"We would have expected to get a substantive reply" .. "Perhaps they were going to say, 'we're about to legislate for this anyway, or do something β remotely β legal"
ββ @AlexSalmond
The @scotgov refused arbitration; pressed ahead and cost the taxpayer Β£512,250 β the very highest level that could be awarded by the judge. The reason for that is the unprecedented lengths the Gov went to hide their evidence.
"The Gov were prepared to go before the Court and say, 'there were no more documents'." .. "[@scotgov] had been withholding documentation, not just from the petitioner (myself), not just the Court, but from their own Counsel."
π₯ #theWhistleblower
"We became aware that something was wrong because a whistleblower in the @scotgov .. said there was something 'seriously wrong' with a Gov press statement."
π¨ Complaints were made before the policy was even published! A document was edited to hide this fact
"We went through each and every document and cross-compared with what had been disclosed in both the #CivilCase and the #CriminalCase. And we found a substantial number of documents that we had never seen before; which is spectacular."
"[A spectacular example] β but by no means the only e.g. β is a series of documents which demonstrated that the @PermSecScot met one complainant and telephoned the other on March 6, 2018; that was the day before I was informed there were any complaints against me." #SalmondSpeaks
π¨"The search warrant in the #CriminalCase specifies meetings between the @PermSecScot and complainants; [but] the @COPFS did not receive that document (I believe), which is almost beyond imagination." .. "That's obstruction of justice! And there are consequences for such things"
π¨ "We indicated a willingness to [hand over documents to the committee], we then had correspondence from the @scotgov who only would only agree [to us doing so] if we gave the documents to them [first] so they could β as they put it β 'make suitable redactions'."
π€―#ProceduralUnfairness
"The Investigating Officer (IS) presents the case for the prosecution before the defendant is even informed about the procedure. Then the [accused], instead of being able to present their own case, has to give that case to the IS to present on his behalf."
π€―#ProceduralUnfairness
"The @PermSecScot decision not to allow me any contact with civil servants or even have documents (like my own diaries)."
Why would Civil Service use a procedure, to then hand over to a political party for sanction?
π° "[#Arbitration] designed to provide a cheaper/ more private was of dealing with disputes."
"The idea that that wouldn't have been a better way to approach this matter β than what has transpired over the last 3 yrs β would be an extraordinary position to adopt"
π‘"If people would say, 'on reflection we could have avoided this disaster and saved the Scottish people Β£600,000' β that might be a good thing for people to say." .. "But people who took a decision might be expected to defend it, however disastrous the decision turned out to be"