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Looks like Alasdair Allan, Maureen Watt and Stuart McMillan all breached the MSPs code of conduct.
I missed they had put out a press release on Friday. apologies to Scotroutes
Perhaps defensible as they are allowed fair comment as individuals but perhaps not
Still not as bad as the tories and labour but pretty dull actions
Well well well
confidence vote on Sturgeon fails badly. tories the only ones voting for it and the actions of the tories loudly critised by labour and lib dems who abstained.
Ross and Davidson have badly overplayed their hands and look very foolish
Harvie
Mr Harvie says members of the inquiry committee pre-judged the evidence by making multiple pronouncements during the course of its work.
He says those MSPs had committed a "disgraceful betrayal of trust" of the original complainants, and that what should have been a serious inquiry had "descended into farce".
Rennie
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie says the women who complained have been "failed".
He adds: "When they stepped up we were not there for them."
Mr Rennie adds the Conservatives were "only interested in removing Nicola Sturgeon from office rather than the facts of this terrible series of events".
He continues: "They have undermined the integrity of the independent investigator."
Sarwar
Anas Sarwar cites the fact the Conservatives lodged the vote of no confidence on 4 March, before the Hamilton inquiry or the committee inquiry had concluded, as evidence of "an opposition guilty of playing grubby party politics on an issue as serious as sexual harassment".
"This is a day of shame for our parliament," he says.
"Scotland deserves a better government. And it deserves a better opposition."
The Scottish Labour leader says he accepts the conclusion of both inquiries but says nobody "has taken responsibility for the catastrophic failings by this government".
There are still "serious questions" for permanent secretary Leslie Evans and the first minister, he says, because "the buck ultimately stops with her".
It "cheapens" the parliament, he believes, for the government to attack the work of the committee, which risks "calling into question the verdict of every committee of this parliament ever".
As for the outcomes of the two investigations:
Sturgeon - damaged but not sunk. Showed clear lack of judgement in talking to Salmond on multiple occasions and getting party and parliamentary matters badly conflated. But she did not deliberately mislead holyrood nor did she lie. I personally accept her reasons for her mistakes but that does not excuse them and I don't expect everyone to agree
Salmond - all his conspiracy theories shown to be rubbish. Thats surely the end of him politically.
Tories - badly over played their hand and now look completely foolish still after Sturgeon to resign when her conduct while poor is nothing compared to everyday behaviour from tories at Westminster. I particularly loathe the way the kept on asking Sturgeon questions to which she could not and should not have known the answers in order to make her look shifty
Evans - her position is untenable and she must resign and if she does not then she must be sacked. Very interesting that Baillie and others shifted their focus to her not Sturgeon. I hope Sturgeon does not compound the errors she made by expending political capital on trying to save Evans
the conduct of the investigating committee stinks and no one bar Wrightman comes out of it well
However to me there are some positives in that it shows Holyrood have robust procedures to investigate such ballsups. Remember when Johnson was grilled under oath for 8 hours for lying to parliament? Me neither Remember when patel resigned for an admitted breach of the ministerial code? Me neither
A sorry and tawdry affair
Two people enhanced their reputations here. Harvie and Wrightman. Everyone else is diminished to one degree or another but I am pleased that Sarwar and Rennie recognized the poison from the tories and called them out on it
Evans – her position is untenable and she must resign and if she does not then she must be sacked.
How's that going?
Early days.
Its certainly a test and there are others in the civil service who also fell well short of the standard of behaviour required.
It will be interesting to see if Sturgeon expends political capital on trying to save her but I would not have expected her to go yet given the reports only came out so recently.
Ask me in a week or so.
Edit
If Sturgeon circles the wagons to protect Evans then its compounding her mistakes and will diminish her
So where are all the "Sturgeon must go" posters now?
So where are all the “Sturgeon must go” posters now?
There’s an advertising truck driving round the Grassmarket etc with “Nicola is a Liar” plastered all over it.
Who 🤔
So where are all the “Sturgeon must go” posters now?
Maybe they’re updating their banners to ‘Forres Gimp must go’ - Tories must be due a leadership change about now surely 😀
Maybe they’re updating their banners to ‘Forres Gimp must go’ – Tories must be due a leadership change about now surely 😀
They should do it on a rota, each MP leads the party a day a week with a day off on Sunday!
Thats a not unreasonable statement from Salmond. Good for him. I said much earlier he had to choose did he want vengeance with a scorched earth result or to simply see that those responsible for the errors are held responsible
I am glad he appears to have chosen the latter. there is no doubt that serious errors were made here by a variety of people and that needs to be dealt with.
With regard to Evans - she is also entitled to due process and that cannot be instant. What happens over the next few days will be telling. I don't think she is or should be the only one on a shoogly peg.
I hope it is the only legal action that I am required to take.
I would feel happier if we had a little mea culpa from Salmond - its been conspicuous by its absence.
Maybe I missed his apology?
So AS is letting the matter draw to a close by instructing his legal team to pursue a civil servant, thereby perpetuating the 'SNP Baaaad' media frenzy? Perhaps if 'Eck had kept his grubby paws to himself, none of what is now a whole series of shitshows would have been set in motion. He's as inadvertently useful to Unionism as Boris is to Nationalism.
Maybe I missed his apology?
He apologised to Ms A immediately after the event. The apology was accepted. She was offered an alternative post but she carried on working for him for several years.
A public acknowledgement he did wrong would be nice and would help repair the damage to his reputation.
he also apologised in private to 3 other women he groped did he not?
Private mediation for actions like this when there is such a huge power imbalance is not an acceptable way to deal with these sorts of issues in the workplace. If I had done at work what he has admitted to I would have been sacked and lost my registration - and quite rightly so. and thats just for the actions he has admitted to.
the real tragedy in all this to me is that if he had been slapped down properly years ago ( IIRC the first instances that have come to light are 2007) he might have altered his behaviour and avoided all this.
Scotroutes - do you really believe his action that he has admitted to are acceptable?
he also apologised in private to 3 other women he groped did he not?
What 3 would they be?
As per normal legal practice the names are not available but it came up in the inquiries that he had done so. IIRC ( and I cannot be bothered to check) at Edinburgh airport in 2017 and another incident in 2007?
Scotroutes – do you really believe his actions that he has admitted to are acceptable?
As per normal legal practice the names are not available but it came up in the inquiries that he had done so. IIRC ( and I cannot be bothered to check) at Edinburgh airport in 2017 and another incident in 2007?
Quite.
Scotroutes – do you really believe his actions that he has admitted to are acceptable?
I know that even disregarding the accusations he denies that the behaviour he has admitted to would have led to my sacking and quite rightly so
I can’t believe Salmond is flogging this dead horse - he really is on course to become the Tartan Trump at this rate...
From the guardian
Nicola Sturgeon, who has been cleared of breaching the ministerial code over her dealings with Salmond, has made clear she supports Evans continuing as permanent secretary, and has no plans to request her resignation.
If that is so then that is foolish at best. Evens position is untenable and its highly foolish of Sturgeon to spend political capital on trying to save her.
Makes you think...
its basic politics
1) its not the event its the cover up that gets you
2) don't compound the error. ( or Hattersleys rule - " when in a hole stop digging" )
Sturgeon appears to have forgotten the second one. Loyalty is good but when someone effs up as Evans clearly has then they must take responsibility.
Are you accusing astute, intelligent Sturgeon of poor judgement?
I have said several times on here that she exhibited poor judgement over this - especially over meeting Salmond once the accusations came out.
Circling the wagons to protect Evans would be extremely poor judgement indeed. I do not like the "throw somone under a bus to protect yourself" that some folk do but this would not be that. Evans has made serious errors of judgement and has been rightly condemned for it. A siege mentality does not help at all. Its not "them and us" its what is truthful and the right course of action to take.
I also do not believe she did not know Salmond was a groper years before. Accusations go back 15 years
Splitting the vote? Proving once and for all that his ego is more important than progressing independence.
I really wish he'd bog off. Who was it on here who said he was finished?
I truly hope this party dies a death and that's the end of it and him.
Who would vote for him? The sector on the Venn diagram that overlaps "Supports Scottish Independence" and "Reads the Daily Mail" must be pretty small. His pal Putin must be egging him on...
Oh there's at least one on here I reckon 😉
I do hope he tempts George Galloway on board, may even get that Nigel bloke up for a bit of advice on splitting votes. If only he still had that Russian chat thing going, what a fantastic platform to work from.
Hes an effing idiot for that
all he will do is make it harder to get greens elected by splitting the pro independence list vote Second vote green!
What he does not realise is he is now a huge vote loser.
He needs to understand and accept what he has done is wrong but his ego will not let him
fud!
Edit - he is actually making a pro independence majority harder to get.
The thing about splitting the vote is that the obvious thing to do post-election is form an alliance and ask for a referendum.
Final confirmation of what I've believed for a long time. It's all about the Alex Salmond show. The guy's an egotistical attention seeker.
Narcissistic sleezeball.
Just read that BBC report. We deserve better journalism.
Whether or not Mr Salmond's new venture is successful, this is a direct challenge to the idea the SNP is the only party for independence.
Should they not be informing us south of the border that the Scottish Greens are "for independence"?!?
Plus assorted fringe parties.
What an utter bellend, I can't believe I actually used to like him.
I was planning to split my vote SNP / Green list. As the SNP would need eleventy million list votes to get 1 extra seat in the West of Scotland.
Pretty sure quite a few people were planning the same, Salmond has just massively muddy the waters.
Won't change how I plan to vote though.
richmtb - thats what most folk who understand the system were intending to do and I doubt he will split off many votes but maybe enough to cause damage - he could even let more tories in by splitting the list vote
I know a number of women who are rabid UDI now nationalists and used to be Salmond supporters. all have been scathing about him and none will vote for him
I was planning to split my vote SNP / Green list
Can you explain this briefly? Sounds like my voting intentions but I don't actually know how the system works.
Jimmy - the list vote is used as a top up. roughly from the list votes they work out what % of the seats overall the party should get, subtract the constituency seats then top up to get the the proportional number
so a party that gains lots of constituency seats needs a lot more list votes to get a list seat than a party that gets no constituency seats
the best way to get a pro independence majority is to vote list vote green.
Now Salmonds ego party is going to split the list vote 3 ways for pro independence rather than 2 ( snp and green) so that tories and labour - both of whom get most of their seats from list will be higher up the % on the list vote meaning over all less pro independence MSPs
From what I understand, in my constituency (Borders) it's a both votes for SNP - others are 1 SNP and 2 Green.
Does Salmond have any sort of credibility that will allow him to get any significant vote? Being based in England I have no sense of it.
These non-mainstream political projects rarely work unless they are offering something different - eg Ukip until Tories went full Brexit. Is Salmond offering anything beyond "not Sturgeon"? Is it just a play to get himself a seat and bigger the wider impact?
Does Salmond have any sort of credibility that will allow him to get any significant vote?
There is a core group of Salmond supporters who are absolutely wedded to him. This has a big overlap with the group of SNP supporters who think Sturgeon is too slow on independence or even ( weird fantasy) believe she does not actually want it.
Outside of that core group - no credibility at all. he was never liked but tolerated. Now the truth of him being a groper has come out then he has zero appeal outside that core group and zero appeal to women. Infact I believe he will actually be a vote loser overall.
thats my view on it
As above - I know several women who are in that group of SNP supporters who think Sturgeon too timid and who used to be Salmond fans. they have all changed their view because of what he has admitted doing and his refusal to apologise
In your seat you cast 2 votes one for the seat candidate and one for the regional party list.
Seat candidates are voted for by a simple FPTP majority. The SNP will win almost all of these.
Regional Party list votes are tallied but are then divided by the number of seats that have been won in the region.
So lets say you have a region with 10 seats and 10 list MSPs and 1 million voters for the sake of argument they vote seat / list the same
The vote splits
450k SNP
250k Con
200k Lab
100k Green
SNP win all 10 FTPT seats
When it gets to the list votes everyone votes get divided by the number of seats they already won +1
So the SNP now have 450k / 11 votes so are last in the list.
Cons get the first list seat, their vote then gets divided by 2, so labour get the next seat. Cons get the 4th seat because their list votes divided by 2 are still more than the Greens.
On it goes dividing by the number of seats won until all the seat are allocated.
In this scenario the SNP probably wouldn't pick up a list seat. So if you wanted an extra pro independence MSP you would have been better voting Green
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Hondt_method
Wow Salmond has some brass neck. I hope he loses his deposit and gets zero seats. He actually makes Nigel Farage look good these days. What an ego.
Joanna Cherry tweeted this morning that she was was taking time off for health reasons, weeks after her fall out with and demotion by Nicola Sturgeon. Later the same day 'Eck pulls this stunt. Surely JC isn't going to jump ship for 'Eck?
Surely JC isn’t going to jump ship for ‘Eck?
You called it.
We sadly live in a time where personality is more important than policies. Just look at Trump, Boris, Farage etc.
He has the capability to be highly disruptive in the elections. He must have financial backers. What do they get out of this arrangement?
Well, Salmond did used to work on Russia Today, so maybe a few oligarchs or even Putin have shoved some cash his way? Given their interests in the Tory Party it would be in their interests to keep their "useful idiots" in government and allowing them to continue to funnel billions of laundered rubles through the City of London whilst bunging a few quid in the Tory coffers.
Will JC, pissed off tho she is with reason, really jump for Salmond? I will think less of her if she does.
No woman should have anything to do with him. NO thinking man either
He has the capability to be highly disruptive in the elections. He must have financial backers. What do they get out of this arrangement?
I don't know but the Russians and Chinese are awfully keen on Scottish independence. I imagine the drums of the 50¢ brigade are already beating the new rhythm out
Russia and China were happy with Brexit because it weakened Europe and Brian having the two of them split, further breakup of the UK would also be in their interest.And yet I can understand Scotland wanting independence, Westminster is full of ****s so there will be enough No voters will now choosing Yes when the next referendum happens.
does the ALBA party mean All Ladies Beware Alex?
I was just on a independence supporters page - part of the wider non SNP independence movement. 90+ % of poster were furious with him so from that the support is just not there
Auld Lecherous Baldy Alex ?
😁😁
All of a sudden there's ANOTHER independence party. Split the vote y'all.
Auld Lecherous Bloated Alex?
Allegedly Libidinous Bloated Alex
I really do not think Salmond is taking russian or chinese money - He is not corrupt.
His stint on Russian TV and this is all about his ego not corruption or money
I really do not think Salmond is taking russian or chinese money – He is not corrupt.
His stint on Russian TV and this is all about his ego not corruption or money
Doesn't stop him being 'played' by others though, his ego somewhat impairing his judgement?
Clearly his ego is the driving force here. The arch manipulator being manipulated? Possible but I doubt it.
Cherry has tweeted a clear statement that she is just taking a break and fully intends continuing her role as an SNP MP.
MP Kenny MacAskill quits SNP for new Alba Party
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56550195
I always thought him to be a richard. this proves it.
Kenny MacAskill is an utter fanny. Never set foot in East Lothian unless it was a photoshoot.
Total bell end Salmond is welcome to him, although he says he will carry on "serving" East Lothian !! Who the hell for ??
Always hated the guy, setting the Lockerbie bomber free aside he's always been high on my tool radar.
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Auld Lecherous BAWBAG Alex!
All Ladies Be Afraid
Neale Hanvey defects from SNP to new Alba Party
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56555096
All Lairy Blokes Aboard?
Wonder if any women will be joining.