Shout out to the japester who put that in the group chat and kicked off this spiral
It makes me feel a little like I am going mad when I see that the latest SNP scandal is about stamps they didnt use when a few years ago the tories distributed £35 million to their mates for absolutely nothing and everying has just accepted that that was fine.
I’m always in two minds about this type of thing – not stamps, I don’t care about stamps. Sorry r/philately
The quote at the end of this article about “comments being taken out of context in an attempt to smear individuals and cause damage during an election campaign.”
It is unfortunate that the processes to ensure integrity in our public officials are weaponised, but it is extremely important that any potential wrongdoing is able to be investigated. That way if the result is “guilty” or “not guilty” we are able to trust it and not see a cover-up or a stitch-up.
Think about Trump and his witch-hunt claims. A sitting president oversees criminal investigations into a political opponent. But then look at Alexie Navalny – essentially the same processes so where does accountability start to look like repression.
In this situation, obviously amplified by the election campaign, there seemed to be enough “smoke” to start an investigation. I want to be able to trust that process, maybe it leads to better regulations.
Take Matheson and that ipad – hopefully next time the IT folks ensure the sim cards are updated and that the next minister in a similar situation is honest from the start. I’m sure the opposition parties made sure to get their pound of flesh, but it was a necessary process.
I think there will always be one side saying that anything like this is corruption at the heart of government and the other side saying that it’s a political hit-job. Most of the time it’s just people doing their job, and sometimes people get things wrong.
They were just resting in that account!
Phew! Now do Covid waste, frauds, and dubious write-offs.
‘That’s different!! :'( – some Tory toss-pot.
This is good news, but I’m rather disappointed by this comment:
>They added: “It is extremely disappointing that obviously light-hearted comments were deliberately taken out of context in an attempt to smear individuals and cause damage during an election campaign.”
I really don’t think it was that obvious? If someone talks about “the stamp fairy being good for campaigns”, an outside observer looking at that would quite reasonably think it could mean election campaigns. In particular given that this leak was from an SNP staffer…
Ultimately we should welcome that a member of staff felt comfortable in reporting potential misconduct, and we should welcome that an independent investigation was able to run its course, and we should welcome that it has highlighted some potential issues around parliamentary stationary that should be reformed. I know that anonymous party spokespeople tend to spin more than Alistair Campbell in a washing machine, but they seem to be painting it as an “us vs them” issue which really isn’t the case.
Fuckin stamps ffs, can you imagine if a comparable level of accountability and investigation had been levied against the UK Gov, hell against any other party at all for the last decade and a half – the amount of bare faced, brazen shite that woulda been nipped in the fucking bud
Same goes for media coverage – headlines and tv news reports were SNP stamp scandal or SNP this, that or the next thing – but a Labour or Tory peadophile or sex scandal it was ‘local councillor’ with no party mentioned in the headline
8 comments
nice
Shout out to the japester who put that in the group chat and kicked off this spiral
It makes me feel a little like I am going mad when I see that the latest SNP scandal is about stamps they didnt use when a few years ago the tories distributed £35 million to their mates for absolutely nothing and everying has just accepted that that was fine.
I’m always in two minds about this type of thing – not stamps, I don’t care about stamps. Sorry r/philately
The quote at the end of this article about “comments being taken out of context in an attempt to smear individuals and cause damage during an election campaign.”
It is unfortunate that the processes to ensure integrity in our public officials are weaponised, but it is extremely important that any potential wrongdoing is able to be investigated. That way if the result is “guilty” or “not guilty” we are able to trust it and not see a cover-up or a stitch-up.
Think about Trump and his witch-hunt claims. A sitting president oversees criminal investigations into a political opponent. But then look at Alexie Navalny – essentially the same processes so where does accountability start to look like repression.
In this situation, obviously amplified by the election campaign, there seemed to be enough “smoke” to start an investigation. I want to be able to trust that process, maybe it leads to better regulations.
Take Matheson and that ipad – hopefully next time the IT folks ensure the sim cards are updated and that the next minister in a similar situation is honest from the start. I’m sure the opposition parties made sure to get their pound of flesh, but it was a necessary process.
I think there will always be one side saying that anything like this is corruption at the heart of government and the other side saying that it’s a political hit-job. Most of the time it’s just people doing their job, and sometimes people get things wrong.
They were just resting in that account!
Phew! Now do Covid waste, frauds, and dubious write-offs.
‘That’s different!! :'( – some Tory toss-pot.
This is good news, but I’m rather disappointed by this comment:
>They added: “It is extremely disappointing that obviously light-hearted comments were deliberately taken out of context in an attempt to smear individuals and cause damage during an election campaign.”
I really don’t think it was that obvious? If someone talks about “the stamp fairy being good for campaigns”, an outside observer looking at that would quite reasonably think it could mean election campaigns. In particular given that this leak was from an SNP staffer…
Ultimately we should welcome that a member of staff felt comfortable in reporting potential misconduct, and we should welcome that an independent investigation was able to run its course, and we should welcome that it has highlighted some potential issues around parliamentary stationary that should be reformed. I know that anonymous party spokespeople tend to spin more than Alistair Campbell in a washing machine, but they seem to be painting it as an “us vs them” issue which really isn’t the case.
Fuckin stamps ffs, can you imagine if a comparable level of accountability and investigation had been levied against the UK Gov, hell against any other party at all for the last decade and a half – the amount of bare faced, brazen shite that woulda been nipped in the fucking bud
Same goes for media coverage – headlines and tv news reports were SNP stamp scandal or SNP this, that or the next thing – but a Labour or Tory peadophile or sex scandal it was ‘local councillor’ with no party mentioned in the headline