An SNP minister has apologised for WhatsApp messages in which she blasted her party, cabinet colleagues, the coronation and other MSPs. In the leaked messages revealed by the Daily Record, Drugs Minister Elena Whitham called Deputy First Minister Shona Robison a “cold fish” who was “painful to listen to” and joked “🙄 the ego has landed” when Angus Robertson was appointed to cabinet. Ouch.
Her criticisms also got more serious as, on two occasions, she launched at the Westminster group’s support for Patrick Grady:
“Honestly why didn’t we act?”
“Wtf. Who is recording group meetings?! And why are we supporting Grady?? Honestly.
She has a point…
Whitham’s barbs weren’t just reserved for her fellow scot nats. On Tory MSP Brian Whittle, she said “f**k me, Whittle is a pr*ck” as she also grew frustrated with the “royalist b****cks” of the Platinum Jubilee. Whitham has since apologised, saying “These comments were not acceptable and I apologise sincerely.” She now may take the high road, Guido however doubts her sincerity,…
Scottish Cabinet Secretary Angus Robertson is continuing the trend of SNP ministers kidding themselves into believing things that just aren’t true. Yesterday, he insisted “support for Scottish independence is continuing to grow”, yet offered no evidence to back that claim – probably because that evidence doesn’t actually exist. Aggregate polling shows that support for independence has been in decline for the last 12 months…
Guido reminds Robertson that the Scottish Ministerial Code clearly states “holders of public office should be truthful”, with honesty listed as one of the “seven principles of public life”. Guido’s flicked through the code, and it doesn’t look like ‘self-delusion’ is another one of those principles. Of course, the code was issued by Nicola Sturgeon, so there’s probably room to be flexible…
Hat Tip: Duncan Hothersall
SNP leader Angus Robertson tells the Equalities committee:
“I’m very proud to be the leader of the gayest parliamentary party.”
It’s not just Labour’s former advisers who like Theresa May – their MPs think she’s impressive too. Theresa May was deemed “most impressive parliamentarian” by no less than 35% of Labour MPs, putting her second on the leadership table only to be beaten by Cameron in an Ipsos MORI poll of members. While May was deemed impressive by more ministers, the ex-cabinet ministers sitting bitterly on the backbenches put Dave ahead in the overall stakes by just 1% – to 26%.
Labour’s strongest contender was unsurprisingly Hilary Benn, coming joint sixth with 6%, but was beaten to a top five place by Angus Robertson. Labour MPs went mostly unloved, with Tom Watson and Dan Jarvis gaining the support of just one MP each (possibly themselves?). One Conservative joker backed Corbyn for the title. If Labour MPs like May so much, why don’t they just…
The MoD is glued to Tweetdeck, scouring Twitter for sightings of Russian ships off the coast of Scotland, according to SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson, who made the claim in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute:
“In recent years we have seen increasing foreign military operations close to UK territorial waters and airspace, and the UK armed forces have been known to rely on intelligence from Scottish fishing vessels and social media as they have not had the appropriate assets in place in time.”
The MoD’s surveillance capability have been wiped out by the shelving of the RAF’s Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft programme. £3.8 billion was spent on procuring the Nimrod MRA4 before the airframes were cut up and sold for scrap. #PunchingAboveOurWeight…
Nicola Sturgeon, February 8 2015:
“The SNP have a longstanding position of not voting on matters that purely affect England – such as foxhunting south of the border, for example – and we stand by that. Where any issue is genuinely “English-only”, with no impact on Scotland, the case for Evel can be made.”
SNP website, May 19 2015:
“The SNP has a long-standing position of not voting on matters that only affect England. The Hunting Act is one such matter that purely affects England and Wales, and so SNP MPs would not vote on this issue.”
And yet, just two months later…
Angus Robertson, July 13 2015:
“The Scottish National Party Westminster Group met this evening and decided to vote against the Tory Government’s attempt to relax the ban on fox hunting south of the border in Wednesday’s vote… it is right and proper that we assert the Scottish interest on fox hunting by voting with Labour against the Tories’ proposals to relax the ban – in the process, reminding an arrogant UK government of just how slender their majority is”
Well it put them off the scent…
