NICOLA Sturgeon did not breach the ministerial code. Those were the findings of James Hamilton, the former director of public prosecutions in the Republic of Ireland. He was appointed by the Scottish Government – and importantly, approved by the Scottish Parliament – to carry out an independent investigation into whether the First Minister broke the Ministerial Code.
The Scottish Parliament, to repeat, approved the appointment of James Hamilton as the independent investigator. The credentials of James Hamilton are above reproach. His investigation was wide-reaching and comprehensive and his judgement was based on the evidence. His judgement was clear and unequivocal that on all counts Nicola Sturgeon did not breach the Ministerial Code.
The Scottish Parliament now has the independent judgement that it asked for. The Unionist parties do not like it, but they approved the independent investigation therefore they must accept the result of this independent investigation – Nicola Sturgeon did not breach the Ministerial Code.
To be clear, the parliamentary committee was set up to investigate the handling of the harassment process and the £500,000 legal costs. They were not set up to investigate whether Nicola Sturgeon breached the Ministerial Code. It is obvious from the shenanigans of the primarily Unionist members of the committee that they were only using the pretext of the harassment investigation as a ploy to try and undermine and destroy Nicola Sturgeon.
I will go further. I suggest, with a high degree of probability, that a small section of the committee report was leaked to the Unionist press the week before last to get false and sympathetic headlines from this press that the First Minister breached the Ministerial Code even when James Hamilton, the person specifically appointed to investigate any possibly breaches, had not made his judgement.
They knew that James Hamilton would publish his report on Monday and that the committee report, which included their prejudiced insert, forced by weight of five to four, would not be published until the day after.
James Hamilton saw all of the evidence that the committee saw and on the basis of that evidence he exonerated Nicola Sturgeon. Whoever leaked the prejudiced information to the press knew there was a high probability, based on the same evidence, that Nicola Sturgeon would be found not to have breached the Ministerial Code and their manipulation ploy would be swamped by the detail of main report and destroyed by the fact that Nicola Sturgeon had already been cleared – theirs would then be a “no story”. Hence they acted in advance and created a false story, knowing that the Unionist press would love it and grasp it with both hands. Someone, by this leak and attempt at manipulation of justice, is guilty of a breach of the parliamentary code of conduct.
READ MORE: Committee member who leaked should be identified and should resign
I suggest that the Parliament Presiding Officer (currently Ken Macintosh), for the honour and respect of the Scottish Parliament, should instruct an investigation to be carried out into the leak from the committee – this may even involve the police.
This election is now, even more so as a result of these events, about the quality of leadership. The actions of the leaders of the Unionist parties, hijacking the harassment committee process to falsely accuse Nicola Sturgeon, have backfired on them to the extent that they have highlighted their hypocrisy. Nicola Sturgeon now stands above them all, not that that was ever in doubt, and the people of Scotland should now proudly get behind her, as a world-class stateswoman, to deliver a super SNP majority on May 6 and then opening road to independence.
Stewart Dickson
Skirling, By Biggar
I AM baffled that Alex Salmond is apparently willing to destroy our chances of independence by continuing his battle with the SNP government. If he is responsible for an election result that allows the unionists to kick the referendum into the long grass then history will record that he put his ego before Scotland’s independence, and would put him right up there in Trump ego territory. Although many serious mistakes have been made in this deplorable saga, remember that it started as a result of his treatment of women and the notion of some conspiracy against him has been disproved.
Sandy Slater
Stirling
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