‘Scots Wha Hae’--Justice Comes for Mr. Nicola Sturgeon

A little over three years ago, in my post about the resignation of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, I threw a comment into the subsequent conversation, as follows:

I forgot the bit about the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) potential fundraising scandal, which isn’t something I’ve really kept up with, but which involves hundreds of thousands of pounds raised through the SNP for the ‘indyref2’ (second referendum on Scottish independence) project. Much of the money has been spent, apparently on other things, as no referendum is in sight. Shortly (like the next day) after the possibility of a police investigation was discussed at a party meeting, SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell loaned the SNP about £107K, an action which is seen by many as an attempt to fiddle the books and refill the coffers. As of now, I don’t believe there’s any indication that Sturgeon herself is involved in this tempest in a teapot. However, SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell is Nicola Sturgeon’s husband. Awkward….

Well, justice has finally caught up with the now-ex "Mr. Sturgeon," who has been convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in jail on the strength of his activities in stealing over £400,000 from the Scottish National Party coffers, which he used as his own personal piggybank to enhance the couple's lifestyle with purchases like a £125K motorhome, an £80K Jaguar, multi-thousand pound home appliances and collectibles, and (this made the rounds a week or two ago) 180 rolls of toilet paper, just moments after his then-First Minister wife had cautioned the public against hoarding such a thing during the Covid-19 debacle.

It should be said for the record that Nicola herself has repeatedly denied any knowledge of what must surely have been an inexplicable and sudden upturn in the family circumstances, has been cleared of wrongdoing, and was not involved in the proceedings against her then-husband...

As often happens, once suspicions were raised about him, things started to unravel for Peter Murrell with a rather pedestrian and relatively minor entry on the party's credit card, detailing some SNP cookware purchases (these items, and much else, were later discovered during a police search of the couple's home):

The police detective studying the Scottish National Party charge card statements was puzzled. Why was a party with so little money in the bank buying high-end cookware from Le Creuset?

And why, as he subsequently discovered, was there no mention of such a purchase, and many others, in the official SNP "books"?

Good questions, meriting, and leading to, more investigation. Glad there's at least one British copper who has an inquiring mind, his eyes open, and his head on straight.

The Telegraph details Murrell's years-long spending spree, which began in 2010, and started to unravel in 2021, when activists and other interested parties began to notice that the special SNP fund that had raised over £650K to underwrite a second Scottish independence referendum was--inexplicably--almost bereft of funds, and no referendum was forthcoming.

Given the parlous state of the UK at the moment, this one outcome might not count for much. But at least it's not nothing.