Never one to resist an exercise in utter futility, the controversial Somerset-based "Stew" blogger has attempted to resuscitate a correspondence with the Chief Constable and the Crown Office that has clearly already been closed. What is perhaps more disturbing is that he has issued a fairly clear threat to get his readers and their money directly involved in the futility by crowdfunding a judicial review bid - which would likely be a repeat of the "Wings Of Justice" calamity when Stew's readers were coaxed into chucking eye-watering amounts of cash down a bottomless pit in pursuit of a hopeless vanity-driven defamation case against Kezia Dugdale. That said, it was for the most part good independence supporters who had their money wasted on the Dugdale case, whereas the dwindling ranks of Stew Devotees that remain now are far more likely to be neo-unionists and soft fascists, so perhaps it won't be quite so harmful this time if tens of thousands of pounds are sucked into the black hole of Loyalty To The Great One.
You don't actually need to be any sort of legal expert to understand why Stew is completely wasting his time here - just elementary logic and basic common sense is enough to tell you that he's arguing on an obviously false premise. He claims that it is "chronologically impossible" for the police to have already investigated the implications of John Swinney's recent statement about how the ringfenced indyref funds were spent, because Operation Branchform concluded before that statement was made. But here's the thing - it's absolutely *not* "chronologically impossible", indeed it's overwhelmingly likely, that either Mr Swinney or others of seniority within the SNP will have earlier made an identical statement in private to the police. Of course the police will have asked where the money went, and of course that question will have been answered. If that answer was investigated to the police's satisfaction, there plainly doesn't need to be a repeat of the investigation simply because Mr Swinney has repeated the answer in public.
Why would the police have been satisfied with the answer? Probably because it touches on such a grey area. If you fundraise for an independence referendum, is it reasonable to spend some of that money by doing preliminary/preparatory campaigning for independence years in advance of any referendum being called? It might well be, but that's in the eye of the beholder. It's not clear-cut. The question the police may have been asking themselves is whether a court could be sure that any reasonable person would definitely take the opposite view, and of course that certainty was never going to be there.
For what it's worth, my own personal view is that Mr Swinney would have been better advised to answer the question about the funds by saying that all of the relevant decisions were made by the previous leadership and that it wasn't for him to second-guess them - all he could answer to was the current financial situation and how funds would be spent from now on. He didn't need to assume responsibility for decisions he didn't actually take - but even having done that, I don't think it's going to do much long-term harm to either himself or the SNP, because it looks increasingly unlikely that any legal complications will occur.
Catch up with my recent YouTube videos:
If this Makerfield by-election poll is accurate, it's the end of the road for Keir Starmer as PM
RUPERT LOWE could be the midwife of Scottish independence, just as Mrs Thatcher was for devolution
ONE-FIFTH of Reform UK voters in Scotland would vote Yes to independence, says new Norstat poll
ASTOUNDING poll surge for SNP: how Stew's "Accidental Clouseau" moment may have SAVED party he hates
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Wesr Street MP is the first person ever to play Bach's six Brandenburg Concertos on the kazoo.
ReplyDeleteHow does he find the time with all that planning to sell off England's NHS? He's a marvel.
DeleteTrying to decide if "Wesr Street" is some kind of convoluted pun or just a really egregious typo
DeleteWes was Bjorn to make U happy.
DeleteOoooh! Egregious! Einstein-alike.
DeletePaddy Power are now taking bets on just how many times that dead nag will be flogged by Campbell, Clerkin or any other of the dwindling bunch of utter nutters still populating Wings.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that rock star bloke will take it up - he seems dumb enough.
Laughable further letter from WOS to Police Scotland raising further questions. Anyone who doubts what I have always said, that Campbell’s skills extend to cut and paste and nothing more, should read it. His pathetic attempt at setting out a legal argument for further investigation will have them laughing at POlice Scotland for weeks to come. What a moron. He had of course been left looking a complete tosspot at the end of the police investigation. He got virtually everything wrong. As I and others had consistently pointed out, there was no criminal conduct by the SNP or by N S. The SNP has been found to be a victim of embezzlement, not a perpetrator. You really cannot get it any more wrong than Campbell did. Sad wee man.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to laugh my guts up at his latest pompous foray into matters above his ability level.
DeleteIt's well worth listening to both The Elite (lawyers John McGovern and Mike Dailly) and Ponsonby & Massie podcasts on this topic.
ReplyDeleteRobin McAlpine also wrote about the 'ring-fenced' money this week.
My view from these is: that the polis are reluctant to get involved at this stage; the law says you can't ring-fence money for a specific purpose then use it for another purpose; the NEC members had fiduciary duties to manage the money for the purpose thst it was raised for; the SNP and NEC membersnare open to civil complaints from members and people who contributed. All it takes is a couple of thousand pissed-off members to co-ordinate and chip in a tenner each to drag these people into court.
A very interesting point made in the Ponsonby & Massie podcast was that if the situation is still in the news then the by-elections caused by Flynn and Gethins becoming MP may be at risk for the SNP.
A wider point is that the SNP has become a laughing stock over the Murrell Collection. People are angry at the stupidity of this corruption. I had the first politics conversation at work for a decade and this was brought up by a person who's politics I had little idea of. She was sympathetic to the difficulties in the Murrell-Sturgeon marriage but still scathing about the embezzlements and stupidity of absent governance. Her point was simple: how can the SNP credibly say that they can improve the lot of Scotland through independence, when they can't govern their own party nor want to investigate why? I can't argue against that.
"It's well worth listening to both The Elite (lawyers John McGovern and Mike Dailly) and Ponsonby & Massie podcasts"
DeleteWell, there's a first time for everything, I suppose, but on past form you'll forgive my scepticism. (Bernard Ponsonby is good, of course, but Massie rarely contributes much beyond a prolonged sneer.)
"Robin McAlpine also wrote about the 'ring-fenced' money this week."
Yes, he did, I read it at the time, and all that anyone can reasonably say about that is he's lost all sense of perspective on this subject. His none-too-subtle personal beef with John Swinney and others is leading him to make ever more outlandish claims and predictions, very few of which are likely to prove true.
"that the polis are reluctant to get involved at this stage"
No, what's actually happened is that they've made a decision and reached a resolution. Wishful thinkers are reimagining that final decision as "reluctance to act until prodded a bit further".
"All it takes is a couple of thousand pissed-off members to co-ordinate and chip in a tenner each to drag these people into court."
Nah. Not going to happen. As I understand it, a relatively limited number of donors felt strongly enough about it to ask for their money back, and all of them got it back. If you expect to find masses of people who will act in an aggrieved way, first they'd need to have something to be aggrieved about.
"A very interesting point made in the Ponsonby & Massie podcast was that if the situation is still in the news then the by-elections may be at risk for the SNP."
Well, I guess that's why those guys are paid the big bucks. Who else would ever have imagined that a major political controversy could possibly affect the results of elections that are about to take place?
Lovely wee story Jacob. You will of course have pointed out the fact that in delivery in the areas of NHS, education, reduction in child poverty, benefits entitlements, disability benefits and social care (to name but a few) SNP governments in Scotland have consistently outperformed all governments of all political persuasions in all other parts of the U K. You will I am sure also have pointed out that the matter of SNP funds being embezzled by a chief executive is a matter of criminal law, and has been dealt with accordingly, and that the SNP were the victims, not the perpetrators. I am sure you will have also pointed out to your friend that the Unionist claims had all been based on trying to establish criminal behaviour on the part of N S until she was cleared of any such conduct, and only now are the sad wee unionists and their SNP Baaad helpers scratching around in the area of civil law. Their cause, incidentally, is hopeless. There is no prospect of establishing precise terms and conditions of the donations, and it is recognised by, amongst others, the electoral commission, that there is latitude as to exactly what purposes funds raised can be used for. Your friend, exercised by this internal matter of SNP party funds, must have been truly apoplectic at the brazen theft of tens of billions of pounds of public money by unionist politicians and their cronies during Covid. What did she have to say about that? Does she seek justice against Mone for the £230 million? Nice try, but it’s time the SNP Baad brigade went home to WOS.
DeleteJacob, what your friend is basically saying is that the Scots are incapable of governing themselves.
Delete9.04
DeleteWhat a load of waffle. The snp let people down with this indy ring fenced fund. Pathetic to deny that. And anyone outside the bubble knows fine this is a matter of integrity.
Jacob72. For your information, it is never worth listen to Alan Massie's son.
DeleteJacob72 has 5 paragraphs in his post. James has 10 paragraphs in his post. Anon @9.04am has none and it shows the difference between people who consider their readers and someone self obsessed.
Delete"The Murrell Collection". As Frank Carson used to say: "That's a cracker". Thanks for the laughs.
Deleteanon at 12.45. Feel free to contradict anything I have said. Silly little billy boy that you are.
DeleteAnon at 7.54 pm. What a contribution!!! If only it was satire. Toddle on back to wings.
DeleteAnon at 7.54. You can go to night classes in reading if you are struggling. Happy to help.
DeleteRobin Macalpine is meanwhile inciting SNP members to make a compliant to Police Scotland about NS he doesn’t explain the basis of the complaint. Don’t know why he thinks complaints against NS are permissible by SNP members . And of course you have to have actual evidence to make a complaint the hatred makes you lose any sense of reason
ReplyDeleteThis is not a very sensible route for Robin Macalpine to go down. Some years ago he was heavily involved, via Common Weal, with a promising citizen journalism project called Common Space, to which I made a small regular contribution. The Common Space project failed. No big deal - it was an ambitious effort in a difficult market. But I was interested to see that my donations were immediately redirected - without any consultation - to a different Common Weal project which I did not support. Pots and kettles?
DeleteScotland will never become independent without Robin McAlpine's permission. The guy has one huge ego.
Delete'Citizen journalism'. I remember when it was called parish pump tittle tattle.
DeleteRobin who?
DeleteMy take on the spending of the money was based at the time on the premise that in order for there to be another independence referendum the SNP would first of all need a majority of MSPs at Holyrood to vote for one. Campaigning at Westminster elections plus Holyrood in the 2021 election was going to be absolutely crucial. In the time between the £600k being raised (if that was the actual sum) and the 2021 election at Holyrood, there were two Westminster elections (2017 & 2019) which themselves were going to cost the SNP a large amount of money to fund in campaigning costs. Had the SNP not won those Westminster elections in Scottish terms then the task of getting enough MSPs in 2021 to vote through a Referendum Bill would have been extremely difficult. In my opinion the use of the £600k to help fund campaigning in each of those three elections was an entirely justifiable spend in relation to independence campaigning. As a donor to that appeal I gad no problem with how my money was used by the SNP.
ReplyDelete12.39am. The trouble with that analysis is the SNP continually lied by saying the money was not spent and it was still in the accounts. Woven in to the accounts the treasurer said. Why could they not just fundraise for the elections you mention. It’s called being honest .
DeleteI thought it was for when an independence campaign was happening, which could be anytime or sometime in the future. The point was I believed we needed a continually added to fund so they were ready whenever it was on.
DeleteIts sophistry to make out they meant to use it for normal elections outside of a defacto referendum. No idea if its legal but its certainly wrong
Robin McAlpine like his buddies is a failure, and there's none so bitter over others success like failed people
ReplyDeleteYou could take Robin McAlpine seriously if he had maybe managed go get himself elected - even to Back of Beyond community council or some such body. But in essence he has achieved nothing. Common Weal is an irrelevance. His whinging is personal. He had all the answers and when he tried to tell the SNP leadership where they had gone wrong - what with winning all those elections and so forth - they ignored him. Call the police - it’s criminal no one has recognised his genius. Other than George Robertson that is when he worked for him after him and his maw joined the Labour Party when Blair was leader
ReplyDeleteMcAlpine is a labour plant.
ReplyDeleteAlong with McKenna, Hassan and a few others who claim independence is their main goal.
ReplyDelete