How SNP scandal has turned Scotland into a global laughing stock, and why that really matters – Susan Dalgety

As chief executive of the SNP, Peter Murrell stole more than £400,000 of the party’s funds and spent it on luxury goods, many of which ended up in the home that he shared with his wife. It seems even the bespoke bookshelves which she loved showing off on social media were bought with party cash.

Sturgeon claims that the scrutiny she is receiving is sexist. There are people who “look for a woman to blame” when a man “does something wrong”, she told the book festival audience. She’s right, society does still perpetuate sexist nonsense. But in her case, people are not pointing the finger at her because she was the naïve, innocent wife of pathological thief.

She is the subject of attention because she was leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland during much of his spending spree. She was responsible for the good governance of her party and for ensuring that its income – derived either from public money or from donations by ordinary party members – was spent according to the rules. She failed on every count.

READ MORE: More committee members call for Westminster SNP embezzlement inquiry

The consequences for Scotland

We may never know why a woman renowned for her attention to detail and controlling personality did not take her responsibilities more seriously. Or why she thought it was appropriate that a husband-and-wife team ran both the ruling party and the national government. But she needs to understand that Scotland will suffer the consequences of her neglect and her husband’s criminal activities for the foreseeable future. This is not about her. It is about us.

Long after we have stopped laughing at Murrell’s more ridiculous purchases, such as a £2,000 salt and pepper set and a £120,000 motorhome, the stench of government corruption will linger over Scotland. “We are now an international laughing stock,” a senior politician messaged me earlier this week.

Inward investment is crucial to our economic prosperity. Businesses located in Scotland, but owned outside of the country, account for 50 per cent of our turnover. They are responsible for two-thirds of business investment in research and development and more than a third of jobs.

As Ivan McKee, now the Cabinet Secretary for Public Sector Reform, wrote in the Scottish Government’s most recent inward investment plan, “attracting businesses to invest in Scotland has a critical role to play in shaping Scotland’s economy of the future and positioning us to survive and thrive in this changing global environment”.

But we are not the only small nation competing for the attention of global businesses. As a former communications adviser in the Scottish Government, I have sat in meetings in New York boardrooms and sipped wine at receptions in Toronto and Paris where major businesses described what they look for when deciding where to invest.

They want a skilled workforce. A robust infrastructure. Excellent quality of life. And effective governance, free from any perception of corruption.

Pitch to investors in tatters

The people charged with selling Scotland need to be able to say, with confidence, that our governance framework is among the best in the world, that Scotland is a safe and attractive place to invest, that our government can be trusted. Investors need to be confident that we are not a tin-pot pseudo-dictatorship run by a close-knit clan, where the lines between the ruling party and the government of the day are blurred and power and influence lies in the hands of only a few party insiders.

As the Scottish Government’s own investment plan states, its number one action point is to “place our values at the centre of our engagement with current and potential inward investors”. Today, those values are in tatters, shredded by revelations of corruption at the very heart of our nation.

On a human level, I have a smidgen, no more, of sympathy for Sturgeon. Her legacy has been reduced to jokes about motorhomes. She is destined to spend the foreseeable future touring book festivals, exposing her ‘trauma’ for the titillation of strangers. Google “Nicola Sturgeon” in ten years' time, and it is likely that the scandal will be the top item.

But she brought it on herself. Her ‘Chief Mammy knows best’ approach to government allowed a culture of secrecy to fester, both in the party and the government she led. Accountability collapsed. Scrutiny was denied. Scotland became a smaller country under her rule.

Will Swinney put country before party?

The challenge now for John Swinney, who, we should remember, appointed his childhood friend Peter Murrell to the post of SNP chief executive, is not only to prove to the people of Scotland that he will repair the damage done to our political culture – no matter the cost to his own party – but that he will take the necessary steps to repair the damage to our international standing.

The husband-and-wife team who for nine years controlled Scotland from their semi in Uddingston have left the public stage. One for prison, the other for the book festival circuit. Both, in different ways, are broken people.

Thanks to them, our national story, which was once as the home of the Enlightenment, is in danger of becoming a narrative about petty corruption and poor governance. We cannot afford that to happen, but does Swinney have the political will and the skills required to re-write our story? Only if he puts our country before his party, and he has yet to prove he is willing to do that.