'Oh what a tangle web, we weave when we first practice to deceive'.

Salmond is the first injustice ever to happen in Scotland, there have been hundreds, prior to the Cadder Case, how many people were denied our rights because of bad politicians and bad civil servants, and yes, the term to use is 'bad people'. Strip them of their wealth and position and what are you left with, wretched people who commit evil with no conscience, no sense of guilt, people who have turned from the light. There are certain things you can't buy in life, class and integrity, these are things which you must choose, even if the path is difficult.  

Corinthians 10:31 says, 'So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God'.

Did all those who attempted to imprison Alex Salmond do so for the glory of God? Do they think the end justifies the means? Do they consider themselves good people, people of value and people of worth? Do they think because they are people of relative wealth, that status put them above the law, and above decency? Position, money and power gave these people status, and like the lawyer who steals their clients' money, they are unworthy of a position of trust. Those officials who took part in the stitch up of Alex Salmond and the cover up which is now happened have no place in the governance of Scotland, and making judgments that affect its people.

Robin McAlpine wrote something which is staggering about the Alex Salmond Affair. He said:

"At this point we have moved into the territory of the kind of behaviour we seldom see in western Europe. Certainly, seeking to jail someone for political expediency is something I did not believe I would see in Scotland in my lifetime".

For a long time, I blogged on SNP stupidity and corruption, I was attacked, abused and mocked for it. I was the first to say that the Scottish National Party is a 'rat ship'. I also pointed out that sooner or later that the 'rats' would turn on each other. The reason is that these SNP people have no loyalty, no integrity, they are small minded corrupt little people who do not believe in public service. They talk about how it is an 'honour' when elected at the podium, but they don't believe it, they don't believe in honour, it's a buzzword to tick a box that they are 'humble'. Why are so many 'humble' people elected to public office in the SNP not speaking out about what has happened to Alex Salmond?

Where is their integrity?

The civil service in Scotland has been corrupted, there needs to be an intervention from the UK Govt, there needs to be a judge led inquiry, and I think the conclusion must be that we need a suspension of SNP control of the Scottish Government. Such a measure has never happened before, but due to the enormity of the problem created by the SNP, suspension is a viable option. One thing is certain, the SNP cannot roll back what has happened, this is something that SNP leader cannot fix, everyone cannot go back to be at least in the public eye 'pals'. Too much damage has been done here, Alex Salmond like Peter Cadder has done Scotland a great service because each in their own way has shown us a great injustice which I maintain cannot be fixed without outside intervention. No one, no party has the right to abuse power as the Scottish National Party has done in Government. No party has the right to use the processes of government for political expediency to attempt to destroy an individual innocent of no crime.

Finally, there two quotes from Plato, that I want to leave you with:

"When there is crime in society, there is no justice" and "No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."

Many believe in Scotland that a crime has been committed against Alex Salmond, and as we have seen by the amount of smearing against him by the SNP and their allies, he is truly hated. Telling the truth however is never a wrong thing, righting an injustice is always the right thing to do. One thing for certain, I don't think that protestations of what happened weren't maliciously would cut much ice with Scots, especially if this were to subsequently move forward in any way as a possible criminal trial. Already people are saying 'the repeated failure to produce documents even in the face of a Court Warrant appears to be, on the face of it, contempt of court'. I can certainly go along with that concept because the more you read about this, the more it stinks to high heaven.

Yours sincerely

George Laird                                                                                                                        The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Scottish Labour in Turmoil; Scottish leader Richard Leonard dramatically quits as party leader just 4 months out from a tough Holyrood election, Neil Findlay, aLeonard ally blames 'flinching cowards and sneering traitors' for his downfall, unless the left and right wing adopt a policy of unity, the next party leader will also fail, the end of disunity must be a priority for party bosses if the party is serious about government at Holyrood or Westminster

Dear All

Richard Leonard has quit as Scottish Labour leader with immediate effect, the question was when he would quit and not if. 

So, to be clear, I voted for Richard Leonard as leader, because the party needed change, unfortunately he found out he was unsuited to take forward that change, he also struggled with his leadership and with the presentation of the Labour Party's and its ability to get out effective messaging. Today is not a victory for the Scottish Labour Party because in part, his failure is also a failure of the party to effectively support him. Richard Leonard was not supported properly as leader, and that in turn, rippled downwards and outwards. He also failed to reform the party as a campaigning unit, something his future successor will have to take on. In the meantime, as expected Jackie Baillie is the interim leader up to the May election, then the process should start to have a contest in early autumn. There is no point now in running a contest, because that would be a distraction.

I would say this, Richard Leonard should not have stepped down until after May, but he chose to go, and as I always say, let people make their own choices, then in the light of those choices, you can see their abilities. Leonard as I mentioned didn't get the right support, and he didn't grow into his position as leader. In truth, and this isn't his fault, he wasn't suited to the role, not everyone can lead the charge. Scottish Labour's deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, now interim leader has warned the party's MSPs that they "face the fight of our lives" ahead of May's election. On the issue of fighting, for some time, I was banging the drum that the current campaigning model is broken. One thing about fighting, which everyone grasps is that when the fight starts, you need to turn up for it. Scottish Labour as I repeatedly said isn't in a position to campaign effectively. Long campaigning needs revamp, the canvassing databases need updating, and that includes contact details of party members. Scottish Labour needs an overhaul of everything, and I do mean every single aspect of its operation.

The party is now looking for its seventh leader in the space of 14 years, at this rate, if I was an MSP or MP, I would stand a chance of being leader based on rotation. Scottish Labour needs a long term credible leader. Why long term, the party apparatus is so broken, that the fix, is not going to happen overnight. It will be a hard slog, because to fix every part of the party will involve at some stage.... pain. It has come a time when elected representatives need to prove that their election represents value to the party and to their constituents. So, what happens if they don't? To be brutal, they get removed as standing as a candidate for a defined period until they prove themselves worthy of selection. Scottish Labour can ill afford bad MPs, MSPs or Cllrs, there should be a no baggage rule, won't work should mean removal from opportunity to work.

Last September, a handful of Richard Leonard's own MSPs tried to oust him, the plot by the feeble four was defeated. So, to be clear, the reason Scottish Labour's support has gone down the toilet was the activities, policies and personnel who got raised up by the right wing. Tony Blair did more damage to Scottish Labour than the SNP ever did, the Nats just milked up the effect of his premiership. Almost every leader who caused party decline came from the right wing of the party. That is fact. Scottish people stopped voting Labour because of them, and their style of management. The right wing think they should 'manage' people rather than represent them. The Scottish public who were done an incredible disservice simply did the only thing they could, they stopped voting for the party. Their protest didn't create change, but what it did do was usher in the era of the SNP. People vote for representatives, not 'managers' who failed to act on their behalf. Scottish Labour owes an apology for every bad representative who failed to live up to Labour values and principles.

Let me say this, no one who leads the party in the upcoming election, a bad result was expected. Elections aren't fought on one day, they fought in what is termed the 'long campaign', the 'short' campaign and in the digital world. Presentation matters, but presentation without substance is meaningless, truth is the currency of politics, not spin, you need to identify problems and have solutions. Standing under a burst pipe and someone telling you that you're getting wet doesn't advance your cause. I use that example because you will click into that, you'll get it what I am trying to put across. The right wing raised fears about the direction of Leonard's leadership and the polls suggesting the party is set for a difficult result in May. But think back to when the right wing controlled the party, their election results destroyed the party, Leonard didn't do that. He isn't the hook to pin all Scottish Labour's failure on, and to do so is unfair.

In leaving Richard Leonard said the discussion over his leadership had become "a distraction", and he added "it is in the best interests of the party" for him to quit. Was quitting at this juncture the correct timing if he felt so strongly? The answer is no, it's bad timing, something everyone and including him should have recognise. Jackie Baillie is the interim leader who run up her first election loss, so that's  bad start not just for her but also the right wing, toss a possible defeat of her constituency seat, and you get what is termed a bloody mess. There has to be a run period, and four months, under lockdown and no effective ground campaigning just doesn't cut it.

In a statement, Leonard said: 

"I have thought long and hard over the Christmas period about what this crisis means, and the approach Scottish Labour takes to help tackle it. I have also considered what the speculation about my leadership does to our ability to get Labour’s message across. This has become a distraction. I have come to the conclusion it is in the best interests of the party that I step aside as leader of Scottish Labour with immediate effect. This was not an easy decision, but after three years I feel it is the right one for me and for the Party. I want to thank all those people who placed their hopes in me, and who worked with me in good times and bad. This experience and the great people I have met will live with me forever. I owe a huge debt in particular to all those party members who work tirelessly for the cause of Labour."

He added:

"I retain my faith in the Labour Party as the party that offers hope to people and that remains the only vehicle for the realisation of that hope. Whilst I step down from the leadership today, the work goes on, and I will play my constructive part as an MSP in winning support for Labour’s vision of a better future in a democratic economy and a socialist society."

I am a great believer in people making choices, but I feel his timing is rather off, I see how he benefits, but does the party and Scottish people? Jackie is leader for now, but will the party be seen as a rudderless ship. The Captain has jumped overboard, and his deputy who has been calling the shots suddenly finds herself taking the wheel. Given that Jackie Baillie, who was sacked from Mr Leonard's frontbench team before then steps in will cause people to question, will there be unity going into this election?

Jackie Baillie said:

"I thank Richard for his service to our party and his genuine commitment to the values we all hold dear. Scottish Labour has set the agenda for Scotland's recovery from the pandemic, forcing the SNP government to commit to a national care service and a youth jobs guarantee. We face the fight of our lives in the run-up to the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections. But as we fight for every vote and seat, we will come together to hold the SNP and Tories to account for their record of failure. I know Richard will continue to work hard to campaign for a Scottish Labour government as an MSP, and as our lead candidate in Central Scotland in the Scottish Parliament elections." 

Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the UK party, has thanked Mr Leonard for his "unwavering commitment".

He said: 

"I would like to thank Richard for his service to our party and his unwavering commitment to the values he believes in. Richard has led Scottish Labour through one of the most challenging and difficult periods in our country’s history, including a general election and the pandemic. Even from opposition he has achieved a considerable amount for which he should be very proud. This includes securing a commitment for the creation of a national care service, securing action on a jobs guarantee scheme to deal with youth unemployment, securing a human-rights based public inquiry into the treatment of care home residents during the Covid pandemic and securing support for a Fair Rents Bill to give new rights to tenants.  He has done so with dedication to the values of our movement. I wish Richard the very best for the future as one of our MSPs and know that he will continue to play an important role in Scottish Labour."

Standard stuff as you would expect from the party leader.

Finally; Neil Findlay, the Labour MSP for the Lothians and an ally of Mr Leonard took a less charitable view of today's events, he flat out blamed the group of MSPs for Mr Leonard’s decision who attempted to force him out. Writing on Twitter, he said:

“Looks like those who have led a three-year campaign of briefings to journalists, leaks of private conversations and the constant feeding of stories to the media to bring down a decent and honest man have succeeded. These flinching cowards and sneering traitors make me sick.”

One thing, there must be unity for Scottish Labour to turn around, do you get a sense after reading Neil Findlay that this is possible? Anas Sarwar, who was defeated by Mr Leonard for the Labour leadership in 2017 has also paid thanks to his former rival's contribution. It is entirely possible that Anas will throw his hat into the ring for leader, perhaps he would consider that now the decks are cleared, this is his moment.

He said:

"Richard Leonard has led our party through one of the most difficult times in our history. He is Labour to his core, and we are all grateful for his service.I know he will continue to fight for a fairer, more just and more equal society today, tomorrow and long into the future."

Finally, his departure not unexpected, in due course perhaps more details will emerge on why now? It is a pity that Richard Leonard's leadership ends so suddenly, what does that mean for the dynamic in Scottish Labour, or its position on the political landscape, we wait for more information to emerge. May will be a tough election, but without reform what chance does any leader have of turning the party around and be seen as a government in waiting. No reform means no progress, no progress means no government in Holyrood or Westminster.

Yours sincerely

George Laird                                                                                                                        The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

The Corrupt SNP Government of Scotland; SNP Deputy leader John Swinney point blank refuses to expand ministerial code probe into Nicola Sturgeon, Swinney wants to limit a Parliamentary inquiry as much as humanly possible, there is no doubt about that now, the stench of Nicola Sturgeon's regime is beyond imagination, she has destroyed the pillars of democracy, they have been completely smashed in Scotland in a matter that echoes back to 1930's Germany and the takeover of the civil service.

Dear All

Before I get started, on my main thrust of today's post, Scotland has recorded 54 further coronavirus deaths. The dead and the virus however serve a political purpose, they are the shield that SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon currently hides behind. The virus and deaths cover up the Alex Salmond affair so that it is dampened down when it is an issue that deserves the full oxygen of publicity. Sturgeon, who has failed to save Scotland and her people announced the latest death figures at her daily Covid-19 briefing today. Despite repeated falsehoods that Scotland is doing well, the death toll in Scotland now sits at 5023.

5023, do you believe the SNP rubbish of Scottish exceptionalism now?  

The virus is out of control, the SNP have been too slow to act, they have failed on the important issue of public health messaging, and they haven't got a vaccine programme up and running properly. Save yourself because Nicola Sturgeon is going to do that, government help is too late, too slow and such poorly organised, you might as well forget it.

Like everything that Nicola Sturgeon touches, gets involved with and/or runs, it's a shambles!

If you think 5023 is bad enough, the virus isn't tampering off, it has a trajectory still of upwards, ever upwards. In the last 24 hours, 1,717 people have tested positive for the virus, 607 were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde area. 280 in Lanarkshire and 214 in Lothian, basically the central belt of Scotland is the infected zone, in fact, it's something like a horror movie. But unlike a horror movie, far from saving the people, the incompetence of the Scottish Government means that SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon cannot be the 'pluckey' heroine. No Angelina Jolie or Milla Jovovich role for Sturgeon, maybe a female henchman role in a Bond movie, the Scottish Rosa Kelb. It's a perfect match which marries up the Kelb and Sturgeon personality, a bitter twisted and angry woman consummated by hate and rotting with evil.  

Another issue of pressing importance is what many Scots believe was the attempted stitch up of Alex Salmond by people who work in her government, and are very close indeed to her. As the bombshell revelations ripple, the SNP leader as the picture above shows doesn't look at all comfortable in her alleged innocence. Many people now are opening called Nicola Sturgeon a liar, and looking at the compelling evidence that Alex Salmond has placed in the public domain, you can see there is an argument why the cross party investigation of the Scottish Government handling of the illegally compromised complaint against Salmond should be widen. The inquiry needs to be widen to investigate whether Nicola Sturgeon breached the Scottish Ministerial Code. Salmond has put into the public domain that he has evidence and he has witnesses.

The article on the Wings over Scotland site is damning, it makes uncomfortable reading for the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon. It now seems that Sturgeon's position as SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland is untenable. The first reaction of Sturgeon wasn't to address the allegations, it wasn't to refute it properly, it was to smear Salmond. Nicola Sturgeon tread the same road as countless Nationalists over decades before, smear the accuser. Alex Salmond won both cases brought against him, by the government in a rigged hearing, and by the criminal trial. The result is well known, but needs to be said again, Alex Salmond was found innocent by a jury of his peers, he left court with no stain on his career. It seems some people had an agenda, having lost the first fight, they decided to attempt to jail an innocent man. Given Salmond's age and health, that could have been a death sentence. Even now by smearing Salmond, and it is just Sturgeon, others in the SNP are doing it as well, the phrase 'there is something of a smell' comes to mind.

Some now say that the SNP have corrupt the organs of government, and this includes those who sit in high positions of administration in government and also our police and prosecution service.

With the new evidence in the public domain, opposition parties are calling for a wider remit into their inquiry as it relates to Nicola Sturgeon. This request has been refused by John Swinney, who is Nicola Sturgeon's deputy in government. Why won't John Swinney extend the remit into whether she breached the Scottish Ministerial Code? Innocent people as the SNP are quick to tell us have nothing to hide, nothing to fear, so what does Nicola Sturgeon fear?

The truth?

The evidence?

The witnesses?  

John Swinney is a patsy, he has gone from a respected Finance Minister to become a man who hasn't a shred of decency, and hasn't the moral courage to stand up for what is right. He is unfit for public office, and when he leaves it, he leaves a tarnished man. A man whose reputation is now worthless in the eyes of many Scottish people. Swinney has been accused of “blatantly blocking” work which could establish whether Ms Sturgeon misled Holyrood. Why does he want to do this, simple, Sturgeon if found guilty of doing so knows as well as Swinney this is a potential resignation offence. But it isn't just Sturgeon who needs to resign, Swinney's conduct is such that calls must surely come for his resignation. Potentially there needs to be a cull of SNP elected politicians, party staffers and Scottish government personnel, that also includes the other arms of the state who have brought the country down.

Never again should there be corruption of the Scottish Civil Service.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats in hearing the Swinney decision was quick to get out what everyone thinks, this "stinks to high heaven". Former First Minister Alex Salmond has accused Sturgeon, not once but of repeatedly misleading the Scottish Parliament.  As usual, Sturgeon told Holyrood she did not know anything about anything, until evidence was produced, then her memory as if by magic suddenly improves. We have two versions of what happened and only one can be the truth, Nicola Sturgeon said when she first saw Salmond at her home it was in her capacity as SNP leader concerning party business. Salmond directly contradicted this, saying Ms Sturgeon arranged the meeting four days earlier with one of his former aides in the full knowledge it was Government-related. Salmond's position now is that Sturgeon has breached the Scottish Ministerial Code, and urged the independent adviser on the Code, James Hamliton, to look into it. Hamilton is currently checking whether Ms Sturgeon broke the code, but on the basis of a much narrower remit set by Mr Swinney. By setting a much narrower remit, it is clear that every obstacle is being placed to provide Nicola Sturgeon with the means to not be held to account.

In ham fisting the inquiry, Sturgeon has the brass neck to state that the investigator into her is free to explore any issue, but it looks however he is not free to consider external evidence outside his remit. He can look at evidence but he can't use certain evidence in his conclusion because the SNP Deputy John Swinney has set the limits. Salmond claims the remit is a "straw man" designed to find Nicola Sturgeon innocent of a largely irrelevant issue related to civil servants. I would agree with his sttement, the remit is a "straw man" designed to find Nicola Sturgeon innocent. Should James Hamliton therefore continue when it is alleged he is playing with a rigged SNP deck? Is there any value in his investigation when he cannot do his job properly? I suppose the answer is ultimately no, so where does this leave his investigation, or the Salmond inquiry? When you have multiple parties, Labour, LibDem and Conservative Tory MSPs on the Holyrood inquiry urging Swinney to expand Mr Hamilton’s remit, and the deputy First Minister refuses, you wonder what the Scottish public will think.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said:

“The Deputy First Minister already confirmed to parliament in November, in response to a parliamentary question, that the James Hamilton inquiry could look at any breach of the ministerial code. We will not prejudge that process.”

But when evidence and lines of inquiry are blocked, evidence not to be considered, the false illusion can be seen through. What the SNP is really say is that the James Hamilton inquiry could look at any breach of the ministerial code but only use evidence approved by them. Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser, who currently sits on the Holyrood inquiry, has hit back and accused the Scottish Government of also trying to curb Mr Hamilton's work.

He said:

“The SNP are blatantly trying to block this investigation because they know it exposes the First Minister. Nicola Sturgeon said in Parliament, and Mr Swinney said on television this weekend, that James Hamilton can investigate what he wants but they are now doing everything in their power to prevent that happening by limiting the Ministerial Code investigation. These are the actions of a government that clearly has something to hide. If Nicola Sturgeon had done nothing wrong, she would welcome these investigations and make them as broad as necessary.Instead, they are shutting down scrutiny in an effort to let the First Minister get away with duping the Scottish public.”

Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton, who wanted the Code investigation to be formally widened, said:

"This stinks to high heaven, If I had nothing to hide and was being falsely accused of lying to parliament, I'd be jumping at the chance for the official exoneration that a live ministerial code investigation could offer."

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said:

"The unwillingness of the SNP Government to have legitimate scrutiny is truly a dark development for Scottish democracy."

Finally, the pillars that make up a democracy have clearly been destroyed by the SNP, the Scottish Government is utterly corrupt and beyond help. Nicola Sturgeon and her cult have poisoned and destroyed the integrity of the Scottish civil service. The integrity of the Crown officials who work under SNP control and direction is also now suspect. In many ways, history teaches us many things, a comparison to the Sturgeon Government is 1930's Germany. The regime led by one, Adolf Hitler, were placemen were put into positions of power much like Kapos in a concentration camp. Their remit was observe and route out anyone who didn't show blind obedience to the new regime. Instead of the whip, the bullet or stick, the SNP use the current weapon of choice, financial removal of salary and exclusion. As many die hard Nationalists look at what is going on, many say that isn't a Scotland they want to be a part of. Nicola Sturgeon isn't offering Scots a dream, she isn't offering Scots a future, she is offering Scots a nightmare, a descent into hell.

As Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said on twitter, this isn't a fight between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, this is a fight between the Truth and Nicola Sturgeon.

The SNP Dealer of Death: SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon threatens to close down takeaway services, why does Nicola Sturgeon think it is proper to deny the vulnerable and homeless access to a valued source of hot food in the middle of a raging pandemic and a freezing cold winter, where is the Scottish Government plan to provide hot food to those who lack cooking facilities such as homeless people, hasn't Sturgeon done enough damage to Scots by her incompetence?

Dear All

Have you noticed the temperatures in Scotland are falling fast, it is bitterly cold, people on low incomes who face the prospect of 'heat or eat', they aren't getting much help from SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP Government. The real people who will suffer unbelievably the most, are the homeless, who live on the streets of Scottish cities. The lucky ones will go the places like the Glasgow Homeless Night Shelter, but that is just a bed for the night. Homeless people need access to hot food and drinks because their day for bulk of it, is spent outside. Normally in places like Glasgow, venues like Glasgow City Mission, Lodge House Mission and locations like libraries would afford them the opportunity to get out of the cold. Our libraries are a go to destination for many vulnerable people which are now are shut again.

To my surprise, SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon is considering closing down 'takeaways'. This is a prime resource for many homeless people who don't have access to cooking facilities. If a person cannot maintain a reasonable body temperature, they are at serious risk of cold related illness and death. Is Nicola Sturgeon so backward and incompetent that she never thinks through the garbage she utters that passes for possible proposed policy? Sturgeon is what I term a 'cut and paste' politician, she is bereft of original thought, because everything she does has no depth to it.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-says-takeaway-services-23284842

Where does the poor and homeless go when their sources of hot food are removed?

Was there a risk assessment by the Scottish Government of shutting down takeaways?

What facilities will Nicola Sturgeon put in place to offset the closure plan if she follows through and closes 'takeaways' down?

Why does Nicola Sturgeon think limiting opportunities for the vulnerable is a move to be considered at all?

My contention is that SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is a bad leader, stupid and dangerous, her gesture politics are a dead weight on the governance of Scotland. In the midst of the pandemic, Sturgeon has failed the people of Scotland. This is increasingly looking like abuse of power and abuse of ministerial office. The reality of Sturgeon's handling of the pandemic is that she has failed in the most key areas, such as public health messaging, which she deliberately has made political. Scottish people are ignoring her appeals because her incompetence has cost so many people their lives. It's like realisation that you aren't willing to get in the car with the drunk driver despite their protestations they can get you where you want to go. Scotland has parted company with Nicola Sturgeon sometime ago, you can hazard a guess and say, maybe it was because Sturgeon allowed infected people into sterile care homes of the elderly, but whatever reason Scots have, they have turned off and tuned out.

What is the plan to win back the Scottish public with health messaging?

I think the answer to that is none! You see like Hitler in the bunker, Sturgeon still thinks she is a mastermind who can still win victory. The virus is everywhere because Nicola Sturgeon politicised health messaging in the hope of 'rigging' the Holyrood 2021 election by using the media as her platform. 2021, the SNP will promote Sturgeon, every constituency leaflet with probably feature her and the candidate side by side, with them gushing how they are so grateful for Sturgeon being in charge. All the failures of Nicola Sturgeon will of course not be mentioned, but grievance politics against Westminster will be. Nonsense will be written about hope, about moving Scotland forward, but nothing about those who died and will die on Nicola Sturgeon's watch. Every candidate for the SNP will not be quality, we have already seen what passes in the SNP for selection.   

In the wake of SNP failure to control covid, Scotland's Deputy First Minister John Swinney has said because Scots are not staying at home as much as they did at the start of the first lockdown, Sturgeon maybe is going to put in place tougher restrictions. As we saw previously, the SNP operates on the 'one rule for them, another rule for the rest of us'. The public saw this from Sturgeon herself, she gets to travel around, she gets to go to social events, she gets to turn up at facilities that she is neither qualified to be at and no business being at during covid. She swans about in £100,000 plus private limo doing photo ops while the real business of government is left like a newspaper on a grass verge at the roadside. So, why is Swinney playing the political thug for Sturgeon? The answer is simple, so she can have clean hands, and so she can step in and tweak things for political advantage, Swinney is the sap, he is the daft workie and Sturgeon is his boss who saves the day. The nonsense of I will sort it out, I'm your pal, I'm on your side'.   

Swinney made his more lockdown  comments while giving "evidence" to Holyrood's Covid-19 Committee. Is evidence the right word to use when the SNP interacts with Holyrood Committees or is it better to say, offloading biased opinion accumulated from watching measures of others elsewhere. Swinney says the Scottish Government is monitoring public transport use, traffic data and other information. So, is he implying the infection rates are being transported by the use of vehicular traffic, train, bus and airplane? I get the impression that they are so out of their depth that they are cling to anything to say as a 'filler' because deep down they don't know.

Swinney said:

"The volumes of movement in society are greater than they were in the period immediately following lockdown in March 2020. We are monitoring those issues very carefully, with a view to potentially having to put in further measures that would further constrain the ability of individuals to have reasonable excuse to be at work, for example, and for employers to essentially justify individuals being at work."

Swinney offers the opinion that there is "still too much movement in society. Isn't the fact that Sturgeon and Swinney by cramming and restricting choices only compound infection rates? If limiting access to outlets for food, increases opportunity for infections should the strategy be to have staggered consumerism? Shouldn't we also have staggered working so that crowding can be avoided? Why is it, a guy like me, sitting at a desk with limited resources typing on an aged pc can pull ideas out, and Sturgeon and Swinney, along with the Cult haven't two brain cells to rub together when it comes to dispersal of people? It took me a few minutes to workout we need staggered consumerism and staggered working as a reduction measure. This way we can also keep fast food places open so vulnerable people can access hot food, it seems no one in the SNP Government is looking out for them.

Mr Swinney added:

"I want to be clear with the committee that these are issues that we are monitoring very closely and carefully and may result in us taking further action to apply greater restrictions if we don't see a fall in the level of infectiousness within the country."

Monitoring very closely? Let me be clear? It seems Swinney is tied to buzzwords in the hope that the right 'noises' somehow fool everyone. Someone I read online said Swinney previously was an insurance salesman, if he was he should expect a raft of people at his door cashing in their policies for his defective governance. Two metres apart obviously!

Finally, is there a way to reinstate public health messaging in Scotland? Is there a way to make people change their habits? Will Sturgeon remove herself from her daily political broadcasts masquerading as covid briefings? How does Nicola Sturgeon win back the trust of the people of Scotland which she lost? She lost the indyref battle in 2014, she lost the Brexit battle 2016, and she has lost the covid battle 2020 and carrying that onto 2021. She lost your trust, the trust of communities, and people's patience is wearing thin. Why is the Louisa Jordan hospital not treating patients? Why can't the SNP under Sturgeon do anything thing right? Why can't they organise a vaccine rollout that works at 100% capacity?

The SNP want to run an independent country but they can't organise getting an injection into someone's arm?

Yours sincerely

George Laird                                                                                                                        The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

17 Years Since Scottish Labour Last Won a Holyrood Election; Scottish Labour Leader Richard Leonard say that arrogant SNP thinks it has a right to rule Scotland, Leonard is right, they are arrogant but they are comfortable in their arrogance because the opposition is weak and won't step up to fight them, Scottish Labour hasn't won a Holyrood election in 17 years, it is time to reform the party now, how many defeats does it take for a party like Scottish Labour to embrace real change?

Dear All

Political parties in opposition to a government have to be outspoken, they have to be seen as a government in waiting, and they have convince the public, of the merits of their policies and the merits of their candidates and elected politicians. Labour leader Richard Leonard says that the arrogant SNP believes they have the right to rule Scotland, I think if you look at the situation at present, you would have to agree with that statement. One thing tho, the SNP's arrogance is based on a lie, based on the opposition lacking vision and based on the fact the SNP has used the Scottish Government as a campaigning vehicle for the SNP. It also has to be said, the SNP are more effective at campaigning on the ground, and they're have a better organisational setup.

If Labour leader Richard Leonard wants to tackle the SNP, he like a football manager will need 'better players' on his team at Holyrood. These better players should also have a dual role, making the Labour Party function as a better team, from the grassroots up to the Staffers. Scottish Labour cannot sit and wait till the SNP become unpopular at the ballot box, they have to do the hard graft to get them into power, door to door, street by street. Why does it have to be this way, simply the Scottish Labour Party has a lot to make up for in terms of winning back the voters. In previous articles, I said that the party needs a new campaigning model, but it needs more than that, it needs to change the way it operates. You simply cannot rely on people to vote for the party based on the former developments of the party in the past that led to thecreation of the NHS and the welfare state.

Scottish Labour is a party that needs reset, it needs policies so huge in scope, that people would put them on a par with what Nye Bevan. Free tampons and repeal of the fitba act do not in any way shape of form compete with Nye Bevan's founding of the NHS or the creation of the welfare state. Many people voted for Scottish Labour because of policies like these and for the men and women who delivered them. Scottish Labour needs to rediscover itself and the reason why people voted for them. Holyrood 2021can be used as a start sure, as well as the 2022 council elections, but the real test for the party which requires drive and vision will and should happen in 2024. Westminster 2024 whether Richard Leonard likes it or not will be seen as a test not just for the party but also of Richard Leonard as leader. He has to head up a team that works and makes progress at Holyrood, he needs to carry that momentum to the council election, and then really push, not just fill slots for candidates in 2024.

Scottish Labour needs to change, the question is who is going to do it, because just producing policy and failing to look at the real problems of the internal pickle that Scottish Labour finds itself in, won't work. You don't paint a house which is condemned, you tear it down build another, take others with you and rebuild, then whip out the paint and brushes. Scottish Labour needs to be taken back to foundation level, and that means previous people on the job may find themselves moved.

The last time that Scottish Labour won a Holyrood election was 2003, that was circa 17 years ago, looking at that figure, and given the present situation, the party will crack being out of power for two decades in May. It is hard to be brutal about it because, everything seems to be business as usual with the party, and there has been no reform. Why has there been no reform, that isn't just a question for the leader, it is also a question for every CLP, every committee and everybody that decides policy. It is also a in part a matter for the unions, as they play a part in Labour's successes and failures. As Brexit is done, Scottish Labour needs to look at the new landscape which is 'Global UK', the Brexit war is over, those who fought as remainers lost, and have to make the case for Scotland making a go of it as Global UK. Global UK is how Scottish Labour start its way back with voters, it represents change, and opportunity. It is better to be leading the change with ideas than just merely following in its wake and from the sidelines.

So, what about the SNP, they lost indy, they lost Brexit and they lost their supposed route in the EU. They are a party without a narrative, other than grievance culture which is all they have left. Grievance culture will eventually do for them, but we should leave that process to them, we have to help them out by getting them out. Like Asda,the SNP can be 'rollback' in the political sphere but that doesn't mean parties like Scottish Labour can just sit there, they have a lot to do, to rebuild communities, rebuild education, fix governance in Scotland, fix councils, and then keep going to fix everything else the SNP trashed. Vanity projects by the SNP and every penny they handed out will have to be traced and proven to be value for money. If someone gets Scottish Government cash, they have to prove value, if not they ain't getting a nickle. So many people do good work for the vulnerable but they don't get recognised, while others hand out a few containers of veggie food and get a gong, especially it seems if they are SNP supporters and potential candidates.

Richard Leonard says and insisted his party delivered better devolution and will defend it. Well, that's one job, what about all the rest? It is time that the other issues which the SNP don't want to talk about need aired. Leonard  said he believed a devolved parliament within the UK "is still the popular choice of the people of Scotland". One thing he should be mindful of, is that the popular choice has a growing number of people who think Holyrood because of its antics needs closed down. As the SNP cry for independence, if the Labour Party cannot turn Holyrood around, then the chants of close the place may end up as equally loud. Politics in Scotland is broken,  and the SNP sit as a cancer polluting everything from Holyrood downwards to councils and even into the NGO sector and government organisations which should be non partisan. 

Speaking to the media, Leonard said:

"The questions that I get asked are based on the SNP sweeping to a majority [at May's Holyrood election], and there is a certain arrogance about the SNP, there is a certain belief that somehow they've got a right to rule for the next five years. I dispute that."

Richard Leonard also had to listen to some brutal opinion as the radio station played Mr Leonard the results of a focus group of 2014 No voters, who dismissed his party as "finished" and "plodding along".

Finished, I don't think I am there with that opinion, "plodding along" is certainly the case, and that has been happening since 2007. Leonard said Scottish Labour has suffered an electoral decline and needs to turn that around. How he do that if there isn't the will to turn around the party from inside? Reform, reform and reform, can Richard Leonard not see that people aren't voting for Scottish Labour for specific reasons? People voted SNP as a protest vote because elected representatives failed people in constituencies, and what happened to those MPs, MSPs and Cllrs, who did this, absolutely nothing. You don't vote for people who don't represent you, that is the route to madness. Scottish Labour need to cull people who add no value to the party in constituencies, the ones who don't work and whose laziness brings down the party in the eyes of the public. You can plenty of example of people who do what needs to be done, but the rotten apples, they just sit there, protected in some cases.

If Richard Leonard says he does not underestimate the scale of the challenge, he will get a chance to see at Holyrood 2021 what the public thinks of his vision. If he recognises the challenge, everyone will see if he rises to the challenge, if nothing is his default, he will only have himself to blame.

Scottish Labour last won a Holyrood election in 2003, that was circa 17 years ago, they have done nothing to change since then beyond what could be dressed as moving a few plant pots about, then patting themselves on the back for doing so. Asked if he will be First Minister after the Holyrood election in May, Richard Leonard said he is "fighting for every single vote and every single seat", one thing which he will not be able to dodge is the election result. In his interview, he should have laid out a blue print for a new Scotland, he has to go beyond well meaning feelgood, and get to the nitty gritty, what he is going to do, how he is going to fix it and who he is going to bring in to get the job done right. It isn't enough to say he is offering a "different kind of future" and not spell it out, because like it or not, it is 4 months to the election. 

You don't need Richard Leonard to tell you inequality and child poverty are rising in Scotland, you need him to spell out how he is going to end it, and the steps to do so. Don't talk about fixing the problem, fix the problem!

Yours sincerely

George Laird                                                                                                                        The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University