Back in October Calton wrote about how independence transcended everything for Nicola Sturgeon. It looks like he was wrong. Sturgeon seems to have cynically used the fact that independence transcends everything for other people to cover up a stitch-up of her predecessor Alex Salmond because what really transcends everything for her is power. Once she had it, she wanted to keep it.
According to Craig Murray's sworn evidence on the Salmond affair, Alex Salmond "said that he believed that Nicola was banking on his loyalty to the SNP and to the Independence movement, thinking that he would not split the party by revealing what or who was behind the allegations against him." In other words, she thought she could smear him with impunity because he wouldn't do anything to hurt 'the cause'. If that is true, she was wrong. Salmond may be out for revenge, and, if so, who could blame him? But he also, more importantly, wants the truth to come out and so do many others, Calton included. This has not made the former SNP leader popular with some in the SNP who still think that 'the cause' is more important than the truth. He is supposed to fall on his sword, or at least wheesht, for independence. Thankfully he has declined to do so, because, when truth becomes secondary to a cause and the end justifies the means, we are all in big trouble.
The Salmond Inquiry has already done, and will continue to do, damage to the SNP but that is not the fault of Alex Salmond. It is the fault of the current SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon for whom it seems power transcends independence. It is hard to read all the evidence now in the public domain, much of which can be seen on Wings over Scotland, and not come to the conclusion that Sturgeon conspired against Salmond with several of her team and is now desperately trying to cover it up. If independence really was the most important thing to her, she would resign because she is damaging 'the cause'. The fact she is still doubling down and clinging on tells us all we need to know.
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