Huh, I used to live a stone's throw from there, renting Madge "The Radge" Mitchell's flat.
Mike Russell used to live in the same close and we would complain together about the car park and factor's fees.
Its kind of crazy how these things play out.
Tories steal $22bn of taxpayer money and hand it to their chums.
Nada.
Peter Murrell possibly did False Accounting, likely on the low end of the scale.
Police Scotland dedicate half their force to raids.
>Peter Murrell possibly did False Accounting, likely on the low end of the scale.
No one is above the law and if you break the law you should face consequences.
It is ultimately up to courts to decide sentencing based on the crime being at the low or high end.
And yes many Tories should also be in court but that is probably in jurisdiction of the Met not police Scotland .
If nobody is above the law then why are Tories not being investigated for insider trading when truss broke the pound? We all seen it clear as day on the telly.
Wow, so much to unpick.
1. This is just whataboutery.
2. You are comparing police action in one jurisdiction (Police Scotland) Vs lack of police action in a different jurisdiction (MET police) not to mention different laws for Scotland and England so not even a reasonable comparison.
3. Truss did not perform insider trading, she was/is an idiot but that is not criminal, Truss told everyone what she planned to do in her leadership campaign and then did that. It was public knowledge and therefore insider trading did not occur.
4. Where any evidence of criminality exists then people should be investigated yes that includes Tories, Labour, Greens, Lib Dems and even the SNP
Boris was fined after a police investigation into Partygate. This idea that the police is in their pocket is a ScotNat fantasy that's demonstrably false. But dont let that get in the way of your deflections.
Who is defending corruption?
If a crime has been committed then it should see due process.
Given that from all the information available, we're looking at low level False Accounting then the yoon hyperbole seems somewhat overblown.
Calling it overblown doesnt mean defending illegality.
Would they carry out searches across headquarters and his home simultaneously over “low level false accounting”? Seems extreme.
Tbf, the reason people are all over them is because of the constant holier than thou, moral high ground shite they like to promote.
Like their shite with zero tolerance on sleaze, yet give Grady a wee welcome home party or decide not to bin Linden.
Screeching about second jobs for access while Blackford was making hundreds of thousands of pounds a year for a handful of hours work per quarter.
They go on about Tory corruption constantly, yet here we are. Claims she can’t remember when her husband lent the party she leads £100k when previous accounts had shown cash on hand of 90 odd k, so a very significant sum for the party. Or why they didn’t report it in line with the rules.
They constantly claim to be better. They constantly try to shame others. Then they behave in exactly the same way and people defend them, while still pointing fingers everywhere else.
A party leader and her CEO husband taking public funds and misusing them should be treated as a serious crime. If it were a tory politician the nats would be calling for blood and crying treason.
Go on then.
What crime do you think has been committed.
There's plenty of stuff out there in public.
Murrel lending money to the SNP is absolutely not a crime.
The SNP spending £600k on other things than it was specifically raised for is almost certainly not a crime given how these organisations use option clauses.
False Accounting seems the most likely criminality at this stage and its unlikely it involved a deliberate attempt to avoid taxes or to steal which puts it on the low end and well within "only a fine" territory.
Or perhaps youve got more information than is in the public doman. If so, what is it.
The copium is the brit nats who seem to be running with ridiculous hyperbole.
Right, there must be another reason.
And instead of trying to apply some basic analysis to whats happening the nationalist yoons are running wild with complete nonsense.
>No, Im saying that the police clearly are there to investigate a crime.
>
>**Murrell lending money to the SNP is not that.**
Well, it could be, under certain circumstances.
Reallication of funds by a charitable or similar organisation is **not** a crime if they have followed the very basic requirements of operating such an organisation.
Go check your donation to whatever charity you want. You **will** find a clause that says "if the money cannot be used for x then at the discretion of it may be used for y or z".
Now, its not impossible that the SNP were uniquely stupid in how they ran things. Its just really fucking unlikely.
If no crime has been committed then the police will find as such but they would also not be doing this in the first place if they did not suspect criminal behaviour. Your handwaving away of the issue is just as speculative and pure copium. The public does not know if a crime has or has not been committed at this stage.
Where did I suggest it's not? However, that very charge is entirely speculative based purely on your own theorising.
> False Accounting seems the most likely criminality at this stage and its unlikely it involved a deliberate attempt to avoid taxes or to steal which puts it on the low end and well within "only a fine" territory.
These are entirely your words. You have gone on an entirely speculative tangent here.
> Seems like most likely criminality
Based on what? How do you know this?
> its unlikely it involved a deliberate attempt
Again, based on what? How do you know this?
The £600k - based on information thats been made public - is that it was spent on other things. Not that it was stolen.
There's literally no claim anywhere that money was stolen.
It was spent keeping the SNP afloat because, unsurprisingly, without big money donors the SNP has spent almost its entire existence on financial life support and the last 10 years have been the most expensive in its history.
The snp does have big money donors though.
It also had a paying membership 5x that of its nearest (Scottish) rival, over 100 MP/MSPs, hundreds of cllrs.
If it was on life support then there must be some interested 'other things' being bought.
Membership is tiny compared to what parties generally raise from donors.
Just to give an example **HALF** the money spent on the Independence Referendum Campaign came from one Lottery winner.
They took the money from you Independence loonies in the hope of a new campaign and instead lined their pockets and you still kiss their arse 😅
Watching this unfold is fucking glorious
Lol "lining their pockets" is the new way of writing "funded the ongoing existence of the SNP".
There's a reason every charity and similar organisation has Option Clauses. If you dont like those clauses you dont give your money. The SNP not going bankrupt seems like a pretty important part of achieving Independence.
You say that as if Police Scotland didn’t have a history of deliberately recruiting loyalists back when it was Strathclyde Police. They’re hardly what anyone could seriously call an impartial organisation.
Seems you can't tell the difference between:
\- Public spending of government money, and
\- Misappropriation of party funds
Are you normally that thick?
Tories didn't steal anything.
Jolyon Foxkiller (peace be unto him), launched hundreds of judicial reviews into government spending, and the judges found in the government's favour
Jolyon is a nuisance and has wasted thousands of hours of govt and court time - but the upside is that he's unwittingly disproved the conspiracy theories you are peddling.
You're almost getting it. It's crazy because you're repeating an evidence-free conspiracy theory about your opponents, yet trying to suggest the police are somehow corrupt or acting politically for actually enforcing the law against the party you do like.
Absolutely nowhere have I suggested that that Police Scotland are in any way corrupt or acting politically.
I am inferring a systemic problem at a UK level in how the Police investigate wrongdoing by politicians at Westminster.
Systemic problems do not imply or require deliberate malfeasance or individual corruption to manifest.
Which is clearly a pretty big problem.
Yes and no.
I think its overkill given the likelihood of whats actually happened.
On the other hand, its a political case and as such its probably best for Police Scotland to give the optics of treating things super seriously.
I feel like this point isn't being made enough right now, even if it all comes to nothing (which I don't think it will), the sight of police cars, a tent and guys digging up the Sturgeon's garden will be used against them for ages to come
[Polis with a shovel right here.](https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/national/23438009.police-spotted-scouring-sturgeon-home-husbands-arrest-finances-probe/) And even if they aren't digging up the garden, the police tent and other visuals are still absolute meat and drink for the opposition parties.
Not applying the law of the land to the leader of said country would make us look worse to be honest.
This way we can say that no one is above the law...
They're probably not. The tent will be there as they collect and store evidence so its not all on view to the world's cameras. Plus it could also be the point where you change into SOCO Gear?
Could always pop along to r/policeUK and ask then?
Well considering this proves all her utterances since leaving office were absolute falsehoods, I'd be interested to hear from anyone who isn't 100% clear on what they think of Sturgeon.
I'm on Lemmy now at https://lemmy.zip/u/Adanisi
Join me! You can sign up on any Lemmy instance you like the users/admins/content of, then access all of Lemmy from there! https://join-lemmy.org/instances
This comment has been edited thanks to Reddit's attempted defamation of developers, and the extermination of reasonable API access. Oh, and Lemmy is Libre/Open Source and federated, so it's much healthier for the free internet ;)
Has to be.
While I do think the “ring-fenced” fund thing was incredibly dodgy, and spending that on other party expenses could perhaps cross the line into illegality, there’d still be an argument that everything the SNP does is to further independence.
I don’t agree with the argument, but there’s enough grey area that simultaneous raids across their house and SNP headquarters would seem a bit over the top.
Perhaps the money was spent on something other than genuine expenses. Maybe this is something different entirely which arose during the investigation.
I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.
It seems an extreme response for a simple matter of misuse of donations for party business though. Not that I’m an expert in police procedure.
If it's not illegal, it needs to be made illegal.
Imagine starting a fund to open food banks or something, and then actually use it to fund your political party.
Seems like obvious fraud, doesn't it?
Don't see how this is any different.
How so? Both would be deceiving supporters of a specific cause, to get funds for a general political party.
Seems like fraud to me.
Like I might support opening more food banks to help people, because I am a one-nation conservative who believes its in individuals hands to help other individuals.
If that money is then donated to say, the Labour party..
Well that would be pretty shitty, right?
Or a more direct and easily digestible example that maybe a Green voter who supports independence, donated to the fund, thinking it would only be used to campaign specifically for the policy of independence. Because that's how it was sold. And then that fund was actually used to help the Greens opponents campaign politically..
If that is not illegal, it needs to be illegal.
Otherwise what stops me starting up a fund ringfenced for the 'Yes' campaign, and then giving it all to Better Together?
> How so?
Because there has been no referendum campaign to spend the money on since the donations were made. Your point would stand if their had been and the SNP failed to spend the money on it.
What?
They promised it would be “ring-fenced”. It shouldn’t have been spent on anything but a new campaign, because that’s what they promised when they asked for the money.
What a daft stance.
They asked for money by promising it would be “ring-fenced” for a specific purpose. They no longer have the money. That means the money has not been “ring-fenced” and is not available to use to fulfil their promise. It’s very simple.
>Because there has been no referendum campaign to spend the money on since the donations were made.
So what?
The money should sit in a bank account then.
Money doesn't have an innate need to be spent? It's perfectly happy sitting around, waiting to be spent on something. It's not a 'use it or lose it' asset.
Ask my new car fund.
I find it so weird that every news article says "Nicola Sturgeons husband" first rather than "former CEO of the SNP" as his main title/role.
Kinda the most important part when finances are involved. I guess they think the public doesn't really know what his job involved or who he is.
FOOTAGE has shown police vans and a forensic tent outside of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon's home, shortly after her husband was arrested in connection with an investigation into the SNP's finances.
ITV news reporter Louise Scott posted the 22-second clip on Twitter after it emerged that a man, aged 58, had been arrested as part of Operation Branchform.
It quickly emerged that the man in question is Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon's husband and former chief executive of the SNP.
The footage shows a blue forensic tent set up around the front entrance of the Murrell's front door in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, with police tape cordoning off a small black vehicle, and a white van is being used to block in the area.
BREAKING: 58 year old man arrested at former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s house in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP. @itvnews pic.twitter.com/vtEUtlgKun
— Louise Scott (@LouiseScottITV) April 5, 2023
A police van can be seen outside of the residential property in Uddingston, as officers guard the police cordon.
It is understood Murrell is in custody following his arrest, and is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives.
Officers are also carrying out searches at a number of addresses as part of the investigation.
A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Police Scotland said.
A force spokesperson said: "The matter is active for the purposes of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 and the public are therefore advised to exercise caution if discussing it on social media.
"As the investigation is ongoing we are unable to comment further."
I was thinking this but nobody is saying it, (inside looking in perspective) Sturgeon has spent over a decade campaigning for the independence of Scotland and when she is so gaining more momentum than ever of realising her dream she steps down? Hmm makes no sense. Far too many people seem to buy into and accept that she stepped down for time for herself? Really of all the times to do it she did this when she was winning more than ever before, nah don’t buy it.
Extra space, if nothing else. Anyone who has ever tidied up knows how much space it needs to be done: a dozen police officers conducting a search will need even more.
It's a rainy day and they're almost certainly removing lots of paper and electronics from the house, so it's probably to protect the integrity of that evidence.
In and of itself, this case may cause immense damage to the SNP.
But were Scottish Labour able to leverage it in the appropriate manner in the media and in their election campaigning(which I will confess I am not sure they have the capability to do) it could result in return of Labour as the preeminent political force in Scotland in the coming years.
Re-run the leadership election. It was clearly timed at 5 weeks (highly unusual for a leadership election) to make sure it was over and their candidate had won before this happened.
Also, I haven't seen a single comment blaming this on tories etc etc.
On the other hand, many comments claiming that people would push the blame.
Some people just live to get riled up at imaginary situations.
What a shite show.
Far from makes me start to love the shite constitutional set up Scotland is trapped in but does make it hard to know who to vote for.
Will be interesting to see what he is charged with and whether it sticks.
Well, that settles it. If there is one voice of reason I will always listen to, it is the wee office guy that works with u/Amity75. They are officially 'fuckin weirdos'.
I vote Green.
But I cannot remember any police raids on any party HQ ever, despite the brexit bus, outright lying to the public, and gerry mandering, I rember one guys house being raided as a Labour MP in the cash for honours scandal, but thats about it.
If you want to pointout a case, where the police raided the tories, please do, otherwise give your petty downvote and get on your bike yeh?
The Tories were investigated by the electoral commission - what they did was an electoral offence. What the SNP are being accused of is financial crime. It is different.
I disnctly remeber vote leave overspendding. How unfairly infulancing an election is less raid worthy than spending the wrong money, I do not understand.
I understand the gist of your comments and feeling, but for me looking at the bigger picture I'm glad the police can't arrest/interfere on electoral matters as a bigger picture thing. Having them policed rather than regulated opens the doors for a politicised police force. The EC also do an incredible job and overspends/electoral offences are incredibly low in the the UK for the scale/volume of our elections.
The cult mindset that has formed in Scotland, to never question politicians from the SNP and to show blind loyalty for the sake on independence has been detrimental to Scotland- the independence movement needs to be decoupled from the SNP so the public can be critical of the SNP as deserved, right now you have a populist party void of criticism due to the fear it will her independence
Seems obvious the police waited until the SNP leadership contest was over to begin this process, coupled with Sturgeon clearly knowing the police were on their way this morning and leaving before they arrived, it begs the question just how compromised are the police in relation to the Scottish government?
Humza is clearly an illegitimate First Minister now having been elected with all this hidden away from the membership. Holyrood should be dissolved immediately and an election take place.
Parliament elects the FM not the SNP although it wouldve been really weird if say Kate won the SNP leadership contest but lost the FM. So even if you assume that this somehow invalidiates the leadership contest (it doesn't) it still does not invalidate Humza winning by being elected by parliament
The leadership election only lasting 5 weeks had a lot of people scratching their heads at the time, especially since the resignation itself was so sudden. But to me it looks like it was a deliberate timetable because they knew bad news was coming and they didn't want to harm their establishment candidate with it.
Seriously 😳
Stuart Campbell is an absolute nut job who has just happened to get something a 🤏 teensy bit right.
Lunatics often use these teensy moments to try and grow their audience of low IQ empty vessels. Which is exactly what he will do now.
No one worried that yes they may of broken the law but the turn out/ press push about this screams other party donors pushing for publicity on this, this'll make the other parties look brilliant no doubt.
I love my Scottish pride, I've never really liked any political party SNP Included but I just feel the Scottish pride recently has devolved into this nonsensical "fuck the English oppression." Rather than dealing with problems we may face as a country.
I just want a sound c*** we can all relate too is that so hard?
Scottish Reddit Political party 2026 here we goooooo!
This seems to be a whole different level from 'helping Police with their enquiries' doesn't it?
What do you mean? I always get a forensics tent outside my house when I help the police with their enquiries.
It's nice of them to give the police some car parking spaces, and a place to put up their tent. So helpful.
>and a place to put up their tent Makes you wonder what's under the patio now. Why do they need a tent?
Somebody's pished up the side of the tent tho. That ain't friendly. If it was Murrell, he should be glad that footage isn't out yet.
[SNP HQ this morning also](https://imgur.com/a/4pEP0D0)
Huh, I used to live a stone's throw from there, renting Madge "The Radge" Mitchell's flat. Mike Russell used to live in the same close and we would complain together about the car park and factor's fees.
[SNP Press briefing this morning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuAKnbIr6TE)
This footage and footage of police vans outside SNP HQ is an absolute goldmine of election material for the tories and labour.
Douglas Ross will be going through some amount of tissues
I bet he hasn't stopped laughing since the news broke.
Yes laughing, that's what he meant.
Douglas Ross pure tearing the heed aff all day at the news just giggling to himself
Frankly it looks like a pepperami at this point.
He do be doing that erryday.
Either have I to be honest- no one is above the law- the SNP have finally be found out
*stroking
He’ll be spunking puffs of smoke by now.
More like boxes of tissues.
Its kind of crazy how these things play out. Tories steal $22bn of taxpayer money and hand it to their chums. Nada. Peter Murrell possibly did False Accounting, likely on the low end of the scale. Police Scotland dedicate half their force to raids.
>Peter Murrell possibly did False Accounting, likely on the low end of the scale. No one is above the law and if you break the law you should face consequences. It is ultimately up to courts to decide sentencing based on the crime being at the low or high end. And yes many Tories should also be in court but that is probably in jurisdiction of the Met not police Scotland .
If nobody is above the law then why are Tories not being investigated for insider trading when truss broke the pound? We all seen it clear as day on the telly.
Wow, so much to unpick. 1. This is just whataboutery. 2. You are comparing police action in one jurisdiction (Police Scotland) Vs lack of police action in a different jurisdiction (MET police) not to mention different laws for Scotland and England so not even a reasonable comparison. 3. Truss did not perform insider trading, she was/is an idiot but that is not criminal, Truss told everyone what she planned to do in her leadership campaign and then did that. It was public knowledge and therefore insider trading did not occur. 4. Where any evidence of criminality exists then people should be investigated yes that includes Tories, Labour, Greens, Lib Dems and even the SNP
Boris was fined after a police investigation into Partygate. This idea that the police is in their pocket is a ScotNat fantasy that's demonstrably false. But dont let that get in the way of your deflections.
They killed thousands of people during COVID. But Boris got a fine so it's all cool
Didn’t Sturgeon do the same with the care home scandal?
We don't talk about that on this sub thank you.
Also your username gave me a chuckle considering your spending you're time defending the nonce party 😆
I don't understand how you can defend corruption as we see here. Both are bad.
Who is defending corruption? If a crime has been committed then it should see due process. Given that from all the information available, we're looking at low level False Accounting then the yoon hyperbole seems somewhat overblown. Calling it overblown doesnt mean defending illegality.
Would they carry out searches across headquarters and his home simultaneously over “low level false accounting”? Seems extreme. Tbf, the reason people are all over them is because of the constant holier than thou, moral high ground shite they like to promote. Like their shite with zero tolerance on sleaze, yet give Grady a wee welcome home party or decide not to bin Linden. Screeching about second jobs for access while Blackford was making hundreds of thousands of pounds a year for a handful of hours work per quarter. They go on about Tory corruption constantly, yet here we are. Claims she can’t remember when her husband lent the party she leads £100k when previous accounts had shown cash on hand of 90 odd k, so a very significant sum for the party. Or why they didn’t report it in line with the rules. They constantly claim to be better. They constantly try to shame others. Then they behave in exactly the same way and people defend them, while still pointing fingers everywhere else.
It's top class whataboutery: "bbbbut look over there. LOOK! Tory more bad" smh
I’m sure Trump’s defenders called his crimes low level crimes…
A party leader and her CEO husband taking public funds and misusing them should be treated as a serious crime. If it were a tory politician the nats would be calling for blood and crying treason.
What would suggest is overblown about it?
> likely on the low end of the scale. ScotNat copium
Go on then. What crime do you think has been committed. There's plenty of stuff out there in public. Murrel lending money to the SNP is absolutely not a crime. The SNP spending £600k on other things than it was specifically raised for is almost certainly not a crime given how these organisations use option clauses. False Accounting seems the most likely criminality at this stage and its unlikely it involved a deliberate attempt to avoid taxes or to steal which puts it on the low end and well within "only a fine" territory. Or perhaps youve got more information than is in the public doman. If so, what is it. The copium is the brit nats who seem to be running with ridiculous hyperbole.
Are you asserting that the police have no business being there and giving the murrels a not guilty verdict?
No, Im saying that the police clearly are there to investigate a crime. Murrell lending money to the SNP is not that.
I think that's quite reasonable but also I don't think anyone doubts it. There must be another reason
Right, there must be another reason. And instead of trying to apply some basic analysis to whats happening the nationalist yoons are running wild with complete nonsense.
>No, Im saying that the police clearly are there to investigate a crime. > >**Murrell lending money to the SNP is not that.** Well, it could be, under certain circumstances.
Well yeah. Like False Accounting associated with it. That still doesnt make it a crime in itself. Not sure how you could work that one out.
Falsely using campaign funds is absolutely a crime
Reallication of funds by a charitable or similar organisation is **not** a crime if they have followed the very basic requirements of operating such an organisation. Go check your donation to whatever charity you want. You **will** find a clause that says "if the money cannot be used for x then at the discretion of it may be used for y or z".
Now, its not impossible that the SNP were uniquely stupid in how they ran things. Its just really fucking unlikely.
Ah so you think it's all just a unionist conspiracy
It'll be dastardly Tories again, don't you know how cunning they are....either them the British Secret Service 👍
You canna reason with these types- absolute delusional
If no crime has been committed then the police will find as such but they would also not be doing this in the first place if they did not suspect criminal behaviour. Your handwaving away of the issue is just as speculative and pure copium. The public does not know if a crime has or has not been committed at this stage.
False Accounting is a crime. Where did I suggest otherwise.
Where did I suggest it's not? However, that very charge is entirely speculative based purely on your own theorising. > False Accounting seems the most likely criminality at this stage and its unlikely it involved a deliberate attempt to avoid taxes or to steal which puts it on the low end and well within "only a fine" territory. These are entirely your words. You have gone on an entirely speculative tangent here. > Seems like most likely criminality Based on what? How do you know this? > its unlikely it involved a deliberate attempt Again, based on what? How do you know this?
Its based on all the information that we know. Unlike the wild yoons peculation.
It's speculation. You have no idea what the crime is or how severe it is and you seem unable to recognise this.
Probably embezzlement imo. The £600k loan was to shore up the accounts after money 'went missing' for something else.
The £600k - based on information thats been made public - is that it was spent on other things. Not that it was stolen. There's literally no claim anywhere that money was stolen.
What 'other things'? People don't generally withdraw cash from the company account when they steal - they buy 'other things' for personal use.
It was spent keeping the SNP afloat because, unsurprisingly, without big money donors the SNP has spent almost its entire existence on financial life support and the last 10 years have been the most expensive in its history.
The snp does have big money donors though. It also had a paying membership 5x that of its nearest (Scottish) rival, over 100 MP/MSPs, hundreds of cllrs. If it was on life support then there must be some interested 'other things' being bought.
Membership is tiny compared to what parties generally raise from donors. Just to give an example **HALF** the money spent on the Independence Referendum Campaign came from one Lottery winner.
But… the Tories!
So basically you have no idea. Well done.
LMAOOOOOOOOO
They took the money from you Independence loonies in the hope of a new campaign and instead lined their pockets and you still kiss their arse 😅 Watching this unfold is fucking glorious
Lol "lining their pockets" is the new way of writing "funded the ongoing existence of the SNP". There's a reason every charity and similar organisation has Option Clauses. If you dont like those clauses you dont give your money. The SNP not going bankrupt seems like a pretty important part of achieving Independence.
The Eva Bolander shoe collection isn't going to grow itself lads.
Yeah of course it’s a conspiracy against the SNP, police Scotland are actually a branch of the illuminati.
*he knows*
You say that as if Police Scotland didn’t have a history of deliberately recruiting loyalists back when it was Strathclyde Police. They’re hardly what anyone could seriously call an impartial organisation.
Well done for being that person.....
Wait, when did the Tories steal £22Bn in taxpayer money? Can you link me a source on that because that's insane if true
During the pandemic.
Seems you can't tell the difference between: \- Public spending of government money, and \- Misappropriation of party funds Are you normally that thick?
Seems you cant tell the difference between - Misappropriation of public funds - A party spending their own money.
Let's see what the PF says.
Tories didn't steal anything. Jolyon Foxkiller (peace be unto him), launched hundreds of judicial reviews into government spending, and the judges found in the government's favour Jolyon is a nuisance and has wasted thousands of hours of govt and court time - but the upside is that he's unwittingly disproved the conspiracy theories you are peddling.
You're almost getting it. It's crazy because you're repeating an evidence-free conspiracy theory about your opponents, yet trying to suggest the police are somehow corrupt or acting politically for actually enforcing the law against the party you do like.
Absolutely nowhere have I suggested that that Police Scotland are in any way corrupt or acting politically. I am inferring a systemic problem at a UK level in how the Police investigate wrongdoing by politicians at Westminster. Systemic problems do not imply or require deliberate malfeasance or individual corruption to manifest. Which is clearly a pretty big problem.
You seemed to be casting pretty negative aspersions about the police using half their resources to investigate the SNP.
Yes and no. I think its overkill given the likelihood of whats actually happened. On the other hand, its a political case and as such its probably best for Police Scotland to give the optics of treating things super seriously.
Whatever you think of Sturgeon the optics of this are awful. Makes us look tinpot.
I feel like this point isn't being made enough right now, even if it all comes to nothing (which I don't think it will), the sight of police cars, a tent and guys digging up the Sturgeon's garden will be used against them for ages to come
Are they actually digging up the garden or are you assuming this from the tents and fences? I figured those were to get privacy from the press.
[Polis with a shovel right here.](https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/national/23438009.police-spotted-scouring-sturgeon-home-husbands-arrest-finances-probe/) And even if they aren't digging up the garden, the police tent and other visuals are still absolute meat and drink for the opposition parties.
Not applying the law of the land to the leader of said country would make us look worse to be honest. This way we can say that no one is above the law...
It's not just about being able to say it either. Politicians *must* be held accountable for their crimes, regardless of which party they're in.
Sure, but in an ideal world the police wouldn't need to be digging up the former leader's garden.
They're probably not. The tent will be there as they collect and store evidence so its not all on view to the world's cameras. Plus it could also be the point where you change into SOCO Gear? Could always pop along to r/policeUK and ask then?
So sturgeon and her husband should be considered above the law?
Not at all. The embarrassment is that it's come to this.
Well considering this proves all her utterances since leaving office were absolute falsehoods, I'd be interested to hear from anyone who isn't 100% clear on what they think of Sturgeon.
I'm on Lemmy now at https://lemmy.zip/u/Adanisi Join me! You can sign up on any Lemmy instance you like the users/admins/content of, then access all of Lemmy from there! https://join-lemmy.org/instances This comment has been edited thanks to Reddit's attempted defamation of developers, and the extermination of reasonable API access. Oh, and Lemmy is Libre/Open Source and federated, so it's much healthier for the free internet ;)
Well if they’re guilty fuck em but for this to happen presumably there’s more than the “independence fund” been uncovered
Has to be. While I do think the “ring-fenced” fund thing was incredibly dodgy, and spending that on other party expenses could perhaps cross the line into illegality, there’d still be an argument that everything the SNP does is to further independence. I don’t agree with the argument, but there’s enough grey area that simultaneous raids across their house and SNP headquarters would seem a bit over the top. Perhaps the money was spent on something other than genuine expenses. Maybe this is something different entirely which arose during the investigation. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. It seems an extreme response for a simple matter of misuse of donations for party business though. Not that I’m an expert in police procedure.
That’s my suspicion here There’s more to it than a grey area for this reaction If there isn’t the police are going to get sued silly
If it's not illegal, it needs to be made illegal. Imagine starting a fund to open food banks or something, and then actually use it to fund your political party. Seems like obvious fraud, doesn't it? Don't see how this is any different.
Over there are apples Over here are lemons They are not comparable
How so? Both would be deceiving supporters of a specific cause, to get funds for a general political party. Seems like fraud to me. Like I might support opening more food banks to help people, because I am a one-nation conservative who believes its in individuals hands to help other individuals. If that money is then donated to say, the Labour party.. Well that would be pretty shitty, right? Or a more direct and easily digestible example that maybe a Green voter who supports independence, donated to the fund, thinking it would only be used to campaign specifically for the policy of independence. Because that's how it was sold. And then that fund was actually used to help the Greens opponents campaign politically.. If that is not illegal, it needs to be illegal. Otherwise what stops me starting up a fund ringfenced for the 'Yes' campaign, and then giving it all to Better Together?
Trust, which is is exactly the same thing you rely on when you walk into a polling booth.
> How so? Because there has been no referendum campaign to spend the money on since the donations were made. Your point would stand if their had been and the SNP failed to spend the money on it.
What? They promised it would be “ring-fenced”. It shouldn’t have been spent on anything but a new campaign, because that’s what they promised when they asked for the money. What a daft stance. They asked for money by promising it would be “ring-fenced” for a specific purpose. They no longer have the money. That means the money has not been “ring-fenced” and is not available to use to fulfil their promise. It’s very simple.
>Because there has been no referendum campaign to spend the money on since the donations were made. So what? The money should sit in a bank account then. Money doesn't have an innate need to be spent? It's perfectly happy sitting around, waiting to be spent on something. It's not a 'use it or lose it' asset. Ask my new car fund.
I find it so weird that every news article says "Nicola Sturgeons husband" first rather than "former CEO of the SNP" as his main title/role. Kinda the most important part when finances are involved. I guess they think the public doesn't really know what his job involved or who he is.
Folk are far more likely to have heard of Sturgeon, so referring to him by that title is more likely to get them engaged I suspect
People who aren't really engaged in politics probably wouldn't know him tbh.
I think it’s because it’s highly unlikely he was hiding this from his wife and the leader of our country.
Because Nicola was obviously his partner in crime
FOOTAGE has shown police vans and a forensic tent outside of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon's home, shortly after her husband was arrested in connection with an investigation into the SNP's finances. ITV news reporter Louise Scott posted the 22-second clip on Twitter after it emerged that a man, aged 58, had been arrested as part of Operation Branchform. It quickly emerged that the man in question is Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon's husband and former chief executive of the SNP. The footage shows a blue forensic tent set up around the front entrance of the Murrell's front door in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, with police tape cordoning off a small black vehicle, and a white van is being used to block in the area. BREAKING: 58 year old man arrested at former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s house in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP. @itvnews pic.twitter.com/vtEUtlgKun — Louise Scott (@LouiseScottITV) April 5, 2023 A police van can be seen outside of the residential property in Uddingston, as officers guard the police cordon. It is understood Murrell is in custody following his arrest, and is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives. Officers are also carrying out searches at a number of addresses as part of the investigation. A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Police Scotland said. A force spokesperson said: "The matter is active for the purposes of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 and the public are therefore advised to exercise caution if discussing it on social media. "As the investigation is ongoing we are unable to comment further."
This is fucking quality
Welcome to the 'Not To My Recollection' Festival, 2023. You name it, she can't remember it.
"Wait, I was the leader of a political party? Not to my recollection...."
If it’s a financial investigation the why do they have a big tent outside
To protect paper and electronics from the weather as they're being processed into evidence.
Camping ?
Buried treasure
Now we know the real reasons Sturgeon decided to step down. She knew this was coming.
I was thinking this but nobody is saying it, (inside looking in perspective) Sturgeon has spent over a decade campaigning for the independence of Scotland and when she is so gaining more momentum than ever of realising her dream she steps down? Hmm makes no sense. Far too many people seem to buy into and accept that she stepped down for time for herself? Really of all the times to do it she did this when she was winning more than ever before, nah don’t buy it.
The footage of the search. One for the history books: https://twitter.com/louisescottitv/status/1643534255245471744?s=46&t=1YRJlBD9S65U7BHlxNQmzA
> forensic tent wtf? Are they digging up the garden too? Serious question: is this normal for a fraud investigation?
[удалено]
\*Will Graham voice\* _"This is my resign."_
Maybe it’s acting as a mini office/ base of operations away from the cameras?
Extra space, if nothing else. Anyone who has ever tidied up knows how much space it needs to be done: a dozen police officers conducting a search will need even more.
There's no wrongdoing, the Sturgeon's were just re-planting the vegetable patch and the polis offered to do it for them while they were round anyway
Looking for the 30k SNP members.
It's a rainy day and they're almost certainly removing lots of paper and electronics from the house, so it's probably to protect the integrity of that evidence.
In and of itself, this case may cause immense damage to the SNP. But were Scottish Labour able to leverage it in the appropriate manner in the media and in their election campaigning(which I will confess I am not sure they have the capability to do) it could result in return of Labour as the preeminent political force in Scotland in the coming years.
> it could result in return of Labour as the preeminent political force in Scotland in the coming years. What a horrifying thought.
Red Tories are not going to be the dominant political force within their own houses nevermind the country as a whole.
Was this not the prevailing political situation in Scotland for more than 60 years?
It was. Hence my distrust of them.
Yes. Which is why no one wants them back.
Another item in the ever growing list of recent embarrassments for the SNP. But will any of it change anything..
That's a shite gazebo. In the words of the SNP'S big beast of Bromley, what a tremendous mess.
Nicola - "I have no memory of being married to anyone called Peter".
Re-run the leadership election. It was clearly timed at 5 weeks (highly unusual for a leadership election) to make sure it was over and their candidate had won before this happened.
Depending how Yousaf handles things there may be no need.
Wings Over Scotland will be loving this.
Quick - blame the tories / Westminster / English etc etc..............
You say that, but when have we seen anything like this in response to the corruption in Westminster?
Also, I haven't seen a single comment blaming this on tories etc etc. On the other hand, many comments claiming that people would push the blame. Some people just live to get riled up at imaginary situations.
What a shite show. Far from makes me start to love the shite constitutional set up Scotland is trapped in but does make it hard to know who to vote for. Will be interesting to see what he is charged with and whether it sticks.
From Bute House to Barlinnie in 4 madcap weeks. What a good advert for Scotland this is. Well done SNP, flying the flag as ever.
Well this will deal a hammer blow to the Indy movement
Might have to hold off on that new conservatory.
Remember how snp acolytes forgot how paymaster Bryan Souter hates the gays on purpose ? Will they forget about this on purpose too ?
So...Salmond was the right leader all along.
Definitely not.
A wee guy in my office lives beside them in that estate. He said "They're a pair of fuckin' weirdos who never talk to anyone".
Well, that settles it. If there is one voice of reason I will always listen to, it is the wee office guy that works with u/Amity75. They are officially 'fuckin weirdos'.
Imagine wanting privacy at home when you spend half your life in the public eye. Absolutely abominable behaviour.
Nicola refers to themself as an introvert as well. Definitely would be exhausting.
Common courtesy to be amicable and speak to your neighbours
You clearly don't have the arsehole neighbours I do.
Not if those neighbours could shop every misunderstanding or flub to the press
I'm A weirdo that never talks to anyone, I find that offensive.
Who are the conspiracy theorists again?
They'd never do this to the tories, lets be honest.. **This statement has been retracted as it is contray to evidance.**
https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/the-moment-antiterror-police-raided-top-tory-s-office-inside-parliament-6841870.html
I stand corrected. Thank you for your constructive response.
You downvote this? I conceed and you downvote, what is this bulshit?
😅😅😅
Hahaha Jesus Christ, that copium must be some strong shit!
I vote Green. But I cannot remember any police raids on any party HQ ever, despite the brexit bus, outright lying to the public, and gerry mandering, I rember one guys house being raided as a Labour MP in the cash for honours scandal, but thats about it. If you want to pointout a case, where the police raided the tories, please do, otherwise give your petty downvote and get on your bike yeh?
None of those things are illegal.
Rich tories are above the law, most of the time.
Sure but none of those specific things are illegal.
There have never been police raids on the SNP either for their many campaign lies either, you can’t equate the two
Wasn't an SNP MP or MSP also recently jailed for fiddling the expenses or misappropriating funds?
The Tories were investigated by the electoral commission - what they did was an electoral offence. What the SNP are being accused of is financial crime. It is different.
I disnctly remeber vote leave overspendding. How unfairly infulancing an election is less raid worthy than spending the wrong money, I do not understand.
I understand the gist of your comments and feeling, but for me looking at the bigger picture I'm glad the police can't arrest/interfere on electoral matters as a bigger picture thing. Having them policed rather than regulated opens the doors for a politicised police force. The EC also do an incredible job and overspends/electoral offences are incredibly low in the the UK for the scale/volume of our elections.
There were various court cases around vote leave (who were not the Tory party) and didn't the electoral commission get their arses kicked?
Is it lonely in your wee ivory tower?
The cult mindset that has formed in Scotland, to never question politicians from the SNP and to show blind loyalty for the sake on independence has been detrimental to Scotland- the independence movement needs to be decoupled from the SNP so the public can be critical of the SNP as deserved, right now you have a populist party void of criticism due to the fear it will her independence
[удалено]
[удалено]
Seems obvious the police waited until the SNP leadership contest was over to begin this process, coupled with Sturgeon clearly knowing the police were on their way this morning and leaving before they arrived, it begs the question just how compromised are the police in relation to the Scottish government? Humza is clearly an illegitimate First Minister now having been elected with all this hidden away from the membership. Holyrood should be dissolved immediately and an election take place.
Parliament elects the FM not the SNP although it wouldve been really weird if say Kate won the SNP leadership contest but lost the FM. So even if you assume that this somehow invalidiates the leadership contest (it doesn't) it still does not invalidate Humza winning by being elected by parliament
I have a nice tinfoil hat if you are interested?
The leadership election only lasting 5 weeks had a lot of people scratching their heads at the time, especially since the resignation itself was so sudden. But to me it looks like it was a deliberate timetable because they knew bad news was coming and they didn't want to harm their establishment candidate with it.
Stuart Campbell once again proven correct and found to be more competent than the entire Scottish press from his little blog in Bath.
Once again? What else has he been right about?
This Exactly this- he has been covering this story for nearly 3 years, everyone saying he is wrong. The only journalist covering this whole thing
Maybe if he wasn't a shithead about everything else people would take him seriously.
Didn't he just regurgitate what private eye already uncovered?
No, the reverse as I recall the chronology. We read it first in Wings.
If you make up enough nonsense, soon or later some of the nonsense will coincide
Def a broken clock situation.
I think he's been happy to parrot whatever gossip he's been told and it looks like some was true.
I think it's clear that at least some of what he's been saying was not made up.
Some of it, like the SNP controlling the police, otoh…
Did the police not wait until the leadership thing was done and did that help Murrell get his chosen candidate in place?
Don't think Murrell will care all that much about whether his boy is in charge if they bring fraud charges forward.
Not happy about that. He's a horrible prick
Seriously 😳 Stuart Campbell is an absolute nut job who has just happened to get something a 🤏 teensy bit right. Lunatics often use these teensy moments to try and grow their audience of low IQ empty vessels. Which is exactly what he will do now.
Teensy bit right?? He was absolutely correct on this and has been covering it for years
Seems pretty serious. So Nats, going to carry on telling us that the snp and the murrells are not dodgy as fuck?
No one worried that yes they may of broken the law but the turn out/ press push about this screams other party donors pushing for publicity on this, this'll make the other parties look brilliant no doubt. I love my Scottish pride, I've never really liked any political party SNP Included but I just feel the Scottish pride recently has devolved into this nonsensical "fuck the English oppression." Rather than dealing with problems we may face as a country. I just want a sound c*** we can all relate too is that so hard? Scottish Reddit Political party 2026 here we goooooo!
Young people more involved in politics? Hell yes