Scottish Government Statement.
Yesterday evening, the Scottish Government issued a statement claiming to refute my comments in the House of Commons regarding disclosure of documents in the judicial review.
They said:
‘The assertions made by David Davis are wrong- this document was not withheld, it was provided to the Court on 21 November 2018.
The Scottish Government absolutely refutes the allegation that civil servants sought to obstruct or show contempt for the court process.’
Roddy Dunlop’s Account of the Disclosure.
The Scottish Government offered up as evidence for their statement legal advice from Roddy Dunlop QC on 17 December 2018.
If you read that advice, however, you see that it is in fact evidence substantiating the comments I made.
On Wednesday 12 December 2018, junior counsel for the Scottish Government discovered that a redaction of an email address – one belonging to a Police Scotland officer, (Redacted) – had been wrongly made to a document without her instruction.
The document had therefore not been disclosed to the court. Only an inappropriately redacted version of it had been disclosed.
The unredacted version showed emails about potential reporting to police, against the wishes of complainants, and a draft of the policy itself, had been sent to Police Scotland on 23 November 2017, albeit supposedly inadvertently. It is not hard to see why counsel thought the redaction seriously imprope
An ‘immediate and clear’ direction was given by counsel that the unredacted email should be included in a disclosure bundle. This was thought essential by counsel on the grounds of the duty of candour to the court.
On Thursday 13 December counsel realised that their direction to disclose the unreacted email had not been complied with.
The Scottish Government claimed this was for personal data reasons- a judgment they reached without consulting counsel and without proactively telling counsel. Given that it was going to the court this is spectacularly disingenuous.
[This was so serious that] on Friday 14 December counsel reached the view that they could ‘not properly advise the Court that the Scottish Government had discharged its duty of candour’ as a result of this failure to disclose the unredacted document. They clearly view it as very important. It does not take any reading between the lines to see that counsel is angry.
Accordingly, the Scottish Government conceded the Commission and Diligence process, which proceeded to uncover further evidence which had not been disclosed to the court. This process is massively expensive and not normally necessary. The unredacted document and these further emails were finally disclosed on the 18th December 2018
Context of Roddy Dunlop’s Advice
Further, it is important to note the broader reasons behind counsel preparing this advice.
The note was written in response to events (i.e. the failure to disclose the unredacted document) ‘which led us to consider very seriously whether we were bound to withdraw from acting for the respondents in this matter’.
Counsel state: ‘we trust it will be obvious why this matter has given rise to such concern on our part about our ability to continue to act’
The failure to disclose the document left counsel ‘in an extremely difficult position professionally’
The fallout of the failure to disclose was very grave on counsel’s readi
‘It is clear that the Lord Ordinary is unimpressed at being faced with a situation in which it appears the Scottish Government has not acted with full candour and in which a commission has had to be appointed. It seems inevitable that parties will now be put to expense and inconvenience of a commission’
It is inconceivable that counsel would have written to the Scottish Government in such strong terms if disclosure had been properly made on 21 November, as apparently claimed by the First Minister yesterday at Holyrood.
It really is dismal stuff now with large numbers now dancing on the head of a pin .Just go Nicola and let someone who has a passing acquaintance with integrity in to the position of FM .Please also take the full cabal responsible for this catastrophe with you .
Is it a labyrinthine farrago fueled by deceit and misplaced loyalty,or, much more prosaically: a total fuck-up in terms of managerial competence and oversight, or both? It’s a strange quantity to fathom, altogether. But one thing seems clear enough: anyone still harbouring the notion that things will remain as they were, really isn’t paying attention.
Systemic systematic and deliberate malfeasance flowed by criminal cover up with total and utter contempt of the law and the courts.
With polls now revealing SNP support down from a high of 57% to a now 46% that equates to one in five SNP voters having withdrawn their vote. Certainly reinforces how the public perception of Sturgeon and the SNP is turning. But the slump in the polls has not ended, not by a long shot.
If one looks at SNP membership that over the last eighteen to twenty four months has halved due to the loss of around 60,000 members. That is an absolutely huge exodus and it represents a full 50% drop in membership.
Being members of a party usually means that the members are a little bit more aware of the political environment than the ordinary man and woman in the street. The loss of membership is therefore indicative of a trend in advance of it becoming mainstream with the general public.
But mainstream it is now becoming and the SNP under Sturgeon and her top team is now toxic. And so, as more exposures come to light as they will, the SNP vote has much further to fall. But you know what, Sturgeon knows that.
But new will replace old as night follows day. Sturgeon has only been a hiccup with a bad smell on the march to independence.
Thank you Barrhead Boy for printing David Davis’s statement on tampering with court evidence. Deliberate evidence tampering and evidence withholding is a criminal matter that can result in custodial sentences being given to the perpetrators.
Sticking up two fingers to the Courts no matter how powerful you think you are is never a good idea. The judiciary likes to think it is respected as being fair, honest and impartial. You wouldn’t however think so with evidence like this now coming to light.
She changed the rules to end internal Party Democracy.
She cultivated a cult to ensure, to quote them directly, an internal majority.
She removed any talent that could challenge her rule.
She promoted sycophants instead of talent.
She turned Civil Servants into servants.
She manipulated the Crown office to ensure evidence and threats( such as bloggers) neutered.
She manipulated the YES movement to extract funds and still hides it..
She has wasted countless opportunities to push Independence forward.
I regret how long it took me to leave the Party. I should quote Jimmy Reid here!
Been thinking about the Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon relationship. The master and the apprentice.
All those years he taught, u, encouraged, role-modelled his protege in the messy ‘dark arts’ of politics, how to simultaneously be a street-fighter and a statesperson, how to use systems to maximum advantage for the cause, how to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, how to relish the fight rather to run from it, how to be six steps ahead of your opponents, how to charm and engage people while at the same time not shy away from ruthlessness when needed, and all that she would need to survive and thrive in the brutal world of political and National leadership.
And through all those years Alex would have got to know and understand exactly what made Nicola tick, her strengths, her raw nerves, her weak spots, he would have got to know her inside out. That’s what great leaders like Alex do. They can read people brilliantly. Can be a force for good or something completely different.
Alex taught her much of what Nicola knows – and, for better or worse, she learned well and, day in day out is clearly applying those leadership skills, those leadership qualities that Alex taught and gave her.
But here’s the thing – through all these years it would appear he didn’t have the slightest inkling of all that she is now being accused of. For the political genius and master that Alex undoubtedly is, how could he make such a grave mistake, how did he read Nicola so staggeringly badly?
Something just doesn’t compute in all this. Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon relationship. The master and the apprentice.
All those years he taught her, mentored her, nurtured her, would have molded and shaped her, encouraged her, role-modelled his protege in the messy ‘dark arts’ of politics, how to simultaneously be a street-fighter and a statesperson, how to use systems to maximum advantage for the cause, how to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, how to relish the fight rather to run from it, how to be six steps ahead of your opponents, how to charm and engage people while at the same time not shy away from ruthlessness when needed, and all that she would need to survive and thrive in the brutal world of political and national leadership.
And through all those years, Alex would have got to know and understand exactly what made Nicola tick, her strengths, her raw nerves, her weak spots, he would have got to know her inside out. That’s what great leaders like Alex do. It’s part of their personal legacy thing. It’s how their flame keeps burning long after they’re gone. They can read people brilliantly. Can be a force for good or something completely different.
Alex taught Nicola much of what she knows – and, for better or worse, she learned well and, day in day out is clearly applying those leadership skills, those leadership qualities that Alex taught and gave her.
But here’s the thing – through all these years it would appear he didn’t have the slightest inkling of all that she is now being accused of. For the political genius and master that Alex undoubtedly is, how could he make such a grave mistake, such a gross error of judgement? How did he read Nicola so staggeringly badly? That is not the Alex Salmond many of us know.
Something just doesn’t compute in all this.
I think it is more down to just how sleekit and dangerous Sturgeon is that she even managed to hide her cruel dishonest nature from Alex.
Hard to disagree with much of what has been said above, but it does mean we need to make difficult choices. Since internal democracy has gone, the only option left to members and voters to affect change in the party is at the ballot box. I think we need to accept that the next 5 years will be a damage limitation period while we rebuild for 2026