Mr and Mrs - Labour vs SNP
Can you imagine the hilarity and disbelief from the SNP, if Mr and Mrs Corbyn were running the Labour Party?
ScotGov - Party v Government Business (09/12/20)
Murdo Fraser MSP highlights a problem with the evidence given by Peter Murrell to the Salmond Inquiry.
The SNP's chief executive claims that the two meetings between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond held at their family home were about Scottish Government business - in which case a government official should have been informed in advance and been present on the day.
Yet the First Minister's evidence is that the meetings were about SNP party business which is why she had no need to be accompanied by a civil servant or keep a proper record.
Now Mr Murrell has had months to get his evidence straight so it's quite remarkable that after all this time the SNP CEO has directly contradicted the evidence from his own wife and party leader, Nicola Sturgeon.
Scotland - Party Business vs Government Business (08/12/20)
I will be interested to read what the media have to say about Peter Murrell's appearance before the Salmond Inquiry earlier today because I thought the SNP's chief executive was highly evasive and unconvincing.
Not least because every time Peter was asked a difficult question he kept referring to Nicola Sturgeon's (his wife's) written evidence instead of answering the point directly for himself.
The crux of the matter comes down to two separate meetings Nicola Sturgeon held with Alex Salmond in the Sturgeon/Murrell family home on 2 April 2018 and 14 July 2018.
According to Nicola Sturgeon the first meeting (02/04/20) was about SNP business not Scottish Government business - hence there was no official ScotGov record of what the current first minister discussed with the former first minister (her mentor and immediate predecessor).
Peter Murrell insists he knew nothing about this highly unusual meeting and apart from the fact it was taking place in his own home - he wasn't told anything about the meeting and didn't ask anything about the meeting.
Despite the fact that as SNP chief executive Mr Murrell is the party's most senior official and that Nicola Sturgeon's stated reason for agreeing to such a private meeting in the first place was that she "thought Mr Salmond may be about to resign from the SNP".
The record shows that Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond kept in contact, by phone and text message, following their 2nd April meeting and a further private meeting was held in Aberdeen on 7 June 2018.
No record was kept of the Aberdeen meeting even though by that time Nicola Sturgeon had alerted the senior civil servant (permanent secretary) in the Scottish Government to her earlier contact with Alex Salmond.
A third and final meeting between the two was held in the Murrell/Sturgeon family home, on 14 July 2018 which Nicola Sturgeon reported to her permanent secretary, albeit after the event on 16 July 2018 - again Mr Murrell says he was in the dark as to what was going on until the story broke in the press in August 2018.
Now my reading of the evidence is that by June/July 2018 the lines between SNP business and Scottish Government business had become completely blurred even though the dangers were all too obvious at the time.
So let's see what Scotland's journalists make of it all.
Politics and Spouses - Carrie Symonds and Peter Murrell (13/11/20)
Media reports claim that Carrie Symonds, Boris Johnson's partner and fiancée, has been playing a pivotal role in the affairs of government over the past few days.
Now that's not a good thing if you ask me, since no one elected or even appointed Carrie Symonds to stick her nose in where it doesn't belong.
At the opposite end of the spectrum we have the curious case of Peter Murrell, husband of the First Minister and Chief Executive of the SNP whose remit includes, like all CEOs, 'knowing what's going on at all times'.
Yet Peter Murrell insists he 'knew nothing' about two important meetings between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond which were allegedly about SNP internal party matters - rather than the business of the Scottish Government.
Curiouser and curiouser, as they say.
Murrell's 'Manuel Defence' (10/09/2020)
I am not one of life's sceptics or a natural conspiracy theorist, but I have to say that Peter Murrell's explanation that he 'knew nothing' about Alex Salmond making two private visits to his home in 2018 sounds completely absurd.
Nicola Sturgeon has previously claimed that these visits were to do with SNP business and not the Scottish Government, but Peter Murrell is the chief executive of the SNP, as well as Nicola Sturgeon's husband.
So it simply beggars belief that Peter Murrell turned a blind eye to what was going on because it's not exactly every day that a former First Minister turns up at your front door to have two separate meetings on important SNP business with your wife.
Read Paul Hutcheon's report via the link below to the Daily Record.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeons-husband-says-not-22655277
Sturgeon's husband says she did not tell him about Alex Salmond sexual misconduct complaints
Peter Murrell said his wife informed him she "couldn’t discuss the details" about her meetings with Salmond on the complaints
By Paul Hutcheon - Daily Record
Nicola Sturgeon’s husband has said she did not inform him that sexual misconduct complaints had been made to the Government about Alex Salmond.
Peter Murrell, who is the SNP chief executive, said his wife told him she could not discuss what was talked about at meetings between her and Salmond at the couple’s home.
He said he became aware of the complaints after they were made public in August 2018.
In 2018, the Daily Record revealed that the Government had investigated complaints of sexual misconduct by two women against Salmond.
Salmond took legal action and the internal Government probe was ruled to be unlawful and tainted by apparent bias.
The botched investigation cost the taxpayer over £500,000 and led to a special Holyrood committee being set up.
A key issue being examined by MSPs is contact between Sturgeon and Salmond when the investigation was ongoing. The pair met at Sturgeon’s house and also spoke on the telephone.
She has previously said she met Salmond in her capacity as SNP leader, which put the focus on the party as well as the Government.
Murrell, the SNP’s long standing chief executive, was asked a series of questions by the committee about when he first knew of the complaints and the meetings between his wife and Salmond.
In a response, he said: “I became aware that complaints had been made under the Scottish Government procedure when the matter became public in August 2018.
“I knew about the meetings between Nicola and Alex Salmond at our home on 2 April and 14 July 2018 and I had the sense that something serious was being discussed. Nicola told me she couldn’t discuss the details. The nature of Nicola’s job means that when she tells me she can’t discuss something, I don’t press it.”
Peter Murrell - A Meddle Not a Muddle (08/10/20)
