exile

The Guardian story on this now has over 5000 comments. There seems a change of tone from the indyref days, when it was a polarised yes v no (and sometimes Scotland v England) scrum. This time there's a bit more looking askance at Ed, and people apparently switching off from Labour, or saying 'oh wait, what's happening to democracy?'... The article started life as Sturgeon revelation, then Sturgeon denial, then Miliband accusation, then Sturgeon demands inquiry, and now Inquiry announced. The web title is ed-miliband-nicola-sturgeon-allegations-damning-labour-snp-david-cameron! http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/04/ed-miliband-nicola-sturgeon-allegations-damning-labour-snp-david-cameron

I don't really have a problem with Neil personally as such - Let's suppose the Telegraph story is true - let's supposed Neil ensured it was before being cleared for publication - so let's say the Telegraph were fed a memo, that they are simply reporting the existence of it.... now suppose the memo turned out to be a fake - they can still turn round and say they were deceived so they will claim innocence. - But doesn't it just sits a little uncomfortably, when one of the BBC's supposedly impartial and top political anchors just happens to be so close to being part of the story?

http://newsnet.scot/2015/04/what-a-tangled-web-politicians-weave-in-the-hysteria-of-election-time/ Derek Bateman reminds us that Andrew Neil - cuddly Thursday night political presenter on the BBC - just happens to be chair of the Press Holdings - who own the Telegraph and Spectator, Can be seen tweeting to tip off the Telegraph story and also its coverage in the Spectator. In a private capacity of course. https://twitter.com/afneil "Tweets reflect my views. Not who I work for." So that's OK then.

I'm thinking of George Osborne who I imagine would not be so cavalier, but bide his time and watch it all unfold, then announce a housebuilding programme or something. Though on reflection, what Cameron said was maybe vague enough to be given the benefit of the doubt, or lost in the noise...

It makes him look gloating and less "Prime Ministerial". It looks to me like an error - where are his advisors? He could have kept schtum and watched it all unfold, shafting Labour SNP and maybe Lib Dems at a stroke. Tories could have held the moral high ground letting the Telegraph do their dirty work for them By implying the French he surrenders a bit of that moral high ground that is so dramatically collapsing around Labour and, possibly yet, the Lib Dems. It has the makings of an omnishafting. Edit: about the losing votes bit: seems to me there are a fair few UKIP supporters and waverers who might have voted Tory to keep the red/snp threat at bay but if they think the Tories are all as dirty as the others may not bother

Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood has ordered a leak inquiry... (edit: health warning: according to The Daily Telegraph) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11515842/Cabinet-secretary-orders-inquiry-into-how-Nicola-Sturgeons-comments-were-leaked.html

How come Hothersall managed to work out he'd been duped in the middle of a friday night, while Ed Miliband digs himself a deeper hole by repeating the allegation this morning? Cameron was at it too - the UK PM's statement amounts to saying the French diplomats are lying. Meanwhile, not a tweet about it from those Lib Dems...

I just can't believe that Sturgeon - as First Minister and lawyer (and I'd say the same of any of the party leaders - even anyone who might have been economical with the truth in the past) would now, in the full glare of the national media come out and say they 100% categorically deny something, if that something had actually taken place - remember with witnesses present, and didn't she deny it before knowing for sure she'd be backed up by the French? (we know this because people didn't believe her when it was just her word, without French corroboration) Miliband and Cameron and the rest of them, by pressing the story as if true, are effectively saying she is lying (and as TT says, implying the French are lying too). So... what do you say Alistair? What of you Nick Clegg? Charlie? Danny? Where are you on this one, guys?

Hang on, if Carmichael was present at the meeting, then surely he must either endorse the accusation - in effect that Sturgeon [First Minister and lawyer] is brazenly lying in public - or else he must back her up that she didn't say it, and blow the story out the water? Which is it, Alistair?

Meanwhile Le «Frenchgate» de la chef des nationalistes écossais Nicola Sturgeon http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2015/04/04/01003-20150404ARTFIG00069-le-frenchgate-de-la-chef-des-nationalistes-ecossais-nicola-sturgeon.php

where are all the truth-loving liberals now? je suis nicola?

Fraser Nelson is it too... http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/04/nicola-sturgeon-admits-the-snp-prefer-cameron-to-miliband/ If it's not the 'evil' Tories, bliar's spin doctors, or 'fib dems', could the whole thing be a massive fishing exercise by those crafty nats all along? Feed a red herring to the media, watch the feeding frenzy of the way the lies are perpetuated, then reveal it's a hoax and see who was caught out?

Was it the crafty mastermind Carmichael, or the affable bumbling MI5? Craig Murray: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/04/uk-intelligence-services-attack-snp/ He also says: I am 100% certain that MI5 have people online posing as cybernats. BTW I see comments enabled on the BBC story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32177315

Interesting. But then... the 'total nonsense' angle (and who's behind it?) has yet to be pursued. Maybe 'embarrassing twitter frenzy over unsubstantiated tory press smear' is not news any more. But then... the R4 9 o'clock bulletin did cover the story (after first dutifully trotting out the 3 'big parties' campaigning agendas of the day), where newsreader repeated the words about her not seeing Ed Miliband as PM material (sounded like a direct quote) Edit: my earlier link pointing to the memo should have been http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/11515276/Revealed-Full-text-of-Nicola-Sturgeon-memo.html

http://bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk/index.php/city-news/916-as-parliament-is-prorogued-the-snp-prepare-their-alien-invasion.html

As long as this memo actually exists, the Telegraph may have little to apologise for, but others have given it credence and blown it into a story http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/11514933/Nicola-Sturgeon-secretly-backs-David-Cameron.html We need a new series of The Thick of It with '7-party politics' and the BBC in the thick of it

The BBC's flagship Today programme this morning (7am and 7.30) led with Ed Miliband's housing proposals, Tory anti-porn proposals, something about the Lib Dems, and something about parents taking their children out of schools. So... those fine political minds of Humphreys and Naughtie not (yet) put to any use scrutinising the Sturgeon story

What is it about Scotland that some of these papers and politicians find so desperately compelling, that they are so contemptuous of Scotland, and yet they are apparently so desperate to clinging on to us? They are so spooked that the SNP will upset the old two-party status quo, that they'd even rather break up the old status quo themselves, - Michaal Gove admitting he'd rather people voted Labour and had a Labour majority government, than let SNP have any say. Why not just let Scotland go, and keep it to good old Lab v Con in rUK?

Hmmm - this is just 24hr after the Telgraph Nicola Sturgeon – the most dangerous woman in politics http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/11509628/Nicola-Sturgeon-the-most-dangerous-woman-in-politics.html So, did the crowd hail her as 'Queen of Scots'? Is this the Daily Mash, or BBC Scotlandshire?

Eh... hang on... it's Easter Friday isn't it, between 9.30 and 11.30 pm - who is listening what the Telegraph says in this time period between their claim and its denial? Anyone remotely interested in politics would have seen Sturgeon the other night - surely it's too late to be smeared as some at the Telegraph would like it - SNP as nasty natlonal socialists? The worst that has been said is that the anti-austerity is not economically credible or Trident unworkable - it's surely clear as day who is on the right and who is on the left from Thursday's debate - surely it's all too late for the Telegraph now. And even maybe, just maybe, too late for the BBC.

The Economist's take http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21647811-neither-david-cameron-nor-ed-miliband-did-themselves-much-harm-or-good-crowded-field-safety

Just as SNP conferences as full of 'zealous' supporters - not just supporters. And... Sturgeon wasn't modest but 'affected' modesty

Cameron dodges a bullet: PM escapes unscathed as 40% still think he is best to lead the country after Miliband fails to land killer blow and Farage is attacked for 'foreigners with HIV' commentSNP's Nicola Sturgeon emerges as a big winner, which could deprive Labour of dozens of seats in Scotland Also has a feature describing Nicola Sturgeon* as a smiling assassin *The most dangerous woman in Britain, according to the Telegraph

In the context of where SNP lay on the political spectrum, he said something like nationalism dresses itself up in different guises to get what it wants Edit: more precisely, what kumnio said

He just made a passionate defence of 'independence' for self respecting countries!