As you may be aware, Michael White's comments on the Alistair Carmichael scandal became ever more unhinged as yesterday wore on, culminating in him telling bemused Twitter users that it was entirely natural and desirable that there should be bad people in parliament, because they're needed to "represent" the bad people in the country at large. That statement is so obviously bonkers (should drug dealers be represented as well?) that I'm beginning to wonder if White is making good on some sort of complicated charity bet, or if we're witnessing the comeback episode of Brass Eye.
In a relative sense, his much-mocked Guardian column at the start of the day now looks like a model of sanity - well, up to a point. One of the claims he made in the article was that those of us calling for Carmichael to do the decent thing are a "lynch mob", and that like all lynch mobs, we will lose interest when we "remember it's lunchtime". That's curious, because just as he was writing those words, a fundraiser got underway seeking to raise enough money to petition the courts to declare Carmichael's election void. 24 hours on, the total amount raised is an astonishing £25,766 - more than enough to at least set the ball rolling. It looks like we're the lynch mob that forgot it was lunchtime - or maybe we're not a lynch mob at all, but just fair-minded citizens who dare to expect certain basic standards of those in positions of privilege. As I said myself when the revelation broke, I was genuinely shocked - Malcolm Bruce may truly believe that the whole world knew all along that all Lib Dem MPs routinely lie to the public, but the news hadn't reached me. I always thought that Carmichael was tiresome, but basically honest.
Mary Ann Kennedy (and I presume it's THE Mary Ann Kennedy) said it best in a supportive comment she left on the fundraiser page -
"This has nothing to do with party politics and everything to do with accountability. I would expect every elected member similarly found wanting to be dealt with in like fashion. Dhan t-sitig leis."
With such a huge amount of money having already been raised, there's now an onerous responsibility on the organisers to make sure that this legal challenge does actually take place. I think everyone understands perfectly well that there's a chance it won't succeed, but as long as the matter is taken to court and the law is tested, people will feel that they've had their money's worth.
I looked at the FB profile of one of the organisers, she apparently lives in Stromness. Although the fundraising effort is announced as not being an SNP fundraiser, I imagine it's fair to say that this group is at least in dialogue with Danus Skene? I imagine legal advice has already been taken.
ReplyDeleteI think "imagining" rather than knowing is what kicked this all off in the first place. :)
DeleteSo she lives in Orkney and Danus Skene lives in Shetland. Its like they're almost next door neighbours, Stromness and Lerwick being virtually one urban conurbation.
DeleteAn odd riposte anon. Did Danus Skene not stand against Carmichael for Orkney as well as Shetland?
Delete"I think "imagining" rather than knowing is what kicked this all off in the first place."
DeleteOr alternatively, they may have just read the Lallands Peat Worrier article explaining why a legal challenge has a chance of succeeding.
As a lowlander who has only ever visited Orkney once, and Shetland sadly as yet never, I gladly chipped in with a few smackeroonies (cf. Kevin Bridges) for the dual cause of the accountablity of MPs to their own constituencies, and of Government Ministers to all the citizens and even residents of these countries of ours which make up the U.K.
ReplyDeleteI assume that the SNP ground war will be far more focussed on the Shetland constituency next May?
ReplyDeleteDid Skene actually win in Shetland?
Allegedly.
DeleteTo get within a mere 800 odd votes the ground war was pretty damn impressive as it was. But yeah, it will be even more so next May as Danus and the SNP supporters there have done an incredible job in paving the way for future success and a far more entrenched and active SNP base in O&S.
DeleteSame story just about everywhere else TBH. We are still growing and still getting members and activists all the time in places where our support used to be less than stellar.
I did point out that White is just another low rent clickbaiter nowadays.
ReplyDeleteTruth is he almost certainly doesn't care about the lying smearer Carmichael or even the SNP that much. He saw an opportunity while he was sniffing about the story to put out some 'provocative' (fuckwitted) tweets then capitalise on that to manufacture some hypocritical false 'outrage' over he and Carmichael ludicrously being the 'victims' with a textbook piece of clickbait.
A laughably dumb and incompetent bit of clickbait that the cowards supporting Carmichael will still sieze on because White is the only establishment poodle hack desperate enough to posit such utter nonsense.
It's self-evidently not credible journalism of any sort but that's the pitiful state White and the Guardian are in now that they are pelting down the road of complete tabloidisation. If it gets views why on earth would White care that he's as big a laughing stock as Sir Malcolm Bruce, Carmichael and Rennie? Pageviews are all that matter now to failed journos like White.
As for the smearing liar Carmichael and Clegg's ostrich faction, I note that Rennie STILL refuses to answer questions about his role at the centre of this lib dem dirty tricks scandal and STILL hasn't apologised to Nicola for his smears and lies.
Not content with that Clegg's ostrich faction at lib dem HQ have taken leave of their senses (yet again) by putting fellow liar calamity Clegg in charge of responding to the Queens Speech.
Clearly it's not enough for Clegg's ostrich faction to thrust a slew of Liars like Carmichael, Rennie and Sir Malcolm Bruce into the limelight when you can remind the voters of the biggest and most toxic one of all.
Biggest for the moment that is. Carmichael certainly seems intent on eclipsing Clegg as the symbol of all that is wrong with the yellow tories in scotland.
Superbly written as always William.
ReplyDeleteI agree with James. I am a lowlander who contributed to the *people's fund* as I feel Carmichael has serious let down his constituents by trying to bring down Scotland's FM with lies and smears.
If it had been David Cameron who had been on the receiving end of this campaign of discredit, then this whole incident would have been dealt with differently and swiftly (in my opinion).
Orkney & Shetland deserve better from their elected representative - not a lying toe-rag who wants to cling onto power and do as he sees fit for his own greedy end.
The goal here is more to get Carmichael in the dock than to unseat him. If he has to explain himself under oath not only would that be excruciatingly embarrassing for him, who knows if he will implicate anyone else? Mundell? Maybe Clegg? If the case gets that far then he may resign anyway to protect his superiors.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget to keep donating to the crowdfunder - £60,000 is a heck of a lot of cash but it is the rough cost of the court case + lawyers etc as a whole. Any money not used will be donated to foodbanks across Scotland. It's the best way to show Carmichael we mean business. Let's go for the big 60k before Friday!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-people-versus-carmichael
It won't get that far. A court case risks Carmichael being banned from standing for office ever again, even as a councillor and being convicted might get him disbarred as a solicitor. If he resigns voluntarily he can stand again, if his party let him (they may not). But at least there's a chance, or Holyrood next year, or Europe and there's always ermine (again probably not if convicted).
DeleteAnd of course the police are investigating, Malfeasance in Public Office is a possibility. He may be too big a risk to let him stand again.
I remember White (one of the Guardian's committed Blairites) complaining about 'English taxpayers' funding the SNP cut in prescription charges a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteAt that time Scotland's GDP was around £5,000 per capita higher than the UK average (about 119%), and the then Scottish 'surplus' was over £5 billion.
That's over £5 billion more than we got back.
When this and Welsh Labour's scrapping of prescription charges were pointed out to him on the Guardian's 'Comment is Free' section, the Guardian's shocking hypocrisy was exposed as the moderators worked overtime to pull the relevant posts !
James
ReplyDeleteI doubt that this will get as far as the court, as I doubt that Carmichael will testify under oath.
There are all sorts of interesting questions just waiting to be asked, including the killer question "did you inform any of your UK cabinet members that you were about to leak this memo that you had never read?" "What was their response?"
Ah, the collective murmuration of the BrtNat troll winging around the various re-Indy sites click-baiting via their droppings from squeezing anuses.
ReplyDeleteA joy to behold for the twitcher on BritNat state apparatus alert and au fait to their pirate colors.
Rather foolish of them given the porking they get (pace Michael P on this site) on this site, WoS et al: Repetitive behavior bordering on insanity.
Still and not to worry, the Koala is up for lunch next followed by a digestive of Mundell, SPAD lackies, corrupted Yookay civil servants, and - at least - some damage wrought to the UK chain of command as well as minions like Rennie and Tavish Scott.
Splendid stuff and may this gift keep giving until we abrogate the Treaty, or the rUK secedes from the Union out of terror of the Scots ballot box.
People of Orkney and Shetland, I salute your guts and initiative!
I doubt if it will get to court since the powers that be will not want him in the dock. I think the BBC will tell him that he should go and go before it gets to court. After a suitable period he will get his coat of deid stoat and the £300 a day fro doing SFA but sell out O&S and Scotland generally. It is the Bwitish Way, anything else isn't cwicket!
ReplyDeleteWhy are anti-SNP folk so keen for Carmichael to stay? A by-election would be a big risk for the SNP, with little potential reward.
ReplyDeleteIf they won: no big deal, that was the general expectation anyway, and a SLID extinction doesn't have the constitutional ramifications that a Labour or Tory wipeout would. If they lost: "bubble burst"-type headlines galore, "islanders won't be bossed about by the SNP" etc.
The only rational reason to keep Carmichael in place is if his departure might put others in the firing line.
If Carmichael ends up in the dock he could implicate Mundell. If Mundell is implicated and pressure is put on him to resign and call a by election (unlikely but maybe possible) that could lead to his ousting and the abolition of the Scotland Office because there would be no Scottish Tory MPs left to be in it.
DeleteThat's one possible reason! I was originally in the "no one tells Mundell anything" camp, but his astonishingly contrived answer on Politics Scotland today didn't look too good, did it?
DeleteJust listened to Mundell's answer on Politics Scotland. It's as devious an answer as one might expect from someone who has had their fingers in the till but seeking a form of wording that is truthful but fails to give a full and honest answer. He is clearly hiding something. Listen from 22 minutes into the Politics Scotland programme for the 27th May..
DeleteMundell responds to questioning by noting that the Inquiry clearly stated no one else other than Carmichael and his SPAD were involved in the leak. He avoided answering whether he knew about it, answering again with a reference back to the Inquiry. Not quite what one would expect from someone who had no involvement or knowledge of what was happening or about to happen.
Update on previous comment. No need to look at the iPlayer, the Mundell clip is now on Wings over Scotland under the heading 'Something less than an answer'.
DeleteThe point I wish someone would put to Malcolm Bruce is this.
ReplyDeleteYou point out that lying, indeed "brazen lies" are commonplace amongst MPs, and indeed cabinet ministers. It's just normal practice and we should get used to it and not make a fuss. Nothing to see here, move along folks.
But then, how did this all start? The "dynamite" part of the memo was the suggestion that Nicola Sturgeon was lying. That her professed preference for a Labour minority government was simply a front, and that in her heart she would prefer a Conservative victory.
Hold the front page! Politician is saying something which might be a political position rather than her true beliefs! This is a serious matter ant it's "in the public interest" to expose her!
Malcolm, baby, if it's commonplace and unremarkable for politicians to tell brazen lies, so that we should simply overlook it when it happens, why the big fuss about Nicola? Even if she had said it, which she didn't.
Excellent point Rolfe
DeleteNice one Rolfe! :-)
ReplyDeletebraco
I sat there open mouthed at White's assertion that the people of Orkney and Shetland are bad people and thus should have a liar for an MP. As a fiction writer, I can very honestly tell you know one would believe it if I made it up.
ReplyDeleteExcellent thinking Rolfe, it is indeed hypocrisy of the highest order and yet another example of one rule for the Unionists/English and another for anyone else.
ReplyDeleteCarmichael himself on radio Orkney on 25th May quotes his staff saying “We think that it (the memo) should be put into the public domain.”
ReplyDeleteThis plural means that more than just Roddin knew about it. What are the bets that it was Mundell as well?
I am sure that this will turn out to be a Tory heffalump trap set for Labour and the Libdems. Not many Tories jumped on the twitter band-wagon at the time of memo-gate if I remember correctly.
Even if the court case didn't succeed it would be terrible publicity for Carmichael's LibDem chums in the run up to the Scottish parliamentary election in 2016. There is now an onerous responsibility on ALL of us to back the organisers because in reality they are fighting for the Scottish public's right to be represented by honest elected officials - and that includes LibDem supporters who are too blinkered by hatred for the SNP to see that. If the case is dropped we are telling politicians they can lie and cheat with impunity and we are too apathetic to do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably not going to be very popular for saying this but I actually met Michael White once a year or two ago and he was a really nice, funny, witty guy. He seemed like great company and a good laugh. It's just such a shame he has a massive blind spot with regard to Scottish politics and keeps going into those bizarre twitter meltdowns.
ReplyDeleteHe should be criticised for his behaviour and the ridiculous things he's said, everyone's 100% justified in that, just remember there's two sides to every coin and even Mr. White with his daft 'tache has a good side.
Oh sure, I heard it said that Hitler was very nice to people he met.
DeleteYeah, I'm sure Hitler would be a great dinner guest.
DeleteYep Mundells response was less than convincing and as Severin Carrel said, he will face more questions because of the strange way in which he denied knowing about the memo
ReplyDeleteI think the term the Westminster liars use is 'Plausible Deniability' the idea being that since Mundell said that the enquiry said only two people knew about the memo, if the truth comes out he can say he himself did not deny it, he just told the MSM what the enquiry was saying.
Similar defence that Carmichael has been using ie: I could not tell the truth because an enquiry was under way.
Mundell will collapse under pressure and if it looks like it is about to go to court the Tories will panic and force Carmichael to resign under threat of some other bombshell being released to the public if he doesn't.
Now where did I put that popcorn :-)
If there are any Tories reading this feel free to panic now. It's time to drop your bombshell on Carmichael if he doesn't resign.
ReplyDelete"LEGAL moves to overturn the election result in Alistair Carmichael’s Orkney and Shetland constituency will be made today, even if a crowdfunding bid fails to reach its target – as lawyers have pledged to help campaigners free of charge."
Hats off to these lawyers! Good to know we live in a country where some lawyers still value honesty in public office.
I'm still hoping the modest £20 I bunged at the fundraiser will turn out to be a donation to a foodbank charity. I did it in that spirit, hoping that the very threat of the legal action would be enough pressure to cause Carmichael to resign. If he doesn't, if this is forced to go all the way to the wire, I (and I imagine a hell of a lot more of the numerous people who donated small sums) am perfectly prepared to go back and donate again.
ReplyDeleteAs for my own honourable MP, David Mundell, I think it's highly unlikely that will turn into a resigning-his-seat issue. (Though I'd happily dust off my leafleting route maps if it did.) I think, though, that the furthest that might go would be forcing his resignation as Secretary of State for Scotland. Which would be quite entertaining in any case, given the absence of candidates to replace him.
Rolfe, if they push it all the way to the wire, putting the whole house of cards at risk, possibly knocking down dominoes further up the chain, setting a precedent others could use to get rid of their MP, then they are braver men than I think they are.
DeleteIf the stakes were ramped up that high it really would be "The People Vs. Carmichael", with thousands more sensing an opportunity to really stick it to these seemingly fire-proof "high heid yins".
In the (hypothetical) scenario that it also brought down Mundell as Secretary of State and the abolition of Westminster's propaganda operation the "Scotland Office", I'd be more than willing to bung more in and so would a lot of other people.
If this reaches the stage where an action is actually raised I would be very surprised if it actually had its day in court. Blocking tactics aside, losing Carmichael would be as nothing compared to losing the case - this would bring out yet more dirty linen (Mundell et al).
ReplyDelete