The Northern Ireland Assembly was shut down for four
years because of a scandal about renewable energy. The scandal involving Alex
Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon is rather bigger, but there is no mechanism for cross
community power sharing across in Scotland. The opposition parties cannot walk out
and thereby dissolve Holyrood. Sturgeon would remain in charge without
opposition.
Nicola Sturgeon and others are accused of plotting to put
Alex Salmond in jail. But whenever he appears to be about to provide evidence
that might actually be damaging, we find that a Government agency in this case
the Crown Office finds a way to prevent that evidence being evaluated. The
Crown Office ought to be completely independent, but so too should BBC
Scotland, Scottish universities, the police and all the other organisations
that are supposed to be free from political bias.
A free society is not merely one that has elections.
It is one where the political leadership does not control those organisations
that make free and fair elections possible. If Sturgeon and the SNP control the
most important state organisations in Scotland, then it will not be possible
for Scots to form political opinions in a free and fair way.
Russia’s transition from an emerging democracy after
the collapse of the Soviet Union to a dictatorship was such that Mr Putin could
still pretend that Russians lived in a democracy. But Mr Putin controlled everything,
the media, the civil service, the courts and the police so that any opposition
that might have emerged never stood a chance even of competing. Something
similar has happened in Scotland.
If Boris Johnson were accused today of trying to get
David Cameron sent to jail for rape and if David Cameron were able to put
forward a tightly written description of events and have it published on a House
of Commons Committee website, it is simply unimaginable that the Crown
Prosecutor would order it censored. If it were suspected that Boris Johnson had
influenced the Crown Prosecutor, the media frenzy would have been unimaginable.
The idea that David Cameron would be prevented from telling his side of the
story is preposterous, the media would not allow it. You see Boris Johnson is only
the Prime Minister, he is not Nicola Sturgeon.
Nicola Sturgeon with her tame BBC Scotland and her
control over every aspect of our lives will be able to continue her daily broadcasts
right up to polling day for the next Scottish Parliament elections. The Salmond
story is the biggest political scandal anyone can remember, but it is somehow
relegated below Tiger Woods having a car crash. We can hope that the Scottish
people will vote her out of course, but the hope is rather similar to hoping
that the Russian people will get rid of Mr Putin. What if anything can be done?
1. Westminster must make clear that under the present circumstances
where there is suspicion of corruption there can be no question of a Scottish
Government gaining a mandate for independence or indeed anything else. Genuinely
free and fair elections cannot take place if the Scottish Parliament cannot even
conclude an investigation into the Scottish Government. Scotland has become a
flawed democracy and until that flaw is rectified the Scottish Government obviously
cannot organise a free and fair referendum.
2. Opposition parties must consider not taking their
seats in the Scottish Parliament. If there is corruption in Holyrood it is
necessary to expose it by leaving it to the SNP plus other independence
supporting parties. Under these circumstances the Scottish Parliament would
lose all its legitimacy quickly. Of course, the opposition parties will not do
this. They will complain but, in the end, do nothing.
3. If there is no other way of ridding Scotland of
corruption Westminster must repeal the Scotland Act. The act of one Parliament
cannot tie the hands of another. For this reason, even if the Scotland Act
refers to the Scottish Parliament as permanent it can still be abolished or
suspended.
I no longer trust the Police, the Crown Office, the Procurator
Fiscal or the courts in Scotland. Alex Salmond could easily have ended up in jail
and was saved only perhaps because a jury suspected the witnesses against him
of being involved in a conspiracy. What happened to Alex Salmond could happen
to any opponent of Nicola Sturgeon. It could happen to anyone who crosses her, thwarts
her or who might expose something damaging about her.
This is how you end up in a tyranny, sent to a Labour
Camp like Alexei Navalny for daring to criticise a leader like Sturgeon.
