I write a lot about Scottish politics, but I don’t
really know anything about the last three First Ministers. Compare this with
the last few Prime Ministers and leaders of the opposition. There is almost
nothing I don’t know about them.
It’s not just about the Covid Inquiry and the WhatsApp messages. We’ve heard in excruciating detail what Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings said at the time. Much of it is embarrassing. We’ve also had investigations into breaches of lockdown rules at Number 10 Downing Street.
We know huge amounts about Boris Johnson’s private life
because it has been reported in newspapers. Nothing is hidden. If there is an
attempt to hide someone in the civil service leaks or a vengeful former
colleague goes to the press. But there is nothing like this in Scotland.
Ever since the SNP came to power in 2007, we have only
ever seen what it wants us to see. The Scottish civil service wrote the SNP’s
independence White Paper. There is no Scottish equivalent of Sue Gray who
investigated Boris Johnson’s misbehaviour and then went to Labour. Can you
imagine a Scottish civil servant
investigating Nicola Sturgeon and then joining the Conservatives?
During 2013 and 2014 when Alex Salmond was presented
as a leader in waiting of an independent Scotland there were no leaks about his
alleged misbehaviour in Bute House. No one saw anything, no one heard anything,
and no one told anything. We had to wait three years until 2017 when there was
a secret investigation that eventually led to a trial where Salmond was
acquitted.
During the subsequent inquiry we still didn’t really
find out anything. What if anything did Nicola Sturgeon know about the
allegations in 2013 and 2014? We don’t know. What involvement did she have in
the investigation and finding those who accused Salmond? We still don’t really
know. Whenever she was pressed, she could say I don’t remember. Documents were
withheld or redacted, other evidence didn’t exist because meetings were not
minuted or conversations were held in metaphorical parks to avoid anyone overhearing.
The inquiry had a pro independence majority and came
to the required conclusion. Sturgeon didn’t have to resign. Imagine if the
inquiry into parties at Downing Street had had a pro Boris Johnson majority. He
would still be Prime Minister now.
This year has involved the most extraordinary
revelations about Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, but we still don’t really know
anything about what has happened.
Suddenly in February Nicola Sturgeon resigned “to
spend more time with her family”. No one believed that was the reason. But we
don’t really know what the real reason was. It might have been to do with the
controversy over gender recognition and male prisoners in women’s jails. But I
don’t think it was. Sturgeon could have survived that. It could have been due
to the Supreme Court blocking the Scottish Parliament organising a referendum.
But she had been told No before and carried on.
The obvious conclusion is that Sturgeon resigned
because she had been told about the investigation into the SNP’s finances. But
she denies this. It would also have been disgraceful if she had been told. No
one warns the rest of us.
Since then, we have all been constrained by the law in
Scotland that makes it difficult and risky to comment on people who have been
arrested.
But imagine if Rishi Sunak had told an important
committee in the Conservative Party not to ask about the party’s finances.
Imagine if Rishi Sunak’s mother-in-law had a campervan parked outside her
driveway. Well, my guess is that there would already have been endless leaks
about the whole story. Sunak’s rivals would have told everything they knew.
Civil Servants would have found emails and WhatsApp messages which either
exonerated him or not. There would have been a media frenzy that would have
eclipsed anything in Scotland and the story would have been resolved and it
would have ended one way or another.
In Scotland we wait and wonder if the story has gone
the way of Yorick. Alas poor Scotland.
So is it a surprise that Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t know
or won’t tell or can’t remember whether she deleted her WhatsApp messages? No.
It follows a pattern of behaviour.
There is a reason why Boris Johnson and others are
being embarrassed by the things they said on WhatsApp. They knew they would be
in serious trouble if they deleted these messages. There are rules about how
you run a government. There are consequences if you break rules like having an
impromptu party. But not in Scotland.
Imagine if one Friday in 2020 Nicola Sturgeon had a
few drinks and a cake with civil servants and party colleagues in Bute House.
It would have broken the rules, but everyone was working hard and tired. I have
no idea if this happened, but I would be surprised if it didn’t. Similar
gatherings probably happened in Berlin and Paris and Rome.
But there would be no leaks in Scotland. Just like in
2014 with Salmond. The civil servants would know that their jobs depended on
staying silent and probably supported the SNP anyway. Journalists would look
the other way, or else never get another interview.
Sturgeon may or may not have deleted her messages.
Alternatively, her policies and thoughts may have been given verbally in
meetings without minutes. But nothing embarrassing will come out. There will be
no recordings of Sturgeon swearing about colleagues or Boris Johnson.
Why? Because she knew she could do what she wanted and
get away with it.
The issue in Scotland is not whether you believe in
independence or not. It’s whether you want to live somewhere with an open
accountable government and politicians who abide by the rules because they must
or else be punished by the courts or the ballot box.
It’s not enough to complain about Sturgeon as some
sensible independence supporters are doing. The reason we have a secretive SNP
Government that thinks it can get away with anything is because the goal of
independence was seen as excusing everything. It meant the SNP could get away
with anything.
Nothing will really change, and no one will be held to
account until the SNP is kicked out. I think Scottish voters have finally
realised this. It’s not about WhatsApp messages, its about corruption.
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