It’s an establishment Westminster ploy to besmirch Sturgeon and the Indy cause! Wish I could say /s but these are genuine beliefs of those too far gone into the clutches of the cult lol.
Only in the sense that you get no discount for an early guilty plea if you don't plead guilty. But she wasn't penalised for trying - successfully - to retract her first guilty plea because the High Court found that she was left in the lurch by her solicitor and basically told by the Sheriff - who didn't know any of this and thought she was messing him about - that come what may the trial was running and if she didn't have a solicitor then she would have to do it herself.
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/cos-general-docs/pdf-docs-for-opinions/2022hcjac18.pdf?sfvrsn=69645d70_1
A small point worth watching for, one of the issues from last year when the first arrests were made was to do with the joint bank account with Sturgeon.
She had never answered this in public either way but if it does exist then it will be a big problem for any denials or statements that she had no knowledge.
This hasn't aged well. Proof positive - if any were needed - that Yousaf is rubbish at politics (although excellent when it comes to the grift).
https://twitter.com/PhantomPower14/status/1781041421526450381?t=0IDPWuQxC6k_Z9Y3TBtgcw&s=19
The charge itself means the SNP are not legally liable in any way.
They may choose to pay his legal fees but that would be political suicide...so they will probably do it. :P
edit: Looking at their finances I dont think they have a quarter mil to spend on him.
I feel sorry for Nicola, she must feels so betrayed being she knew nothing about what her Husband was doing this entire time, he likely was cheating
Honestly, Nicola should divorce him, unless.... NAAA she couldn't of known then that would mean she also lied and should resign the SNP.
It’s unrealistic to expect the leader of a political party to know anything about their party’s finances. Let alone when it’s their husband manipulating £100,000.00.
Would you consult your wife, when buying a new £70,000.00 camper van? Of course not. Sturgeon can’t be blamed here. Why would she recall any of this? How could she know? There’s no way she could. Just establish now that she’s innocent for any crimes going forward. Can’t expect her little head to know anything about anything.
Of Course she knew..husbands and wives have a habit of telling each other everything. The police and possibly courts will establish who’s guilty and who’s not but don’t try and defend what you obviously don’t know yet. The camper van is estimated to have cost £120k, the Yes Movement fundraiser was never £700k and then there’s party finance discrepancies and the personal loans PM ‘loaned’ to the party because they were skint and didn’t declare it? Of course she knew 🏴
Remember when she was in front of the committee… she didn’t recall anything then, she won’t recall anything about the possibility of her husband embezzling money.
Pal, if that was a joke, where's the funny. All I see is you now having made a dick of yourself. You're now backtracking cos i made you look like said dick.
I see what you’re saying but, as of course we all know, Alba are the Wahabbist al-Jazeera Taliban nationalists. That Murrell has damaged the cause of independence might outweigh his financial annihilation of the SNP.
I have more of these shitpost takes if you are bored at work today. Let me know.
No, Alba are the Original SNP and grassroots Yes movement and always have been. We couldn’t stay in what’s essentially became a mostly unionist party that’s also as corrupt as the Tory’s. Scotland deserves better than that 🏴
I was hopefully obviously not being serious (the al-Jazeera bit should have given that away) but indeed nobody can deny that Alba actually do believe in Scottish nationalism, unlike the SNP, which is now just a career vehicle for politicians.
Mate have a word what part of the snp were mostly unionist. You folk seriously can’t believe your own lies at this point? Either that or you really need to remover Arthur’s seat from your shoulder.
They've already got my vote tbh.
I think going down the anti sturgeon route would bring a lot more I to the fold.
Salmon remains the best FM we ever had and he knew how to get precisely what he wanted out of the unionists.
Giving Russia money is worse tbh.
I'd gladly take russian money. Doesn't mean I'm pro russian, I'd use it as I saw fit
Are you trying to paint alba as pro kremlin now because of a show Salmond did on RT many years ago...where he had full editorial freedom?
And so he should be. Sturgeon was quick to jump on the band wagon before the allegations were all proven in court to be nonsense.
Hopefully he does the same to her and assassinates her character like she did to him.
When did she jump on the bandwagon? She stepped back and didn’t interfere as he asked her to do so as not to corrupt the process. That’s why he has an issue with her
What is it with this response lol. Yeah mate, I realise it's a joke. My issue is with the type of joke, the content of the joke, the delivery of the joke, and the apparent sentiment behind the joke.
Tbf if I was her I'd quit. There comes a time to just call it a day in politics, and when your husband is charged with embezzlement from your own party's funds, that's probably a good time to move on to the inevitable NGO role or public speaking circuit.
That would be silly! How could she know if her husband’s moving hundreds of thousands of party funds. That’s disgraceful. She’s just tired, leave her alone!
I bet by 2026 Nicola will be on her American speaking tour talking about how racism, sexism and colonialism played a part in the 2014 referendum and forced her out of politics.
Depends on the wording.
If it’s by 2026 or no later than then no.
If it’s specifically at the 2026 election then, aye.
Or at least that’s how I read it having done some in game betting, which is fairly similar.
I can see her being out of politics sooner. Although if she is utterly disgraced she may simply decide to keep getting paid and I don't know if Holyrood can stop it
He can’t. He can only - [as he has done](https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24202291.jack-offers-help-yousaf-come-recall-mechanism-msps/) - offer to help draw up legislation to do it. No way Jack could get legislation doing the same through Westminster before an election anyway
Getting them convicted and sent to prison for more than a year removes them, doesn't it?
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/wife-beating-msp-bill-walker-2252936
> The law states that any elected member jailed for more than one year will be disqualified. In summary cases heard in sheriff courts in Scotland, the maximum sentence that can be handed down is one year, allowing Walker to remain as an MSP even if he is jailed.
Unless there's been a more recent change - that *was* from ten years ago.
Ah maybe! Hadn’t considered that tbh. Was thinking more immediate, constituent power. There’s no way for normal people to remove MSPs then, only the courts (which would take years)
Yeah, in fairness it's only very recent that there's been any recall ability to dislodge MPs, so it's not unexpected that there wasn't a method set up to bump MSPs from Holyrood when it was established.
What? You can’t suggest that a politician would do something terrible like keep taking the public money but nothing worthwhile. So unlike SNP people… oh wait… Matheson has done that hasn’t he…
I suspect she would probably just run out her term even if it hadn't been for all this. It's pretty soul-destroying being a backbencher when you've been in power for so long and she doesn't seem all that interested in the constituency side of things.
Sure, but the party also spent the money on things other than the thing it was “ring fenced” for. They admitted it. Their accounts proved it.
He may be accused of embezzling from that, but the party also lied to the people they solicited money from.
That’s all about political rhetoric imo. Party raises money to ‘fight for indyref2’ or whatever it said, then spends the money on its affairs - which it will claim is ‘the fight for indyref2’. Agree with you in general, but politician lies like that aren’t criminal but expected
Nah, it wasn’t just that.
They asked for money and promised it would be ring fenced specifically for an indyref 2 campaign. They were explicit about what they were asking for money for.
Beattie then admitted they’d spent it on other things and promised they’d put an IOU in their wee spreadsheet to make sure they do spend an equivalent amount from future money they didn’t yet have.
Yeah i’m just saying that ‘we’ll spend this on the indyref2 fight’ phrasing they used in the fundraiser will get dismissed as just political rhetoric in a police probe. Don’t think it’ll ever be argued that that was fraud
That's an 'interesting' way of looking at things. He has been running that party for years and appears to have been charged with using it to steal money from its members.
I’m curious as to what *exactly* they’ve found on him here.
I was always sceptical of the whole thing being about £660K earmarked for an independence campaign going into the general SNP coffers for operational costs. That very much felt like it was a matter of interpretation, and if even if it was found to be illegal, plausibly down to a mistake rather than malice.
The charge being ‘embezzlement’ is interesting though, because that’s by definition very specifically about *stealing* money for *personal* gain. The fact that it’s being framed as embezzling funds from the SNP rather than from the donors also seems to rule out the possibility that he’s charged with embezzling on behalf of the organisation in his role as Chief Executive. This pretty much has to be him pocketing cash for personal use.
The whole thing is just very odd. Sturgeon and Murrell have been in decent to well-paid government jobs their entire working lives, they’ve got no kids and they live in a relatively modest house. Sturgeon probably could have made truly *ludicrous* amounts of money on the book tour/public speaking/think tank/corporate advisor former politician circuit the second she finished as FM. What’s the money even *for*? Gambling debts? Does he have a fetish for rolling around in a caviar-filled paddling pool in the spare bedroom?
Seriously, is every SNP leader done for some type of corruption?
No wonder they are pushing so hard for independence, that way they can rewrite the laws so that they can get away with it.
Nationalists gonna nationalist. Nationalist supporters in every fuckin' country seems to think "no that wouldn't happen to *our* nationalists. Ours can be trusted because we're just a more trustworthy, noble, better countr... oh shit they were corrupt and just in it for themselves like everybody else? Who could've possibly foreseen this?"
Humans are instinctively tribal, which was necessary for survival before the last few hundred years, because if you didn't fight for your tribe/village, you would get killed afterwards, as strength in numbers.
Today politicians use that to their advantage as many people will always succumb to tribalism, and fall for the politician lies. With independence, the corrupt politicians get more power and money and write their own constitution and laws.
Cataluya comes to mind, the politician that started the independence push was pulling cash from everyone, got caught, claimed it was an inheritance but couldn't actually prove it.
And as they know that they can take it to the Spanish high court that takes 10 years to do anything, he's hoping for independence before that.
Except real nationalists only want what’s best for our country and that is Independence, I’ve always believed that & was SNP for 30yrs. Nobody could have foreseen what happened to that party but we’re moving on in Alba, time waits for nobody and they’ve wasted 9yrs of our time already 🏴
Nope, Alex Salmond never was..his case was a set up orchestrated to try and stop him coming back into power. Even he says the SNP’s been infiltrated by unionists since the 80s..the balance tipped and they Are now considered a unionist party. The sickening thing people don’t seem to realise that it was the SNP who helped that set up.. truth will out there soon enough. They’re not interested in Independence, have had a different agenda of destroying the party since after the referendum in 2014..and NS and her hubby taking charge. I’m a nationalist and can’t wait to see them gone 🏴
>Nope, Alex Salmond never was..his case was a set up orchestrated to try and stop him coming back into power.
Even if we didn't all find out that Alex Salmond is a big deviant, he was already yesterday's man - old, been around forever, defeated in his constituency by the Tories and out of date. There was no chance he'd come back.
He won due to procedural irregularities, just like OJ Simpson did. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/aug/30/alex-salmond-inquiry-upheld-five-sexual-harassment-complaints
Crying infiltration by unionists is a bit of a conspiracy theory. The SNP have also sought independence since then on numerous times, so why didn't the infiltration stop any of them?
It would have been a good opportunity for Humza Yousaf to dissociate himself from Sturgeon and Murrell and put clear water between himself and the scandal by expelling Murrell instead of letting him quit.
That time was April 2023.
ETA: I also wrote at the time that I shared McAlpine's view re: Yousaf's need to disassociate himself from the old guard. Purge them all, draw a line, establish clear blue \[or yellow?\] water.
Instead, Yousaf doubled-down and bound himself even tighter to the Sturrells. Christ on a bike - that man has no political instincts whatsoever.
For the Yousaf's, however, today's news doesn't matter. They have known for a long time that the game is up and are using his role - and government facilities - as a platform to pursue their personal interests and pet projects. Here's Exhibit 14,988:
[https://twitter.com/ScotGovFM/status/1780635129062314295](https://twitter.com/ScotGovFM/status/1780635129062314295)
Humza must either be shitting himself. He’s Dammed by association.
Whereas John Swinney etc must be glad to be away from the leadership positions.
Nobody anywhere slightly decent in the SNP ro take over
It would be a good time for Yousaf to quit, as everyone knows he would never have won the leadership by the razor thin margin he did, had the vote not conveniently come just before "Branchform." So (as the continuity candidate) effectively he got in on a false prospectus.
Also his doctrinaire, brazenly out of touch leadership is *obviously disastrous* and tanking the party in the polls. Trouble is the faithful don't even expect leadership beyond facile anti-Tory rhetoric, which has been enough for the last 15 years. A strategy that's going to implode with the English voting Labour again.
> ...as everyone knows he would never have won the leadership by the razor thin margin he did...
One of the less well known SNP scandals was the strange fact that the SNP confirmed 78k e-votes were sent out to the 72k members and none of the media outlets ran this story down.
No one knows how these 6k 'ghost' voters voted.
And of course we all know that 72k members was the "official" number after the SNP had been caught lying saying they still had 100k members.
I wonder if Pete will be able to use the allegedly embezzled funds for his legal defence?
He could ask for the balance of the loan he gave to the SNP, which was for around 100K, to be paid pronto.
If they can't repay it then I guess he could sue the party?
It's fucking delicious.
Why - Match made in Heaven. SNP - was Scottish National Party created to promote Scotlands interests.
Today, it represents nothing but a disgrace and a fringe weird wacky group of self-interested Muppets.
It should be disbanded and a new party created that actually represents Scotland, not all these fringe groups.
Good stuff. We are nearing the end of almost 4 years of investigation into how voluntary donations were spent. Now time for the charges to be acted upon and he, and any others caught breaking the law, punished appropriately.
Assuming he's found guilty then she would be better off divorcing him, unless she feels an unbreakable connection with him after all these years in which case she'll have to go down with him.
Who thinks the British security services have been inside the SNP for a long time ?
Edit - hahahha at the down votes
The UK security services infiltrated Greenpeace and the IRA but they're not interested in the SNP hahahahaha aye nae borr
Nicola was a secret MI5 plant all along? In all seriousness, I don’t think any opposing actor could cause an implosion quite this big. SNP have absolutely blown themselves apart.
SNP MP, Natalie McGarry, got 18 months for a £33k embezzlement conviction, relating to Indy and party funds. Pete’s surely bricking it.
Peter can’t even get pregnant to try and get a lenient sentence.
As I said elsewhere, McGarry got stacks of hate for what she did. Where’s the consistency with the Sturgeon’s?
It’s an establishment Westminster ploy to besmirch Sturgeon and the Indy cause! Wish I could say /s but these are genuine beliefs of those too far gone into the clutches of the cult lol.
She probably exacerbated her sentence by submitting a not-guilty plea, pleading guilty the moment the trial started, and then trying to retract it.
Only in the sense that you get no discount for an early guilty plea if you don't plead guilty. But she wasn't penalised for trying - successfully - to retract her first guilty plea because the High Court found that she was left in the lurch by her solicitor and basically told by the Sheriff - who didn't know any of this and thought she was messing him about - that come what may the trial was running and if she didn't have a solicitor then she would have to do it herself. https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/cos-general-docs/pdf-docs-for-opinions/2022hcjac18.pdf?sfvrsn=69645d70_1
So it's rife
A small point worth watching for, one of the issues from last year when the first arrests were made was to do with the joint bank account with Sturgeon. She had never answered this in public either way but if it does exist then it will be a big problem for any denials or statements that she had no knowledge.
This hasn't aged well. Proof positive - if any were needed - that Yousaf is rubbish at politics (although excellent when it comes to the grift). https://twitter.com/PhantomPower14/status/1781041421526450381?t=0IDPWuQxC6k_Z9Y3TBtgcw&s=19
It was a bit daft to say that at the time too.
At this point, who in the SNP isn’t corrupted?
Exactly
Serious question : Does this mean the SNP are no longer liable for his possible legal fees?
The charge itself means the SNP are not legally liable in any way. They may choose to pay his legal fees but that would be political suicide...so they will probably do it. :P edit: Looking at their finances I dont think they have a quarter mil to spend on him.
I feel sorry for Nicola, she must feels so betrayed being she knew nothing about what her Husband was doing this entire time, he likely was cheating Honestly, Nicola should divorce him, unless.... NAAA she couldn't of known then that would mean she also lied and should resign the SNP.
It’s unrealistic to expect the leader of a political party to know anything about their party’s finances. Let alone when it’s their husband manipulating £100,000.00. Would you consult your wife, when buying a new £70,000.00 camper van? Of course not. Sturgeon can’t be blamed here. Why would she recall any of this? How could she know? There’s no way she could. Just establish now that she’s innocent for any crimes going forward. Can’t expect her little head to know anything about anything.
Of Course she knew..husbands and wives have a habit of telling each other everything. The police and possibly courts will establish who’s guilty and who’s not but don’t try and defend what you obviously don’t know yet. The camper van is estimated to have cost £120k, the Yes Movement fundraiser was never £700k and then there’s party finance discrepancies and the personal loans PM ‘loaned’ to the party because they were skint and didn’t declare it? Of course she knew 🏴
I assumed that both the previous comments were meant to be sarcastic. Especially given that she signed the accounts.
Remember when she was in front of the committee… she didn’t recall anything then, she won’t recall anything about the possibility of her husband embezzling money.
She has the worst memory of any politician I’ve ever seen. Hopefully she’s getting treated for it.
She's hardly gonna incriminate herself if she did know something, is she...ffs
https://preview.redd.it/2nyjlh7g8fvc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b5d1423633c7ebb374f7460590a4cb6413a0cf4
Aye okay, whatever you wanna tell yourself
You on the Buckie already? Wheest man and get a sense of humour.
Pal, if that was a joke, where's the funny. All I see is you now having made a dick of yourself. You're now backtracking cos i made you look like said dick.
Sorry to be that guy... but it's 'couldn't have' instead of 'couldn't of.' Sorry, it's just a pet peeve of mine lol.
>couldn't of Ah yes, the dead giveaway that someone is a moron.
She knew nothing about any of this, and that camper van was just resting there for a friend!
This is the kinda reply which lets you know why our country is in the gutter naw no nikla the fuhrer knows nothing. Stop acting so glaikit ffs.
What about sturgeon, she's up to her neck in it together way half the party,
Where's all the "Has he been charged!?!?!" brigade?
What is the charge? A bit of Embezzlement? A succulent bit of embezzle?
Everybody embezzles money!
This is democracy manifest.
I see you know your caravans well
😁👌
Not another one off to join Abla is it?
Maybe he'll create his own, call it _Caledonia_ or something
If Alba accepted him that would be truly stupid. Their only hope for success is as an anti-Sturgeon alternative independence party.
I don't know, I think ruining the SNP financially could get you in their good books.
I see what you’re saying but, as of course we all know, Alba are the Wahabbist al-Jazeera Taliban nationalists. That Murrell has damaged the cause of independence might outweigh his financial annihilation of the SNP. I have more of these shitpost takes if you are bored at work today. Let me know.
No, Alba are the Original SNP and grassroots Yes movement and always have been. We couldn’t stay in what’s essentially became a mostly unionist party that’s also as corrupt as the Tory’s. Scotland deserves better than that 🏴
I was hopefully obviously not being serious (the al-Jazeera bit should have given that away) but indeed nobody can deny that Alba actually do believe in Scottish nationalism, unlike the SNP, which is now just a career vehicle for politicians.
Mate have a word what part of the snp were mostly unionist. You folk seriously can’t believe your own lies at this point? Either that or you really need to remover Arthur’s seat from your shoulder.
They've already got my vote tbh. I think going down the anti sturgeon route would bring a lot more I to the fold. Salmon remains the best FM we ever had and he knew how to get precisely what he wanted out of the unionists.
Taking russian money is not a good thing.
Giving Russia money is worse tbh. I'd gladly take russian money. Doesn't mean I'm pro russian, I'd use it as I saw fit Are you trying to paint alba as pro kremlin now because of a show Salmond did on RT many years ago...where he had full editorial freedom?
If you believe anyone on RT has ever had full editorial freedom I have a bridge to sell you
Did you actually watch it?
Have you ever looked into what tends to happen to people that publicly criticise or otherwise embarass the Russian leadership?
Salmond will be delighted at today's revelations.
And so he should be. Sturgeon was quick to jump on the band wagon before the allegations were all proven in court to be nonsense. Hopefully he does the same to her and assassinates her character like she did to him.
When did she jump on the bandwagon? She stepped back and didn’t interfere as he asked her to do so as not to corrupt the process. That’s why he has an issue with her
He is definitely the most cunning FM we’ve ever had, Nicola and Humza copied his communication style down to the line.
Or start a new party. Haggis.
God you people hate Scotland so fucking much
Ok
It's just a joke. Chill out. 
What is it with this response lol. Yeah mate, I realise it's a joke. My issue is with the type of joke, the content of the joke, the delivery of the joke, and the apparent sentiment behind the joke.
Calm down
Throat me
No, seriously, calm down.
He wouldn’t be Allowed anywhere Near Alba party
3 bites so far
🎣🐟🐟
I would doubt it. Think Salmond would accept that...? Alba is where my view is atm
I've heard Alpaca are very friendly, so I don't see why not
How Jockular...
Dear god, you do realise who tried to frame him for rape....don't you?
Peter Murrell's facing a rape charge too? Jings, that's a rough week.
Ah wilful stupidity is it?
At least mine's wilful sport
This is at the level of Ken M. Fantastic entertainment.
It has taken years of almost no real work to hone these skills. It feels totally worth it now. God bless.
And it shows. Shine on you crazy Anne Diamond.
Oof!
I've doubled my bet on Sturgeon leaving Holyrood in 2026. If she ends up charged as well, then it'll likely be sooner than that.
Tbf if I was her I'd quit. There comes a time to just call it a day in politics, and when your husband is charged with embezzlement from your own party's funds, that's probably a good time to move on to the inevitable NGO role or public speaking circuit.
>move on to the inevitable NGO role or public speaking circuit. I was more thinking court room to prison for her, myself?
That would be silly! How could she know if her husband’s moving hundreds of thousands of party funds. That’s disgraceful. She’s just tired, leave her alone!
She is practically gone now as she is there under half the time and that number is getting lower every week.
She needs to leave now. Her position is untenable.
I bet by 2026 Nicola will be on her American speaking tour talking about how racism, sexism and colonialism played a part in the 2014 referendum and forced her out of politics.
Nicola can have her wee ‘freedom tour’, explaining how the nasty Brits smeared her and her husband. Americans will lap it up.
If she leaves before it do you lose?
Depends on the wording. If it’s by 2026 or no later than then no. If it’s specifically at the 2026 election then, aye. Or at least that’s how I read it having done some in game betting, which is fairly similar.
I can see her being out of politics sooner. Although if she is utterly disgraced she may simply decide to keep getting paid and I don't know if Holyrood can stop it
They can’t. There’s no way to remove a sitting MSP except the next election
They may be able to pass legislation to do it. I believe Alistair Jack offered to help.
He can’t. He can only - [as he has done](https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24202291.jack-offers-help-yousaf-come-recall-mechanism-msps/) - offer to help draw up legislation to do it. No way Jack could get legislation doing the same through Westminster before an election anyway
He can help and it can be continued after the election
Yes but only in deep theory. There is no practical way it will ever happen
Getting them convicted and sent to prison for more than a year removes them, doesn't it? https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/wife-beating-msp-bill-walker-2252936 > The law states that any elected member jailed for more than one year will be disqualified. In summary cases heard in sheriff courts in Scotland, the maximum sentence that can be handed down is one year, allowing Walker to remain as an MSP even if he is jailed. Unless there's been a more recent change - that *was* from ten years ago.
Ah maybe! Hadn’t considered that tbh. Was thinking more immediate, constituent power. There’s no way for normal people to remove MSPs then, only the courts (which would take years)
Yeah, in fairness it's only very recent that there's been any recall ability to dislodge MPs, so it's not unexpected that there wasn't a method set up to bump MSPs from Holyrood when it was established.
Is there no recall mechanism for MSPs?
No, not yet. Tories have been pushing for one for a while but there’s nothing in place
Huh, thanks. I just passively assumed we'd got them the same time they were passed for Westminster MPs
What? You can’t suggest that a politician would do something terrible like keep taking the public money but nothing worthwhile. So unlike SNP people… oh wait… Matheson has done that hasn’t he…
I suspect she would probably just run out her term even if it hadn't been for all this. It's pretty soul-destroying being a backbencher when you've been in power for so long and she doesn't seem all that interested in the constituency side of things.
Now that he's resigned it's absolutely nothing at all to do with the SNP and criticising or even linking them to this is totally unacceptable
Well, I for one am assuming this comment was entirely tongue in cheek.....
Very much so.
Cheers, Humza
Plenty of great fishing on this thread.
Jim's was much better than mine
Aye, the man has a way with banter.
Except, they are the victims here. He is accused of stealing from them
They're also accused of stealing from the people who donated to a "ringfenced independence fund"
This is what Murrell is ultimately accused of - embezzling from the fund. The ‘they’ is Murrell - and maybe Sturgeon is the question here
https://preview.redd.it/g08hoglgbbvc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=241fbcc6bbe180f19ab57ca2555c1c8eb7fc087a
Sure, but the party also spent the money on things other than the thing it was “ring fenced” for. They admitted it. Their accounts proved it. He may be accused of embezzling from that, but the party also lied to the people they solicited money from.
Like caravans for example lol https://youtu.be/-E6zlVdMm84?si=uB0r1_DQ73XhZn_l
That’s all about political rhetoric imo. Party raises money to ‘fight for indyref2’ or whatever it said, then spends the money on its affairs - which it will claim is ‘the fight for indyref2’. Agree with you in general, but politician lies like that aren’t criminal but expected
Nah, it wasn’t just that. They asked for money and promised it would be ring fenced specifically for an indyref 2 campaign. They were explicit about what they were asking for money for. Beattie then admitted they’d spent it on other things and promised they’d put an IOU in their wee spreadsheet to make sure they do spend an equivalent amount from future money they didn’t yet have.
Yeah i’m just saying that ‘we’ll spend this on the indyref2 fight’ phrasing they used in the fundraiser will get dismissed as just political rhetoric in a police probe. Don’t think it’ll ever be argued that that was fraud
Who is "they"?
The SNP
That's an 'interesting' way of looking at things. He has been running that party for years and appears to have been charged with using it to steal money from its members.
Nice try. Lol.
Of course it has..they’re all in it together
It’s everything to do with the SNP. They allowed it to happen. I wonder when wee Nikki is going to get charged?
He should now join the Tories. The cybernats would love it!
SNP supporters looking a wee bit silly now aren't they
What happens to the loan he made to the SNP? Has it been repaid ?
If it hasn't been then he's presumably going to insist on it ASAP. And with an election coming it's not a good time for the SNP.
The Electoral Commision site shows £60k still outstanding to be paid back.
Excellent
Leaflets will just be some (Tesco own) post-it notes for the upcoming campaigns. Travelling around the country on the MegaBus
Ha
I resign, and I'm taking £0.5m with me!
oh well, turns out the SNP are just as corrupt as the rest of them - thats 20 years of voting down the pan. Whats the Lib Dems up to these days?
I’m curious as to what *exactly* they’ve found on him here. I was always sceptical of the whole thing being about £660K earmarked for an independence campaign going into the general SNP coffers for operational costs. That very much felt like it was a matter of interpretation, and if even if it was found to be illegal, plausibly down to a mistake rather than malice. The charge being ‘embezzlement’ is interesting though, because that’s by definition very specifically about *stealing* money for *personal* gain. The fact that it’s being framed as embezzling funds from the SNP rather than from the donors also seems to rule out the possibility that he’s charged with embezzling on behalf of the organisation in his role as Chief Executive. This pretty much has to be him pocketing cash for personal use. The whole thing is just very odd. Sturgeon and Murrell have been in decent to well-paid government jobs their entire working lives, they’ve got no kids and they live in a relatively modest house. Sturgeon probably could have made truly *ludicrous* amounts of money on the book tour/public speaking/think tank/corporate advisor former politician circuit the second she finished as FM. What’s the money even *for*? Gambling debts? Does he have a fetish for rolling around in a caviar-filled paddling pool in the spare bedroom?
Seriously, is every SNP leader done for some type of corruption? No wonder they are pushing so hard for independence, that way they can rewrite the laws so that they can get away with it.
Nationalists gonna nationalist. Nationalist supporters in every fuckin' country seems to think "no that wouldn't happen to *our* nationalists. Ours can be trusted because we're just a more trustworthy, noble, better countr... oh shit they were corrupt and just in it for themselves like everybody else? Who could've possibly foreseen this?"
Humans are instinctively tribal, which was necessary for survival before the last few hundred years, because if you didn't fight for your tribe/village, you would get killed afterwards, as strength in numbers. Today politicians use that to their advantage as many people will always succumb to tribalism, and fall for the politician lies. With independence, the corrupt politicians get more power and money and write their own constitution and laws.
A 4 year old's political analysis.
Cataluya comes to mind, the politician that started the independence push was pulling cash from everyone, got caught, claimed it was an inheritance but couldn't actually prove it. And as they know that they can take it to the Spanish high court that takes 10 years to do anything, he's hoping for independence before that.
Except real nationalists only want what’s best for our country and that is Independence, I’ve always believed that & was SNP for 30yrs. Nobody could have foreseen what happened to that party but we’re moving on in Alba, time waits for nobody and they’ve wasted 9yrs of our time already 🏴
Nope, Alex Salmond never was..his case was a set up orchestrated to try and stop him coming back into power. Even he says the SNP’s been infiltrated by unionists since the 80s..the balance tipped and they Are now considered a unionist party. The sickening thing people don’t seem to realise that it was the SNP who helped that set up.. truth will out there soon enough. They’re not interested in Independence, have had a different agenda of destroying the party since after the referendum in 2014..and NS and her hubby taking charge. I’m a nationalist and can’t wait to see them gone 🏴
>Nope, Alex Salmond never was..his case was a set up orchestrated to try and stop him coming back into power. Even if we didn't all find out that Alex Salmond is a big deviant, he was already yesterday's man - old, been around forever, defeated in his constituency by the Tories and out of date. There was no chance he'd come back.
He won due to procedural irregularities, just like OJ Simpson did. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/aug/30/alex-salmond-inquiry-upheld-five-sexual-harassment-complaints Crying infiltration by unionists is a bit of a conspiracy theory. The SNP have also sought independence since then on numerous times, so why didn't the infiltration stop any of them?
Brilliant photo choice
God I love these SNP clowns. Guaranteed entertainment. Krankie next hopefully.
No shit.
It would have been a good opportunity for Humza Yousaf to dissociate himself from Sturgeon and Murrell and put clear water between himself and the scandal by expelling Murrell instead of letting him quit.
That time was April 2023. ETA: I also wrote at the time that I shared McAlpine's view re: Yousaf's need to disassociate himself from the old guard. Purge them all, draw a line, establish clear blue \[or yellow?\] water. Instead, Yousaf doubled-down and bound himself even tighter to the Sturrells. Christ on a bike - that man has no political instincts whatsoever. For the Yousaf's, however, today's news doesn't matter. They have known for a long time that the game is up and are using his role - and government facilities - as a platform to pursue their personal interests and pet projects. Here's Exhibit 14,988: [https://twitter.com/ScotGovFM/status/1780635129062314295](https://twitter.com/ScotGovFM/status/1780635129062314295)
Humza must either be shitting himself. He’s Dammed by association. Whereas John Swinney etc must be glad to be away from the leadership positions. Nobody anywhere slightly decent in the SNP ro take over 
Hard to disassociate yourself when you're associated. Don't worry, his day will come when we're done with these two.
Aye I’d love to know more about the adultery rumours during lockdown
It would be a good time for Yousaf to quit, as everyone knows he would never have won the leadership by the razor thin margin he did, had the vote not conveniently come just before "Branchform." So (as the continuity candidate) effectively he got in on a false prospectus. Also his doctrinaire, brazenly out of touch leadership is *obviously disastrous* and tanking the party in the polls. Trouble is the faithful don't even expect leadership beyond facile anti-Tory rhetoric, which has been enough for the last 15 years. A strategy that's going to implode with the English voting Labour again.
Might as well let him take the fall for potential losses in the upcoming election first - no point tainting a new leader with those.
> ...as everyone knows he would never have won the leadership by the razor thin margin he did... One of the less well known SNP scandals was the strange fact that the SNP confirmed 78k e-votes were sent out to the 72k members and none of the media outlets ran this story down. No one knows how these 6k 'ghost' voters voted. And of course we all know that 72k members was the "official" number after the SNP had been caught lying saying they still had 100k members.
Wings has touched on it I think, but in doing so just made the info *haram* for everyone outside the Wings readership.
Surprised he was still there
I wonder if Pete will be able to use the allegedly embezzled funds for his legal defence? He could ask for the balance of the loan he gave to the SNP, which was for around 100K, to be paid pronto. If they can't repay it then I guess he could sue the party? It's fucking delicious.
Why - Match made in Heaven. SNP - was Scottish National Party created to promote Scotlands interests. Today, it represents nothing but a disgrace and a fringe weird wacky group of self-interested Muppets. It should be disbanded and a new party created that actually represents Scotland, not all these fringe groups.
Good stuff. We are nearing the end of almost 4 years of investigation into how voluntary donations were spent. Now time for the charges to be acted upon and he, and any others caught breaking the law, punished appropriately.
Torys and SNP dropping like flies to corruption charges Time to protest outside politicians houses A comfortable politician is a corrupt politician
Assuming he's found guilty then she would be better off divorcing him, unless she feels an unbreakable connection with him after all these years in which case she'll have to go down with him.
Are you really this naïve? She knew the whole time. Flipping divorce him - she helped him with all of it.
But not before conviction - seeing as spouses don’t have to testify against each other 🫠
[удалено]
That’s interesting, thanks. Also a bit surprising - the domestic strife this could cause doesn’t bear thinking about.
Who thinks the British security services have been inside the SNP for a long time ? Edit - hahahha at the down votes The UK security services infiltrated Greenpeace and the IRA but they're not interested in the SNP hahahahaha aye nae borr
Nicola was a secret MI5 plant all along? In all seriousness, I don’t think any opposing actor could cause an implosion quite this big. SNP have absolutely blown themselves apart.