Why I had to call Nicola Sturgeon a liar in Holyrood
IDID not expect to end this week explaining why I was thrown out of the Scottish parliament for telling the truth. It’s not in my nature to cause a scene and, while robustly disagreeing with MSPs in opposition parties, I generally get on well with most of my colleagues.
Some people will ultimately write the incident off as a political stunt, but for me it was more than that.
Nicola Sturgeon had promised to co-operate with the Holyrood committee that is investigating her government’s handling of allegations against Alex Salmond, and provide members with documents requested.
That clearly has not happened – just ask the committee convener Linda Fabiani, an SNP MSP – and so I asked, in the chamber, ‘why she lied to parliament’.
Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh said it was an ‘inappropriate’ word to use in the chamber, but the truth was, it was the only appropriate word – and so I was ejected.
However, I do not regret it. Too often in our parliament and our politics, the current Scottish Government feels it is untouchable and uses every trick in the book to avoid scrutiny.
But brushing off the criticism of the SNP convener of the parliamentary committee specifically set up to look at this serious case was a step too far.
I wanted to leave the public and the Presiding Officer in no doubt about the level of anger across parliament.
Sweeping this under the carpet is not acceptable and badly lets down those individuals who have come forward to express concerns and who have been caught up in the crossfire through no fault of their own. Of course, it is stating the blindingly obvious to say honesty and politics rarely go hand in hand.
Unlike our First Minister, I don’t hold myself out as a paragon of virtue. However, like most people, I subscribe to the simple view that there is a minimum standard of integrity without which you cannot in good faith undertake the duties of public office.
It is a feature of our politics that every senior politician is from time to time accused of being economical with the truth.
Indeed, some have even crossed the line and deliberately misled parliament.
However, this shoddy episode is different. It is not about putting a gloss on a dud policy or a desperate attempt to explain a terrible mistake.
No, this was by any normal standards a lie. And a brazen one at that.
Her promise to co-operate fully with the committee has been exposed for what it was – a cynical ploy to buy more time and to block the truth at all costs.
After all, if we MSPs had known this would be the outcome, I suspect with the advantage of hindsight there would have been more people calling for a judgeled inquiry.
To me, despite the protestations, I believe this was a carefully calculated decision to put Ms Sturgeon’s own political survival before the interests of the Scottish parliament.
But this shouldn’t be a surprise, given that the First Minister is happy to do just about anything for political gain. It is the same shameless streak that sees the Nicola Sturgeon who is First Minister pretend that her responsibility as First Minister ends there when it suits her.
She can’t be held responsible for the actions of the Scottish National Party and those who support it – after all, she is only the leader.
It is a well rehearsed routine when things get uncomfortable for her.
However, it just doesn’t wash that the same Nicola Sturgeon, who promised MSPs her full co-operation, is now somehow unable to answer simple questions because she is no longer part of the decision-making process.
Luckily not everyone in politics dodges the tough calls.
Credit where it is due to the convener of the Salmond inquiry committee who took the unprecedented step of writing to the courts to request access to documents that Scottish Government ministers refuse to hand over.
She has been forced to do so because, in her own words: ‘We had hoped to be in a position to hear further oral evidence, but with responses still outstanding from the Scottish Government, the chief executive of the SNP and the former First Minister, all of this means that we simply cannot proceed at this stage.’
As the Scottish Conservative leader in the parliament Ruth Davidson pointed out, resolving two of these concerns is directly within the gift of the First Minister, who is head of the Scottish Government and leader of the SNP.
She could ensure with a snap of her fingers that the evidence is provided. I’m sure we can all guess why she is so reluctant to do so.
Equally, we must remember that no one forced the First Minister to come to the chamber and promise to Scotland’s national parliament that the Salmond inquiries ‘will be able to request whatever material they want, and I undertake today that we will provide whatever material they request’.
Nor did anyone else make the choice to continue to meet Mr Salmond on a number of occasions after being told about the police investigation.
These implausible explanations and false promises are the First Minister’s and the First Minister’s alone. She has been back-pedalling ever since.
In any healthy democracy, a leader wouldn’t feel emboldened to behave like this. To think it would be possible to just shrug this off or wait for it to go away.
Indeed, to hold parliament and the people in such contempt is
This was by any standards a lie. And a brazen one at that
beneath the office of First Minister. But I guess it has become normal in the SNP’s Scotland, where the cause transcends everything.
In the nationalist wonderland, clearly compulsive liars get a free pass, while those who tell the truth get reprimanded.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel hard done to. I knew there was a risk in making the point of order that the Presiding Officer would ask me to leave the chamber.
I understood the significance of using the word I did and I know it falls below the standard parliament expects, but I felt the public watching at home would understand the gravitas of the matter and why there was no merit in hiding behind euphemisms.
Personally, I would sooner never set foot in Holyrood again than allow the First Minister off the hook. Arguably it is her behaviour that is not just unparliamentary but undignified.
She seems all too happy to wield the full power of the state and put the credibility of her government on the line.
The least the First Minister could do is drop the act moving forward.
Long gone are the days of her pious
Parliament and the Scottish public do deserve the whole truth
claims that leadership is about doing the right thing even when it is hard for you.
The reality is her quivering voice and the look on her face, under questioning from Ruth Davidson, gave the game away.
The First Minister knows in her heart that she has lied in the chamber, and even by her own low bar she has betrayed the office she holds.
It might be a cliche but only the truth will set the First Minister free and end this sorry mess.
It might ultimately cost her and her powerful husband their jobs. But parliament and the Scottish public deserve the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I won’t be holding my breath. But I will be holding my tongue when it comes to using unparliamentary language.
After all, on a day-to-day basis deliberately misleading parliament and telling porkie pies are close enough to the truth when it comes to the SNP’s wider woeful record over its past 13 years in government.