Sturgeon -v- Salmond. This is going to be very interesting. Is the SNP finished? And what impact on the Scots regarding Indy2? ?

Petera: This is more a case of look at the beam in your own eye before helping me with the speck in mine. Well said!

Salmond's statement is already in the public domain. Why can't he just present it and gave it taken into account? Parliament has said it should, Lady Dorrian said its OK. So what's the problem? Maybe Salmond should risk the Crown Office threats and just appear and say his piece?
There really is something rotten in the state of Scotland.

Standing back from the whole argument, Salmons would hardly be the first male leader who has acted inappropriately with women.

What motivation would the women who accused him have, given that he had already stepped down as leader?

Craig Murray's sworn statement is worth a read GagaJo. I don't have a link to it but it was very enlightening.

Wouldn’t it be very strange if people weren’t interested? To be fair Petera we aren’t all Tory supporting zealots on this thread by any means, and we aren’t all trying to score political points either. I believe it’s quite reasonable to want to understand what’s happening in other parts of the UK, I’m equally interested in Northern Ireland - I’m in Wales myself, and a lot of the Scottish issues have parallels here - there are plenty of specks in the eyes in Wales too - and there have been loads of discussions on the forum about the state of English and UK wide politics as well.

What I don’t get is how defensive some people are being about this, because whilst it’s tough for the electorate to understand what’s happening at the moment, if there has been no foul play then it should enhance SNP chances in the next election, and if there has then surely the politicians are getting what they deserve?

Remember that Salmond has been cleared of all of the accusations of sexual misconduct, that's not what this is all about. Worth remembering too that the offences which he has been proved innocent of came to light during the height of the "MeToo" activity, so if a court case had not been forthcoming there could well have been accusations of preferential treatment of a politician.

I've read Murray's sworn statement. Mainly it goes along the lines of Alex said this happened, then Alex said that happened, then Alex said all these people ganged up on him. Might be true. Might not.

Much more and specify detail though. It was quite a chilling read. It made me wonder what Scotland has come to. If only Donald Dewar was still around.

I agree Casdon, people should be talking about it.

What I object to is some people trying to use it as if it somehow reflected on the viability of Scotland as a sovereign nation when they would never even consider the appalling behaviour of the current Westminster government as ‘proof’ that the UK was not viable as a sovereign nation. It’s identity politics at its worst.

There’s grown-up discussion to be had about independence and this is not it.

And incidentally, I’ll repeat the answer someone gave to David Cameron when he described Nicola Sturgeon as the most dangerous woman in Britain: if you think she’s the most dangerous woman in Britain then you haven’t met many Scottish women.

That's true Petera. I've met more impressive Scotswomen that NS. Cameron needed to get out more!

Nicola Sturgeon has been warned a "guided missile" is heading towards Holyrood ahead of Alex Salmond's appearance at the inquiry, by former MP George Galloway.

I would have almost thought evidence from George Galloway should be ruled inadmissible in account of it being evidence from George Galloway.

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Scottish voters may yet punish Nicola Sturgeon for her handling of the Salmond affair. Anything but a resounding victory in May's elections could cost the First Minister the support of independence activists.

Seems Nicola Sturgeon is doubling down now on her abuse of power.

Having told Salmond to produce evidence that she misled the Scottish Parliament, he does so. She then leans on the Scottish Crown Office and tells them to redact the very parts of Salmond's evidence that prove she misled the Scottish Parliament. Having scrubbed the evidence, she then calls Salmond a "wild conspiracy theorist".

To say that Scotland is now a banana republic is to insult a banana republic.

UG your schadenfreude is showing.

It's not a good look.

Sorry.
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However, think on this.

Regarding how her government continues to get away with its poor performance, (drug abuse scandal as an example, there are others) I think its all down to the rubbish devolution settlement and subsequent latitude given to the SNP.

It acts now like it is a full blown government, which it is not, but also one with no checks or balances of a second chamber in its parliament.

We may criticise the HOL, but at least nearly everything that goes through the Commons gets an appraisal and unless the parliament Act is enforced, is modified and/or poor policy is publicly called out.

Perhaps, in the event of a Sturgeon led independent Scotland, (almost a foregone conclusion unless this debacle gives the SNP a bloody nose) Tony Blair could be deported there to live out his penance for setting up such a diabolical system!

His only interest was setting in stone a permanent Labour ran Scotland with a near guaranteed Scottish Labour bloc in Westminster - didn't turn out quite what you expected, eh, Mr Blair? How the man still has the nerve to inflict his 'wisdom' on us all is beyond belief.

Whereas David Cameron covered himself in glory (not) if I remember correctly Urmstongran? This is an issue for the Scottish political system itself to resolve.

Thinking on UG, but dismissing as rubbish. Latitude given to the SNP? Or power because nearly half of the populace voted for them last time?

The Scottish Parliament operates on a unicameral model which is modulated by the form of PR used to ensure no party has a huge majority. We don't need a HoL full of unelected people.

Yes I was about to say David Cameron left a trail of damage so perhaps his understanding of dangerous was flawed.

Oh how I hope Alex Salmond comes out of this with egg on his face . I think Miss Sturgeon has had a thankless task week after week day after day having to present the latest covid deaths . I am sure she is not looking for glory for herself and might be quite relieved if she had to step down .

Sturgeon has absolutely not needed to appear every day to read out the Covid deaths. She's a politician taking full advantage of as much of the limelight she can get especially with an election coming up.
In England Boris or Matt only appear if there's something new to say. They say it then hand over to the real experts. They politely listen to the journalist's questions (without making faces like NS does) and also allows them to come back with further questions.
NS has a quite unwarranted amount of TV time and uses it to make political points. It's hard to believe how it's allowed to happen but anything goes in Scotland these days it seems. (Apart from sound governance!)

I would have thought that Johnson appearing on TV every day would be something his advisors would advise against. I would have thought poll ratings would go down in line with every appearance.

sturgeon v salmon d all sounding a bit fishy to me.

This is no plaice for jokes lemsip.
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Urmstongran

Nicola Sturgeon has been warned a "guided missile" is heading towards Holyrood ahead of Alex Salmond's appearance at the inquiry, by former MP George Galloway.

More a misguided missile...

Galloway is deplorable, but by chance he was once our MP and one of the reasons he gets support is that he was a fabulous constituency MP - if you went to him with a problem he took it seriously and sorted it out.