Nobody Knew Anything
Nobody Knew Anything
Accountability has been lost in the circus of the Salmond inquiry The Holyrood elections are a chance to fix that.
Alex Salmond was cleared of breaking the law at a trial. Nicola Sturgeon was cleared of breaking the Ministerial Code.
Both of these facts are why there has been no accountability for the deeply troubling behaviour and culture that was described by witnesses in the investigations into both politicians and the SNP Government.
The politics of the parliamentary inquiry into these issues were a mess. Nicola Sturgeon’s team were saved from scrutiny on their own failings by fighting the conspiracy theories being sold by Alex Salmond. Too many in opposition to the SNP amplified Salmond’s nonsense, and in doing so helped the SNP leadership to escape accountability for the wider issues raised by the whole affair.
Added to that, it was naïve to base strategy on the expectation that an investigation into the Ministerial Code was ever going to seriously criticise the First Minister. Remember, this is the process that cleared Alex Salmond over his “in terms of the debate” response on whether his government held legal advice on an independent Scotland joining the EU. Raising expectations around this was only served to help the First Minister.
This created an environment where we had to endure the stomach-turning spectacle of government ministers going on television, on the day when a 192 page report into the failings in handling alleged sexual harassment was published, to claim they had received a pre-election boost. I despair.
In the circus of the last few days, accountability has been lost.
I have consistently said that it was wrong that Nicola Sturgeon, as a woman, should be held accountable for alleged bad behaviour by a man. That doesn’t mean that she, and the entire SNP hierarchy, should not be held accountable for a culture that witnesses to the inquiry say was tolerated. The response from the SNP leadership throughout this whole affair has been to claim that nobody was aware of alleged bullying or harassment within the SNP Government. Is this credible? Let’s look at what we know.
In 2009 Angus Robertson, gave evidence that he was approached about “perceived “inappropriateness” towards female staff at the airport” by Alex Salmond. After a decade of keeping quiet about this, says he went to the man who was the subject of these concerns, who denied it, and so he let the matter lie. Angus Robertson was then leader of the SNP in the House of Commons, and later SNP Deputy Leader.
But nobody in the SNP knew anything about what was happening.
The Trade Union representing the civil servants who work with Ministers most closely, told the media: “It is quite extraordinary that there are more complaints about the Scottish government than all than all other UK government departments put together." They wrote in evidence that around 2010 the culture of alleged bullying in the First Minister and other Ministers offices became a concern. They say that civil servants were “operating in a culture of fear”.
But nobody in the SNP knew anything about what was happening.
And most important of all, we now have the testimony of the women who complained about Alex Salmond. One told the inquiry that when it came to alleged inappropriate behaviour inside the SNP Government “there was complicity across a number of fronts in terms of people not challenging that behaviour”. They told the inquiry:
“The culture that existed leading up for a number of years to the point at which we would have had to make complaints was about not challenging behaviours in the first instance, and perhaps there were not clear boundaries for what was appropriate behaviour, or leadership in the organisation to challenge behaviours.”
“I think that it is a sad indictment of what happened at that time that such behaviour was permitted and a blind eye was turned to it.”
But nobody in the SNP knew anything about what was happening.
The testimony of the women at the inquiry is in addition to the evidence heard at the trial where Alex Salmond was cleared. Testimony that alleged changes to working practices so that women were not left alone, admitted “sleepy cuddles”, and described late-night Moutai sessions.
But nobody in the SNP knew anything about what was happening.
This entire culture has been left unaddressed, obscured by the psychodrama between the former First Minister and his protégé. No one has resigned. No one has taken responsibility. No one is accountable. That matters because these are not issues that have just gone away since Salmond left office.
Nobody in the SNP knew anything about what was happening. Do you really believe that? If you do, please send me your sort code and bank account number because there’s a Nigerian Prince who wants to wire you a million dollars. If you don’t believe it, watch this video as Nicola Sturgeon leads the adulation for Alex Salmond. Look at the smiling faces. Look at the Ministers rising to their feet in tribute. Listen to the cheers.
This video plays out the problem of Scottish politics in technicolour. There is a serious lack of accountability in Scottish public life. In so many areas, abuses and misuses of power by the ruling establishment are tolerated because to speak out would be to harm the nationalist cause. With the SNP this week publishing plans for a referendum in the next two years, the silence will only become louder if they win a majority.
Too Wee, Too Poor…
Some things must be spoken about though. Above all the failing of our young people by this government. This week another damning report exposed the failings of this rotting SNP government. When she came to power Nicola Sturgeon said that closing the gap in educational achievement between rich and poor kids was her “personal defining person mission”. She urged us, at this election, to judge her on this above anything else.
This week Scotland’s national auditor looked at the attainment gap and their report card was damning:
“Progress on closing the gap has been limited and falls short of the Scottish Government’s aims.”
Nobody seriously believes that the education of low-income pupils is the First Minister’s “number one priority”. This was a government, remember, that signed off on a process that downgraded the exam results of poor kids for no reason other than they came from poor areas. This is a government that made such a mess of their flagship education bill that they had to cancel it, but which had been able to publish a bill for an urgent vote on leaving the UK this week.
To close this session of the Scottish Parliament with a bill on leaving the UK is a statement of strategic intent from the SNP as the election kicks off. They will try to use the constitutional issue to distract from their truly woeful record on the NHS and schools. When they do that the response should be to call it out and explain the strategy to voters: they want to have a fight about exiting the UK because they can’t defend themselves on the issue they asked us to judge them on: education. It is about avoiding accountability.
A Matter of Priorities
Last week I wrote about how the SNP’s rush to have an urgent referendum has very little support, even among those who are tempted by the idea of leaving the UK. Another poll this week added to the evidence of Manana voters who may never support a re-run of 2014. As before, only a third of voters support holding a vote on the SNP’s timescale.
Lots of events this week were spoken about in terms of their impact on framing the Scottish election campaign. Perhaps the most important was buried in the preamble to the referendum bill published by the SNP. It confirms that the SNP are planning to hold the vote in the next two years.
This Twitter thread from the Fraser of Allander Institute sets out in stark terms how, even if we assume we’re nearer the end than the beginning of the pandemic, the economic crisis is just as big a challenge for us to overcome.
That feels like a big strategic mistake to me. To have put an urgent timeline on a referendum when there are so many other urgent priorities hands an easy attack line to the SNP opponents. When we should be prioritising recovery, they will be prioritising a referendum.
In Case You Missed It…
This photo from a seafood producer is a timely reminder that raising borders costs jobs.
Finally, this funny video mocking the latest skirmish in the flag wars made me laugh. This is exactly the sort of ridicule that flag-sh*ggers in Scotland should face.
