Letters / Completely negative spin
Happy days may well be here again (‘Happy days’, SN 20/7/15) for me anyway, as I note the author of the letter has described the 56 SNP MPs as British MPs.
For someone who advocates independence for Scotland this is a big step forward and I congratulate him on recognising the fact they are British.
I do find it odd that he has omitted to point out that not only did the 56 have their salary increase imposed on them but also had the gesture to donate the increase to charity imposed on them by their leader, Nicola Sturgeon. This negates any positive political gain the correspondent attempted to achieve from his somewhat dubious attempt at one-upmanship.
I just hope we do not see a repeat of what happened some time ago when Mr Salmond stated he would donate part of his First Minister’s pension, then amended it to all £45,201 of his pension. The fact that this is in actual fact paid by the taxpayer seems to have completely escaped his moral compass.
Oddly, on the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator’s page, where the Mary Salmond Trust is listed, alongside official income and expenditure totals, there seems to be a slight problem with what Mr Salmond claims.
Where we would expect to see a total figure of over £45,201, as surely there must be more than just the one donation-giver, we see a sum total of just £4 sterling for the year 2014, in a still active account, set up as a registered charity on September 11, 2007. Strangely, the Mary Salmond Trust hasn’t benefited from a single update since December 16, 2014.
Reading back at what I have said I think I have succeeded in completing the commentator’s challenge and put a completely negative spin on his assertions, that is if you can call a truthful account of what actually happened negative. I just hope I have not been too presumptuous in thinking I am one of the Famous Six.
Gordon Harmer
Brae
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