Cults? No thanks.

I'm guessing he drove it from Halbeath to his mum's to test his eyesight ... And then left it there to test Nicola's ...

@quineofthenorth It would be fun to put her on Mastermind answering questions on books she has read. Questions that go beyond what might have been read in a review. Although I suppose, given the stress of the show, she'd probably need to submit her answers in writing after consulting her lawyer.

@MargaretMc15665 @raguvnor @LucyHunterB @theSNP Meanwhile Swinney & Co would be better off holding their own inquiry that they could manipulate, but are too busy denying what those of us who go to Specsavers can clearly see, probably 'cause they think a UK inquiry will be a good grievance mongering distraction for the sheeple.

@MargaretMc15665 @raguvnor @LucyHunterB @theSNP Give them enough rope ... The more they dig deeper and try to defend themselves, the more spills out into the public domain. Sturgeon would be better off getting a wee place on the costa del crime and disappearing for a few months, but she can't resist the limelight. 1/2

@euanmccolm The first Scotland match is an opportunity for solidarity and international bonhomie with opponents from a country that is very different to our own; Haiti being mostly run by criminals.

John Swinney’s options: 1. somehow end up scoring Scotland’s winning goal in the World Cup and return home a hero. 2. don’t score in the World Cup final and instead carry on as you are until you have no option but to resign.

This is a very poor start from someone I thought better of. Does he get to sign off his own expenses?

“There’s a huge amount of scrutiny of party finances that go on. That happens day and daily within the SNP, and so it should.” John Swinney, speaking on 30th May 2021. Why should we trust anything that he says now?

@LucyHunterB If there is doubt about what the £600,000 donated for an independence referendum was spent on, the Electoral Commission should want to find out what happened to it to make sure it wasn't spent on an election and the spending was not declared...

Because the EC reports both to Westminster and Holyrood, I assume either could ask it, first of all, if it has the powers to produce a report for them into the governance failures that allowed this fraud to happen, and the still-undealt with diversion of the fundraiser £600k. 1/2

🧵@theSNP has no protections for its members, or donors, against the commission of fraud or embezzlement by its staff. It is not a legal requirement for UK political parties.

Alex Salmond - could handle himself and with great intellect and humour. John Swinney - thin skinned amateur with an intellectual hinterland the size of a pea. Nicola Sturgeon - book reader and nippy sweetie.

Fairness requires a caveat. Murrell went to considerable lengths to conceal his activities. A sufficiently determined fraudster with adequate access controls can, in some circumstances, defeat even a competent and diligent auditor. But there is a distinction between failing to detect a concealed fraud and failing to flag the conditions that made concealment straightforward. The absence of receipts, the self-approval of expenses, the concentration of financial authority in a single individual with no independent check — none of these required detective work to identify. They required an auditor to look at the control environment and note what was missing. That is, precisely, what auditors are for.

4/ Q2: What changed between June 2020 and June 2021? That question is deliberately blunt. Because in June 2021, Johnson Carmichael introduced language that had never appeared in any previous SNP audit. They identified "the greatest potential for fraud" in the area of "revenue recognition." What did they see?

3/ Q1: Why did you conclude in June 2020 that the SNP's statement of cash flows represented a "true and fair view" — given that the party's expense procedures permitted claims without supporting receipts, and the CEO held ultimate approval over his own expense claims?

@DeanMThomson @Scottishpbjg You fail to mention that the audit partner responsible at JC was Paul Todd. Husband of Maree Todd, appointed a minister in the Scottish Government by Nicola Sturgeon. There may or may not be a connection between these facts, but I don’t believe in coincidences 🧐

1/ A thread on Johnson Carmichael LLP — and four questions they need to answer. Peter Murrell has pleaded guilty. The fraud is established. But one question hasn't been answered: What were the SNP's auditors actually looking at? open.substack.com/pub/deanmthoms…

When you start attacking journalists for quoting your own words back to you it's a sign things are unravelling.

Here we go again. Deny, deflect.