[Robin McAlpine Blog] Guilty or not guilty, SNP democracy failed

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Guilty or not guilty, SNP democracy failed

Let me start with the necessary disclaimer for the purpose of not messing with an issue of guilt which remains sub judice; Peter Murrell has been charged but found guilty of nothing. He may plead not guilty and he could be found not guilty. This article is not intended to imply that he is anything other than a man charged with an offence and awaiting a court appearance

In fact this being the case I had initially planned not to bother writing this at all. Then I started to image what may be the kinds of responses we’re getting. Above all, I fear this being framed as an individual failure, a question of the morality of a single person. It isn’t. At fault here, guilty or not, is the erosion of democracy inside the SNP.

There is becoming an all-to-consistent attitude in this era of theft, grift and rule-breaking, an era where AI is allowed to take the intellectual property of other people, hustle is a noun with positive connotations and the Epstein Files start to reveal how the powerful really go about their business.

The attitude is that, the way to balance and resolve any given equation is to ‘reduce X, where X is democracy, accountability and transparency’. Let’s call it the ‘honesty but shuffle’. But here has one T. Honesty is good, but… So honesty is good, but access to Epstein’s money is crucial. Honesty is good, but let’s force civil servants to lie about Israel’s conduct.

Honesty is good, but data protection that hides wrongdoing is more important (more on that next week). Honesty is good, but independence must come above all else. That is the one which is truly at fault here. Because if SNP democracy, accountability and base-level procedures had been sustained and taken seriously, it wouldn’t have been possible to get into a situation where an officer can be charged for embezzlement.

Procedures are there to prevent corruption. That is their point. That is why they exist. But in the SNP they were subordinate to everything. They were subordinate to factional fighting, to hero worship, to ‘that’s for after independence’, to the scramble for rewards in a party that puts people in parliament for services to the leader, to efficiency, to…

Well, actually, in truth it is hard to know what exactly there has been inside the SNP in the last decade which is not taken to be more important than rules and procedures. When your finance committee warns you there is something wrong in the financial dealings of the organisation you are obliged to look and see.

When a red flag is raised you don’t have discretion over whether you take action or not, you are legally bound to take action

I can’t get this over enough; the NEC wasn’t ‘misguided’ in its choice to overlook these warnings, it was individually and severally responsible under law for it. I amn’t yet sure that the members of that National Executive Committee at the time have understood that if Murrell is found guilty they would be completely legally exposed to a claim for damages from an unhappy SNP member.

Governing bodies have to carry out their fiduciary duties. I’m a trustee of two small community charities and we have it drilled into us again and again by overseeing bodies – our first duty is fiduciary and legal. Our finances must be in clear legal order and we must comply with the laws of the land at all times. That isn’t negotiable.

When a red flag is raised you don’t have discretion over whether you take action or not, you are legally bound to take action as a trustee. In fact, even if it is amber you have to act. The only thing you can move on from is an unequivocal statement of full compliance.

If you are running small business you aren’t suddenly exempt from legal consequences if you say ‘but I didn’t know our bank account was being used to launder money’ because it is your duty to check and make sure your bank account wan’t being used in such a way. The clue is in the word ‘your’.

This is the end of the chain though. Again, noting that Murrell may not have done any of this, if he has, the allegations stretch back years. The NEC in place at the time of the infamous meeting where Nicola Sturgeon assured them 100 per cent that nothing was wrong is particularly exposed because they were actively warned something may have been wrong.

But that doesn’t mean those who went before are not culpable. In particular there is a role on whom ultimate responsibility lies and that is the Treasurer. They are constitutionally obliged to oversee the finances. Douglas Chapman was elected in 2019 and resigned when he couldn’t get sufficient information.

In fact he and the three members of the Finance and Audit Committee who resigned are the only people who come out of any of this with their heads up. It shouldn’t have taken Chapman to come in and discover that something might be up, more or less straight away. But it did.

And yet the responsibility, sadly, is much wider still. Because ultimately what allowed this was the passiveness of the membership as a whole. They were so swept up with the righteousness of their cause that they nodded every time they were told to nod. Ultimately they endorsed the collapse in internal democracy and accountability in the party.

The SNP forgot the big rule of politics that challenge power – honesty is never, ever dispensable

One of three things is now going to happen. As I’ve already pointed out, Murrell may be innocent and so fight the case and win. But that takes me to the second thing – that there is a trial and that at that trial there is a torrent of extremely damaging revelations, damage that will stretch well beyond Murrell.

That is why up until this point I’d imagined Murrell would have a strong incentive to plead guilty given that the kinds of information that would be likely to come out in a trial would be highly politically embarrassing to a wide number of people.

And now it is a full-on cluster-fuck because of the timing. Either he announces the SNP was riddled with corruption by pleading guilty, just before an election – or he doesn’t and it hangs over the party throughout the election campaign. Remember, John Swinney was as senior as it got in the party throughout this time and Nicola Sturgeon not only clearly tried to prevent scrutiny but signed the accounts herself.

I’ve known most of this for ages. I have watched endless speculation from loyalists, mainly suggesting the tents were a stunt to damage the party. I saw a comment comparing the raiding of the Murrell/Sturgeon house with Mandelson’s properties. I have known for ages that the police had to identify what they believed to be a large number of items which were inappropriately bought from Amazon.

It all had to be identified, logged and checked against sales receipts, which is why they needed somewhere to do it. Mandelson’s issue are all on computers. It’s a completely different thing. The police may turn out to be wrong about criminality, but I hope people will at least give over with the wild conspiracies that this is all a set-up. The police have played this by the book because they know the risk.

And that is the whole point. Often I get approached by people setting up campaigning organisations or voluntary groups or a charity. They contact me for strategic advice. I tell them the same thing I tell everyone – first things first, get your procedures together. If things are going well they are just a pain, but the second something goes wrong they will save your life.

In fact I’ve had more than one staff member tell me Common Weal is the smallest organisation they’ve worked for but has the most procedures, safeguards and rules. Yes it does. If you’re challenging power then the single most important thing is that you keep yourself honest. Make a mistake and your done for.

Guilty verdict or not guilty verdict, everyone that supports independence will pay a price for this now, and the news this evening that Salmond’s legal case is progressing with full funding means there is a lot more pain to come.

Hell mend you SNP. You’ve done this to yourselves. You forgot the big rule of politics that challenge power – honesty is never, ever dispensable. It is the bedrock that keeps your feet planted when waves of adversity crash over you. If (I repeat if) Murrell has done these things, it is not just a personal failure, it is a collective failure. A price is always paid eventually.

Source: Guilty or not guilty, SNP democracy failed