Nicola Sturgeon Arrested

[PK99]

As it says in the tin...

 

[Beebo]

Bonkers.
No wonder she resigned so quickly and shocked everyone.
Some bull shoot about spending more time with family and allowing younger politicians to come through?
More like she knew she was in big trouble.

 

[BoldonLad]

Quite a few people have been arrested in connection with this, but, so far, no charges, let along convictions

 

[Xipe Totec]

SNP doing a little too well in the polls recently, gaining enough ground over Labour to make Westminster uncomfortable.

Anyone in the independence movement remotely surprised by this, you think?

 

[AuroraSaab]

It's an important, high profile investigation. I don't think there's any great significance to her arrest, seems more like a procedural thing to ensure they question people fairly, ie under circumstances where they have a solicitor present. Perhaps she (understandably) declined an informal interview. I don't think Scottish police are under directions from Westminster or the Labour Party either though.

 

[theclaud]

Shocking. Remind me - is she the Medpro one or the Randox one?

 

[multitool]

SNP doing a little too well in the polls recently, gaining enough ground over Labour to make Westminster uncomfortable.

Anyone in the independence movement remotely surprised by this, you think?

Oh come off it.

Anyway, managed to find footage of the arrest:

click

 

[Xipe Totec]

It's an important, high profile investigation. I don't think there's any great significance to her arrest, seems more like a procedural thing to ensure they question people fairly, ie under circumstances where they have a solicitor present. Perhaps she (understandably) declined an informal interview. I don't think Scottish police are under directions from Westminster or the Labour Party either though.

As I understand it Police Scotland need to arrest somebody before questioning them - I don't think 'informal' interviews or questions under caution exist under Scottish law the way they do in rUK. Admittedly I'm by no means an expert so that may be incorrect. However that doesn't make this, or any of the aforegoing furore any less performative, stage-managed and inflated to trigger the outrage of an audience far beyond Scotland.

I wonder how much people not that aware of Scottish politics or the indy movement actually know about this. For example - the original complaint about the funds in question came from a guy called Sean Clerkin. You may remember 'England Out Of Scotland' banners on motorways & at airports during Covid - that's him, subsequently charged for 'racially aggravated' offences as a consequence. He's an extreme blood-and-soil nationalist who's been kicked out of radical indy organisations because he's basically too much of an obnoxious psychopath. I'm not sure what his personal end-game for destroying the SNP is, but he clearly holds a grudge.

Some background and detail about the actual complaint in this piece from January this year:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/poli...660k-snp-fraud-probe-complains-slow-progress/

As it says, the original complaint is simply that donations from 2017, towards an second referendum may have been used for party activities other than an independence referendum. Considering the sums concerned are, for a governing political party, comparitively trivial and would be eaten up in a week by Sunak's helicopter commuting - and are seemingly non-ringfenced donations owned by a private organisation - maybe the question ought to be why, exactly, this is such 'an important, high-profile investigation'. The rest of UK politics being quite so transparent and squeaky-clean, and all.

So, there is no suggestion that high-ups in the SNP have been pocketing this money for their own ends, but that doesn't stop the rhetoric surrounding it from implying exactly that. As though no-one took a nanosecond to reflect on whether a high-profile and eminently bankable politician like Sturgeon could generate huge 'legitimate' income on the side anyway (just like every grifting Tory & plenty of Starmer drones seem to) without resorting to committing potentially imprisonable crimes for buttons.

 

[newfhouse]

Sunday afternoon arrests for non-urgent financial crimes are common in Scotland, are they? Or is it just possible that the timing (if nothing else) is designed to suit newspapers and TV studios?

 

[Xipe Totec]

Sunday afternoon arrests for non-urgent financial crimes are common in Scotland, are they? Or is it just possible that the timing (if nothing else) is designed to suit newspapers and TV studios?

The timing has nothing whatsoever to do with print deadlines for Monday-morning headlines.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

She has been released without charge


investigations are continuing

 

[glasgowcyclist]

As I understand it Police Scotland need to arrest somebody before questioning them - I don't think 'informal' interviews or questions under caution exist under Scottish law the way they do in rUK

The police in Scotland can question suspects without arresting them.

There used to be the power to detain a suspect for up to 6 hours for the purpose of questioning and fingerprinting etc., under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, section 2. However, since the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 this has changed so that the previously separate concepts of detention and arrest are streamlined to a single form of arrest, more akin to that used in England.

Scottish Police can still question: suspects not yet arrested but in respect of whom a police officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting has committed, or is committing, an offence; or an individual attending a police station or other premises voluntarily for the purpose of being questioned as a suspect.

(In fact, prior to the 2016 Act, in Scotland you could only be arrested when there was sufficient evidence to charge you at that point. There was no such thing as being arrested on suspicion of whatever crime, as they have in England. It used to really bug me when they’d use that terminology in a police drama set in Scotland.)

 

[Xipe Totec]

She has been released without charge


investigations are continuing

Well I never.

 

[Xipe Totec]

The police in Scotland can question suspects without arresting them.

There used to be the power to detain a suspect for up to 6 hours for the purpose of questioning and fingerprinting etc., under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, section 2. However, since the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 this has changed so that the previously separate concepts of detention and arrest are streamlined to a single form of arrest, more akin to that used in England.

Scottish Police can still question: suspects not yet arrested but in respect of whom a police officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting has committed, or is committing, an offence; or an individual attending a police station or other premises voluntarily for the purpose of being questioned as a suspect.

(In fact, prior to the 2016 Act, in Scotland you could only be arrested when there was sufficient evidence to charge you at that point. There was no such thing as being arrested on suspicion of whatever crime, as they have in England. It used to really bug me when they’d use that terminology in a police drama set in Scotland.)

Ta for the clarification!

 

[Deleted member 121]

I suppose this is the next logical step in the "desturgeonification" of the SNP - BBC Link

Oh any media moguls who use "desturgeonification" as a term or headline in one of their articles, i only charge £50 a click. Cheques in the post, ta...