“I didn’t retain them in line with the procedure I’ve already talked about. I think deletion, forgive me sounds as if it was a sort of, you know, not bothering to check any information was being retained.”
A televised spectacle was never going to yield honest testimony about why the Scottish Government deleted its own paper trail, but it could yet do serious damage to the already-ailing SNP.
During the pandemic, the then-first minister struck a pious tone on the subject of open government. All the while, she and her advisers were deleting their messages.
It means abandoning any claim that there might be a hung parliament in which the SNP could use their leverage to secure a second referendum.
After the general election, the pretence that the next big battle for independence is just around the corner will finally have run out of road.
Also: Delays in SNP fraud investigation risk impression of cover-up, senior lawyers warn.
Also: Further outrage over Ferguson Marine as embattled shipyard at the heart of the ferry fiasco is found to have paid generous bonuses to bosses – without the Scottish Government’s approval.
Also: Scottish Government’s legal regulation reforms denounced by judges and lawyers; Ross offers to work with Nationalist rebels to break Greens’ grip on government; new scandal for PSNI as High Court finds it illegally disciplined officers.
As the Nationalist/Green centre of gravity shifts leftwards to try and hold on to voters to switched to Yes in 2014, what future is there for the party’s increasingly vocal right wing?
The reason the Nationalists are suffering now is that despite a long run of uncommonly able leadership, and opponents perhaps less willing to defend the existence of their state than in any other country on earth, Scottish independence is just not a good idea.
The first ever Scottish Green MSP says he will resist any “attempt to needlessly destroy the United Kingdom”. But where is the option for green voters who feel the same?
At Westminster, meanwhile, we’ve got the latest development in what seems to be the new, less shouty iteration of so-called muscular unionism.
In the meantime, the Scottish Conservatives are gearing up to go on the offensive.
The Nationalists’ dominant position in Scottish politics was built on uniting the 2014 Yes vote. Absent progress on separation, it is fracturing.
Those who claim the Conservatives would benefit from a spell in opposition to ‘rest and detox’ are misguided. My first nine years in Parliament were spent in opposition, and it was a frustrating experience.