I am old enough to remember when our politicians had some honour and decency. I recall as a young boy the scandal around a Defence Minister, John Profumo MP. He chose to resign when a scandal broke. It was found that he was availing himself the services of a high-class prostitute, Christine Keeler then aged 19. That was not the problem per se, it was that a Russian KGB Captain, Yevgeny Ivanov the Russian Naval Attache in London was also availing himself of Ms Keelers services. Pillow talk was a worry for MI5.
When the story broke, Profumo denied the allegation in a statement to the House. However, weeks later a police investigation exposed the truth, proving that Profumo had lied to the House of Commons. He was left with no choice but to resign, that is what honourable members did in those days.You lie, you resign, it is that simple.
After he left Parliament Profumo spent his days rehabilitating himself. He worked as a volunteer at Toynbee Hall, an East London charitable trust. By 1975 he had been officially rehabilitated, although he did not return to public life. He died, honoured and respected, in 2006.
Although an Inquiry by Lord Denning found there had been no security breaches this scandal ultimately brought down the entire government. They did not shout foul or try to deny the wrongdoing, although Tories, they did the honourable thing and resigned the government.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Profumo-affair
Three days after the Argentinian invasion of Falkland Isles the then Tory Foreign Secretary, Peter Carrington tendered his resignation. Although this embarrassing and ultimately costly invasion was the fault of the intelligence services as a whole, Carrington took the entire blame as it was the honourable and right thing to do. He believed as he was the person in overall charge as Foreign Secretary the buck stopped with him.
Carrington was a man of considerable honour and integrity, as he displayed throughout his long career in politics and international diplomacy, and was much lauded for his resignation. He went on to be the longest ever serving Lord at the time of his death. He was highly respected across the political spectrum and was very much an old-fashioned patriarchal Tory of a bygone age.
https://reaction.life/lord-carrington-resignation-letter-shows-blustering-boris/
At the outbreak of the illegal Gulf Oil War in 2003, another honourable member displayed his integrity, Robin Cook. His resignation statement highlighted he was indeed a man of honourable honesty. “It is 20 years ago that I first joined Labour’s shadow cabinet. It is with regret I have today resigned from its cabinet. I can’t accept collective responsibility for the decision to commit Britain now to military action in Iraq without international agreement or domestic support.”
Hindsight shows us Robin was one of the few honest and true voices on this matter. He was involved in all the Cabinet Meetings leading up to the illegal invasion of the sovereign Iraq. As an honourable man he refused to be part of something he knew to be morally and legally wrong. Sadly a few months later he died quite suddenly before he was able to give any evidence to a post-war inquiry. Very convenient for Blair, Brown, Straw and others involved in this illegal war. Unlike Cook none of the others could spell, let alone act honourably. All three should of course, been sent to the Hague as war criminals.
The media and political hype prior to this illegal invasion was similar to the hysteria we are experiencing today over Ukraine conflict. Just as then, those of us that were opposed to that folly were singled out by the media and war mongers. We were accused of being pro Saddam, anti democracy, pro fascist, etc. Just like Putin, Gadaffi, Assad, we were told Hussein was as mad as a box of frogs. He was going to nuke our bases in Cyprus. He would invade every country Middle East, domination was his aim. His oil reserves were just a coincidence.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/mar/17/labour.uk
Nowadays though Ministers in UK and Scotland can lie, steal, act dishonourably, fiddle their expenses, do almost anything and there are no consequences. We now know for certain that the Prime Minister, and Chancellor both broke the Covid laws. They have had fines for breaking the law imposed on them. Instead of doing the honourable thing and resigning they cling on to power.
Honourable men like I mentioned above must be turning in their graves when they look at the antics of our politicians today.
Scotland is not immune from dishonourable politicians and officials. The First Minister herself has been found to have misled Parliament. For ordinary mortals like you and me that means lying! Indeed, her performance at the Fabiani Whitewash had no less than 50 occasions of Ms Sturgeon not remembering the truth. Even with her appointees in the majority on the committee, they still had to admit Sturgeon had lied. Any decent honest politician would of course, resign when such a verdict is delivered. Sadly just like the two miscreants in London, Sturgeon couldn’t find her inner honourable part!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/18/nicola-sturgeon-misled-scottish-parliament-alex-salmond-inquiry-committee-finds
£600,000 of ring-fenced money has somehow vanished from the safe keeping of the SNP any honourable CEO would, like Peter Carrington accept the ultimate responsibility and resign. Unfortunately, we have a Peter Murrell someone as equally lacking in moral fibre as his wife.
We have a senior civil servant Leslie Evans that was found by the highest court in Scotland to have implemented a process that was unfair, unlawful and tainted with apparent bias. Apart from the damage to an honest man’s reputation, her actions along with Scotland’s First Minister cost the Scottish tax payers something north of £1 million in costs. Neither had that shred of honour that should have led to resignation.
As part of this disgraceful witchhunt of a former First Minister a confidential document found its way from the First Minister’s Office and into the hands of a Daily Record hack.This is a criminal matter and despite law officers conducting an investigation no culprit was ever found to have leaked the document. Coincidentally Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon’s Chief of Staff a close, close friend of said Daily Record hack, David Clegg was in charge of Sturgeon’s office from where the leak occurred. She should of course,have taken a leaf from Peter Carrington’s book and immediately resigned when this crime was reported.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/alex-salmond-inquiry-former-first-minister-says-police-should-launch-investigation-into-newspaper-leak-3148549
Alas such honourable behaviour needs someone of impeccable decency and sense of right from wrong, it seems Ms Lloyd is no Peter Carrington type person. Not only did she not resign, she was given a new role in government, truly shocking. The unwritten law if it happens on your watch you are responsible!
This week we have a Scottish Cabinet Secretary not only breaking the Ministerial code with her actions, it is debatable she may also have broken the law. The Equality Act of 2010 forbids such outbursts as we heard from Lorna Slater. She accused women campaigners, that is Adult Human Females of being racists and anti-Semites because they have expressed concerns over the Self-Identification part of the Scottish Governments GRA Bill.
Not only is such language unbecoming of a member of the government it is hate speech and incendiary in an area of already high tension and division. Such language should of course, result in her immediate removal from government. Were she an honourable individual, on reflection she would understand the hurt, harm and the embarrassment she has caused the government and resign. Sadly Ms Slater it seems only serves herself and the lobbyists of Stonewall.
However, this is 2022 and the Tory Government in London and the SNP Government in Scotland believe they are above the law and are immune from consequences for their behaviour or actions.
Honour, decency loyalty and a sense of right from wrong seem to be a thing of the past and that is regrettable.
Just as the pigs adopted the behavioural traits and customs of the humans and former masters in the Orwellian classic the current representatives of the Scottish Government have learned their lessons well from their British overlords.
At least the pigs managed to overthrow their oppressors before they abandoned their ethics and turned to despotism.
Yet another great article compadre .
Yes , it’s apparent this generation of the political class have no concept of or interest in honour and is – with minuscule exception – the worse on record .
In Scotland it’s all about surface ( as – I think , Dorothy Parker said ….” deep down they’re really shallow ” ) , espousing the * right * causes and having the * right * flags and symbols on your social media profiles . The Working Class are considered * un-Progressive * barbarians requiring to be * educated * in the demented etiquette of correct pronoun use , it’s endless travails and hopes for some respite from them ignored other than just prior to any election .
In England , the Tory ruling class just do what they’ve always done …..shit on the disadvantaged whilst filling their pockets with undeserved riches and waving the Union flag at every opportunity .As for New Labour , the less said about that disgrace the better .
Cliche has it we get the politicians we deserve , hmmm , I can’t think what we could have done to deserve this shower of hollow men and women .
Listened too much to MSM propaganda maybe ? Been too passive in tolerating mendacious mediocrities ? in our desire for better ,placed uncritical faith in false messiahs ?
What we did to deserve them was trust them and the media.
All too true. I am old enough to remember the incidents you refer to, BHB, from Profumo onwards, and it was regarded as normal then to accept responsibility.
The present gang in charge of the UK, not forgetting those running Scotland, have no sense of responsibility and no shame. In the case of the former, I would include Johnson’s attempt to prorogue parliament to ensure he got his way, as well as the disgraceful treatment of both parts of Ireland by the whole cabinet by ignoring the effects of Brexit on the Good Friday Agreement, an international treaty which the UK signed up to.
Their incompetence over Brexit has made us a laughing stock around the world as they scrabble for any kind of trade deal no matter how damaging and the continuing lying and the greed shown by their tax antics and shady deals during the height of the Covid epidemic must be extremely damaging to our international reputation.
I believe Alex Salmond is another man to be included in the category of honourable people, who would endeavour to do the right thing as a matter of principle. Yes, he made mistakes, (misdemeanours in my opinion), but he himself was amongst the first to address those lapses in judgement, fess up and meet the consequences squarely and with dignity. He shirked nothing.
Unfortunately for Alex Salmond, I think the enemies of Alex Salmond, and indeed Scotland, have conspired to use the man’s integrity against him in a despicable way, knowing full well the betrayal and falseness of the allegations against him would be extraordinarily wounding to an honourable person with an unblemished political career.
Alex Salmond in my opinion is the rarest of phenomenons, – not just an honest politician, but an honourable person actually compromised by their honesty, and left at a disadvantage after resigning from office on principle, after surrendering the reins of power to those not only bereft of principle and integrity, but the very people who orchestrated his demise and actively conspired to destroy the man’s reputation and legacy.
The disgrace and infamy of the Alphabetty Conspiracy has yet to be realised. That time will come I’m sure, but never forget that Conspiracy had the desired effect and took down a giant in the Independence movement. Arguably, it weakened the glue that bound us.
Thankfully, it was down but not out, and Alex Salmond is back in the game and on the ascent yet again, but we Scots Independentists must not be suckered into “doing the right thing” or pursuing a “gold standard referendum”, at the behest of Scotland’s enemies, who are utterly unscrupulous and without principle or moral ethic.
They want us doing the right thing? OK, let’s do it, and see the “right thing” is done by Scotland’s lawful and legitimate Constitutional Sovereignty, and lets have the whole dog’s breakfast of the Union Treaty put under the Constitutional microscope, and be ready to prosecute the slightest infraction or impropriety we find to the fullest extent of the Law.
I actually agree with much of the original article.
But I do not agree with idolisation of Salmond.
He was acquitted of any crime, but during the trial he admitted behaviour which would have got him disciplined – probable dismissed – by any employer.
I think a whole lot of people agree with that – “sleepy cuddle” has become almost a joke punchline – and he is a millstone around the neck of his party and cause.
I don’t like Johnson’s morals or personal life either, but it’s remarkable that he has managed to live that way for so long without any harassment allegations.
Nom only spineless House Jocks think it is a millstone or funny in any way. Those that collude with the English Government fear him because unlike them, he cannot be bought.
“…He was acquitted of any crime, but during the trial he admitted behaviour which would have got him disciplined – probable dismissed – by any employer.”
Not true. The incident Salmond admitted to, had already been formally and officially dealt with and laid to rest by an existing complaints procedure which reached an amicable conclusion satisfactory to both parties, and even allowed both parties to keep working together by their own volition.
At no time did Alex Salmond deny or shirk his responsibilities, nor hide from scrutiny, but instead acknowledged his “wrongdoing” and made good on an out of character lapse in judgement.
I do not idolise Alex Salmond, but yes, I would readily forgive a decent man who admitted a mistake but remains a statesmanlike credit to Scotland and a giant in the Independence movement, than trust a deceitful Teflon coated, muck raking, two faced charlatan who orchestrated a conspiracy to see a good man and credit to Scotland ruined on trumped up evidence.
Interesting comments Mr Macleod. Lying and utter dishonesty is certainly at the heart of our politics.
Money talks they say or is the love of money, or power, the root of all evil.
And how easily some, like the feeble SNP MPs can be bought off as they play their vile part in the democracy delusion.
And isn’t so interesting how when our country is at war, and let us make no mistake about Blighty being at war, our Prime Minister can disregard lying to parliament, trot off to Kiev for a war propaganda photo shoot whilst undermining the chancellor through a press release. Like his girl Sturgeon in Scotland there is nothing that these agents of the elites won’t do.
But this war, both physical and economic sanction comprised, where is that leading us.
Are we the people going to win. Promised a Brexit Nirvana, which was a other lie, our living standards are now declining big style.
Pensions, incomes, savings, prices all caught in the mincer of hyper inflation. And shortages, steel, basic foods, silicon chips, energy oil and gas, its only just beginning as the sanction war wreaks economic destruction.
War, war, war we scream, or for the most part scream as we sit adoringly at our benevolent patrician political leaders. Our journey to impoverishment for the masses is an honourable one. Boris would not lie?
Well to use an emotive word, we are going to get raped just like the Ukrainians save that their country is being destroyed physically and economically whilst we are only having our living standards destroyed.
God bless Joe, God Bless Boris, and all the rest, this is a holy war we will not win. God I fear is changing sides.
God changed sides some time ago, unfortunately for us.
I wonder how much of this circus would be taking place, had we caught the Satanic Masters off guard with a Yes vote eight years ago.
i tend not to focus much on corrupt politicians South of the border anymore we know what they are, and we cannot change that, I do however watch the bunch of charlatans and Fifth Columnists at Holyrood, and our very own FM who has squandered great opportunities to exit this rancid union.
Where is the honour in the SNP? all that’s went on from the fitting up of an ex-FM, to the imprisoning of a ill-blogger for reporting on it, to the capture of the SNP’s NEC by the woke brigade and the missing 600K indy funds which we are meant to believe is woven through accounts (a great escape for McGarry on that one).
NO SNP MSP or MP has come forward and blown the whistle on what has happened to the SNP, they’ve all hunkered down and kept their noses firmly pressed into the trough, some like Alyn Smith and Stewart McDonald are now nothing more than Whitehall puppets, the party’s a bloody disgrace and we should be voting for the Alba party, at least they know what a woman is, and Salmond has already taken us to an indyref. Under Sturgeon the indy masses are fractured and we haven’t moved one inch closer to independence, infact I’d say we moved further away.
Cesaire’s ‘watchdogs of colonialism’ come to mind, in which it is evident that: “between colonization and civilization there is an infinite distance”. And, as with any colonial administration, we can readily see that: “there could not come a single human value.”
I used to rail against the make up of Westminster in the 70s. Tory lawyers on one side and Labour trade union officials on the other. But these folk at least had past lives before professional politics. Real life experience in real world industries.
The root of the problems today are professional politicians without any real life experience before they hopped on board the gravy train. They can’t “do the decent thing” ‘cause they dinae hae a trade to fall back on.
Laser focused from secondary school to get a humanities degree and climb the greasy pole. £60 odd k at Holyrood, £80 odd k at Westminster, how can they do the decent thing, they’ve no real life marketable skill to fall back on?
Kezia Dugdale managed to trade up to £60 something k running that sinister political influencing outfit (financed by whom?) but that’s an exception.
More commonly, yer failed or disgraced politician (Derek Mackay or Jim Murphy) having no real life marketable skill or experience has to enter into self employed consultancy and that’s a precarious living.
After a period of “contrition” out of the public eye, a less precarious income can be leached from the Scottish Government’s ever expanding nebula of QUANGOs.
Never again should anyone without extensive life experience be permitted to pursue public office.
The ‘career politician’ is as culpable for the downfall of Western ‘civilisation’ as the Ruling Class and their lobbyists.
In fact, it is the ‘career politician’ who provided the link that made their crimes possible. May they all swing.
Its seem to me that this lot are are all colluding to keep us in a coercive Union through foul means. The hand of Westminster is behind the puppet players of the Scottish colonial administration who are hell bent on supressing our desire for independence. They are now the enemy within. Behind the Westminster curtain is big Business ,Corporations Bankers and last but not least the Russian oligarchs who own Londongrad and finance the elites Brexit game . This is not a democracy it is a corrupt totalitarian state run but the super rich for the super rich. Greedy maggots who want everything for themselves and deny ordinary people a chance to live a decent life. A super elite who have more money than they can spend in a life time.
They only rule over us with our consent , it’s time Brothers and Sisters to remove that consent. Dissolve the Union.
Unfortunately, I can’t argue with anything you’ve said, above. So, barring the presence of Alba or ISP candidates, I fully intend to spoil my ballot in the coming local elections and thereafter. Any further participation in what is currently passing for democratic politics, would amount to nothing less than voluntary-collusion with the whole, corrupt travesty, on my part. I’m aware of the many arguments against such a course of action; but I, nonetheless, reserve the right to “register” my democratic disgust as a considered matter of conscience.
Little has changed since 1707, Scotland’s national representatives remain petrified and easily bought.
Agree with sentiments from Robert and Ann… one of your best, Roddy.
Robin Cook was our mp here, he used to buy snacks in the local shops… very sadly missed.
I think we have to be careful not to want to see the SNP destroyed… The SNP is being destroyed from within intentionally. The last thing we should be doing is colluding with that. The man and wife team that spends the SNP’s money as they like and promotes/demotes the SNP candidates as they they like… they are rogue politicos. They can be removed if a police investigation uncovers incontrontrovertible evidence of political malfeasance… and there is much that the man and wife dynamic duo are being accused of, regarding behaviour in office and trustworthiness with responsibilities, severally and collectively.
As for these elections, whether they bring us independence or not, we will need strong independence supporting local councillors… would urge everyone to vote til you boke all the way to the bottom of the list.
Respect.
I understand the comments you make Tom Kane.
As an ex 37 year member of the SNP I would dearly love to have my party back. You say it has rotted from within. You say the Sturgeon – Murrell combination have rotted the party. I couldn’t agree more.
But it is wider than that. Too many of the elected members in Hollyrood and Westminster have become complicit. Bereft of any commitment to Independence they exist to take the money.
We thought Labour before us were bad, and they were, but the troughing, cronyism, quislingism, is now worse in the SNP. They are the antithesis of independence.
Moreover as a party they are nasty, vicious and corrupt, as the Salmond and other malign political prosecution show.
And as to democratic process from policy to candidate selection to probity with funds, there is no working democracy.
And so with a heavy heart after much thought, I like many others want change and the way to make that change is to send a message on May 5th and vote em out.
Alba, ISP, good independents, folks can vote down the ballot as they see fit. But I will be putting the SNP last.
It would be insanity not to send that message.
When Boris Johnson made his apology in the commons on 19th April, saying it had not crossed his mind that a 9 minute gathering in the cabinet room before an important COVID meeting could be considered to be against the rules, why did no one then ask him ‘Since you now know what the police constitute as a breach of the laws, are there any other occasions where you gathered in Downing Street with friends, which you now realise must also have breached the laws, and for which you would like to apologise, before you are forced to do so before the police impose another penalty fine on you?’