Today, the not-even-vaguely Scottish Daily Express, reminds us that Peter Murrell is in court tomorrow and that the cost of the police investigation is £2 million and counting, for a case of fraud which cost the taxpayer £0.
In August 2025, as Nicola Sturgeon spoke of the ordeal of being arrested and as MSM Monitor‘s question above waited to be answered, the trial of the SNP CE looks suspiciously likely to be set for the days just before the Holyrood election in May 2026 but then was postponed.
The Yorkshire Ripper investigation ran from August 1975 to January 1981, 5 years and six months, before Peter Sutciffe was charged with the murder of thirteen women. The excessive length of the investigation is attributed to the lack of a computerised system, DNA evidence or mobile phone evidence. Several tents were employed to cover the scenes of the bloody murders.
Yorkshire and national media were extremely critical of the police performance.
Operation Branchform, an investigation into possible fundraising fraud by the SNP began in July 2021 and is still open nearly 5 years later. One big blue tent was employed for no apparent reason. Computerised systems, DNA (from Nicola’s confiscated hairbrushes) and mobile phone records were available but seemed to have been little help.
Scottish media just love this.
A Netflix series – The Camper Van, the Hairbrush and the Waste of Public Funds – is planned for 2030.
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We have friends in Austria and Germany who because of our support for Scottish independence, take an interest in Scottish politics. They each held Nicola Sturgeon in high regard, and did so even prior to her exceptional handling of the covid pandemic which made international news. They each got in touch as the blue tent was erected outside her home as this damning image was headlined and beamed around the world. I had to explain to them exactly what was going on: that a popular political leader who was closely aligned with increased support for Scottish self determination and as such was viewed as a threat to the U.K. establishment. They were astonished that this would be politically motivated. We have returned to this issue over the intervening years and as the Westminster government has discredited itself under the Tories and now Labour over Brexit and now Palestine, they are each more understanding of how corrupt the U.K. is. Maureen Pickering
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it’s all to easy, with the stories told and views expressed by bbc propaganda units, msm and the Westminster government to see those of us who point out “the truth” as conspiracy theorists.
Well done for being patient with your friends and no falling out over it.
When others start paying close attention to perfidious Albion, the situation becomes a lot clearer.
John Lawson
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The MSM and westminster must be bealin that the “Not Proven” verdict no
longer exists. That would have allowed them to do the usual raking of the coals at regular intervals, just like “once in a generation” or the old favourite “the 66 World Cup”. you can bet your bottom dollar that last one will be doing the rounds again just shortly.
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Angela Rayner used a campervan to campaign for Labour. Police made no arrests.
I’m curious about the evidence the police have accumulated over these 5 years. As a donor to SNP funds I want to know every detail.
I thought buying a campervan during Covid was a sensible way of overcoming restrictions on hospitality and travel. I thought parking it at Peter Murrel’s mother’s house was a sensible way of saving on garaging costs.
But I’m not a detective nor an accountant.
5 years and £2,000,000. Better be worth it otherwise Sean Clerkin will be annoyed and make another complaint.
Does anyone know who else complained?
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Spot on. I have a feeling that at worst Murrell used creative accounting, and that funds from the independence campaign fund – meant to be ring fenced were used for campaigning during the pandemic. As you say- the campervan being one effective way of reducing campaign costs rather than hotel stays. Similarly, parking it in his mother’s driveway reduced outgoings. I think he vired funds from the ring fenced independence fund for the extra election expenses- the 2017 and 2019 elections being outwith the normal election cycle. As a member who contributed a small amount, I don’t care that he did that. This is where it gets messy- because we have never been asked. Clerkin had other motives as a well known supporter of Salmond – he clearly wanted Nicola and Peter to suffer. The party funds and membership decreased drastically due to his complaint which the unionists seized on. Foul play, indeed.
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Seems like a witch hunt more than anything. Let’s see what transpires, the BritNat state is desperate to portray the SNP as somehow, anyway possible, as being corrupt, they are as we know looking in the wrong place and wrong country in that regard.
What a disgrace, I hope both Nicola and Peter take those accusing and defaming them to court for a lot of compensation once this is all over.
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Imagine, for a moment, that Peter Murrell is actually found guilty of misappropriating somewhere around £66,000 in funds donated to the SNP. Cant see it myself.
The SNP’s money. The donors waved goodbye to that money the moment they sent it to the SNP, just as I did when sending money before the May 7th election. I don’t know exactly what the SNP did with “my” money, I was, and am, happy to give. Case closed.
Blue tents and camper vans? (There’s a song for you). Has any solid proof of theft been found during this £2,000,000 investigation? If not there’s going to be a lot of eggs on faces at Police Scotland. Is that why they keep this farce going? The option might look even worse for them.
And who complained in the first place? Some guy who gave £100? WTF is the point of all of this? Hmmm….oh yeah, SNP BAD, the unionist mantra 🙄 John Lawson.
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Yep and look at the ‘reform’ grifters, so many including their leader have apparently taken dodgy cash from ‘donors’ etc, and it’s a heck of a lot more money than P. Murrel is being accused of, (do we even know what exactly the accusation is?) and facing an actual court case…it stinks to high heaven of an attempted stitch up, but let’s see what happens hopefully the Scottish law system will clarify things and get to the truth of the matter. Sigh.
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Absolute nonsense. Police funds totally wasted. Police take an oath of secrecy and allegiance to the Crown. Westminster.
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I presume comments on this topic are now closed, and maybe those which have been made should be deleted by the administrator?
Hindsight is 20/20.
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