I didn’t intend to write a third instalment to my SNP scandal list, but kind Twitter users kept telling me about just one more scandal and then another. I wondered if I could reach one hundred and fifty. It didn’t seem possible. This will be the last instalment at least for a while. The point has been made it need not be laboured.
101. Alex Salmond promised to “we’d either have Theresa May or Nicola Sturgeon or Ruth
Davidson or Melania Trump, but I couldn’t make any of these wonderful women
come” The joke is even worse now.
102. Alex Salmond is asked to provide details of spending £467,000 on a trip to Ryder cup. Surely his tartan trousers couldn't have cost that much.
103. Nicola Sturgeon claims to have failed to tell MSPs about a meeting with Alex Salmond dealing with alleged sexual misconduct because she had forgotten about it. The dog had also eat her homework.
104. SNP cashed in on Covid by selling face masks with the SNP logo on them. Apparently upside down odal runes ward off Covid germs.
105. STV clip of children praising Nicola Sturgeon is compared to North Korea. Of course no one from the SNP contacted STV to ask them to make the clip.
106. Yen Hongmei Jin Scotland's only Chinese councillor quits the SNP because of racism and bullying.
107. Julie McAnulty SNP councillor and Holyrood candidate is suspended after saying "get the p*kis out the party"
108. Paul Monaghan told a racist cybernat to keep it up.
109. Nicola Sturgeon breaks social distancing rules in Holyrood but locks down the rest of Scotland
110. James Dornan and Fergal Dalton pose in front of a banned Irish republican terrorist group's flag
111. Moira Shemilt accused of anti-English xenophobia in online rant.
112. Derek Mackay boasted about chairing the SNP conference while drunk and was banned from attending the karaoke. This was not on account of his singing.
113. Michael Matheson loaned Prestwick Airport £43 million, but has no idea if he will get the money back.
114. Angus Robertson claimed £400 in expenses for a home cinema system. He claimed that the DVD player was bought to catch up on political programmes and that he used the fact that it also had a build in radio.
115. Alex MacLeod fiddled his election expenses and flouted a court order handed down for the offence.
116. Jennifer Robertson, wife of Angus, goes into business setting up Spey Media with the disgraced Alex MacLeod
117. Pete Wishart claimed twice for the rental of the same flat on his expenses, but claims it was all due to faulty paperwork.
118. Jeane Freeman claimed to work 376 days in one year.
119. Stewart Maxwell gets job with state owned company which required local and national political connections after giving up job as MSP leading to questions being raised about lobbying.
120. Peter Murrell said that he never asked his wife Nicola Sturgeon what her meeting with Alex Salmond was about. He also had no knowledge of how the complaints against Salmond were investigated by the Scottish Government.
121. Joanna Cherry falsely accused nurse Claire Austin of being married to a Tory after the nurse confronted Nicola Sturgeon on TV. Cherry later apologised
122. Joanna Cherry criticised Emily Thornberry for missing a vote when Thornberry was visiting her child in hospital.
123. SNP allegedly gagged journalist Stephen Daisley when he worked for STV
124 Nick Robinson required a body guard to do his work due to Scottish nationalists
125. Sarah Smith grovels in apology over the suggestion that Nicola Sturgeon was enjoying setting her own rules over Covid. Not that there was any pressure put on her.
126. Devi Sridhar hints at disagreement with Sturgeon, but a little later says she is completely aligned with her. Ruth Davidson suspects the use of a hair drying in the background. Afterwards Ms Sridhar goes native by accusing "unionists" of being anti-Scottish.
127. Lewis Ritchie arrested and charged over alleged sexual offences in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
128. Jim Sillars claimed that Alex Salmond had shown him evidence that the allegations against Salmond were a political set up.
129. Ashten Regan-Denham used her maiden speech at Holyrood to state that education was not a commodity to be bought and sold, but she sends her own children to a fee paying private school.
130. Alex Salmond put pressure on St Andrews University head Louise Richardson over independence. She was urged to issue a statement praising the Scottish Government.
131. Imtiaz Majid lied in court in an attempt to get a
divorce on the cheap but got a £50,000 bill instead.
132. Caroline Stephen had her £4000 council tax debt paid off by a colleague so she could take part in a budge vote.
133. Gregor Murray was suspended for two months as a councillor over derogatory remarks.
134. David Linden is unable to speak English in the House of Commons
135. David Linden is perhaps the first MP to use the word "cr*p" in the House of Commons, but withdraws it
136. Kenny MacAskill believes there were dark forces at work in the Salmond trial.
137. Pete Wishart suggests ways to break the law if he doesn't get his way. Isn't failing to take No for an answer the route of nearly all of the SNP's scandals?
138. Joanna Cherry wants the SNP to investigate ways of breaking the law. It's an odd look for a QC. Why should the rest of us obey the law?
139. Natalie McGarry agreed to pay £10,000 to charity for falsely calling a unionist a Holocaust denier.
140. Anne McLaughlin claims her Rastafarian boyfriend is being denied his human right to smoke cannabis. He is also employed by her.
141. Derek MacKay is still claiming expenses for a second home despite not voting.
142. SNP tried to block the newspaper that reported the Derek Mackay texting scandal. What other stories has the SNP successfully blocked?
143. Margaret Ferrier went to church while ill with Covid putting the lives of elderly church goers at risk.
144. SNP were warned about allegations of domestic abuse against Bill Walker three years before he was elected
145. Douglas Chapman claims that the "moral code was very different" when Bill Walker was beating his wife.
146. SNP condemn the decision to open the files on Arthur Donaldson founder of the SNP who was interned during World War II for supporting the Germans.
147. Tommy Shepherd says old people dying will reignite the independence campaign.
148. Alex Salmond blamed "elderly Scots, who were most hostile to leaving the UK, for holding back younger generations and argued that independence is inevitable after they die off."
149. Peter Murrell admits sending texts encouraging the police to take a greater interest in Alex Salmond
150. Nicola Sturgeon had earlier refused to confirm whether her husband had sent the texts. She said that she was not prepared to answer for other people, but denied obstructing the inquiry.
Will any of this make a difference? In any other
country it would. A list of scandals this long would make an enormous
difference in Europe or the United States. But in Scotland who knows? Committed
independence supporters won’t be persuaded to change their minds no matter what
the SNP do.
If the sainted Nicola Sturgeon turned out to be a
secret serial killer, Scottish nationalists would still vote for her and accuse
the victims of exaggerating their injuries.
But we are not appealing to the fanatics. We are
appealing to decent Labour and Lib Dem voters who are thinking of voting SNP
because they are angry with the Tories or angry about Brexit.
Much of politics is short term. It won’t in the end
much matter if there is a Conservative Government. It won’t even much matter that
we leave the EU. If it turns out to be a bad enough mistake we will go back.
But Britain is forever. Britain is the only country
any of us has ever been from. You don’t throw away being British because you
are miffed about Brexit or the Tories.
The SNP are a party full of scandal. They have limited
power. If they won independence, they would rule Scotland forever and hey would
have unlimited power. What would the scandals be like then?
These scandals won’t persuade everyone, but they will
persuade some voters. It’s not all one-way traffic. Lots of former SNP voters
have become sick of SNP sleaze. People do change their minds. This is why we discuss
politics. If they never changed their minds it would be because we already were
in a one-party state. Be scared above all of those with closed minds.
