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| Alistair Carmichael’s political survival has become a matter of principle | Alistair Carmichael’s political survival has become a matter of principle |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| I have been in trouble with zealots in the Twitter posse this week for mildly suggesting that though Alistair Carmichael’s conduct in the “Frenchgate” election leak showed poor character and judgment, his removal as Scotland’s last Lib Dem MP should remain a matter for his constituents in Orkney and Shetland. | I have been in trouble with zealots in the Twitter posse this week for mildly suggesting that though Alistair Carmichael’s conduct in the “Frenchgate” election leak showed poor character and judgment, his removal as Scotland’s last Lib Dem MP should remain a matter for his constituents in Orkney and Shetland. |
| It’s hard work being right sometimes, but everything that has happened since the controversy broke at the weekend has reinforced my view that Carmichael is right to dig in. On a practical note, as below-the-line comments on the Shetland Times story explain, the SNP-inspired lynch mob which wants him out will tire sooner than he will. Mobs usually do when they find someone else to torment, or remember that it’s lunch time. | It’s hard work being right sometimes, but everything that has happened since the controversy broke at the weekend has reinforced my view that Carmichael is right to dig in. On a practical note, as below-the-line comments on the Shetland Times story explain, the SNP-inspired lynch mob which wants him out will tire sooner than he will. Mobs usually do when they find someone else to torment, or remember that it’s lunch time. |
| His survival has become a matter of principle : Scotland needs political pluralism, and the Northern Isles needs it even more if it is to keep the centralising government in Holyrood safely at arm’s length. “It’s Orkney’s oil”, eh? | His survival has become a matter of principle : Scotland needs political pluralism, and the Northern Isles needs it even more if it is to keep the centralising government in Holyrood safely at arm’s length. “It’s Orkney’s oil”, eh? |
| Politicians and their gofers leak, which is why Whitehall leak inquiries rarely get anywhere | Politicians and their gofers leak, which is why Whitehall leak inquiries rarely get anywhere |
| First things first. For asserting the right of his constituents to measure their MP’s conduct in the round – Carmichael is no pal of mine, but must have a good local record since 2001 to have survived the SNP tsunami on 7 May – I was severely taken to task by the Twitter morality police. I was accused of being indifferent to dishonesty in public life (Carmichael initially denied all knowledge of the leaked memo in which Nicola Sturgeon supposedly told the French ambassador she would prefer a Tory victory). Shocking! The very idea of it. | First things first. For asserting the right of his constituents to measure their MP’s conduct in the round – Carmichael is no pal of mine, but must have a good local record since 2001 to have survived the SNP tsunami on 7 May – I was severely taken to task by the Twitter morality police. I was accused of being indifferent to dishonesty in public life (Carmichael initially denied all knowledge of the leaked memo in which Nicola Sturgeon supposedly told the French ambassador she would prefer a Tory victory). Shocking! The very idea of it. |
| Didn’t I realise the damage the Frenchgate memo – leaked to the Daily Telegraph by the then Scottish secretary’s special adviser – had done to Sturgeon’s character? And what about the scandalous waste of public money spent tracing this dastardly crime? What about trust? | Didn’t I realise the damage the Frenchgate memo – leaked to the Daily Telegraph by the then Scottish secretary’s special adviser – had done to Sturgeon’s character? And what about the scandalous waste of public money spent tracing this dastardly crime? What about trust? |
| Most of this struck me as priggish humbug. The leak was so amateur (can this be Carmichael’s first time?) it took only a few phone records to trace it, not the reported £1.4m. You wouldn’t catch a senior Scotland Yard leaker making that mistake with a throwaway mobile. | Most of this struck me as priggish humbug. The leak was so amateur (can this be Carmichael’s first time?) it took only a few phone records to trace it, not the reported £1.4m. You wouldn’t catch a senior Scotland Yard leaker making that mistake with a throwaway mobile. |
| The fact is politicians sometimes tell lies, some self-serving ones, some necessary, a few even noble. Voters, who cannot bear too much truth, require it of them and only a child or a hypocrite should be unable to see this. Why, even voters tell lies. Look how so many must have lied to those trusting pollsters before the election! Should we trust the electorate now? Of course, but with a pinch of salt. | The fact is politicians sometimes tell lies, some self-serving ones, some necessary, a few even noble. Voters, who cannot bear too much truth, require it of them and only a child or a hypocrite should be unable to see this. Why, even voters tell lies. Look how so many must have lied to those trusting pollsters before the election! Should we trust the electorate now? Of course, but with a pinch of salt. |
| My initial reaction on hearing the story on Twitter (the Carmichael scandal is bound to be hushed up by the mainstream media, predicted my dreary and inaccurate informant) was that Carmichael had shown bad character . He authorised a leak which, so it is said, he may not have believed was a true account of Sturgeon’s diplomatic meeting. He showed bad judgment in later lying to cover it up. | My initial reaction on hearing the story on Twitter (the Carmichael scandal is bound to be hushed up by the mainstream media, predicted my dreary and inaccurate informant) was that Carmichael had shown bad character . He authorised a leak which, so it is said, he may not have believed was a true account of Sturgeon’s diplomatic meeting. He showed bad judgment in later lying to cover it up. |
| But politicians and their gofers leak, which is why Whitehall leak inquiries rarely get anywhere. “You leak, but I brief,” as Jim Callaghan, the former Labour PM, is reported to have quipped. Exactly, Jim. In Yes Minister, another Jim (Hacker), says in frustration: “ I don’t want a leak inquiry, I want to know who did it.” | But politicians and their gofers leak, which is why Whitehall leak inquiries rarely get anywhere. “You leak, but I brief,” as Jim Callaghan, the former Labour PM, is reported to have quipped. Exactly, Jim. In Yes Minister, another Jim (Hacker), says in frustration: “ I don’t want a leak inquiry, I want to know who did it.” |
| In Brussels, negotiations on Greece’s economic problems are punctuated by leaks by both sides, designed to bolster their position, often via draft proposals known as non papers. Innocents will sound horrified but our public life would be poorer without leaks – the ones we deplore are usually those we disagree with. | In Brussels, negotiations on Greece’s economic problems are punctuated by leaks by both sides, designed to bolster their position, often via draft proposals known as non papers. Innocents will sound horrified but our public life would be poorer without leaks – the ones we deplore are usually those we disagree with. |
| Tories leaked against their Lib Dem coalition partners; the Lib Dems were even worse. Labour is such a fraternal party that members leak against each other. The Bank of England’s secret review of Britain’s Brexit options, which surfaced in Saturday’s Guardian, was a “send” button error, not a leak. | Tories leaked against their Lib Dem coalition partners; the Lib Dems were even worse. Labour is such a fraternal party that members leak against each other. The Bank of England’s secret review of Britain’s Brexit options, which surfaced in Saturday’s Guardian, was a “send” button error, not a leak. |
| Rare, but it could have been leaked and quite right too. The public should know these things unless there are good reasons to keep quiet – and there often are in real negotiations, as distinct from grandstanding. | Rare, but it could have been leaked and quite right too. The public should know these things unless there are good reasons to keep quiet – and there often are in real negotiations, as distinct from grandstanding. |
| In the small circles where these things matter, outraged Scots promised to report Carmichael to the parliamentary standards watchdog for bringing parliament into disrepute (ho, ho) and bemoaned the failure of Zac Goldsmith’s bill to provide for a recall petition. It is a good example of what I deplore as “government by Twitter”: knee-jerk and shallow. | In the small circles where these things matter, outraged Scots promised to report Carmichael to the parliamentary standards watchdog for bringing parliament into disrepute (ho, ho) and bemoaned the failure of Zac Goldsmith’s bill to provide for a recall petition. It is a good example of what I deplore as “government by Twitter”: knee-jerk and shallow. |
| Now I see this campaign in a more sinister light. Carmichael was one of only three non-SNP candidates to win a Scottish seat on 7 May: 56 Nats, one Tory, one Labour, one Lib Dem, that’s the Westminster contingent. He hung on by just 817 votes – 9,407 votes to SNP candidate, Danus Skene’s 8,590 – in this tiny 32,000-strong island community where there was a 23% swing, as in so many places. Ten Scots colleagues fell. | Now I see this campaign in a more sinister light. Carmichael was one of only three non-SNP candidates to win a Scottish seat on 7 May: 56 Nats, one Tory, one Labour, one Lib Dem, that’s the Westminster contingent. He hung on by just 817 votes – 9,407 votes to SNP candidate, Danus Skene’s 8,590 – in this tiny 32,000-strong island community where there was a 23% swing, as in so many places. Ten Scots colleagues fell. |
| So it seems a little authoritarian, to put it mildly, to seek a byelection in order to make a block of 56 MPs into 57, 96% of Scotland’s MPs on the basis of 50% of Scotland’s vote. | So it seems a little authoritarian, to put it mildly, to seek a byelection in order to make a block of 56 MPs into 57, 96% of Scotland’s MPs on the basis of 50% of Scotland’s vote. |
| If that wasn’t enough, the censorious Daily Mail is alarmed by their unruly conduct. I was around in the 70s when the SNP was last present in force. As the late Alan Watkins remarked at the time, they “celebrated Hogmanay in the SNP whips office at least once a week”. It was lively. | If that wasn’t enough, the censorious Daily Mail is alarmed by their unruly conduct. I was around in the 70s when the SNP was last present in force. As the late Alan Watkins remarked at the time, they “celebrated Hogmanay in the SNP whips office at least once a week”. It was lively. |
| I digress. Smart politicians should know that government functions better when there is an effective opposition to hold it to account. Sturgeon promises to do that job in Westminster, where Labour is picking fluff from its navel and the Lib Dems are down to eight, so she gets the point even if some of her new MPs don’t. | I digress. Smart politicians should know that government functions better when there is an effective opposition to hold it to account. Sturgeon promises to do that job in Westminster, where Labour is picking fluff from its navel and the Lib Dems are down to eight, so she gets the point even if some of her new MPs don’t. |
| But this sensible principle does not seem to be applied in Holyrood where there is no second chamber and very tight SNP party discipline. This is a centralising regime as well as a centrist – leftwing only in rhetoric – devolved government. | But this sensible principle does not seem to be applied in Holyrood where there is no second chamber and very tight SNP party discipline. This is a centralising regime as well as a centrist – leftwing only in rhetoric – devolved government. |
| Smart politicians know that government functions better when there's an effective opposition to hold it to account | Smart politicians know that government functions better when there's an effective opposition to hold it to account |
| “Sturgeon is making the same mistake as Gordon Brown did in London, taking over decisions from weak ministers and letting her in-tray pile up,” a Labour Scots told me months ago. | “Sturgeon is making the same mistake as Gordon Brown did in London, taking over decisions from weak ministers and letting her in-tray pile up,” a Labour Scots told me months ago. |
| We’ll see. But when Sir Malcolm Bruce, the retired Scots Lib Dem former MP, popped up on Radio 4 on Tuesday to defend his beleaguered colleague, he recalled how Sturgeon once made an indefensible defence of a benefit cheat – I think he must mean this case. In later apologising, the then deputy first minister said public life would be better if politicians were granted fair-minded space to admit honest mistakes. | We’ll see. But when Sir Malcolm Bruce, the retired Scots Lib Dem former MP, popped up on Radio 4 on Tuesday to defend his beleaguered colleague, he recalled how Sturgeon once made an indefensible defence of a benefit cheat – I think he must mean this case. In later apologising, the then deputy first minister said public life would be better if politicians were granted fair-minded space to admit honest mistakes. |
| A sensible comment which I applaud. Don’t tell me Carmichael’s case is much more serious, that’s priggish and predictable. So far as I can see, Sturgeon has said nothing about Carmichael, and well done her. But her old boss, Alex Salmond, and her deputy, Stewart Hosie, have got stuck in with pious glee. | A sensible comment which I applaud. Don’t tell me Carmichael’s case is much more serious, that’s priggish and predictable. So far as I can see, Sturgeon has said nothing about Carmichael, and well done her. But her old boss, Alex Salmond, and her deputy, Stewart Hosie, have got stuck in with pious glee. |
| Bruce makes several other useful points, including one I made on Twitter, that Salmond had claimed to have legal advice that an independent Scotland would continue to remain in the EU and spent public money fighting off a freedom of information request to publish it. Far more serious, I’d say. I would, wouldn’t I ? But I’d be right too. | Bruce makes several other useful points, including one I made on Twitter, that Salmond had claimed to have legal advice that an independent Scotland would continue to remain in the EU and spent public money fighting off a freedom of information request to publish it. Far more serious, I’d say. I would, wouldn’t I ? But I’d be right too. |
| There are other examples. Thus the SNP was at the forefront of demands for a Metropolitan police inquiry into Tony Blair’s alleged cash-for-honours racket, which was run by a controversial copper, John Yates, and cost a lot more money than Carmichael’s office phone bills. Predictably, it yielded no prosecution. Job done. | There are other examples. Thus the SNP was at the forefront of demands for a Metropolitan police inquiry into Tony Blair’s alleged cash-for-honours racket, which was run by a controversial copper, John Yates, and cost a lot more money than Carmichael’s office phone bills. Predictably, it yielded no prosecution. Job done. |
| Scotland is a divided and bruised country, says Bruce. So do others who complain of intolerance displayed by the victors of 2011 and 2015. If it’s half true it will produce a reaction. Perhaps it will start in Lerwick. I don’t know the Northern Isles but they don’t strike me as the sort of communities which go in for “Ali, Ali, Ali, out, out, out” demos. | Scotland is a divided and bruised country, says Bruce. So do others who complain of intolerance displayed by the victors of 2011 and 2015. If it’s half true it will produce a reaction. Perhaps it will start in Lerwick. I don’t know the Northern Isles but they don’t strike me as the sort of communities which go in for “Ali, Ali, Ali, out, out, out” demos. |
| Related: The Guardian view on Alistair Carmichael: he should stay – for now | Editorial | |
| What’s more, the Northern Isles are as suspicious of Edinburgh as SNP poets are of London. Orkney voted no in the independence referendum by 67.2%. They even voted no to devolution in 1979. But Holyrood has promised the islands more devolved powers. | What’s more, the Northern Isles are as suspicious of Edinburgh as SNP poets are of London. Orkney voted no in the independence referendum by 67.2%. They even voted no to devolution in 1979. But Holyrood has promised the islands more devolved powers. |
| Is it unreasonable to think that a Lib Dem with a good local reputation and the experience of a former Scottish secretary would be better placed to hold Sturgeon to her promises than a 70-year-old retired teacher, even one with an interesting, multi-party CV like the SNP’s Skene? | Is it unreasonable to think that a Lib Dem with a good local reputation and the experience of a former Scottish secretary would be better placed to hold Sturgeon to her promises than a 70-year-old retired teacher, even one with an interesting, multi-party CV like the SNP’s Skene? |
| Contrite Carmichael, warts and all? Sounds OK to me at this distance. But it’s not up to me, it’s up to his local party activists and, in due course, his voters who may barely remember it all by Christmas. | Contrite Carmichael, warts and all? Sounds OK to me at this distance. But it’s not up to me, it’s up to his local party activists and, in due course, his voters who may barely remember it all by Christmas. |