Sturgeon resigns

[icowden]

The more obvious situation is having been in a well-paid position for a long time. Pay for first minister about £160k plus expenses. I have no idea what Murrell was paid, but they could obviously afford to buy that vehicle if they wished without winning anything or deceiving anyone.

I presume Murrell was paid reasonably well but I doubt he was earning as much as Sturgeon. His background was in PR.
That said, as you point out, even if he was earning say 30-40k per year, that's a household income of around £200k per year and without kids to use it up, a camper van and a partly owned villa in the Algarve are not outside the bounds of possibility.

 

[BoldonLad]

I presume Murrell was paid reasonably well but I doubt he was earning as much as Sturgeon. His background was in PR.
That said, as you point out, even if he was earning say 30-40k per year, that's a household income of around £200k per year and without kids to use it up, a camper van and a partly owned villa in the Algarve are not outside the bounds of possibility.

Understatement of the year. Our household income never approached £200Kpa, 6 kids to support, we never achieved a villa in the Algave, but, we had (and still have) a camper van, and would have bought a place in France if the "B" word had not happened.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Ms Sturgeon’s income and tax payments are published.

She had a salary entitlement of £140,496, although 20% of that (£27,000) was returned to the public purse as she continued to take a salary equivalent to 2008-09 levels. The tax she paid was on the full amount though, and amounted to just over £51,000 in each of the past two years.

If only other government leaders were as forthcoming with their source(s) of income.

It’s also worth noting that, unlike many of her Westminster counterparts, she has no other income than her government salary.

 

[multitool]

WHAT ABOUT THE BODIES IN HER GARDEN?????

 

[monkers]

WHAT ABOUT THE BODIES IN HER GARDEN?????

I personally advised her to plant protected species of rare orchids on them so that the bodies couldn't be dug up. It has certainly worked for me so I do hope she took my advice.

 

[Xipe Totec]

WHAT ABOUT THE BODIES IN HER GARDEN?????

Unfortunately they just wouldn't stay dead.

 

[spen666]

I feel sorry for the SNP. This witch hunt against them is out of order. I mean, who hasn't woken up after a night out and misplaced the odd £600,000.

its so easy to do

 

[multitool]

There is a lot going on here. You've got a party that has pretty much won everything since 2007. Lead by a unique politician. Likely (pre-police action) to have won their ultimate goal with at most 3 parliamentary terms. There's a certain hubris that goes with this kind of performance whereby the identity of the party leadership subsumes everything, assumptions are made about the desires of party members and donors, and norms for financial propriety are ignored. That isn't to say that actual embezzlement has occured, after all, no charges have been laid, despite two arrests and releases, and three raids, but it might be that the leadership assumed that their aims and intentions fir the funds were the sames as the donors...After all everyone was working for the same result.

The only certainty is that it has kicked Scottish independence into the long grass until demographics take effect, and the young, who are predominantly pro independence become the majority.

 

[Xipe Totec]

The only certainty is that it has kicked Scottish independence into the long grass until demographics take effect, and the young, who are predominantly pro independence become the majority.

Scottish independence didn't require kicking into the long grass - the Supreme Court case last November ruled that Scotland has no agency to pursue a legitimate route to independence without the consent of Westminster. Both main Westminster parties have made it abundantly clear there are no circumstances under which that will happen.

What the turmoil within the party has done is make the UK parties more brazen in their intentions for Scotland - the Tories are even starting to say the quiet bits out loud.


View: https://twitter.com/DavidGHFrost/status/1648795240147320837?s=20

 

[multitool]

Scottish independence didn't require kicking into the long grass - the Supreme Court case last November ruled that Scotland has no agency to pursue a legitimate route to independence without the consent of Westminster. Both main Westminster parties have made it abundantly clear there are no circumstances under which that will happen.

Ah, but things can change, and pressure from Scotland with numbers would have forced one, I think. Naturally, Westminster will resist.

Scottish independence is, in my view, inevitable.

 

[AndyRM]

Of course it is. We've been under the oppression of English rule for far, far too long which people are, finally, realising.

 

[Xipe Totec]

Of course it is. We've been under the oppression of English rule for far, far too long which people are, finally, realising.

Which is precisely why there won't be a second referendum.

Westminster won't grant a referendum it doesn't know it will win. In 2013, pro-indy support was typically in the 20s and low 30s - Cameron would have felt pretty secure approving a Section 30 order for the following year. As it turned out the way independence support balooned during the campaign, peaking in the mid-50s iirc, will have scared the sh!t out of Westminster. If they hadn't put aside party differences & teamed up for that final Project Fear onslaught, saving their fücking Union & annihilating Labour in Scotland in the process, we'd be independent now and laughing/crying as their calamitous Tory/Brexit sh!tshow slowly implodes. I should know - the bastards spooked me into being on the wrong side of history in 2014.

It's very, very different now. They wont - can't - repeat that stunt because they simply no longer have the ammunition. After 13 years of disastrous Tory 'government' there's no coherent argument that Scotland is better off on any level within the UK, and they cannot permit the independence movement the space to make the social, political and economic cases for independence that a legitimate, Westminster approved referendum campaign would allow. With the UK economy in the gutter, Westminster needs Scotland's wealth, natural resources and tax take more than ever, certainly moreso than 2014 and it's entirely absurd to think they'd ever gamble with losing it.

And if there was a referendum tomorrow - they would lose.

 

[BoldonLad]

Which is precisely why there won't be a second referendum.

Westminster won't grant a referendum it doesn't know it will win. In 2013, pro-indy support was typically in the 20s and low 30s - Cameron would have felt pretty secure approving a Section 30 order for the following year. As it turned out the way independence support balooned during the campaign, peaking in the mid-50s iirc, will have scared the sh!t out of Westminster. If they hadn't put aside party differences & teamed up for that final Project Fear onslaught, saving their fücking Union & annihilating Labour in Scotland in the process, we'd be independent now and laughing/crying as their calamitous Tory/Brexit sh!tshow slowly implodes. I should know - the bastards spooked me into being on the wrong side of history in 2014.

It's very, very different now. They wont - can't - repeat that stunt because they simply no longer have the ammunition. After 13 years of disastrous Tory 'government' there's no coherent argument that Scotland is better off on any level within the UK, and they cannot permit the independence movement the space to make the social, political and economic cases for independence that a legitimate, Westminster approved referendum campaign would allow. With the UK economy in the gutter, Westminster needs Scotland's wealth, natural resources and tax take more than ever, certainly moreso than 2014 and it's entirely absurd to think they'd ever gamble with losing it.

And if there was a referendum tomorrow - they would lose.

I suspect Westminster, indeed Politicians of all parties may have learned a lesson about predicting Referendum Results, after 2016.

 

[Xipe Totec]

I suspect Westminster, indeed Politicians of all parties may have learned a lesson about predicting Referendum Results, after 2016.

Indeed. After 2014 Cameron went "well - that was easy!"

Then assumed exactly the same would happen 2 years later...

 

[BoldonLad]

Beattie now saying he did know about "the Motorhome", but, didn't know at the time of purchase, and didn't find out until it appeared in the 2021 Accounts.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65385825