John Swinney appears to be turning into Donald Trump amid pressure over Murrell scandal – Brian Wilson
John Swinney responded with petulance, rather than penitence, when questioned by MSPs about Peter Murrell’s crimes
If it had been a cat and dog home that Peter Murrell stole £400,000 from, I would have been offended on behalf of the unfortunate animals which were denied the prospect of a better life. With hand on heart, I cannot summon the same angst or empathy for the coffers of the Scottish National Party. The money would only have been used to promote even more division in our little land.
Yet the line which John Swinney and his helpers have been peddling obliges us to take a more rigorous view because it is so obviously unsatisfactory – that this is a family affair within the SNP and Peter Murrell was the sole culprit, acting alone.
I suspect that, when we know more, Mr Murrell’s story will prove to be sad as well as bad. Any suggestion there is no legitimate public interest in the wider context is absurd – because most of the dramatis persona were running, and in some cases still are running, devolved Scotland.
It is the common features between the two that should concern us most. The traits of control by a powerful clique, devoted to secrecy and cover-up, have characterised both. It doesn’t stop them winning elections as the least unpopular party but it still sells Scotland far short of its potential and what it is entitled to expect.
Guilty plea delayed until after election
It is reasonable to point out that the SNP was coining over £1 million a year in ‘short money’ from British taxpayers via House of Commons funding for opposition parties. So it may not be a safe assumption that all the loot came from nationalist sporrans in pursuit of another referendum.
Neither should it be brushed aside that the cost of investigating and convicting Mr Murrell ran into millions, which could have been put to better use – along with police time – if he had ’fessed up at an earlier point, rather than waiting three years. One wonders who was advising him not to?
The case scarcely enhanced the Scottish criminal justice system’s reputation or faith in the ‘Chinese walls’ on which credibility depends. The police did their job, which was completed more than a year ago. Delays elsewhere, culminating in the postponement of Mr Murrell’s guilty plea from February to May remain worthy of inquiry, in the interests of public confidence.
I doubt if a February drama would have made a decisive difference to the May election but it would certainly have affected the climate in which it was contested. All the time, Mr Murrell and those around him surely knew he was going to plead guilty. Just delay until the election is out the road is how it looks.
It is also a novel doctrine that the only legitimate interest in criminal behaviour rests with its direct victims. Mr Swinney can hardly complain if many people see the read across from how he and his allies ran their own party to how they run devolved Scotland.
Indeed, I made this point here back in 2023 when the classic video clip emerged of Nicola Sturgeon closing down debate about the party’s finances, just weeks after the treasurer and auditors had resigned.
“Translate this into life at St Andrew’s House,” I suggested. “Imagine a civil servant daring to question lines of propriety being crossed, or funds intended for one purpose being syphoned off for another… But then imagine the angry brow. The snap that everything is ‘absolutely fine’. The knowing glance from the special adviser to the civil servant – ‘If you value your job, don’t go down that road.’”
Alarm bells sounded and silenced
Mr Swinney was omnipresent throughout these events and shares responsibility for them. Penitence rather than petulance would be more befitting. And his repeated response at Holyrood on Thursday – effectively ‘I won the election, ha, ha, ha, so none of you have any right to question me’ – was positively Trumpian in its conceit.
It is plausible that nobody in the SNP hierarchy even guessed at the scale of Mr Murrell’s criminality, but it is beyond doubt that alarm bells were both sounded and silenced to ruthless effect. Now the truth is confirmed, how has Mr Swinney behaved?
Has he, for example, offered an apology to Roger Mullin, an SNP veteran and respected campaigner on anti-corruption issues outwith party politics? During a brief stint on the party’s national executive, Mr Mullin found every effort to examine the party’s finances obstructed.
He was very specific about one whom he held responsible. According to Mr Mullin, Kirsten Oswald, who chaired these meetings, “was obviously just a mouthpiece for Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon”. Others who fell victim to the same culture have cast her in the same role.
So what did Mr Swinney do? In full knowledge of that past history and what was round the corner, he appointed Ms Oswald as minister for “victims and community safety” in his new government, which was either his little joke or as big a V-sign as he could deliver to those who felt wronged by her. Or perhaps both.
Indeed, to the outsider, the treatment of those who tried to find out what was going on with the SNP’s finances seems particularly heartless and lacking in remorse. Surely these are people the SNP leadership should now be thanking and celebrating. Or does the rule of ‘omerta’ exclude the option of humility?
And what of Ms Sturgeon whose role is being examined only in the court of public opinion? That’s not going very well but I offer a suggestion to assist transparency.
Why not reveal where each item was found? Was it in a warehouse somewhere along the M8? Or in the marital home? If the latter, one has an image of Aladdin sitting in his cave, wondering: “Where did all this stuff come from?”
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