February 2023 – Page 2

The John Smith Centre

The John Smith Centre Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) is located in Glasgow University .

Operating under the University of Glasgow’s charitable status it is exempt from formally accounting to the public for the source of any finance raised or any expenditure although details are held secure by the University of Glasgow.

The centre’s management board oversees the conduct, leadership and management of the Centre and includes members of the Smith family, University of Glasgow alumni, public service practitioners and academic staff.

Its sales pitch states its purpose is to set the priorities, benchmarks best practice; and to review performance to enable the Centre to achieve its aim to promote trust in politics and public service and to empower and attract more people to contribute to public life.

But in reality the Centre provides training opportunities for young politically inspired unionist leaning students designed to undermine the integrity and authority and what is left of the impartiality policies of the UK civil service through the expansion and influence of political special advisors (Spads) whose unfettered growth lumbers the already austerity punished taxpayer with an additional massive and ever expanding expense of £billions supporting many hundreds of privileged party animals who are guaranteed public purse employment, from the time they leave university until retirement age.

The board:

Catherine Smith KC, Chair

Catherine Smith studied History and Law at the University of Glasgow.

She is an ad hoc Advocate Depute for the Advocate General.

Prior to becoming an advocate she worked at home and internationally on conflict resolution and democracy building for the London based NGO LINKS, particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

She is also on the board of the John Smith Trust and is the youngest daughter. o the late labour Party leader John Smith.

Hon Ed Balls

Balls was a Spad for Gordon Brown before being elected as an MP following which he gained rapid promotion within the government.

He was appointed first to the post of UK Minister for Financial Services (2006-2007) then Chief Economic Adviser to the UK Treasury (1997-2004) thereafter retaining a number of senior positions within the Party.

He was a major figure in the right wing Fabian Society rising to the post of Chairman in 2007 and attended the 2006, 2014, and 2015 Bilderberg meetings.

He was an active member of the Labour Party Friends of Israel organisation in Parliament.

Dr Matt Carter

Former Labour Party General Secretary (2004-2005) was responsible for overseeing political campaigns and organisation in the period running up to and including the 2005 General Election, which saw Tony Blair win a successful third term in office.

He was at the heart of the “cash for peerages” scandal which was investigated by Scotland Yard. See: (https://www.heraldscotland.com/default_content/12766138.cash-for-peerages-tale-gains-twist/)

He left politics to enjoy a successful career focusing on corporate communications, reputation management, politics and polling.

Professor Sara Carter

Vice-Principal and Head of the college of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow as Professor of Entrepreneurship.

Rt Hon Ruth Davidson

Former leader of the Scottish Conservatives she was placed in post by the Party Chairman, Andrew Fulton, from the Tory Central Office.

Fulton was exposed as an MI6 agent inappropriately monitoring the work of the Lockerbie Commission whilst supposedly employed by Glasgow University. He was sent packing soon after.

Resham Kotechaand

She is a strategy and policy specialist who stood, without success as a candidate for the Tory Party in the 2015 and 2017 GE.

She is a Trustee of the Fawcett Society, one of the UK’s leading charities which campaigns for gender equality and women’s rights.

The organisation is trans inclusion supporting and pronounced that GRA reform and Self-ID was not an issue for women to be concerned about.

But charities and the foundations that fund them play a key role as “civil society” building platforms so that people can advocate for their interests and rights, discuss and test ideas, feed them into policy makers, mobilise support for them, and hold governments to account.

They are not exactly democratic, but they are a part of democracy. They act as gatekeepers and filters to what is respectable thought.

Worth a read is the Fawcett Society Q&A on sex, gender and gender identity at: (https://www.stephsplace.uk/the-fawcett-society.cfm)

David Muir

Prime Minister Gordon Brown headhunted the marketing guru and in 2008 employed him as an expensive Spad as his Director of Strategy.

He advised on a range of issues most noticeably the response to the global financial crisis and worked closely with Peter Mandelson and Philip Gould on the Labour Party’s 2010 failed general election campaign.

He left Downing Street when Gordon Brown resigned in May 2010.

He delivers public service practitioner speakers to the University of Glasgow through his David Muir Speaker Series.

Baroness Smith Of Gilmorehill

Elizabeth Smith is very influential politically a result of her very long career near the top of the British secret services.

She was created a peer in 1995 following the death of her husband, Rt Hon John Smith M.P. who was the Leader of the Labour Party at the time of his early death at the age of 55.

She is a member of the board of several organisations with interests in Russia and FSU countries.

Her other positions include being an Advisory Council Member of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce; Vice Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Russia; Governor of the English Speaking Union; Board Member of the Centre for European Reform.

Andrew Wilson

Founding Partner of Charlotte Street Partners, the strategic communications firm based in London and Edinburgh.

He began his career in the civil service in the Government Economic Service and went on to work as a researcher and economist for the SNP and as a business economist at Royal Bank of Scotland.

He was elected as a member of the first Scottish Parliament in 1999.

There, he served as Shadow Minister for, variously: Finance, Economy, Transport and Lifelong Learning.

In 2003, he re-joined RBS working in a number of roles including as Deputy Chief Economist.

During the banking crisis, he served as Head of Group Communications and was intimately involved in the bank’s high-profile engagement with the City, UK Government and media.

In 2012, prior to the launch of Charlotte Street Partners, he joined global marcomms group WPP Group in a client strategy role working with agencies and group across the full range of services including media and advertising.

In March 2020 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In September 2016 he was appointed by Nicola Sturgeon to chair the Sustainable Growth Commission.

He was also a member of the Independent Commission on Referendums based at UCL’s Constitution Unit, which reported in July 2018.

See: (https://caltonjock.com/2022/08/24/the-snp-leadership-is-fatally-compromised-by-its-subservience-to-the-whims-and-direction-of-the-unionist-lobby-group-charlotte-street-partners/)

John Smith Centre Staff

Kezia Dugdale

Centre Director – Formerly a Spad for then MSP Lord George Foukes she went on to become a controversial short term leader of the Labour Party in Scotland before leaving politics.

She leads and oversees the Centre, and is responsible for all aspects of strategic development. She plans and drives the work of the Centre, encompassing all its activities and programmes.

See: (https://caltonjock.com/2022/08/13/professor-dugdales-air-of-innocence-is-a-front-exposed-by-her-obnoxious-comments-as-fifi-la-bonbon/)

Alison Hopper

Centre Development Manager – project manages all the Centre’s activities and oversees the day-to-day running of the Centre and its staff.

Carole Stimpson

Research & External Engagement Officer – oversees the research capacity of the centre and is also responsible for expanding the public profile of work programmes.

Julie Cooper

Centre Administrator – focuses on supporting the delivery of development programmes and events and research activities. Previously held positions within the School of Education and Policy Scotland at Glasgow University.

His love of Austria

Englishman Angus was born in Wimbledon, London, in 1969. Educated at Broughton High School, Edinburgh, he completed his education at the University of Aberdeen, from where he graduated in 1991 with an MA Honours degree in politics and international relations. After university, bilingual thanks to his German mother and Scottish father, he moved to Vienna (1991-2000) and took up employment as a journalist first with the Austrian public broadcaster, ORF, and later with the BBC World Service as the foreign and diplomatic correspondent for Central Europe.

he was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour, in Gold by the Austrian President in recognition of his support to the Austrian government, from the time he entered UK politics in 2001, as chairman and secretary of the Austrian Parliamentary Group at Westminster. In his acceptance speech Robertson said:

“It is a huge honour to be granted this award by the Austrian president and to receive it in the Austrian Parliament. I have a huge affection for the Alpine republic and am fortunate enough to have lived and worked there for a decade. Cooperation between European nations is really important to me and I have worked to foster relations between Austria and the UK in the Westminster Parliament since 2001. This award is recognition of the value of European co-operation which I will continue to support into the future.”

Responding the Austrian leader said:

“Angus Robertson is a good friend of Austria and Europe. We are hugely indebted to him for his efforts to foster relations between Austria and the UK at Westminster. This award is rarely bestowed on non-Austrians and it is a valued token of our appreciation for his work as chairman and secretary of the Austrian Parliamentary Group as well as his promotion of Austria at home and abroad.”

Comment: Not a mention of his responsibilities to the SNP over the same period.

His time at Westminster

Robertson was first elected to the UK House of Commons in June 2001, representing the Moray constituency. He volunteered as a member of the European Scrutiny Committee from 2001 to 2010 and served as the SNP’s spokesman on Defence and International Relations.

In May 2007, he was promoted by Alex Salmond, to the post of SNP Leader in the House of Commons a post he retained until he lost his seat in Moray in 2016.

In 2007 Robertson surprisingly argued for a UK-wide referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, contrary to SNP policy because its introduction would entrench EU control over Scottish affairs.

The 2015 landslide election

The election returned an unprecedented 56 SNP MP’s to Westminster. Addressing the group outside the Commons, First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said she was “bursting with pride” adding “people voted for an SNP manifesto that had ending austerity as its number one priority. That is the priority these men and women will now take to the very heart of the Westminster agenda. It cannot and will not be business as usual when it comes to Westminster’s dealing with Scotland. Scotland’s voice will be heard in Westminster now more loudly than it has ever been before. David Cameron said his priorities will be implementing the powers in the Smith Commission in good faith – and I said to him that those proposals had to be looked at again because they are not strong enough. These are conversations we will go into in more detail in the weeks and months to come.”

Note: So much for her bluster. In the year that followed the SNP group tabled in excess of 100 proposals for changes further strengthening the weak Smith recommendations. Not one was accepted by the Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, who filibustered his party’s legislation through the Commons with the support of labour and liberal Democrats.

Leadership roles in the SNP

Robertson was confirmed as the Leader of the SNP group at Westminster and Deputy Leader of the SNP.

One of his first acts was to change the Party’s code of conduct to include the statement that: “accept that no member shall within or outwith the parliament publicly criticise a group decision, policy or another member of the group”.

Other political parties labelled it a “Stalinist” crackdown on free speech and independent thought.

Committee membership

The SNP was entitled to a place on all of the Commons’ influential select committees, including the Intelligence and Security Committee members of which are by convention also Privy Councillors. Alex Salmond was the only member of the prestigious body of advisers to the Queen in the SNP’s ranks and as he had already ruled himself out of other top jobs, including SNP Westminster leader and chief whip it was widely anticipated he would be appointed to the Committee as a top spy chief, a real-life James Bond. But Akex hopes were dashed and his place on the back benches and political oblivian was confirmed in a statement from the Queen that she was pleased to give her approval to the appointment of Robertson as a Member of the Privy Council following his appointment to the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.

Robertson was duly sworn into the Privy Council becoming the first SNP MP for nearly 40 years to be appointed to it by MP’s, although First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, former presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, Sir George Reid, and ex-first minister Alex Salmond are also members of the body courtesy of their positions in government in Scotland.

Reversal of fortunes

Robertson lost his seat in Moray in the 2016 General election but was appointed Deputy Leader of the SNP a post which he retained until February 2018 when he resigned and established “Progress Scotland” a pro-independence think-tank.

In February 2020, with the full support of party leader Sturgeon over other qualified candidates, he announced his intention to return to politics to contest the safe Edinburgh Central constituency in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

He won the seat and was appointed by Sturgeon as cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture.

Summary: His 16 years at an MP at Westminster provided Robertson with a privileged and financially well rewarded pensionable lifestyle. In return he formed and chaired an Austrian All-Party Group in the British Parliament and graced by his presence a number of influential Unionist dominated House of Commons committees including his controversial appointment to the Intelligence and Security Committee which required his acquiescence of matters of UK security including oversight of the work of the British Secret Services. Activities which promoted the interest of other bodies but added nothing to the fight for Scottish independence.