Sam Taylor

@staylorish • 11,192 subscribers

Runs @These_Islands. “cannot stand the awesome reality of Scotland’s energy wealth” - Alex Salmond. Tweeting in a personal capacity.

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Sam Taylor

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“I was exonerated. If there had been a shred of evidence that I had been complicit in this, or had known about what he was doing, then I wouldn’t have been cleared.” Sturgeon must know that a decision not to charge can be made despite plenty of “shreds” of evidence.

“I’m sorry, there are absolutely no fiscal requirements for joining the EU. What you are talking about is the Exchange Rate Mechanism.” Jaw-dropping ignorance from Màiri McAllan.

1/ Sturgeon’s claim that the “motor vehicles” item on the balance sheet could have been “the rental of motor vehicles” got a lot of attention yesterday. Initially, I was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt here. Even though “rental” would usually imply a short term…

1/ Hannah Mary Goodlad makes a blatantly false claim about the relative performance of Scotland’s economy in parliament today. The truth: between Q1 2016 and Q1 2026, real GDP growth in Scotland was 6.8% vs real GDP growth of 13.7% for the UK over the same period.

Oops. James Mitchell responds (see quoted tweet) to Ross Greer’s suggestion in parliament that the Scottish Green amendment is closest to his proposals.

Ed Miliband has his faults, but the idea that he is scheming away at Westminster to maximise the profits of huge energy companies, by denying consumers cheap energy, is utterly bonkers. A deranged conspiracy theory.

The Scottish Greens’ ill-advised attempt to imply James Mitchell’s support comes back to bite them as Jackie Baillie sums up for Scottish Labour.

John Swinney says that on day one of a new SNP government, he will request a Section 30 order transferring powers over energy to the Scottish Parliament. If this was a serious idea, you’d expect the civil service to have done some preparatory work. So… have they? Of course not.

Scotland’s energy wealth is being “siphoned off” by Westminster, says John Swinney. Populist bullshit of the highest order. #bbcdn

Màiri McAllan seems to believe that an independent Scotland would end global conflicts by “proposing peace”. If only someone had thought of this before. Actually, they have. It was Jeremy Corbyn.

1/ This line, that because a Chinese company has a minority stake in Hinkley Point C, the UK Labour government must be “anti-Scottish” to have blocked the Ming Yang wind turbine factory, on national security grounds, is very easily debunked.

“It’s not GB Energy. It’s Scotland’s energy.” It’s not like other nationalisms. It’s civic nationalism.

Stationary wind turbines which (when they do spin) produce electricity at a cost of £163/MWh (double the current wholesale price). A perfect encapsulation of the utter vacuity of SNP rhetoric on energy. Imagine if these costs could not be defrayed across all GB bill payers…

Zack Polanski believes independence will free Scotland from the dismal spectacle of PMQs. He has presumably never watched FMQs.

Philippa Whitford channels Emma Harper. Currency problem solved because we now have Apple Pay.

John Swinney saying “thank goodness” for Reform. Rather pertinent this morning.

Kate Forbes says the Scottish Government’s failures don’t matter, because you can count on the SNP “to always stand up for Scotland”. Pathetic. #bbcdn

One of the SNP’s most prolifically dishonest politicians, extolling the virtues of honesty. #bbcdn

Angela Constance tells parliament that she will bravely soldier on in her role, rather than taking the easy way out by resigning. What a heroic public servant she is.

Shona Robison explains her negotiating tactics on public sector pay: if you threaten to strike, she will cave in to demands.

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Alan Cumming on how women have ruined feminism for him.

Three cheers for that audience member. And deft moderation by Stephen Jardine. “So wait a minute… we pay the supermarkets to lower their prices… is that what you’re suggesting?” An unusually entertaining and illuminating 90 seconds from last week’s #bbcdn

John Swinney loses his cool (twice) at FMQs when his personal integrity is quite legitimately questioned.

Well… this is awkward. John Swinney speaking here on the Sunday Show on 30th May 2021. By this stage the SNP accounts proved that the money had gone missing and Swinney had clearly looked at those accounts. John Swinney was part of the cover up operation.

Awkward. Speaking in parliament in 2022, John Swinney railed against the economic illiteracy of people suggesting he had the right to spend ringfenced money on other things.

Alarmingly, John Swinney tells CNBC that in the event of independence, holders of Scot Gov bonds would just have to rely on Scot Gov meeting its contractual obligations. He is presumably hoping to sell these bonds to investors who know nothing about Scottish politics.

Two very important questions here, asked by James Cook and Simon Johnson after FMQs on Thursday, and John Swinney has no answers, only evasions. The chicanery continues. This should be getting much more attention.

Given its significance, just re-posting this clip of John Swinney’s 30th May 2021 appearance on the BBC Sunday Show. (This is a better quality version than the video of a TV screen that’s been floating around.)

1/ John Swinney lost his rag twice today with journalists who accurately described his position. Here, Swinney is irate with Tom Gordon for saying that it sounds like he accepts public money could “conceivably” have been part of the general pool of money from which Murrell stole.

Farcical scenes at Holyrood as Jim Fairlie can’t find the answer civil servants had written for him, and struggles to improvise one.

Some good news for the SNP. Alyn Smith says the £600k ringfenced independence fund never did go missing. #bbcdn

John Swinney struggles once again to explain why his government is so determined to allow men who identify as women to be housed in women’s prisons.

John Swinney once again getting very snippy with journalists asking perfectly legitimate questions.

Why did I save this clip? Must have had a hunch it wouldn’t age well. Andrew Wilson sings the praises of Nicola Sturgeon on BBC Newsnight, 23rd February 2021. Peter Murrell took delivery of the motorhome on 22nd February 2021.

Nicola Sturgeon looks annoyed when asked about the appropriateness of taking an MSP salary while devoting most of her time to writing a book. In the two and a half years since she stepped down as FM, Sturgeon has made 7 spoken contributions in parliament on matters of substance.

Questioned by Anas Sarwar on whether the SNP made fraudulent VAT refund claims when Murrell was in charge, John Swinney acknowledges that this may have happened. Which makes his continued resistance to a proper inquiry even harder to justify.

This answer from Swinney makes no sense. The alleged sophistication &amp; cunning of Murrell might explain why it was difficult to detect his thieving. But it doesn’t explain why the SNP failed to take legitimate questions seriously, and in fact told people to stop asking questions.

1/ John Swinney here, claiming that for 20 years in which he held various senior positions in the SNP, including Deputy First Minister in an SNP government, he paid no attention whatsoever to the party finances. An incredible line. Patently untrue. #BBCSundayShow

“It would have been quite improper for me to make a whimsical or ill-informed reference to a document that I hadn’t seen before entering the chamber.” This is just bizarre.

This is so frustrating. Alastair Campbell asks Sturgeon a good punchy question, and Rory Stewart interrupts before she can answer with a tedious and irrelevant anecdote about his own minor role in the referendum campaign… completely taking the sting out of the question.

This answer from Swinney makes no sense. The alleged sophistication & cunning of Murrell might explain why it was difficult to detect his thieving. But it doesn’t explain why the SNP failed to take legitimate questions seriously, and in fact told people to stop asking questions.