The gross hypocrisy of the SNP

If there’s one thing the SNP truly excels at, it’s maintaining double standards. The extraordinary case of the Scottish government and the missing legal advice makes clear just how hypocritical the SNP is when it comes to conduct in public life. Scottish nationalists are swift to condemn opponents at the slightest whiff of impropriety but, as this matter demonstrates, when it comes to their own morality, they’re more easy-going.

Back in 2021, then first minister Nicola Sturgeon was cleared of breaching the Scottish parliament’s ministerial code over her involvement in the case of complaints made by female civil servants against her predecessor, the late Alex Salmond. Inevitably, opposition parties demanded details of the investigation into Sturgeon, undertaken by senior Irish lawyer James Hamilton. The Scottish government resisted until the information commissioner ordered them to publish relevant documents.

Ministers then – unsuccessfully – appealed this decision. Of course, what came next was a demand to SNP ministers that they publish any legal advice relating to the decision to appeal.