The Scottish Devil's Advocate; SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon celebrates two whitewashed Scottish Inquiries into her conduct as First Minister, is it time the UK Govt sanctioned a judge-led inquiry as probe finds First Minister ‘misled parliament’, the stench of SNP corruption is choking the whole of Scotland, and Holyrood is reduced to nothing more than a poverty porn show for middle class contestants to get enhanced State benefits, The 'Big Giro' Show has a casting call for selections on May 6th

Dear All 

In politics, building your hopes up is a bad strategy, especially when your place your faith in people doing the right thing. We have all sat through the farce of the compromised Salmond Inquiry, an inquiry rigged to fail. We saw how witnesses were barred from giving evidence, we saw how the Scottish Government obstructed the inquiry, and we saw exactly what we expected to see from the SNP Chair Linda Fabiani and the SNP MSPs. The only two people who had a reasonable bash of attempting to get to the truth were Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, and Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser. The reason for the inquiry was the Scottish Government attempted to rig a process against Alex Salmond. When he successfully challenged what they were doing it escalated to a criminal trial. The other inquiry running at the same time was the Hamilton Inquiry, in both these inquiries, the SNP set the rules. Many people put faith in Hamilton to deliver an appropriate verdict but in the end, the Hamilton Inquiry just like the Salmond Inquiry was a waste of time. If you want to understand what really took place, you have to go to websites like Wings over Scotland or the Gordon Dangerfield blogs. 

The nuts and bolts are; 

1/ The SNP Government rigged a process.

2/ The SNP Government fought to stop the rigged process being overturned.

3/ The SNP Government withheld evidence.

4/ The SNP Government stopped witnesses appearing.

5/ The SNP Government engaged in a cover up.

6/ The SNP Government escalated matters to a criminal trial.

8/ The accusers of Alex Salmond came from a group close to Nicola Sturgeon.

9/ The SNP tried to put pressure on witnesses to testify against Alex Salmond. 

There are of course many other points, but these give you a sense of what the SNP corruption entailed. The SNP and the SNP Government had an objective, and that was to jail an innocent man, possibly for the rest of his life. Those involved in the plot, some have been given lifelong anonymity, free to walk among us having lied in Court under oath. The impression that the SNP tried to create was that the 'alphabet women' were people across a vast Scottish Government and SNP network, the truth is the accusers of Alex Salmond came from a group close to Nicola Sturgeon. In fact, one of the lies that Nicola Sturgeon told to the Salmond Inquiry was that the 'alphabet women' that she did know, she didn't know well. The thing about telling this lie to the Salmond Inquiry was that the Committee couldn't probe that claim due to the Court Order. If you had worked with someone in several different organisations at a senior level, I think Sturgeon's inquiry claim would have raised an eyebrow. 

If you expected something from both inquiries like justice and the truth, you were sadly mistaken. The only route to the truth is for an judge-led inquiry appointed by the UK Government with full legal powers and sanctions which is out with the control of the SNP Government. In the past, I wrote that Holyrood is a second rate parliament filled with third rate politicians, the 'pretend parliament' lived up to its name in the Salmond Inquiry. Holyrood is a joke, made that way by the calibre of people who pose as elected representatives. When you vote in Holyrood elections is akin to a show for middle class people to get enhanced State benefits, instead of 'Scotland's Got Talent', you have 'The Big Giro' show. Cast members are called MSPs, they get a big salary and lots of allowances are can set up teams so they can do 'appearances' at various points of the show. For years, the reputation of Holyrood has dropped, and the Salmond Inquiry just made it drop that little bit further. I think the moment that many will remember was during the no confidence vote when both the Scottish Labour and Lib Dems abstain on the no confidence vote. The Scottish Lib Dems leader did a video to try and explain what he had done. I tweeted: 

"The fact you are explaining yourself tells people you called this wrong. You have played politics, and what may have seen as a good idea has blown up in your face. This is your Clegg moment. The real opposition to the SNP is the Scottish public!" 

The vote as I understand came in 65 to 31 in favour of Sturgeon. Both Scottish Labour and the Lib Dems after all their theatre, failed to register on behalf of the people of Scotland, their disgust for what Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP Government had done. In a few weeks they will ask repeatedly for you to give them your votes to elect them back onto the 'show'. I am not really sure what they will use as a narrative, but what do you say to the Scottish public for the lack of grit, the failure to do what is right, just having a bit of backbone for Christ sake? If you think that these people who attack each other in the Holyrood Chamber are moral enemies, you are wrong, they drink and socialise with each other in the bars. The battle for Holyrood, is really the battle for enhanced benefits, big winners get a ministerial salary, and the power to funnel money, real money to people within their sphere.  You vote for the least objectionable, you vote for someone who is willing to give you back some of your own money, either directly or indirectly through services which you may or may not use. 

Holyrood is an expensive farce, it's like a rotten abscess in your mouth, it's always there, it's always causing pain, and you are at the back of the queue to get relief from it. In a new report published today, the Committee on the Scottish Government's Handling of Harassment Complaints states: 

"If she (Sturgeon) did have such knowledge, then she should have acted upon it. If she did have such knowledge, then she has misled the committee."     

Scottish Conservative Murdo Fraser said: 

"To uncover all the details, a judge-led inquiry is now necessary." 

If there is an SNP judge led inquiry, do you want to write the verdict prior to it, if it ever takes place? I have no faith in any SNP judge led inquiry, just as I didn't have faith in the Salmond Inquiry and the Hamilton Inquiry either. 

The Salmond Inquiry report said: 

"The Committee notes that there is a fundamental contradiction in the evidence in relation to whether, at the meeting on 2 April 2018, the First Minister did or did not agree to intervene. Taking account of the competing versions of events, the Committee believes that she did in fact leave Mr Salmond with the impression that she would, if necessary, intervene." 

And, the question of why she kept in contact with Salmond after she alleged she made it clear she wouldn't intervene. Why were no notes taken at a Government business meeting? Why was there no follow up letter to Salmond saying she wouldn't intervene? Could a person think that the reason for continued contact was so that The SNP Government might gleam information from Salmond and his advisors of their strategy for the review? If that was the case, what was the name of the person who would pass information along to the Scottish Government 'working party' fighting to defeat the judicial review? I suppose you have to start with the question, who was in Nicola Sturgeon's house on April 2nd? We know from information in the public domain that; 

1/ Alex Salmond was there.

2/ Nicola Sturgeon was there.

3/ Geoff Aberdein, former Salmond aide was there.

4/ Duncan Hamilton QC, Salmond's lawyer was there.

5/ Liz Lloyd, Sturgeon's Chief of Staff was there. 

If, we discount Salmond, Aberdein and Hamilton, we are left with two people, Sturgeon and Lloyd. 

In the Salmond Inquiry, the report said relating to Sturgeon intervening: 

"This was corroborated by Duncan Hamilton who was also at the meeting. Her written evidence is therefore an inaccurate account of what happened, and she has misled the Committee on this matter. This is a potential breach of the Ministerial Code under the terms of section 1.3 (c)." 

It seems that Alex Salmond and Duncan Hamilton either don't have a good command of English or they have a bad memory, because Sturgeon's view is contradictory. It now seems also that no one will resign in Nicola Sturgeon's corrupt SNP government. So, despite Scottish Conservatives saying Nicola Sturgeon's senior government officials should consider their position if she is not held accountable, not even scraps will be tossed at the parliament. 

Murdo Fraser MSP, said: 

"As James Hamilton said yesterday, it is ‘for the Scottish Parliament to decide whether they were in fact misled.’ The committee verdict is in – Nicola Sturgeon misled Parliament and the public. If she ploughs on regardless, as she did against the advice of lawyers in the doomed Alex Salmond judicial review case, the First Minister will leave the country scarred by the most bitter divisions. It seems clear that Nicola Sturgeon will refuse to abide by the principle of democratic accountability for her government’s monumental mistakes. The committee report indicates that even if the First Minister won’t be held accountable, numerous senior government officials should consider their position. It is time for someone to accept responsibility for letting women down, wasting more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money, and the abundance of false and misleading statements from senior government figures. At every turn, the committee was obstructed by the SNP’s attempts to shut down scrutiny and keep key evidence secret. We have managed to produce a strong report that uncovers a great deal of what went wrong. But to uncover all the details, a judge-led inquiry is now necessary.” 

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: 

“This report makes for sober reading. Never in my 22 years in Parliament have I witnessed a report such as this, which details the catastrophic failings of the Scottish Government on a matter of the utmost seriousness and sensitivity. Despite the obstruction of the Scottish Government, the committee has managed to get beyond its veil of secrecy. We must never forget that at the heart of this matter are women who were failed by the Scottish Government. Three years on, nobody has yet taken responsibility for this failure. The thread that runs through the rushed development of the harassment policy and the flawed implementation of the handling of complaints is the Permanent Secretary. She was involved in every aspect of the procedure and must bear much of the responsibility. The Scottish Government still does not have a robust and functioning harassment complaints procedure and women continue to be let down. There is an urgent need for reform to ensure that the complaints procedure is fit for purpose and lawful.” 

Baillie added: 

“The Scottish Government’s determination to plough on defending a judicial review, when the prospects of success were minimal, was irresponsible and cost the public more than £500,000. We also believe the First Minister has misled the committee about whether she would intervene, following her meeting with Alex Salmond on April 2, an act which is tantamount to misleading the Parliament. The Hamilton report may have exonerated the First Minister of breaching the Ministerial Code, but the catastrophic and myriad failings this committee inquiry has revealed have called into question her judgement.” 

Both the Salmond Inquiry and the Hamilton Inquiry were two battles rigged by the SNP so they could win. As the Nats cheer how clever they are at getting away with a rigged hearing, a cover up, a criminal trial to put someone in prison, and two ham strung enquiries, they forget one thing. The war against them hasn't ended, it has only started, it has really only started, there is a fifth column in the SNP now, who will undermine Nicola Sturgeon at every opportunity. Sturgeon will have to live in the bunker alongside her SNP Chief of Staff Liz Lloyd for the rest of her political life. They will have to watch everything they do and everything they say, because Salmond's allies and the opposition parties will bide their time. In the meantime, various Sturgeon allies will get picked off due to their own stupidity, whether that be sex, drugs, incompetence or criminality. Nicola Sturgeon reminds me of Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus, the German Commander of Stalingrad, encircling and surrounded on all sides, her troops having to fight in all directions, and above and below. And we all remember what happened to Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus, don't we, capitulation! 

Finally, the best way to sum up what has happened here is to quote from the movie, The Devil's Advocate 1997. As a movie buff, minor, Glasgow region, this came to me as I was written this piece. This is a scene near the end of the movie, where John Milton, the Devil is conversing with his son, you might find parallels with the current situation in Scotland. 

John Milton says: 

"Did you know there are more students in law school  lawyers walking the Earth?       

We're coming out guns blazing!

The two of you, all of us, acquittal after acquittal after acquittal

until the stench of it reaches

so high and far into Heaven

it chokes the whole fucking lot of them!" 

We live under an evil corrupt SNP government run by lawyers, the people who are threatening to put people into prison who speak out about SNP corruption are lawyers, the head of the snake is Nicola Sturgeon, she is a lawyer, and the acquittal after acquittal after acquittal of her is the shit that chokes the lungs and minds decent people in Scottish society.

Yours sincerely 

George Laird                                                                                                                                The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University