Can someone explain the Alex Salmond 'thing's from the beginning please?

It's a Scottish Government enquiry chaired by a friend of Nicola and with a majority of the members being SNP ministers. They were never likely to make things easy for Salmond.

I thought that WWM2 as well. He was tried and found not guilty by a jury as well which he pointed out at one point so I wasn’t sure why that continued line of questioning especially when the enquiry is about the Scottish Parliament.

Why can’t the enquiry assert itself and insist that the government and First Minister gives over the documents that they are refusing cough up?

Not very up on all this, but thought on the News last night, Nicola looked rather hesitant and not very confident, never really seen her like that before.

Certainly not her usual vibrant self.

I’m not entirely convinced that the questioners are on top of their brief though, which must be to Sturgeons advantage.

They seem to be continually wondering into the Salmond’s sexual harassment case, when the enquiry is there to decide whether the Scottish parliament acted unlawfully.

Not a Salmond fan either Aveline but agree he was impressive today. Interesting to see how Sturgeon gets on. She has all weekend to come up with plausible answers and counter arguments.

Just watched a bit of his committee appearance. I'm definitely not a fan but by golly he's impressive. Facts, dates and figures at his fingertips. Slowly and surely demolishing Nicola. I don't know how she can face appearing at this committee next week even with her own MSP's questioning her. Labour's Jackie Baillie was very good.

Salmon extremely impressive in his evidence to the Holyrood enquiry.

I agree with Lemongrove . Today is about what Salmond claims the Scottish Government, Nicola Sturgeon and her advisors did or did not do in the lead up to his trial .

You can read Salmond's statement here www.parliament.scot/HarassmentComplaintsCommittee/General%20documents/Written_submission_from_Alex_Salmond.pdf
All the relevant details are redacted. Difficult to see how any case can be sorted out without the evidence.

I have just read a long article about Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond on the BBC website which gives a lot of interesting background to the current situation. Nothing is as ever simple and I can appreciate why Alegrias asked where I lived.

This isn’t about Salmond being over familiar ( or anything more) with women though eazybee it’s about the redaction of written material being presented as evidence by Salmond.
It’s about his assertion that Sturgeon misled the Scottish Parliament.

General consensus is that Salmond was probably, like many men of his generation, out of line.

No.
Fortunately most men of his generation, and before and after, are decent, and respect women.

Thanks for replying 25Avalon. I chose my words carefully - "in England" as opposed to "English". I was really referring to the way things are perceived in different parts of the country, as opposed to anyone's nationality.

FM's questions is always pretty confrontational.

alegrias I should have said since the party rose to power with AS as First Minister, although from what I’ve read his choice as head of the party was a surprise for some.

English as charged. I listened to Ruth Davidson on the news just now asking NS question. I wasn’t impressed that in her reply NS had to denigrate RD. Too much secrecy and lack of transparency with all these redactions. Why did NS present all those blank pages?

Aveline

The only snag is that the first meeting wasnt an informal one. The witnesses to that are the ones being redacted out. None of it adds up. Just publish everything then this could all be sorted out. Why not publish? What's the problem? Scottish govt have made things ten times worse by these obfuscations.
They got it wrong going after Salmond. Their process was found to be 'tainted by bias' and they had to cough up £500,000 plus expenses of taxpayers money. The cases went to court and the jury found him innocent apart from from one not proven case. He didn't emerge smelling of roses.
The committee is trying to find out where the initial process went wrong. As a part of this there is an accusation that NS broke the ministerial code.
It's a mess. Why can't everything be published (apart from the names of the women that were found to charge him of course).
No secrecy no problem but it's too late now.

The SNP are treating Holyrood as a private fiefdom, leaning heavily on the Crown Office, journalists from reputable Scottish newspapers and even threatening bloggers with jail.
In acting in this heavy handed way they are causing problems for everyone around them including themselves, with elections coming up soon.I think Sturgeon will manage to extricate herself from this, but won’t come up smelling of roses ( more of the stuff you put on roses.)

I'm not making any comment on Jim Sillars support for the leadership of the SNP! Let's just say there's a history there....

It was sad to read that Jim Sillars, one of the previous major players in the SNP, has said that he won't vote for them any more due to the corruption at the core.

Goodness me 25Avalon Alex didn't set up the SNP! The SNP have been in existence in one form or another since 1934. Serious question 25Avalon, are you in Scotland or England? I ask because if this is the perception in England then it explains why people personalise the independence movement as Alex's baby, and now Nicola's.

Anyway, he clearly feels antipathy to the SNP and its leadership and its leading him to take the approach he has.

Esspee it is Salmond who is pursuing this not Westminster. Why should he want to destroy the party he set up one asks and why did he have to be removed from the picture with allegations of sexual misconduct a jury found him not guilty of? Perhaps he is just very hurt and feels stabbed in the back. The one thing this case does reveal as Andrew Neil pointed out is the lack of transparency.

BlueBelle. he looked very much like he does today, slimmer with black hair and not many facial creases!

James Hamilton QC is the independent assessor considering Nicola Sturgeon’s actions as to whether she broke the ministerial code . His report I think is due out mid March . Not every breach is a resignation offence but she may have to resign depending on circumstances. Neither she nor Salmond have covered themselves in glory with this infighting .

Good. We've made each other laugh.

Now maybe you'll stop using "girly" as an insult.

Ohhh look - sexism!!

Now that is funny and silly!!

Ohhh look - sexism!!