I fear it may also be a tough watch, and I am grateful to anyone who tries. The justified and well evidenced acquittal of Alex Salmond by a largely female jury was only the beginning of a nightmare.
Also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8NjRSUkkWE
UPDATE I accidentally transpose in the video which of the two complainants from the original civil service process was met by John Sommers, Nicola’s Principal Private Secretary, on 20 and 21 November 2017, before Nicola wrote to Leslie Evans on 22 November 2017 telling her to include former ministers (but not civil servants) in the sexual harassment process. This was three and a half months before Nicola claims she first heard of the allegations against Alex Salmond.
The question of which of the two Sommers met makes no difference to the argument or series of events. END UPDATE
Anybody who has not already done so, should also watch this excellent speech by David Davis, who using parliamentary privilege can fill in a few of the things which I cannot.
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Craig,
I’ve tried, however it appears to be marked “Private” and can only be accessed by those you have given access.
Sorry
It’s working now!
I can’t view this … it says ‘private’.
Trying the first video I got a message:
“This video is private.
If the owner of this video has granted you access, please sign in.”
Same here – can’t view the video – “private”
Profoundly imurrell people.
A sturgeon of the second freshness
I take pleasure in given you the first “like” on Youtube. The corruption imo is endemic not only in Scotland, but worldwide.
What can we the people do about it? Non compliance and highlighting the lies whenever we can is the only antidote to this
issue about NS and many, many more possibly more important issues including the current Con Virus.
I don’t believe in the left/right paradigm. I haven’t voted since 1997 when I voted Tony Blair a war criminal into power. I didn’t vote
in the Brexit divide referendum, because the Corporation of the City of London (a State within a State) wanted to
rule financial supreme without the constraints of the EU.
There is an attack on people to divide us. Black against white, left against the right, men against women,
heterosexuals agianst homosexuals, young against the old and much more.
It’s totalitarian and for people to say it’s only fascist, don’t understand communision. The two are close buddies.
“Political Ponerology”
“The original manuscript of this book went into the furnace minutes before a secret police raid in Communist Poland. The second copy, painfully reassembled by scientists working under impossible conditions of violence and repression, was sent via courier to the Vatican. Its receipt was never acknowledged – the manuscript and all valuable data lost. In 1984, the third and final copy was written from memory by the last survivor of the original researchers: Andrew Lobaczewski. Zbigniew Brzezinski blocked its publication.
After half a century of suppression, this book is finally available.
Political Ponerology is shocking in its clinically spare descriptions of the true nature of evil. It is poignant in its more literary passages revealing the immense suffering experienced by the researchers contaminated or destroyed by the disease they were studying.
Political Ponerology is a study of the founders and supporters of oppressive political regimes. Lobaczewski’s approach analyzes the common factors that lead to the propagation of man’s inhumanity to man. Morality and humanism cannot long withstand the predations of this evil. Knowledge of its nature – and its insidious effect on both individuals and groups – is the only antidote.”
Had to comment just to say, spot on, I agree with your positions 100%
What positions might those be Simon?
“What can be done about it?” For a start give the Scottish parliament the powers Davis says it must have.
“I don’t believe in the left/right paradigm”. Predictably everything you go on to write is contentless, conspiratorial nonsense.
Explain your remark which stated I don’t believe in the left/right poitical paradigm. You stated it’s counterless and
conspiratorial nonsense!
Give some information to that comment please.
Was it because I mentioned the Corporation of the City of London?
The only unelected person to sit in the House of commons is the Remembrancer.
What is his role?
Hear hear and ditto re political ponerology.
Shirt & tie no less. Wot happened to the favourite jumper?
Interesting & worth flogging through – but you should get back to writing when you can ;^)
I also watched the David Davies speech. Much to my amazement, the thing I’ve taken away is a huge increase in my respect for David Davies. He’s about the only remaining politician (of any rosette colour) that I have any time for in the whole of the UK.
The whole independence thing is irrelevant. Rotten civil servants & rotten politicians are the problem, & no matter what the structure of government. They seem to be a growing problem.
A good start would be slashing their numbers – don’t reorganise things, just shut things down.
NB you may have inadvertently given a letter identifier to one of the women (one who wasn’t there) so edit that if you didn’t mean to.
Come out of the website and go in again. The video should work now. Craig I’m sending you something from my pension, although I never subscribed to your blog. I meant to send something for your legal fees, but you closed the appeal before I got round to it. You have a lot of support. Don’t waste it with daft schemes like that £25.000 ‘reward’ and those judgmental comments aimed at myself and others who have justified reservations about the Astrazeneca and Pfizer mRNA vaccines.We are not ‘selfish’, just cautious.
Thanks for the video. It made clear a lot of things I was confused about. I hope you don’t get into trouble over it.
I support having a constitution and a federal Britain / UK and I support Welsh, Cornish and Gaelic languages and culture, but I would prefer that Scotland and Wales do not become entirely independent. I suspect that Craig is right that Alex Salmond would deliver independence ahead of Nicola Sturgeon, but if Craig is also right about what has happened (and it appears very persuasive) then it is all appalling.
Countries need good institutions and they need good people, who are prepared to put doing the right thing above achieving their objective. In so far as behaving badly is ever acceptable it should be strictly limited to behaving badly outside of the borders. That is why what is possibly sometimes ok for Mi6 is not ok for Mi5 or the police or other Government agencies. There should always be an understanding that a diplomat is a gentleman who lies for his country, but he does not lie at home. It does seem odd if the SNP supporters consider it ok to turn a blind eye to the mischief (as described by Craig) in order to maintain apearances, but on the other hand oppose a wildcat referendum
I can’t help but see Craig less as a politician and more as a poet:
“The poet is a maker, not a retail trader. The writer today should not be so much the mouthpiece of a community (for then he will only tell it what it knows already) as its conscience, its critical faculty, its generous instinct.” Louis MacNeice.
You have in any event alerted me to things I did not know and for that you have my thanks.
Thank you Craig. Well worth saying, and the most illuminating hour of these somewhat frantic ways. Lagavulin on the way. Better times ahead, one day…
excellent piece
Dear Craig
I’m sorry you are feeling low, but not surprised. We have been following you for some time now. My late husband was your biggest fan and introduced me to your work and I have since done the same with our son. Thank you for the video and your truth telling. I have subscribed.
Best regards, Vanessa & Walter Beeson
Absolutely fantastic Craig. We need you back in the game now more than ever.
Thanks Craig. What you do is unique and deserves support. Increasing subscription.
David Davis is good, but he’s a one-off, a tolerated maverick.
Notice the Tory MP for Cheltenham, Alex Chalk, sat alongside him in an otherwise empty Commons.
Empty Commons – Covid scare?
Even taking the covid spacing rules into account it was deserted.
It’s always empty unless PMQs is on: MPs don’t waste time listening to others speak in actual debates any more.
Tumbleweed on Labour benches. GKH rides north to save their Guinevere instead.
Just watched your video in full having watched the speech of David Davis yesterday. The whole rotten episode of Nicola being scared the big boys would come back and spoil her game is now laid bare. I agree NS has become a false idol to the cult that follows her and I can’t help think that UK backroom boys have something to do with it.
My monthly contribution from my CSP is rock solid no matter how long it takes your writers block to clear. It would be interesting to hear what you think about David Davis’s professed motivation for his speech. It seemed genuine to me. Any thoughts on why Tony Blair set up the Scotland Act to leave the executive conflicted with no separation of powers and unaccountable to the SP? Perhaps projection of how he would have liked to neuter the British Parliament?
Most likely explanation of Blair’s action was sheer incompetence. The whole PFI programme for public infrastructure investment was a pigs breakfast, even though the idea itself was laudable, namely upgrading UK’s creaking aging public buildings, notably hospitals.
Rhys, you do say some odd things.
There was nothing remotely laudable about the PFI accounting trick. It was never anything more than a wheeze to keep the PSBR down, by getting private companies to finance capital expenditure, in exchange for guaranteed long-term revenue (to be paid for by my grandchildren).
Capital expenditure should be funded by public borrowing. The government can borrow more cheaply than private firms. And it’s really not right for a government to take credit for implementing major capital projects, while keeping the PSBR down by punting the costs onto future generations.
I feel your pain, Craig, and it is shared widely. You are not alone. The damage that this scandal has caused to the SNP and the independence movement is colossal and far reaching. Simply ignoring it, as many do, is nowhere good enough and will not hasten independence.
I also share your shock at the amount of people in senior positions who have gone along with first the collusion, the plan to smear Alex, and then the cover up. We thought we had some semblance of institutional integrity and the separation of powers, but we have been badly disabused of that notion. The distortion of the legal profession is particularly scandalous and deeply worrying. i have no doubt your own case is being held in limbo in order to harass you.
It is desperate times, one we could never have foreseen. I gave Sturgeon the benefit of the doubt for a long time, which only makes the malfeasance and lying even more horrifying and deeply insulting to us all.
However, there are bright spots, people of integrity who have stuck to their principles and told the truth. You are one of those and for that we are deeply grateful. There will be a fall out, and we can only keep going and hope their will eventually be an upside to it. But above all, I know you will retain your integrity and honesty.
Thanks once more for all you’ve done and continue to do for that the truth will out. It is not without risk to yourself, so takes real courage.
I wish I could become a financial supporter of this blog or at least chip in to your defence fund. Alas I am having to be very mean these days to make ends meet. Being half Scottish and half Yorkshire, it comes naturally. Maybe soon it will be possible.
Stay well, stay positive and keep sticking it to them that deserve to be exposed.
Like most of your work Craig, just brilliant and unfortunately sobering. How do they sleep at night?
They sleep at night because to quote the FT :
At the trial, Gordon Jackson QC, Mr Salmond’s lawyer, admitted the former first minister had acted “inappropriately” with much younger female subordinates. Mr Salmond himself said he had two consensual sexual encounters with two of the women at his official residence of Bute House in Edinburgh.
——-
I’m no prude, but by his own admission he was no saint. Nobody comes out of this looking like they should be put on a pedestal. Salmond is a married man, who as a leading politician (higher standards expected) jeopardised both the SNP’s reputation and put inde hopes at risk with his own “foolish” behaviour.
You seem omnipresent on this site yet somehow it still eludes you what they tried to have done to an innocent man.
Nobody emerges from this with their reputation enhanced.
Shouldn’t inde supporters be somewhat annoyed with Salmond? He knows the UK establishment’s views on the SNP and independence, he’d seen what had happened to Assange with an alleged Swedish ‘honeytrap’ . Although consensual his behaviour was deeply reckless. It’d been a resigning matter had the press found out regardless of what Sturgeon has since done.
I’m not condoning the prudish, prying nature of the press.
But you know how puritanical the UK tabloid press are about this stuff. How many ministerial scalps have been claimed by consensual ‘affairs’ over the decades.
The fact Salmond was found to be innocent by a jury of mostly women, with a female judge residing, is surely yet more evidence of Salmond’s sexual power over women?
Just because he was rightly acquitted of the charges brought does not make AS an “innocent man”. Innocent of those crimes, yes, but as Goose rightly points out, Salmond crossed the line of acceptable behaviour by a FM – or of any boss and an underling for that matter – by having sexual encounters with junior employees. Whether or not you agree the with existance of this “line” that AS crossed or not is moot: it exists and AS knew fine well it existed when he crossed it. Are we to believe that these encounters were instigated by the females? Or that AS has a 100% success rate with his advances, there were no rebuffals? He likes a drink and clearly gets a bit ‘handy’ when in the company of much younger women. Which yes, of course, is not illegal, it’s just….not on. If I’m honest, I could not guarantee I would not do the same in that position, but then I was not the First Minister of Scotland at the time……
Keep fantasising.
I totally agree that one should expect higher standards but two wrongs don’t make a right, if the severity of the accusations is as shallow as Craigs video suggests then those people have to live with it, shame on them. Given that the motive for many appears to have been personal reward then perhaps that displays the mental traits that will allow them to knock out the Z’s in total relaxation.
Cheers
I agree with all the criticisms too.
But where I differ, is in that the central task now is to win independence; and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns.
You won’t win it with corrupt people, or people who lamely repeat baseless allegations about Salmond, like you.
No Saint ?
Invariably these days some are eager to highlight foibles which we may all in one form or another be guilty of, when demonstrated by those in elected office.
It would be as well to remember that the last bloke that was without sin got nailed up a couple of thousand years ago, and it’s a totally unrealistic expectation to imagine that those elected to lead are paragons of virtue in every way.
Politics is, and always has been a very rough game indeed. It may therefore be the case that those who rise to the top in such an environment have at least their fair share of human frailties.
“Corruption” says it all.
Craig, I have often wanted to increase my subscription from £2pm but couldn’t see how to do it.
I’ve had to take a second subscription for £10. Just wonder if there might be more folk wanting to just nudge up and can’t.
I don’t think your poor children will starve though.
Great video. I still don’t like David Davis as a bedfellow.
Take a well earned break and tell us when consorting with the enemy has turned out well in the past.
Hugh
David Davis is not an enemy where matters of legal probity are concerned. He is a man of integrity and honour, which may explain why more unscrupulous and wily operators got higher up the greasy pole than he did.
If you listened to what he said, he was most clear in saying that his proposed solution was giving to the Scottish Parliament the powers necessary to act which were currently lacking. He said nothing about reversing Scottish devolution, did he?
If you want to go on deluding yourself that the EU functionaries and infrastructure are kind and generous saints, do so. The thinking masses worked out many years ago that they are self-serving megalomaniacs that see every solution as involving more centralisation. And their priorities in general are themselves, the USA, China, Germany, France in that order….and everyone else an extremely long way further down the pecking order.
It really is a shame that too many Scots just have them n us battleline mindsets with the English, with Conservatives, even about climate change.
It is a fine strategy to become a non-independent nation governed from Brussels, but if you want true independence, you need a change of mindset again…..
That mindset change needs to include not granting unquestioned status to scientists, medics, billionaires, bankers, US diplomats, and lots more.
Don’t apologise for using this format. It is incredibly powerful.
Thank you
Far from being “hopeless” at it (as he said self-deprecatingly, near the start), Craig held my attention effortlessly for the full 56 minutes. It must be all his Civil service training (combined with a gift of the gab): it’s become second nature for him to marshal his knowledge like this, even when he’s depressed. I think the video could be recommended to anyone as an introduction to the affair.
(By the way, there was a brief reference in the middle to an aspect of Scottish law, which perhaps Craig took for granted his listeners would recognise, but which I had to look up: it’s the “Moorov doctrine”.)
You’ve known all this for a long time and during that time maintained the view that the SNP is ‘the only realistic vehicle’ to achieve independence. Deep misgivings, or even hostility to the SNP leadership are understandable, but surely the cause is bigger than any individual or even group?
Doesn’t the unionist MS media feeding frenzy we’re now seeing over this give you pause? The idea the UK media are ‘protecting’ the SNP’s leadership has now been demonstrably shown to be false. At the risk of accusations of whataboutery, how do Johnson, May, Cameron, Brown and Blair(!) in any manner represent a more ethical approach than that of Sturgeon?
The end result of all this is likely going to be inde hopes completely sunk in May; the SNP in opposition, probably led by unpopular ‘hate crimes’ Humza, and Scotland stuck with a Tory/Labour/LD coalition for the foreseeable future, certainly a decade or more. Who’d see that scenario as any sort of win, apart obviously from Johnson and the UK media?
Scotland’s post-Brexit exporting future is bleak, this should offer an easy route to gaining independence, and yet this “hey look a squirrel!” issue dominates.
Inde supporters risk losing sight of the bigger picture, doing what the UK media encouraged Labour voters to do to Corbyn.
Keep blaming the messengers, won’t you. Some people, inconveniently, have integrity and ethical principles.
Goose, your arguments in favur of the current SNP leadership are very similar to those from the supporters of Sir Kier, basically, that it doesn’t matter what they do to get into power, it’s the getting into power that counts. I think this is what is meant by selling your soul to the devil.
“ The idea the UK media are ‘protecting’ the SNP’s leadership has now been demonstrably shown to be false. “
Goose you getting my gander up with that tosh. Show us and go back to the beginning and watch again.
Goose, you really talking out of your arse and I expect better of you.
Craigs laid it bare, he’s facing prison to show us that Sturgeon et al are utterly corrupt have no intention of delivering independence and even handed the veto to Boris.
And even if Alex were the bum pincher he was accused of being that would only make him as corrupt as them and in no way could possibly exonerate the behaviour of the Sturgeon government.
No please pull your head out.
After watching both videos at full lenght, the motive has now become clear, a fearty FM who knew she has not/ cannot deliver Independence, doing all that is possible under the incomplete Scotland act to keep the only potent rival, her mentor, at check.
She knew what he would be going through and what the press would make of it/ jump to it with gusto, with AS now running his RT channel.
Those like Goose who are willing to sacrifice AS honesty for what he has admitted, for a rotten caniving SNP echochamber, once again promising what they have no intention of delivering, are by their logical lazyness a part of the problem now.
We all know it is spring,Goose, but to think that the Gander round the corner will eventually be let free to see to you is false hope, you are following a dangerous path and hope that all will be well in the end.
This is not Hollywood but real Holyrood, change must and will come with Independence and I thank Craig for his great persistence and excellence in sticking to a principled goal.
I hope that your immensely delayed court decision will soon make it clear who will and who won’t be a viable option in Scotlands future.
The woman who wasn’t there was a woman scorned because Alex wouldn’t give her his backing in becoming a candidate for Holyrood candidate selection, but at least he didn’t give her a jam tomorrow response compared to what Nicola claimed she had given Alex during the 2nd April meeting
The most damning thing about Sturgeon is that before she became partei leader, her hair was all over the place, her clothes wee haphazard and she had a certain charm. Five minutes after taking over from Salmond, she appeared with a Thatchler coiffure, co-ordinated clothes and 1970s block heeled shoes. My heart sank, she’s been tarted up (literally), thought I. I felt the same when Corbyn went to a memorial after being elected leader of the Liarbour Partei, didn’t wear a tie and didn’t sing the wrong national anthem*. He apologised in the Sunday papers and I wrote him off, annoying lots of people by saying he’d capitulated and that it was downhill from here. I annoyed them a lot more when I told them that I’d tell them I told you so. Then I told them that I told them so and that I told them that I’d tell them that I’d told them so. Sturgeon is clinging on but I told you so.
* God save the zzzzzzzz was replaced in 2001.
From what you say, she seems to have been tarted down.
I think you may have a point there.
Iron, not brass.
Watched the whole thing. Very good and heartfelt is how it struck me.
One thing I was concerned about; when you said Alex had admitted one incident did take place and that he’d apologised for it and this apology had been accepted, this was in reference to what could be described as a drunken cuddle. Shortly after you say the woman later accused him of trying to get inside her underwear, and I hope those watching this are clear that Alex Salmond admitted he cuddled her, but refuted the allegation that he’d tried to get into her underwear. Given all the nonsense that you describe being put about on social media, I wouldn’t want any of these people saying he admitted the underwear thing happened and had apologised for it.
Yes, right and important Margaret
A very powerful piece Craig, thank you for doing it. I think I know some of what you are feeling. I too am depressed by all this. The behaviour of the Scottish government and the SNP have left me politically homeless for the first time in my life and I don’t see any way forward. I hope you can get back to your old self soon, we all miss your writing and insight not just on Scottish politics but the very wide range of other subjects you cover.
You do yourself a disservice Craig, the video was very good (and enlightening).
Maybe considering doing one more often.
It is absolutely staggering that “The Woman who wasn’t there” can remain both anonymous and safe from prosecution from committing perjury in a High Court trial!
I believe you are seeking “the privilege of leading AFI’s challenge in the Lothians region” and I hope you get elected but seriously wish you’d stand in Edinburgh on one of the constituency votes as well.
Jockanese. Yes it would be great if Craig would stand against Angus Robertson in the Edinburgh seat.
Angus Robertson must be involved in the stitch up of Alex, as he was asked to submit his evidence to the harassment committee.
He & his wife are not nice people. The last thing you want is Nicola handing the baton onto Robertson if the SNP should win at the election.
Craig if you should stand on the constituency vote, I’m sure you will win it. By the way thanks for the great video.