Salmond and Sturgeon Want the English Fish for More Fat Subsidies

.string.

.string. wrote: »

Yes I remember you mentioning increased support for Conservative votes. It is good that the major UK Unionist Parties are nibbling away at the SNP.

Re the word you are missing --- I think "supercilious" was the word you were looking for; it's a word I've thought of using a number of times but your subconscious beat me to it!


@Shakey In your reply above about there being no anti-Semitism bias in the selection of a company and the presentation of that bias, or not, in the article. Your point is lampooned by the last two words of the quote which are "East Anglia", there for all to see and read.

Greens are another separatist Party of course.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

.string. wrote: »

Greens are another separatist Party of course.

Aye the Scottish Greens are essentially just a further left version of the SNP.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Shakethedisease wrote: »

it appears there have been dodgy dealings afoot. And a police investigation...

Indeed.

The incidents in question took place in 2010-2011, five years ago in fact. Well before she had anything to do with the SNP.

Really?

Which political party was she supporting before 2011?

I don't think there's much mileage to be had trying to tar the entire SNP with the same broadbrush...

Well, to paraphrase Mandy Rice Davies..... you would think that, wouldn't you?

bar looking into vetting procedures IF she is indeed guilty of dodgy dealings herself.

Yeah....

See here's the thing.

A vetting process by the party in government really should have exposed that one of their parliamentary candidates was up to their eyes in allegations of mortgage fraud so serious their solicitor had been struck off for them.

So the choice is really very simple.

Either the SNP was complicit, or the SNP was incompetent.

Why don't you let us know which of those two you prefer....:cool:

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

As I may have previously mentioned once or twice, the Michelle Thomson scandal really is the gift that keeps on giving.... there's a few more pertinent facts now emerging.

Michelle Thomson, back when she was simply the founder and MD of 'Business for Scotland', would of course have had close relationships with other pro-indy campaign groups, such as, for example, 'Lawyers for Yes'.

Anyone wondering at the details behind the investigation which uncovered all this mess might in fact also wonder why Michelle Thomson's name was concealed for so long, including from the Police, until after the election where she won a seat as an SNP MP.

Well.... The plot thickens.

the Law Society confirmed that its head of investigations, Ian Messer, had received a detailed report from the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) naming Thomson, her husband Peter and Thomson’s business partner Frank Gilbride in July 2014.

Messer first informally told the Crown Office in December 2014 that Hales had been struck off by the SSDT for suspected mortgage fraud, during a routine quarterly meeting between the two organisations. Crown Office lawyers asked Messer to provide them with detailed case files but failed to get them.

At the next meeting on 28 April 2015 – a week before Thomson was elected as MP for Edinburgh West – the Crown Office asked again for the Hales case files. They were not submitted to the Crown Office until 3 July 2015; six days later, the Crown Office alerted fraud officers at Police Scotland, who launched a formal investigation.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/01/law-society-of-scotland-under-pressure-over-mps-suspected-mortgage

It seems there were, how best to put this, 'irregularities and delays' in the provision of information to the Police by the Law Society.

Now of course that is not proof that anyone within the Law Society was complicit in an attempt to cover up Michelle Thomson's involvement in these 13 case of suspected Mortgage Fraud, or at least delay it's release until after the election.

But the name mentioned is interesting....

Sheila Kirkwood, who is secretary to the society guarantee fund sub-committee which handled the Hales case but had delayed handing the papers over to the Crown Office.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/01/law-society-of-scotland-under-pressure-over-mps-suspected-mortgage

Interesting because....

It emerged that Kirkwood was, with her husband and fellow solicitor Paul Kirkwood, a founder of the pro-independence campaign Lawyers for Yes, and as an active nationalist had attended dinners for Thomson’s pro-independence campaign Business for Scotland. Kirkwood had also “liked” Thomson on her Facebook page.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/01/law-society-of-scotland-under-pressure-over-mps-suspected-mortgage

Whooops.

Readers can form their own opinion as to whether or not there is a deeply concerning appearance of cronyism, sleaze, and backdoor dodgy dealing among the Nationalists.

But I'll be prepared to bet this won't be the last such scandal to emerge...

Stay tuned for further details.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

And the hits just keep on coming....

It now seems Nicola Sturgeon's chief of staff got involved in the grant of £150,000 of additional profit taxpayer cash to the already profitable T in the Park festival.

The First Minister’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, was aware that festival chiefs had requested a taxpayer-funded grant to support the event. An email trail reveals she even offered advice as to how Scottish Government quangos could help to fill “some or all of the apparent gap”.

And that the SNP front bencher responsible for approving it didn't even bother to check the financial details provided.

The revelation came to light as it emerged under-fire Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop failed to check vital financial information before sanctioning the grant.

And they wonder why they're earning the 'SNP-BAD' moniker....

Last night, political opponents repeated calls for the First Minister to provide answers, saying the public were “rightly furious”.

Probably be easier to defend if the lobbyist involved wasn't quite so cozy with the upper tiers of the SNP machine...

The correspondence was sparked by an approach from Alex Salmond’s former aide, Jennifer Dempsie, then working as a project manager for DF Concerts.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/609372/Nicola-Sturgeon-T-in-the-Park-aide-role-grant

Of course this may not be Sleaze and Cronyism at work and it might all be a matter of incompetence and/or extraordinary coincidences, but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, chances are it ain't a chicken.

mystic_trev

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Of course this may not be Sleaze and Cronyism at work and it might all be a matter of incompetence and/or extraordinary coincidences, but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, chances are it ain't a chicken.

Although Michelle Thomson appears to have the characteristics of a Turkey.

Gobble gobble.

kabayiri

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

...
Either the SNP was complicit, or the SNP was incompetent.
...

Maybe the SNP should club together and buy a subscription to Private Eye.

They would have been able to read about the dalliances of the delightful Michelle T over a number of editions.

The SNP claim to be a new age of politics, but the traits of opaqueness and lethargy in pursuing investigations are reassuringly "old school"

Shakethedisease

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Indeed.



Really?

Which political party was she supporting before 2011?



Well, to paraphrase Mandy Rice Davies..... you would think that, wouldn't you?



Yeah....

See here's the thing.

A vetting process by the party in government really should have exposed that one of their parliamentary candidates was up to their eyes in allegations of mortgage fraud so serious their solicitor had been struck off for them.

So the choice is really very simple.

Either the SNP was complicit, or the SNP was incompetent.

Why don't you let us know which of those two you prefer....:cool:

Incompetent in their vetting IF the allegations are true. And IF she was aware of her solitictors actions. And what does it matter what party 'she supported' prior to becoming an MP. She wasn't accountable for her actions until that point.

Don't make the mistake of thinking I'm not as annoyed as you are about this 'scandal' and accusations of dodgy dealings. And I don't think we'll be seeing Michelle Thompson back for a while, if ever. But, it is always better to wait until investigations are concluded before condemning people... y'know, just in case they didn't do what they stand accused of. That's why we have police investigations. At the moment Michelle Thompson isn't even being investigated.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Incompetent in their vetting IF the allegations are true. And IF she was aware of her solitictors actions.

Eh?

It was the deals structured by the buyers and sellers of the property which were dodgy.

The solicitor was only disbarred for enabling and then failing to report them...

You'd have to be a complete and utter idiot that knows absolutely nothing about business to bung people 30 grand cashbacks from a mortgage property deal and not know it was fraudulent.

So unless you're claiming that the MD and founder of Business for Scotland was a complete and utter idiot that knows absolutely nothing about business....

Oh, wait....

Crikey....

Glad I wasn't the one quoting them ad infinitum during the indyref campaign. :cool:

CLAPTON

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Incompetent in their vetting IF the allegations are true. And IF she was aware of her solitictors actions. And what does it matter what party 'she supported' prior to becoming an MP. She wasn't accountable for her actions until that point.

Don't make the mistake of thinking I'm not as annoyed as you are about this 'scandal' and accusations of dodgy dealings. And I don't think we'll be seeing Michelle Thompson back for a while, if ever. But, it is always better to wait until investigations are concluded before condemning people... y'know, just in case they didn't do what they stand accused of. That's why we have police investigations. At the moment Michelle Thompson isn't even being investigated.

No, the police only investigate criminal issues

the voters punish general sleaze