ALBA CLUEDO, THE SEQUEL: So who did it to Tasmina, with the mobile phone, in the Balkan country? Who could *possibly* have a strong enough motive to want to end her political career with a damaging leak? Investigators narrow it down to a list of 6572 prime suspects.The remaining members of the Alba Party, colloquially known as NYEs (Not Yet Expelleds), have been gripped once again today by Whodunnit fever after
yet another catastrophic leak of sensitive information to Paul Hutcheon of the Daily Record. As before, the information can only have come from an extremely high level of the party, and the leak was undoubtedly calculated to damage or to end the political career of a specific Alba politician. The previous target was Kenny MacAskill, while today it was Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh. That's a fascinating twist, because of course MacAskill is standing for the vacant leadership and Ahmed-Sheikh is not. However, it makes perfect sense, because as I've outlined in previous installments of "THE ALBA FILES", Ahmed-Sheikh has used her role as Party Chair to function as the power behind the throne, and has been largely responsible for the unmitigated disaster of Alba degrading into a narrow, paranoid, authoritarian sect, which regularly carries out 'purity purges' or bullies people out of the party. The concern of many is that, regardless of whether MacAskill or Ash Regan wins the leadership race, they may keep Ahmed-Sheikh on as Chair and the real power will remain in exactly the same destructive hands as before.
The leak reveals, bizarrely, that Ahmed-Sheikh refused to return Alex Salmond's phone to his widow after his death in North Macedonia, despite repeated requests to do so. I'm still in touch with many current and former Alba members, and there's been considerable bewilderment today about what could possibly have motivated Ahmed-Sheikh to effectively confiscate the phone. Questions I've heard range from "was there material on the phone that she didn't want anyone but herself to see?" to "did she want to mine the phone for valuable information?". I've no idea of the answers to those questions and there is very little point speculating. But what does interest me is the identity and motivation of the senior figure who leaked the story to the Record.
There could of course be a benevolent motivation - ie. to put an end to the Tas Tyranny once and for all, and ensure that the party can make a genuine fresh start under its new leader. But I have also heard an alternative theory being darkly whispered. "What if", people say, "there's a disgruntled senior employee out there who faces disciplinary action, and who knows that in the Mafia-esque world of Alba, that can only ever mean a one-way ticket to expulsion. What if he's decided that if he can't control the Alba Party, nobody else should be able to either, and has decided to bring the whole house crashing down in an act of raw vengeance."
I'm not sure who they could be referring to but it's certainly an interesting thought.
Source: ALBA CLUEDO, THE SEQUEL: So who did it to Tasmina, with the mobile phone, in the Balkan country? Who could *possibly* have a strong enough motive to want to end her political career with a damaging leak? Investigators narrow it down to a list of 6572 prime suspects. (//)