Friday, May 22, 2015

Now this is rare - I actually thought Carmichael was better than this. I'm truly shocked.

Am I alone in being genuinely flabbergasted to discover that Alistair Carmichael was directly responsible for the 'Frenchgate' smearing of Nicola Sturgeon during the election campaign, and had lied through his teeth when asked for his version of events?  He says that, if he was still a minister now, he would consider this to be a matter requiring his resignation - oh, how frightfully honourable.  Well, he was a minister when he did what he did, and moreover he knew perfectly well that he had done what he did (even though the rest of us didn't), and if it's a hypothetical resignation matter now it was sure as hell a real resignation matter then.

So if he's such a man of honour, why didn't he come clean immediately and step down as Scottish Secretary?  Oh, that'll be because he would have lost his Orkney & Shetland seat (which he only barely clung on to), and the Liberal Democrats would have been left with zero Scottish seats rather than one.

The fact that he still has the letters 'MP' after his name is a direct consequence of his act of dishonour.  If he doesn't now resign from parliament (and he probably won't), nothing could better symbolise his party's thoroughly deserved demise - their only ghostly parliamentary presence is a disgraced politician who everyone knows shouldn't be there.

35 comments:

  1. Only honourable men resign so there is no chance that Carmichael will resign.

    Will the people of Shetland want him to remain as their MP, and if they do not is there any way to force his exit?

    The good news however is if he does not resign the Lib Dems at Holyrood will be reduced even further, and they could lose all their MSPs, happy days.

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    1. I think constituents can only petition to have their MP recalled if he/she is sent to prison or is suspended from parliament for a lengthy period.

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    2. Allow me a small moment to gloat as I (and others too) knew it was the fat fool Carmichael straight away. :-D

      The sheer jawdropping incompetence of the smear could only ever be from somewhat as utterly witless and unprincipled as Carmichael.

      Of course the sleazy fool should resign as an MP, but for that matter, what in the name of the wee man is Rennie still doing as 'scottish' leader of the yellow tories after their worst result ever and a complete annihilation of their scottish MPs???

      It's bizarre, staggering and complete proof that Clegg's ostrich faction are still in place even though Clegg has gone. They really are completely out of touch with the real word as it is blindingly obvious that Rennie has to carry the can for the lib dems scottish calamity. Dear god, even Murphy has shown more personal responsibility than Rennie and Carmichael in resigning, Murphy of all people!!!

      The lib dem hopes of rebuilding in scotland are a complete fantasy as long as unprincipled incompetent fools like Carmichael and Rennie are in place.

      It's telling too that while the ostrich faction boasted about a small upsurge in their membership after the election Clegg's sleazy spinners didn't feel like mentioning that was primarily because of those members returning who had left the party and swore never to return until Clegg had gone.

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    3. That's a fair point about Rennie - after the calamity in 2011, Tavish Scott accepted responsibility and resigned, even though most people would have said Clegg was more to blame for the result. So what's the difference now? Rennie can't really say "oh this was a Westminster election, nothing to do with me", because how would he explain his appearance in the leaders' debates?

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    4. Because the only person left is Alison McInnes, and she doesn't want it?

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  2. Kezia Dugdale was first out the traps on her twitter feed#frenchgate

    hope she offers apology to FM

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  3. Completely shot what little credibility he had left.
    How can anyone now believe anything he says,apart from some people in the Northern Isles but at least they know now what sort of person is representing them.
    Jo Grimond will be turning in his grave.

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  4. Carmichael has committed a breach of trust to try and influence the outcome of the GE and has to be forced to resign as an MP for doing so - no ifs or buts wil do - he has to pay the price for what he did.

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  5. Off-topic, but I'm quite surprised to see the SNP have been given the chair of the Scottish Affairs select committee. I thought they'd be kept well away from that one.

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    1. It would have looked bloody odd (and undemocratic) if the SNP had been given two chairmanships and Scottish Affairs hadn't been one of them. In any case, Carmichael himself would have been the only non-SNP option, because David Mundell and Ian Murray are otherwise engaged.

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  6. Alastair Carmichael should resign immediately as an MP, for what he has done is a gross breach of trust.

    He lied about his involvement at the time so that he could continue to campaign for his seat in Orkney and Shetland and this is completely unacceptable for anyone wanting to be an MP to do.

    He scraped home at the GE but quite possibly would have lost his seat had this information been known to voters at the time of the GE.

    If he won't go voluntarily then a peoples petition should be started to force him to do the honourable thing and resign.

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  7. This had Carmichael's fingerprints all over it from the start and I would have little doubt it might have had a small impact on the Constituency vote even as a rumour. Clearly with a majority of 800, if it had become factual he may well have lost.

    Given the nature of this it is disappointing (but unsurprising) to see him cling on. He has no honour or personal decency.

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  8. Presumably this precludes him taking a frontbench role in the now much depleted LD parliamentary party: maybe there will be seven frontbenchers, and him.

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    1. I know what you mean, but I'm fairly sure that no party with only 8 MPs will be getting anywhere near the front bench!

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  9. Depressingly he won't resign, he'll quietly stand down at the next election so as not to add further pressure to his slender 800 majority. Even more depressingly, this enquiry I'm could easily have reported before the election but was clearly engineered to come afterwards so that the people of the Northern Isles were unable to pass proper judgment on this wretch.

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    1. It's the Lib Dems themselves who will suffer if he doesn't go - including both Westminster and Holyrood they have six parliamentarians in Scotland, and one-sixth of that representation is now discredited.

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    2. And another one-sixth is Tavish Scott. It's grim.

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    3. It is grim. What's even grimmer is that by far their largest group of lawmakers is their contingent in the House of Lords - what a travesty for a party that carved a niche for itself to no small extent on the basis of being in favour of constitutional reform.

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  10. Interesting theory doing the rounds that Carmichael agreed to write his mea culpa to Sturgeon in return for the SNP not pushing for a by-election.

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    1. The fact that Sturgeon is pushing for a by-election would seem to disprove that theory!

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    2. Oh. I missed that bit.

      Be quite funny if it was still true, though, and she'd just pulled a fast one on him.

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  11. I'm not shocked: anyone who could be part of a government that drives disabled people to suicide seems to have few scruples.
    But great that this is out. More nails in the already well-nailed coffin of the yellow tories

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  13. And I thought the Lib-Dems couldn't sink any further in my estimation. How wrong I was!

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    1. And i though that too. They are unvotable surely folk realise that.

      Carbunckle and rennie haven't got a clue what day it is .

      My thoughts are with another blogger Grumpy. We gave him stick for jumping ship BJ and he'll be boiling about this .

      By- election - SNP gain . Everybody gets news badges free say 57 . Libs billed but we'd wait for ever for payment as the Police are owed thousands.

      This is so weird at times.

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  14. Carmichael stood on a stage in Lerwick last week accepting applause from his adoring supporters - knowing he hadn't had the guts to own up to this despicable smear attempt before the election!
    If I lived in Orkney or Shetland I would feel seriously duped.
    I wouldn't want a man capable of failing to admit this level of wrongdoing for several weeks representing me in any capacity whatsoever - never mind as an MP.
    Delaying the Cabinet-led inquiry until after the election is now exposed as a cynical ruse to keep the people of Orkney and Shetland in the dark long enough to get Carmichael back into his comfortable ££67,060 + troughing expenses post for another five years.
    If the people of Orkney and Shetland - and I mean the ones who voted for Carmichael as well as the ones who didn't - are willing to take this lying down they have no respect for themselves.
    They must insist on Carmicahel's immediate resignation as MP for having presented himself as a man fit for public office under false pretences.
    Is this really the type of behaviour we are now willing to accept from our "honourable gentleman?" Not in my name!

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  15. "Another View" writes on the Scotsman website:
    "So let me get this right.
    The Fat Prefect leaked, or allowed the leak of, a document which he knew was a lie.
    The document was sufficiently embarrassing to require an apology to a foreign government.
    He denied involvement.
    An enquiry which cost the taxpayer £1.4m followed which easily found him out.
    He "would have resigned if he was still a Minister". Well he is still an MP, and still a liar.
    I suggest he (or his grubby little party) either pays back the £1.4m or he resigns as an MP. And immediately."

    About the only thing I can add to that masterly summing up is that Carmichael knowingly and vindictively impugned the reputation of the FIRST MINISTER OF SCOTLAND for base political advantage! No. He can't be allowed to sit on the naughty chair for five minutes and carry on. He simply can't.

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  16. Very disappointed, and as a LD I agree he should resign as an MP.

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    1. If the people of Scotland are willing to allow this man to continue in public office they deserve to be the laughing stock of the world.
      Do Scots really have so little respect for themselves that we are going to let such a man represent us in any official capacity?
      Are we going to shrug our shoulders, as Carmichael did, and say: "It's politics. These things happen!"?
      I, for one, do not hold that view and I won't lower myself to Carmichael's level by endorsing his cynical attitude.

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  17. I always assumed it was him, but I suspect labour took quite a bit of the blame for it due to their immediate and astonishing endorsement of it. Hell slap it intae them!

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  18. Surely the Liberal Democrats will expel him from the party and criminal charges will follow.

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  19. The fragrant Caron Lindsay is still defending her part in spreading the original lies on lib dem squeak.

    They are just as blinded by fear and hatred as labour and deserve the same fate.

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  20. I am not shocked at all, I always knew he was a Unionist scum bag who would stoop to any depths to keep his grasping mitts on his generous salary.

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  21. To answer the question at the beginning of the post, I don't know if you are entirely alone James, but you're not in my company I have to say.

    I have been watching the LibDems very closely since about 1997 (and moderately closely before then) and have come to the conclusion that if their lips are moving, they're lying. That if there is a position they can take which will damage an opponent, they'll take it, no matter how two-faced, duplicitous and self-serving it makes them look. That their regular nice guy image is entirely undeserved, and they're actually worse than Labour for lying, cheating and backstabbing.

    I don't know why it has taken the voting public so long to catch on.

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  22. If Carmichael refuses to resign as an MP, and if there is any honour remaining in the Liberal Democrat party, the party whip must be withdrawn. Let him serve out his five years in independent isolation.

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