WHEN RINGFENCED BECOMES CASHFLOW!

WHEN RINGFENCED BECOMES CASHFLOW.

It really has never been a mystery, at least in the SNP accounts. From the minute the 2019 accounts were published it was abundantly clear the £600k was no longer in existence. The more so when it was confirmed the SNP only operated the one account. Basic accounting skills then made it impossible for accounts showing less than 100k in cash and total assets of under 300k to possibly hide 600k. It had been spent. Why on earth they did not just admit that and promise to repay it back to a proper “ring fenced” fund defies logic? Surely they knew they would not get away with this level, let’s be frank, pretty pathetic, juvenile deception.

Of course there were some all too ready to argue against established accountancy practices established over many hundreds of years. We had the “secret fund” excuse, this despite confirmation there was no other account. This was promoted by the Nikkla and Peter loyal where they still believe Nikkla has a “secret plan” to deliver the mysterious Section 30 order. These people have a fondness for fables and fairy stories. They were let out the nursery armed with a host of newly learned insults to throw at any who questioned the tale being told by the leadership. We were all “Tories and dinosaurs”, Terfs (not a clue the relevance), we were “ignorant”, “troublemakers”, “traitors and yoons”. In reality of course we were people who could count, could understand accounts and balance sheets and familiar with the economy with the truth that has become the hallmark of the Murrell leadership and NEC.

Even now that it is now openly revealed the money is gone, Nicola can’t quite bring herself to admit it, sticking to the line that “funds are operated on a cash flow basis” and that every pound for Independence purposes will be spent for Independence purposes”.

Note that “ringfenced” funds CANNOT be operated on a cash flow basis, indeed ringfenced funds are the direct opposite of cash flow funds which can be freely operated as desired. Also please note that it is possible to argue that all SNP spending could be classed as spending for Independence purposes, BUT THIS WOULD BE VERY DIFFERENT TO SPENDING RINGFENCED MONEY FOR INDYREF2, FOR SNP PURPOSES. That was the point of the appeals that raised the money. It would NOT be available for SNP spending, only for direct expenditure on Indyref2 i.e RINGFENCED.

Now this is all bad enough, it is a huge betrayal of trust but what really compounds this is the botched cover up. It has really been quite despicable. Initially people were told there was no ringfenced appeal, the fundraising exercise was for General SNP Funds. When people started producing the original documentation which clearly stated the words “Ringfenced for Indyref2” the folk had their requests for a refund refused on the basis their money was in a “ringfenced account” and the SNP was unable to access these funds to make any repayment. I have copies of emails from senior SNP officials stating this in the clearest terms. So the story changed from there being no ringfenced fund to yes there is one but the SNP have no access to it. Nicola of course has now made public there was no ringfenced fund, that there was never any ringfenced account so these emails I hold are blatant lies designed to deny people their money back. It didn’t end there however.

People started to complain to the Police and suddenly the rebate policy changed overnight. Folk got rebates arranged by Peter Murrell on a virtual next day service for getting the money back into your bank account. This was certainly because the SNP are desperate to head off a full police investigation. I hope they don’t succeed. According to a report I have read some 13,000 people contributed to the £592,000 fund, giving an average contribution of just over £45 per donor. The same report says some 60 people have so far secured rebates which based on the same average suggests repayments total some £2700, leaving the “scam” ahead by net £589,300.

That is a huge sum of money and given that there is clear documentary proof that it was raised on a clearly defined prospectus which was then changed, again with documentary proof readily available, and again clear evidence that substantial numbers of people feel they were deceived and have demanded their donations back makes it clear to me that it is worthy of investigation. Sixty people is a lot of people but is probably only a tiny fraction of those that would seek rebates if they were informed of the salient facts by the police. The sixty are but the tip of a very large iceberg.

Now to the politics of this. The use of language designed to confuse and mislead  on this matter has been very obvious, “ woven through the accounts” comes instantly to mind and as it became clearer and clearer that the current level of excuse and deflection was failing, it is very dispiriting that even when the game was clearly a bogey the leadership still felt unable to front up with the clear truth that the money was gone.

They could have then issued an apology and explanation and pledged to rebuild the fund soonest. Instead they use political speak which I think they think reduces the level of reputational damage. In this they are very wrong, it just casts great doubt on what they say on any matter when they are clearly displaying such a willingness to deceive and disguise when it is as clear as day what has obviously happened.

I think their dying days in power are now looming into sight. Trouble is, having surrounded themselves with their fan club rather than any ability there is no obvious successor in sight. That is the real tragedy of this story.

I am, as always

Yours for Scotland.

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