Spot the difference - Scottish politics at its finest!

[opticron1]

Forgive the rant, but if you live and watch this sh*t every day, you'll understand.....

In 2005, David McLetchie, the leader of the Tory party in Holyrood claimed a taxi fare (on expenses) to go and visit his mother - he realised that this wasn't the correct use of parliamentary expenses and stood down when this was highlighted in Holyrood - no argument, no excuses, he knew he was wrong to claim for non parliamentary business.

In 2023, our Health Secretary (on a healthy six figure salary), claimed £11,000 for "roaming charges" when he and his family were on holiday in Morocco over the festive period. He initially claimed it was for parliamentary business, but agreed to pay £3,000 out of his own "office expenses" and Holyrood (ie. the tax payer) would pay the rest. He then agreed that he would pay all f the £11k when it was shown that this sum was ridiculous for Parliamentary business - because Holyrood goes into hibernation over the Christmas/New Year break. He then admitted that it was his kids watching football on his "secure" and encrypted laptop (remember only for parliamentary work!)..... Does he hold his hands up and resign, does he get sacked by Humza Useless? ...........

Angry, fed up , pis*sed off, astonished, doesn't really cover it...... If it had been one of the other parties, the SNP would have been jumping up and down in a screaming fury..... Sadly it just shows that the SNP and their Green poodles, have no morals (or honesty) left.

 

[Feugh]

There is a silver lining. This highlights once again how useless, incompetent, inefficient, corrupt and morally bankrupt his party is. Hopefully voters will remember (and hopefully whoever replaces them will be better).

 

[Mickeydredd]

I think the fact that he initially stated that it was only used to do Parliamentary work when he fully knew it wasn't, should result in a resignation.

 

[Stalker62]

I think the fact that he initially stated that it was only used to do Parliamentary work when he fully knew it wasn't, should result in a resignation.

It was an oft said 'thing', back in my old game.

"It's not the mistake that gets you sacked, it's lying about it".

 

[Feugh]

I think the fact that he initially stated that it was only used to do Parliamentary work when he fully knew it wasn't, should result in a resignation.

When his boss was transport secretary he was caught driving without insurance. Matheson should resign but his boss is no better.

 

[Foxyboy43]

What I don ‘t understand - from the dizzy heights of being an IT technophobe is how, if his laptop enjoys the presumably very secure parliamentarian level of protection and encryption, his children were able to “piggyback” their ipads to it in the first place?
Methinks (again) something is (even more) rotten in the fiefdom of Holyrood!

 

[Mickeydredd]

When his boss was transport secretary he was caught driving without insurance. Matheson should resign but his boss is no better.

I'm not a believer in resignations for errors or mistakes per se, but when you try to cover things up by lying when you are in a position of trust I just think your position is untenable. His excuse was that he was trying to protect his kids but this is nonsense, he was trying to get away with not reimbursing the taxpayer for his error.

 

[Foxyboy43]

The “kids did it“ defence will be very interesting if, heaven forfend, certain less than ahem, savoury, sites turn out to have been visited, accidentally of course …..

 

[Miki]

EE, when asked, said they couldn't tell what the iPad was connetring too ... bowlarks, they routed the connection and monitored the data usage ... someone knows.

 

[Klenchblaize]

So he gave his parliamentary iPad password to his children? Hope he doesn’t have a FAC as we all know the emphasis placed on the security of gun cabinet keys.

K

 

[MAH]

I watched him deliver his personal statement with astonishment.

There are multiple issues that are sufficiently serious to undermine his ability to continue in office.
Assuming his speech is a true account, they are;

1. Incompetence , not updating SIM
2. Incompetence, allowing unauthorised access to a government laptop
3. Incompetence, not throughly investigating the 2 days of very large data usage.
4. Dishonesty, the inaccurate press statement on Monday, when he new the truth of the issue on the Thursday before.
5. Poor judgement. He claimed to be "a father 1st". If that were true, he would have resigned when he refunded the £11k. In doing so he might have been able to save his family from scrutiny. Instead, he has thrown his kids under the bus (not my fault gov the kids were watching football), which may result in charges against them.

It is this last point that I find most disappointing about his conduct. The 1st mistakes might have been forgiven, but collectively they paint a sorry picture of someone that can't be trusted with high office.

And if the 1st minister can't see that, then he is not fit for office either.

M

 

[Ettrick reiver]

The whole rotten lot should be cast of the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle, parcel o rogues.
Ettrick reiver

 

[slider]

Not disagreeing this was wrong and he should stand down but correcting the point that his kids used a Govt laptop (iPad actually). They didn't, they used it as a hotspot to provided data for their own devices.
If he had allowed them to use the secure iPad I would suggest it was a disciplinary offence.
He claims he didn't know the children had used his device as a hotspot but at some point must have given them access to the passcode, and so was complicit in the misuse of the data

 

[MAH]

They didn't, they used it as a hotspot to provided data for their own devices

Agreed, they used the hotspot.
But my understanding, based on his statement, is that one of the kids was given access to the laptop by the minister to set up the hotspot.

And if the minister didn't give permission for them to access the hotspot, it's still unauthorised access, is it not?

 

[JockStalk]

No argument with the above. But you have to wonder what muppets keep voting them in every election?

 

[Pete1774]

Forgive the rant, but if you live and watch this sh*t every day, you'll understand.....

In 2005, David McLetchie, the leader of the Tory party in Holyrood claimed a taxi fare (on expenses) to go and visit his mother - he realised that this wasn't the correct use of parliamentary expenses and stood down when this was highlighted in Holyrood - no argument, no excuses, he knew he was wrong to claim for non parliamentary business.

In 2023, our Health Secretary (on a healthy six figure salary), claimed £11,000 for "roaming charges" when he and his family were on holiday in Morocco over the festive period. He initially claimed it was for parliamentary business, but agreed to pay £3,000 out of his own "office expenses" and Holyrood (ie. the tax payer) would pay the rest. He then agreed that he would pay all f the £11k when it was shown that this sum was ridiculous for Parliamentary business - because Holyrood goes into hibernation over the Christmas/New Year break. He then admitted that it was his kids watching football on his "secure" and encrypted laptop (remember only for parliamentary work!)..... Does he hold his hands up and resign, does he get sacked by Humza Useless? ...........

Angry, fed up , pis*sed off, astonished, doesn't really cover it...... If it had been one of the other parties, the SNP would have been jumping up and down in a screaming fury..... Sadly it just shows that the SNP and their Green poodles, have no morals (or honesty) left.

When I hear about the antics of these people I'm beginning to wonder if devolution was a good idea. In Scotland they all seem to have their noses in the trough, in Wales there appears to be an outbreak of cognitive impairment and in NI they haven't attended Stormont in years but are still freeloading off the taxpayers. If it was all run from Westminster at least the corruption and incompetence would be concentrated in one place and easier to manage.

 

[Jelen]

What I don ‘t understand - from the dizzy heights of being an IT technophobe is how, if his laptop enjoys the presumably very secure parliamentarian level of protection and encryption, his children were able to “piggyback” their ipads to it in the first place?
Methinks (again) something is (even more) rotten in the fiefdom of Holyrood!

Probably had his password scribbled on a 'Post it note' stuck on the back.

 

[long_range_rob]

All sounds a bit “The dog ate my homework!”

How about displaying a bit of honour.

 

[willie_gunn]

It was actually his iPad that was used, not his laptop.

As the Scottish Parliament presumably dishes out iPads that can connect to both Cellular and WiFi, he set up (or, from the sounds of it, one of his young sons set up) the personal hotspot capability on the iPad. This allows other devices to be tethered to the hotspot so that they can use data connection on the iPad. Either his sons watched the footie on his Parliamentary iPad, or they connected a mobile phone - or mobile phones - to the hotspot and then used the data connection.

This raises a whole bunch of questions, not least about data security. Why, for example, would he dream of giving his sons access to a Parliamentary iPad, given that it would almost certainly contain official (and I would think secret) correspondence?

This, remember, is at the same time as the SNP is in a pickle over WhatsApp messages that may have been illegally deleted.

It is a sorry state of affairs, and personally I think there's more to come out.

 

[Foxyboy43]

It was actually his iPad that was used, not his laptop.

As the Scottish Parliament presumably dishes out iPads that can connect to both Cellular and WiFi, he set up (or, from the sounds of it, one of his young sons set up) the personal hotspot capability on the iPad. This allows other devices to be tethered to the hotspot so that they can use data connection on the iPad. Either his sons watched the footie on his Parliamentary iPad, or they connected a mobile phone - or mobile phones - to the hotspot and then used the data connection.

This raises a whole bunch of questions, not least about data security. Why, for example, would he dream of giving his sons access to a Parliamentary iPad, given that it would almost certainly contain official (and I would think secret) correspondence?

This, remember, is at the same time as the SNP is in a pickle over WhatsApp messages that may have been illegally deleted.

It is a sorry state of affairs, and personally I think there's more to come out.

Hmm. The sainted Lady FB used to have one of these high-security iPads and she tells me that they they were set up in such a way that they could not be used to provide a hotspot. Go figure….