Crazy Days Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Swinney making himself look totally foolish and incompetent. But he paid back the money due - aye only after he was caught out and obviously would have paid nothing back if it had not been disclosed to the public. That is the crux of the issue. If Mathieson had any decency he would resign now but it appears he will keep his snout in the trough as long as possible. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superbigal Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 Surely even now no-one believes it was those pesky kids that did it ? This is a Govt device with Govt security. I'm still voting SNP but this shyster should have resigned after being outed as a liar. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 What’s Swinney trying to gain by defending Matheson here? It’s NOT a good look in an election campaign. Throw him under the bus. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raab Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 (edited) Swinney had made a steady enough start. He has gotten this badly wrong though. He is being far too loyal for his own good. Public perception is Matheson was careless on a government device and tried to diddle the public purse after watching football on holiday. He quite clearly lied as well. Few have any sympathy. Edited May 23 by Raab 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 The Labour ads of a stitch up write themselves tbh 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 8 minutes ago, superbigal said: Surely even now no-one believes it was those pesky kids that did it ? This is a Govt device with Govt security. I'm still voting SNP but this shyster should have resigned after being outed as a liar. You have far too much faith in government IT. It's just a username and a password, and once it's unlocked it'll stay open. They don't even have 2FA. They would easily have been able to set it up as a wifi hotspot and the story is completely believable. My problem is that he publicly blamed his kids instead of saying it was his responsibility and he takes the fall for it, and for family reasons he would provide a full explanation confidentially to the inquiry. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Brazil Forever Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 14 minutes ago, JS_FFC said: What’s Swinney trying to gain by defending Matheson here? It’s NOT a good look in an election campaign. Throw him under the bus. But the poor fellow is suffering: Scotland's First Minister said so. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocketman Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 The anger from some re this hot issue 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Unforced error by Swinney on this. Just sack him, nothing bad can come from that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hard Graft Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 "Mr Matheson said the issue had "become highly politicised", which he claimed had "compromised and the fairness of the process". He told reporters the recommended sanctions were “excessive” and “unfair” but that he would accept parliament’s decision. There really is no end to his shame and Swinney defends this? Another reason why this crowd are losing the backing and respect of the public. -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superbigal Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 You do wonder what sanctions the 2 snp politicians on the standards panel would have endorsed. Trip to Disneyland to make him feel better ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 1 minute ago, superbigal said: You do wonder what sanctions the 2 snp politicians on the standards panel would have endorsed. Trip to Disneyland to make him feel better ? Hospitality tickets to the next Old Firm game so he doesn’t have to stream it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammerafc Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 4 hours ago, GordonS said: You have far too much faith in government IT. It's just a username and a password, and once it's unlocked it'll stay open. They don't even have 2FA. They would easily have been able to set it up as a wifi hotspot and the story is completely believable. My problem is that he publicly blamed his kids instead of saying it was his responsibility and he takes the fall for it, and for family reasons he would provide a full explanation confidentially to the inquiry. His family shouldn't have his username, password or access to his government device. That is a security breach in itself and totally his responsibility. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JS_FFC Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Just now, Hammerafc said: His family shouldn't have his username, password or access to his government device. That is a security breach in itself and totally his responsibility. Precisely. “Government IT security is shite” isn’t the defence he seems to think it is. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingTON Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 6 hours ago, Raab said: Swinney had made a steady enough start. He has gotten this baldly wrong though. FTFY. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 (edited) 4 hours ago, Hammerafc said: His family shouldn't have his username, password or access to his government device. That is a security breach in itself and totally his responsibility. They didn't have his username or password. It would help to stick to what actually happened. Matheson's government phone wouldn't connect to the data network in Morocco so he phoned the IT helpdesk. As his iPad did connect they advised him to use it as a wifi hotspot for the phone. He couldn't work out how to do it so he got one of his sons to help him. While that son was helping he either noted down the hotspot password or connected his own device then. You could argue that Matheson shouldn't have got his son to help but I think that's excessive and the vast majority of people would have done the same in that position. His real sins are all before and after that. Before, he had been told that he needed to change the sim for foreign travel and didn't. After, he claimed the cost on parliamentary expenses when he knew it was his own fault. Then he lied about it, and lied about it more. That's why the committee voted to dock about 2 months pay and ban him from sitting in Parliament for a month. In any case, I absolutely was not defending Matheson's actions. I was clarifying that his story was definitely believable and the idea that government devices are super-secure is both wrong and irrelevant. Edited May 23 by GordonS 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 4 hours ago, JS_FFC said: Precisely. “Government IT security is shite” isn’t the defence he seems to think it is. I was in absolutely no way defending Matheson. I was defending accuracy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alta-pete Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 f**k me @GordonS you’re investing some effort in this! What does it matter to you? Spoiler Mr Mathieson? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Just now, alta-pete said: f**k me @GordonS you’re investing some effort in this! What does it matter to you? Hide contents Mr Mathieson? It pisses me off when people create false versions of events and continue to push them, especially when you can easily look up the truth. Tribalism annoys me too. FWIW I think Matheson should resign as an MSP and Swinney is wildly wrong to oppose the punishment that the standards committee voted for. Also, I think it's wrong that Parliament votes on punishments for breaches of standards. It politicises the thing even more and gives those in majority parties a better chance of getting off. The Presiding Officer should rule on whether the punishment is competent and if it is, it should be applied. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeTillEhDeh Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 (edited) It's pretty obvious that the committee have politicised this and the proposed sanction is way in excess of anything that an equivalent Westminster MP might face. However, this is not a hill to die on - I genuinely think Swinney should have just accepted the sanction and moved on. Edited May 24 by DeeTillEhDeh 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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