You've been Murrelled!

I see the ever-charming Jackie Baillie has been upsetting the SNP loyalists again. Predictably, she has seized upon the Peter Murrell affair, seeking to weaponise it against John Swinney. This was quite predictable, of course. Politicians devote an inordinate amount of their well-remunerated time trying to embarrass other politicians. You may think this an inappropriate way for elected representatives to behave, but the media lap it up.

These unedifying muck-raking, mud-slinging exercises mostly take the form of witch-hunting calls for the resignation, sacking, or demotion of whichever unfortunate individual has been selected as prey. Alternatively, there may be demands for an inquiry into this or that. It is this variation which Jackie Baillie is playing as she insists there should be a public inquiry into the matter of Peter Murrell embezzling approximately £400,000 of the SNP’s money.

You can see why this business would tickle Baillie’s British fancy. Murrell was married to former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and appointed as the party’s CEO by present First Minister John Swinney. Those are two very juicy targets. The British parties squatting in Scotland’s parliament were never going to pass up an opportunity like this, and Jackie Baillie set about her task with evident relish.

Questions are piling up about the circumstances surrounding Peter Murrell’s crime spree and with public money potentially misused, John Swinney’s ‘nothing to see here’ act is becoming increasingly untenable.

This is a matter of trust and integrity in politics and public life.

If John Swinney has nothing to hide, he should welcome the chance to get answers on this sordid affair – but for some reason he is determined to try and dodge scrutiny.

The SNP should have led the way setting up this inquiry, but instead it falls to Parliament to demand the truth.

Scotland deserves answers and I hope on Wednesday MSPs across the chamber will back transparency over cover-up by voting for Scottish Labour’s motion.

I’ve quoted Jackie Baillie at length here because this is Olympics-level smearing. There is so much more suggested than said, and even positive words such as ‘trust’ and ‘integrity’ come out sounding like denunciations. When she speaks of “transparency”, it is to suggest that there is none. Murrell’s caper becomes a “crime spree” involving misuse of “public money” (“potentially”!). Swinney is trying to “dodge scrutiny”.

Note too how Baillie co-opts the whole of Scotland as well as the entire Scottish Parliament. This is truly artful stuff. Nasty without being reprehensible. I feel she deserves an award of some kind. Does Greggs do gift vouchers?

We might wonder what would be the purpose of the inquiry Jakie Baillie is demanding. Other than embarrassing opponents, that is. There was a police investigation, after all. That investigation failed to uncover the whereabouts of £600,000 ring-fenced fund, but it got Murrell as a consolation prize. Does Jackie Baillie think a public inquiry might do better?

Naturally, John Swinney would dearly like to put the whole matter behind him. He wants us to move on. Public inquiry or not, this is unlikely to happen. Questions about that ring-fenced money have not yet had satisfactory answers. It may be that there are no satisfactory answers. It is certainly the case that there are people who would not be satisfied with any answer. The Murrell affair looks like it’s set to haunt the SNP for a long time.