The fall out between Salmond and Sturgeon continues. It now looks like the two factions are thoroughly dug in for a fight to the death. One the one side we have Alex Salmond, Wings Over Scotland (the most-read Scottish politics blog site - but there's a good reason I'm not linking to it), Craig Murray, and now David Davis. On the other side we have Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP, and the current Scottish Government.
The claim, as has been online for more than a year, was aired at the Fabiani Committee a couple of weeks ago, and was restated in Parliament last night, is that a conspiracy of people around Nicola Sturgeon (including her husband; possibly including NS herself) arranged a crooked and unfair process to discredit Alex Salmond and, ultimately, imprison him up for crimes he was acquitted of.
If this were to be shown to be true, those involved would have to go. And if they refused, the government of which they are part would have to be removed from office. And with the election just a few weeks away, and then no opportunity for the voters to have their say again for five years, the stakes are incredibly high.
On the other hand, of course, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs, and I haven't actually seen those. I've seen extensive references to the relevant evidence, and David Davis in particular shone a light on where it can supposedly be found, but the relevant information is not in the public domain (often for good reason).
And while all four of the people I named above are very convincing, that's not quite the same as being truthful. And even being truthful is not the same as being right.
On the other other hand, the behaviour of the Scottish Government is very far from what it should have been. Having promised an open and transparent investigation, they have dragged their heels on releasing key evidence, have redacted and obfuscated extensively, and they've been generally uncooperative. In particular, the redaction of the Salmond evidence was just incompetent - the material was published and only then redacted. That had the effect of shining a big light on what was redacted... and it was really instructive to see what exactly they'd felt the need to hide.
Additionally, there's an inherent problem with the way the committee works - it has nine members, four of whom are SNP, one in a former-Green independent, and four are from the Unionist parties. Naturally, these all then vote on party lines. One way or the other politics is more important than truth.
The whole thing really, really stinks.
My view on all of this: I'm on the side of the truth, wherever that lies. As I said, if there was indeed a conspiracy to fit up AS, then those involved need to go, and if they refuse then the government needs to go (even though that would absolutely mean the end of talk of independence for at least five years). Conversely, if there's nothing to this, then that should also come out in the wash - and those accused allowed to carry on without a blemish on their character.
Unfortunately, it looks very much like we're not going to get that. We'll get some sort of wishy-washy nonsense from the official committee report, the SNP will spin this for all they're worth as a total vindication, the Unionists will spin this for all their worth as being a massive whitewash, and the voters will be left none the wiser. And we'll then have to vote based on a best guess, and with our confidence in the whole thing totally shot.
And all because nobody in the political and media circles in Scotland seems to actually be able to do their jobs.
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