The insidious input of UK Government officials in the conspiracy to destroy Alex Salmond -part 1 – setting the scene

Alex Salmond – his drive for Scottish independence

The SNP first gained power under the inspired leadership of Alex Salmond at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, forming a minority government, before going on to win the 2011 Parliament election on a platform of supporting independence and of holding a referendum.

Alex challenged the status of a “devolved executive” asserting that the electorate of a sovereign country had every expectation that their votes cast in a general election would result in the formation of a government and ignoring protests emanating from the Cabinet Office London went ahead and changed the terminology then created the Scottish Government.

He then changed the roles and responsibilities of the civil service in Scotland, stating, “It is the role of the Scottish civil service to work with the elected government of the day to implement its policies”.

The Cabinet Secretary of the UK Government was quick to condemn the change claiming there would be “constitutional fiction” since officials in Edinburgh and London were part of a single unified civil service and the long established principle of a single civil service responsible to the UK Government Cabinet Office Secretary was worth protecting.

But Sir Peter Housden, the Scottish Government Permanent Secretary and Civil Servants in Scotland fully embraced the regime change and adapted its policies accordingly ignoring any contrary instructions from London.

He praised Scottish ministers’ “vision, skill and energy” and their “ambitious and exciting programme”.

After the SNP’s election victory he wrote:

“This will be a remarkable period in Scotland’s history as we embark on a journey toward constitutional reform with the near-term strengthening of the Scotland Bill and a referendum in the second half of the parliament. The terms of this debate have changed irrevocably in just three weeks.”

He also urged staff to read an opinion piece by a politics professor which argued the SNP no longer had a “conceptual” problem with persuading voters to support independence. The stage was set for confrontation.

This was triggered when in November 2011, Alex Salmond launched the SNP Governments white paper for independence, “Scotland’s Future”.

Unionist politicians in Scotland wrote to the Cabinet Secretary in London forcefully criticising the Permanent Secretary, saying the paper, prepared by the Civil Service in Scotland was close to being a Party manifesto and lacked candour and accuracy and did not uphold the factual standards expected of a government white paper.

They also questioned the use of public money for partisan purposes, stating that Civil Servants should not be required to carry out ministers’ wishes if they are being asked to use public funds to promote the agenda of a political party.

The Scottish Government insisted that “Scotland’s Future”, “met the highest professional standards and that its contents were entirely appropriate for a government publication and it was a proper use of public funds.

The 2014 Independence Referendum

The September 2014 Independence Referendum inspired the UK Government and Unionist political supporters at Westminster, in business and the news and television media to execute a brutal “Project Fear” campaign against the future well being of Scots.

But despite their best efforts when their deceitful “Better Together” campaign was faced with the probability of defeat its leaders unlawfully broke the agreed rules of campaigning by illegally publishing an offer to the Scottish electorate, in the Daily Record, to establish a devolved Scottish Government armed with “Devomax” powers. That was self rule just short of full independence. Many Scots fell for the ruse and voted to remain within the Union.

Alex Salmond resigned soon after, opening the door in November 2014, for Nicola Sturgeon to be appointed by acclimation to the position of Leader of the SNP and the Scottish Government.

2014: Stonewall and its Gender Gestapo set the agenda on diversity

Stephen Frost, the Director of Stonewall, one of the largest organisations campaigning for the rights of LGBT people across Britain was contracted, cost £millions, together with his organisation to act as expert advisors to the UK government advising Heywood on the implementation of Stonewall’s ideals on the delivery of diversity and inclusion policies within the Civil Service in England and Wales.

Accepting all recommendations, Heywood decided on the execution of a civil service diversity drive led by a single cross-government team run through his offices.

The initial push would commit the civil service to an intensive programme” of informed assistance for departments and agencies enabling them to fully integrate diversity and inclusion into their business processes.

Heywood then announced his intentions in an address to a Civil Service summit saying:

“The implementation of diversity policies will be scrutinised by non-executive directors with established track records on diversity. While the most senior civil servants will be deemed personally responsible for tackling discrimination. As long as I’m head of the civil service this will be one of the top priorities and we will relentlessly focus on it. I want each individual permanent secretary to have a clear, evidence-based objective relevant to their department for which they will be held accountable. The objectives will be public so there will be public pressure. They will be agreed stretching objectives such that if we meet them consistently over the parliament we’ll have made a big difference.”

The drive for change was designed to eliminate the then prevalent culture of working which was holding back disabled Civil Servant’s of which a disproportionate number reported being bullied or harassed in the workplace.

It would also bring order to the inconsistent and uncoordinated implementation of the new policies being designed to ensure talented black and minority ethnic (BME) civil servants would be recognised through promotion and correcting the paucity of senior lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) role models in the Civil Service.

The Civil Service in Scotland was not included in Heywood’s agenda for change since the Permanent Secretary, Sir Peter Housden took his instructions from Alex Salmond and ignored any of the overtures from London. Another confrontation was inevitable.

To be continued