Nicola Sturgeon

I don't think there is hard evidence to claim that she was complicit in these thefts. It must be awful for her to know that many people will think she was involved and it is not fair to say that. However, it certainly demonstrates a lack of attention and a lack of judgment - particulary because when she was questioned about the state of the party's finances she said they were in good order. Surely she should have investigated the situation before providing such reassurance?

I don't feel sorry for her either Aveline. It was her job to know what was going on. She's as hard faced now as she ever was, in my opinion.

It’s a bit like, did Queen Elizabeth know about Andrew MW’s leaking confidential information to business men? Now that we know the emails were sent to Buckingham Palace.

She still doesn’t get it, does she? Beside not noticing Jag' Campervan, Coffee machines (enough to challenge the local Costa Coffee,) plus a selection of Hairdryers. NS is being blamed for her own shortcomings. In particular, she failed to notice that £400,000 was missing from the accounts then refusing to allow anyone else to ask questions about it. She was incompetent, and she wanted to lead a Country!
She's now playing the little Miss Innocent, how insulting to the people Scotland and every tax payer in the UK.

Betrayed by two important men in her life.
Her mentor Salmond turned out to be a sex pest
and her husband, a fraudster.

She did lead a country.
She led Scotland through Covid.

Salmond was found not guilty on all allegations as far as I am aware.

Oreo

TerriBull

I'd just like to know why has she decamped to London, surely England and it's capital site of the loathed WESTMINSTER would be the last place in her sights as somewhere to park herself

May well be safer for her to be away from Scotland and angry and disappointed voters.
For some the SNP Party was almost like a religion with the her and husband like untouchable gods.

"For some the SNP Party was almost like a religion with the her and husband like untouchable gods."

Do you actually have any experience of this apart from biased media reporting?

Do you live in Scotland? If you do, you will know that to Joe Public, Murrell was hardly given a thought to as he was in the background, supposedly administering the party.

The pair of them 'untouchable gods'? I live in Scotland and can't even imagine what that would look like - quite hilarious to contemplate and there is not a lot of media showing them together over the years until this scandal - which of course was very useful to the anti-independence movement.

Sturgeon has been badly let down by her ex, whatever their actual relationship was. The way they shared (or didn't) their expenditure etc would depend on that actual relationship, of which we don't know enough to judge, although of course, people do sadly.

Sturgeon's ex has being living in her shadow but has surely now stabbed her in the back, whatever their relationship was. She will be tarred with his brush by some.

Yes, I am disappointed and angry at Murrell, but I have no way to hold Sturgeon to account. They were both high earners and had been living separate lives for some time so it is conceivable that she was ignorant of the fact (as everyone else in the party was) that not only was he committing fraud, but betraying the trust of the people.

She covered up. Full stop.

Salmond was cleared of all the allegations bar one, and that was not proven. Sturgeon used him in her rise to power then discarded him when he became inconvenient and is now doing the same to her ex-husband. Not a shred of loyalty to either.

Bad enough that she disclaims all knowledge of the embezzlement and the goods it procured including a range of female accessories , refused to answer police questions during lengthy interviews but is now attempting to promote herself via book promotions and television interviews.

Too old to play the wide-eyed ingenue. She was head of the Government and signed off the accounts without investigation, therefore is culpable.

I have to sign off our business accounts, which means accepting responsibility for what is declared.

As a women in charge of Scotland at the time I would have thought that she would have been all over anything regarding the SNP which she put her signature to.

It seems the house which was jointly owned will have to be sold or Nicola will have to buy his half so that the monies go towards repayment for that which Murrell embezelled. Maybe she will have to hand over the pendant as well.

She was warned there were discrepancies in the SNP accounts, but, instead of listening and acting, she shut down any dissent and hounded those that kept questioning her. Why would she do that if she didn't have something to hide.

I think a lot of her tactics in pursuing Salmond, the trans agenda etc were diversionary to deflect attention from the accounts and her husband's illegal activity.

She loves London, the Royal Family and she'll pay less tax.

I saw Sturgeon being interviewed on the LK show this morning. I believed her when she said in a high income household, with no children, no time to take multiple expensive holidays there was nothing brought into the home that she would imagine was outside their affordability. Even the Jaguar of which she was aware was within her husband's affordability.

I also agree it is his crime not hers so for him to take accountability for the embezzlement, over many years. In a way I admire her determination for that.

However, the sticking point is she was SNP leader over those years of embezzlement thus she had overall accountability for the party including balancing the SNP books. She knew her husband was CEO, also a budget holder, and that she must be cleaner than white if their high professional lives. When there were significant deficits, unless totally naive, I would have expected her to have discussions with her husband/CEO about the significant deficits and wanted both as a couple to act together to clear up and demonstrate that they were both acting whiter than white in budgetary matters so as to protect her reputation as a high profile, female, party leader with political enemies. Seemingly such a conversation never took place.

Budgetary lines of accountability and spending limits define exactly who is authorised to spend SNP funds and outline strict caps on those budgets. This limits expenditure to pre approved thresholds for designated purposes.

There were deficits- so the unanswered questions, not linked to her husband's conviction remain. That is why as leader did she not prioritising and task her Chief Finance Officer each year to investigate and report on the deficits? How was each budget holder, including CEO/husband, with high budget spending caps audited annually? What did Sturgeon actively do to manage this?

I don't know the degree or extent of either her naivety or complicity, or dereliction of her budget responsibilities until those questions are answered.....

25Avalon

It seems the house which was jointly owned will have to be sold or Nicola will have to buy his half so that the monies go towards repayment for that which Murrell embezelled. Maybe she will have to hand over the pendant as well.

If and when they divorce, the equity value of the marital home, as a joint asset, with no children, is almost certainly going to be split 50/50.

Thus he has his divorce settlement and she has hers. Murrell embezzled so any recuperation of assets from the SNP would fall on him. Sturgeon is now aware that some items of jewellery as gifts given to her were paid for by embezzled funds.

Hopefully she has the gumption and the insight to make recompense to the SNP for the value of these items. Value of second hand jewellery is less than purchase price and inflation of embezzlement funds has increased SNP budget loss. Thus reputationally, I would suggest it would be better for Sturgeon to recompense SNP by original value plus compound inflation interest.

She can issue a statement do this NOW as she surely has the funds- not sure why wait. To not do so is remiss, damages public confidence further and causes her reputational damage.

yogitree

Oreo

TerriBull

I'd just like to know why has she decamped to London, surely England and it's capital site of the loathed WESTMINSTER would be the last place in her sights as somewhere to park herself

May well be safer for her to be away from Scotland and angry and disappointed voters.
For some the SNP Party was almost like a religion with the her and husband like untouchable gods.

"For some the SNP Party was almost like a religion with the her and husband like untouchable gods."

Do you actually have any experience of this apart from biased media reporting?

Do you live in Scotland? If you do, you will know that to Joe Public, Murrell was hardly given a thought to as he was in the background, supposedly administering the party.

The pair of them 'untouchable gods'? I live in Scotland and can't even imagine what that would look like - quite hilarious to contemplate and there is not a lot of media showing them together over the years until this scandal - which of course was very useful to the anti-independence movement.

Sturgeon has been badly let down by her ex, whatever their actual relationship was. The way they shared (or didn't) their expenditure etc would depend on that actual relationship, of which we don't know enough to judge, although of course, people do sadly.

Sturgeon's ex has being living in her shadow but has surely now stabbed her in the back, whatever their relationship was. She will be tarred with his brush by some.

Yes, I am disappointed and angry at Murrell, but I have no way to hold Sturgeon to account. They were both high earners and had been living separate lives for some time so it is conceivable that she was ignorant of the fact (as everyone else in the party was) that not only was he committing fraud, but betraying the trust of the people.

I think a nerve has been touched!
Yes at one time, given the rise and rise of the SNP with NS at the helm and Murrell in a top job in the Party ( nepotism in action btw) they were treated as gods, albeit minor ones.No word of criticism was tolerated and as others here have pointed out, when the huge amounts missing from Party funds came to light, it was a case of ‘nothing to see here, how very dare you!’
Well, how are the mighty fallen, and a very good thing too.

I can almost predict how all this will run. Murrell, will claim mental health issues due to something traumatic happening in his childhood and get a lenient sentence. Sturgeon will get a career in the media and never return to Scotland. No money will ever be repaid.

notgran 😄you could well be right about that.Maybe he will say that as a child he found his birthday presents disappointing.

One Sunday in November his Mother forgot to darn his socks and his Father slept through the 6 o'clock news. It was from this point he struggled to recover

Oreo

yogitree

Oreo

TerriBull

I'd just like to know why has she decamped to London, surely England and it's capital site of the loathed WESTMINSTER would be the last place in her sights as somewhere to park herself

May well be safer for her to be away from Scotland and angry and disappointed voters.
For some the SNP Party was almost like a religion with the her and husband like untouchable gods.

"For some the SNP Party was almost like a religion with the her and husband like untouchable gods."

Do you actually have any experience of this apart from biased media reporting?

Do you live in Scotland? If you do, you will know that to Joe Public, Murrell was hardly given a thought to as he was in the background, supposedly administering the party.

The pair of them 'untouchable gods'? I live in Scotland and can't even imagine what that would look like - quite hilarious to contemplate and there is not a lot of media showing them together over the years until this scandal - which of course was very useful to the anti-independence movement.

Sturgeon has been badly let down by her ex, whatever their actual relationship was. The way they shared (or didn't) their expenditure etc would depend on that actual relationship, of which we don't know enough to judge, although of course, people do sadly.

Sturgeon's ex has being living in her shadow but has surely now stabbed her in the back, whatever their relationship was. She will be tarred with his brush by some.

Yes, I am disappointed and angry at Murrell, but I have no way to hold Sturgeon to account. They were both high earners and had been living separate lives for some time so it is conceivable that she was ignorant of the fact (as everyone else in the party was) that not only was he committing fraud, but betraying the trust of the people.

I think a nerve has been touched!
Yes at one time, given the rise and rise of the SNP with NS at the helm and Murrell in a top job in the Party ( nepotism in action btw) they were treated as gods, albeit minor ones.No word of criticism was tolerated and as others here have pointed out, when the huge amounts missing from Party funds came to light, it was a case of ‘nothing to see here, how very dare you!’
Well, how are the mighty fallen, and a very good thing too.

I have never viewed any politicians, not only Burrell or Sturgeon as "untouchable gods" or "treated as gods, albeit minor ones". I have never viewed any political party 'almost like a religion".

Neither have I ever known a time leaders of any majority political party, particular female leaders are not subject to scrutiny and criticism. It is Burrell that carried out and admitted his embezzlement and betrayed his party, his people and his wife. Sturgeon has been subject to full police investigation and faced no charges.

She can be held to account for how she managed or did not expertly manage the SNP budget deficits ( she is not an accountant and was a busy political leader- can you imagine Boris Johnston poring over budgets?) but should not be held to account for her husband's criminality. They are 2 separate things.