For Scotland, the most chilling story of the year wasn’t Covid, bad though that was. It wasn’t the Covid Care homes scandal that saw the deaths of many of our elderly people after the SNP government got it wrong big time. Yes, everyone made mistakes in their Covid response. Some bigger than others. But the First Minister, pretending she and the people of Scotland were morally superior to the rest of the UK, really was quite nauseating. Reprehensible. Even racist some would say. Nor was it the anti-hate laws, though they will be very useful in pursuance of government policy no doubt. Or the state of Scottish education which has plummeted in the international ranking over the past 10 years.
It was actually something more serious. It was about the rule of law.
The Spectator had a leader which explained how the Crown Office, led by a member of Ms Sturgeons cabinet, sought to censor and redact Mr Salmond’s allegations against Ms Sturgeon. (We all remember Nicola in her rare, un-characteristic but very useful moment of, “I don’t remember”.)
The allegations were published on the Holyrood Parliament’s website, and in the Spectator and other notable publications.
The Crown Office subsequently instructed that they be removed from the Scottish Parliament’s website. A redaction was demanded, specifically where Salmond’s original submission states that Sturgeon’s tale to the Scottish Parliament of when she first learned of complaints is "untrue and is in breach of the Ministerial Code". In the redacted version this is deleted entirely. Meaning it cannot be referred to in legal arguments as it no longer exist on the official record.
Astonishingly, the parliamentary authorities meekly complied, as clear a signal you would ever need to show that the Scottish Parliament is subordinate to the SNP government. Some argue, not unreasonably, that every government minister who was involved in, or knew of what was happening but didn’t speak out, should have resigned. Not to do so would make them complicit. Given none did, they are complicit.
Fortunately some media outlets like the Spectator refused to be cowed by the very serious threats from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to give it its full title.
Remarkably, they were told they
must not even publish the fact that a letter of warning was being sent to them. Yes. Right here in Scotland. A nation that once could proudly boast about
the integrity of its legal system.
No matter what we may think of Mr Salmond as an individual, we all know that Salmonds words were true.
So why did the
SNP Government demand they were removed?
Well, we all know why. Far from
protecting the identity of victims, the spurious reason given, the redaction
ordered of Salmond’s evidence was done to protect the First Minister from
criticism. Nothing more, nothing less.
Below is the redacted segment of Salmond’s Ministerial Code evidence in full below:
30. The First Minister told Parliament (see Official Report of 8th,10th & 17th January 2019) that she first learned of the complaints against me when I visited her home on 2nd April 2018. That is untrue and is a breach of the Ministerial Code.
The evidence from Mr Aberdein that he
personally discussed the existence of the complaints, and summarised the
substance of the complaints, with the First Minister in a pre arranged meeting
in Parliament on 29th March 2018 arranged for that specific purpose cannot be
reconciled with the position of the First Minister to Parliament. The fact that
Mr Aberdein learned of these complaints in early March 2018 from the Chief of
Staff to the First Minister who thereafter arranged for the meeting between Mr
Aberdein and the First Minister on 29th March to discuss them, is supported by
his sharing that information contemporaneously with myself, Kevin Pringle and
Duncan Hamilton, Advocate.
And that, my friends, is the most chilling news of the year gone by. It means that you or I can be silenced just because the government or her Ministers may be embarrassed by what you or I may say. And no one will ever know as they have silenced the press too. Welcome to what Scotland will look like if Nicola gets her way.
No wonder many businesses are ready to move their headquarters south of the Border if Nicola gets her independance wish.
