Simon Forrest

The £2,000 pepper grinder. I can't get past the £2,000 pepper grinder.

Like every other SNP parliamentarian, I gave the party £250 per month from my personal income after tax. Adding my party membership fees (paid at an enhanced rate) , I think it came to £35,000 over ten years. The £250 sub was an obligation for all MPs and MSPs, but I was happy to pay, as I believed it was going to the cause - not to keep Sturgeon in Smythson handbags and Mountblanc pens (stolen goods she was pictured with in this @TheSun report 👇). I had a good salary. But what of all the decent working people - as @joannaccherry pointed out today - who could ill afford the £10 or £20 donations they made to @theSNP ? It’s disgusting, and requires an internal investigation. Or rather an independent investigation. Who was monitoring the spend within the SNP? How come the former volunteer treasurer and former volunteer officials who questioned the finances were slapped down by @NicolaSturgeon and her acolytes? There remain good people at the top of the party ( of which I remain a member BTW) and I hope they will now abandon their misplaced loyalty to the former leader whose position meant she signed off the accounts, as I understand it. Finally…..well done to @WingsScotland for triggering the investigation - pilloried from all sides but vindicated today.

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” W. Somerset Maugham

Perhaps the police will now have time to do a full investigation into this criminal.

It is utterly scandalous that the Murrell hearing was delayed until after the May elections, in which the SNP were re-elected as the majority party to Holyrood. The entire Scottish legal and judicial system is in disrepute. Scotland is a Banana Republic in consequence.

@G__S__7 It's worse than that. It's Noel Edmunds... 😱

@SimonForrest11 Peter Sutcliffe 👀

I hadn't realised Davie Hay managed the Radio 1 football team...

@funnyhandshake She was an office bearers in the party, leader of the party & as such had access to accounts any time. She was also married to, shared a house with & was a colleague of the man who amassed goods that listed 130 pages of the most extravagant items. I'm not biased, but curious.

@SimonForrest11 It's only hard to believe if you have a bias. I'm biased to the opposite and don't find it hard to believe in the slightest. None of us know anything about their relationship or personal finances. Innocent until.......

It is hard to escape the conclusion that those who failed in governance of the SNP are now running Scotland. 🤔 It is also hard to believe that Nicola Sturgeon knew nothing. BBC News - The questions raised by the Peter Murrell embezzlement controversy bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Murrell stole a lot of people's money, betrayed The Cause & connived to destroy people. Who knew what when? If not, why not? Were there any checks & balances in SNP? Have things changed? The questions raised by the Peter Murrell embezzlement controversy bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

A rain-soaked Hampden witnessed a fine Scotland performance as they beat England 1-0 to win the inaugural Rous Cup on 25/05/1985. In front of a fired-up Glasgow crowd, Scotland were sharper, more aggressive and fully deserved the victory. Richard Gough, heavily involved in the build-up, got his head to the cross to settle the contest.

The resident of Pompeii who was consuming it at the time.

We had a fantastic surprise yesterday when a Nightjar 'churred' (their song) just before dawn. It soon graced one of our nets. This is the first Nightjar we have ever ringed in the Spring on the Salisbury Plain.

The Bank of Scotland has unveiled a limited edition £20 note featuring an image inspired by Scott McTominay’s famous overhead kick heraldscotland.com/news/26135300.…

Wise words from Scotland. Is this how 'House' music began? ... 🤔

Did we make it.. Yes we did.

UNFURLING MURRELL Unless delayed again, Peter Murrell's trial takes place after the preliminary hearing on Monday 24th, in Edinburgh's High Court. This site will publish what is legally permissible. As with Alex Salmond's case, readers are asked to avoid conjecture, or stating personal opinion, lest it prejudices the defendant's case. He will appear at the High Court in Edinburgh for a Criminal Preliminary Hearing, according to the court rolls. Preliminary hearings generally see the accused enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, and are used to ensure prosecutors and the defence will be ready for trial when the date is set. Murrell had been due to appear at the High Court in Glasgow on February 20. However, one week before the date the hearing was pushed back to May and moved to Edinburgh. The former SNP chief executive, who is also the estranged husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, faces charges as follows: 1. Embezzlement of £459,046.49 of SNP funds over a 13-year period (2010–2023). 2. Purchase of a £124,550 motorhome using SNP funds for personal use. 3. Creation of false duplicate sales documents relating to the motorhome to portray it as a legitimate party expense. 4. Use of £16,489 of SNP funds towards a £33,000 Volkswagen Golf in 2016. 5. Use of £57,500 of SNP funds towards an £81,000 Jaguar I-Pace in 2019, and allegedly creating a false invoice to disguise the purchase. 6. Claiming £18,408.91 in expenses allegedly not entitled to, including alleged false invoices. 7. Spending £159,757.39 of SNP funds at 82 retailers on items allegedly for personal use or the use of others (2014–2022). 8. Spending £81,610.19 of SNP funds on Amazon purchases (2010–2023), allegedly for personal use or others, recorded to disguise their true nature. Charges come after Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform, a long-running investigation into the SNP’s finances, which some newspapers claim has cost the taxpayer £2,173,089 as of April 30. [Freedom of Information request from Labour's Jock branch.] Police Scotland say £100,498 has been spent on overtime in the five years since the investigation began. The force also said the £2m figure does not include pension contributions, and do not cover the costs accrued by the Crown Office. Operation Branchform was launched in 2021 following a complaint by an independence activist asking what the SNP had done with more than £600,000 raised from the general public with the stated aim of using it as a fighting fund for a second independence referendum. In March 2023 Murrell (pictured) resigned as SNP chief executive, one month after his wife Nicola Sturgeon resigned as first minister. Murrell was arrested the following month, in April 2023, and then released without charge. One year later, in April 2024, Murrell was re-arrested and charged with embezzlement. In March 2025, Sturgeon and former (twice) SNP treasurer Colin Beattie, also arrested and questioned over the course of the police probe into the party's finances, were both cleared.

A Liverpool legend Right Andy, up the road and get preparing to lift the World Cup