Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

So the £100k motor home the police seized from Sturgeon's mother-in-law's home is actually owned by the SNP

Yousaf apparently only found out shortly after becoming leader. Starting to feel a bit sorry for him.

Edit: I believe the initial SNP line was that it was purchased during the pandemic to allow for socially distanced/bubbled campaigning...

[Tamas]

So the £100k motor home the police seized from Sturgeon's mother-in-law's home is actually owned by the SNP

Yousaf apparently only found out shortly after becoming leader. Starting to feel a bit sorry for him.

Edit: I believe the initial SNP line was that it was purchased during the pandemic to allow for socially distanced/bubbled campaigning...

Lol they start to sound positively Orbanesque.

No wonder they wanted independence for Scotland, if they could manage to turn a popular political party into their family piggybank, why not a whole country? Oh, how sweet to feel schadenfreude for all the self-destructive people trusting them.

[Sheilbh]

I feel like you don't need to be really strict on governance to suggest it's probably not great for the leader and CEO of a political party to be married

I hope it does cause a re-evaluation of Sturgeon. In policy terms I think there have been many issues over her tenure. But she was always seen as politically very effective and also someone who lots of English liberals who didn't pay attention to Scotland quite liked - she was one of the "grown ups".

Just on the purely pollitical point - there are myriad issues with Alex Salmond. But under his two periods of leadership he took the SNP from a party with 3 MPs, to First Minister of the Scottish Parliament (with an electoral system designed to stop a nationalist majority - the dark side of PR ) who had just led the "yes" campaign in an independence referendum. He left the party and the independence movement in very good shape when he handed it over to Sturgeon, who had something of a mentor-y relationship with him, in 2014.

If you look at the state of the party and independence movement when Sturgeon's leaving and I think you have to slightly re-evaluate how accomplished she was as a political operator. No doubt very effective for Nicola Sturgeon but perhaps less for the movement she was purportedly leading.

As I say I am starting to feel sorry for Yousaf because as far as I can see every public statement he's made has had to be about addressing this story. After admitting that the auditor resigning was "not great, obviously", the party have now had to notify the Electoral Commission that they're working hard to get an audit but may not be able to produce accounts this year. Yousaf commented on that, the motor home and other issues that he's only found out on becoming leader: "frankly, it would have been helpful to know beforehand"

[The Larch]

Yeah and it's now an even bigger problem for UK musicians (and I believe especially, given the number, orchestras).

(...)

I think layered onto and separate to Brexit is this type of border force and Home Office cruelty and incompetence.

Almost right on cue...

Ukrainian orchestra's key members refused visas to play in UK
Promoter claims 'catastrophe' has cost it more than £88k and accuses British government of hypocrisy

Key members of a Ukrainian state orchestra were refused visas to play a series of concerts in the UK this month in a "catastrophe" that the promoter claims cost it more than €100,000 (£88,000).

The Khmelnitsky Orchestra was due to tour the UK this month with two shows: The Magical Music of Harry Potter, and The Music From the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit andThe Rings of Power.

The shows had been promoted on the UK government website as an example of British-Ukrainian relations. After the orchestra played the Harry Potter show in Belgium last year, the deputy British ambassador in Brussels, Chloe Louter, hailed it as "an incredible honour to have such an iconic part of British culture being performed by a Ukrainian orchestra".

The promoter, Star Entertainment, has accused the UK government of hypocrisy.

"They made a big deal out of supporting the Ukrainians but when it came to giving them visas to play in the UK, they didn't want to know," said its chief executive, Jaka Bizilj, who is known in the UK entertainment industry after working with Richard Curtis on two film projects and with Bob Geldof on the Cinema for Peace Foundation, which evacuated the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny from Siberia to Berlin in 2020.

He called on the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, to stand down if artists keep being treated like this, saying the immigration difficulties experienced by an increasing number of foreign artists "damages UK citizens, culture and the relationship to Europe".

A rising number of overseas artists are struggling to enter the UK because of post-Brexit red tape. One such was the German noise rock band Trigger Cut, who were turned away at Calais last week after telling border guards they had day jobs unrelated to music.

"Those responsible for cutting off artists and culture from the UK should be named and held accountable," said Bizilj. "Bands, musicians and orchestras will not come to the UK any more for risk of not being let in."

The Ukrainian orchestra was supposed to begin its UK tour with a show in Portsmouth on 1 April. But a day before, key members, including the conductor and four first violins, had still not received visas.

They ended up stuck in Paris for a week, waiting for the British embassy to issue visas. Two days after the tour was due to start, they were told they needed to pay €15,000 for emergency visas.

These 24-hour "express" visas failed to be issued in time, said Bizilj, who accused the UK government of "holding the orchestra hostage" in Paris. "There was no real reason for the refusal. It was just random discrimination of Ukrainian artists," he added.

He claimed the visas were only issued after Star Entertainment asked the British embassy for an explanation to put in a press release as it planned to inform the media. But it was too late for some of the first concerts – in Portsmouth, the Lowry in Salford and York Barbican.

The Portsmouth show went ahead but with UK-based musicians drafted in at the 11th hour to sight-read the music. They were unable to play the full programme and as a result many audience members demanded refunds, even though the substitute ensemble received standing ovations, said Bizilj.

The Lowry show had to be postponed to 2024 and the York concert to later this month. Bizilj estimates the debacle has cost the company €100,000 in fees, hotel costs and reputational damage.

A government spokesperson said: "Musicians and performers are a valued and important part of UK culture with the country attracting world-class entertainers and musicians from around the globe. This is why we offer a dedicated immigration route for creative workers.

"All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the immigration rules.

"Where there are delays in the processing of applications, we will always endeavour to identify how such issues can be avoided in the near future through improvements to our back office function and capability."

[The Larch]

Also, Suella Braverman seems to be too much even for some Tories.

Senior Conservatives hit out at Suella Braverman's 'racist rhetoric'
Former senior minister accuses home secretary of undermining party for sake of her own leadership ambitions

More senior Conservatives have hit out at Suella Braverman's "racist rhetoric", accusing her of undermining the party for the sake of her own leadership ambitions.

Pressure was mounting on Rishi Sunak on Thursday to intervene to protect the party's reputation after the home secretary stoked renewed anger by criticising police for confiscating a set of racist dolls displayed in an Essex pub.

Tory MPs, peers and activists have accused Braverman of inflaming racial tensions on a number of occasions over the past few months, saying they are worried that she is now at risk of repelling the kinds of swing voters the party is desperate to retain.

A former senior minister from Boris Johnson's government told the Guardian they believed Braverman was a "real racist bigot".

The person said "the country is not as grotesque as she makes it out to be", warning that the "Conservative reputation on discrimination has dropped to a new low" under her watch – "which also gives the country a bad name".

They added: "Sunak needs to build upon foundations we already have – stop the culture wars and create change. But his inaction shows how insecure he is in his own ability."

The criticism reflects widespread anger felt by many Tory MPs and peers about Braverman's frequent use of racially charged language.

Earlier this month, the home secretary said grooming gangs were almost entirely made up of British Pakistani men, whom she said "hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values".

And last November there was an outcry after she said the small boats crossing the Channel amounted to an "invasion" of migrants.

Some MPs believe Braverman's interventions are a deliberate attempt to appeal to Conservative party members in case the Tories lose the next election and hold another leadership contest.

"Suella's comments pander to the unpleasant base instinct of a small section of the British population," the former minister said.

"She's not stupid, she believes she has a licence to say these things because she's not white. But all her language does is exacerbate hatred."

Another senior Tory said: "The politics of this leadership plan stink."

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chair of the defence select committee, said: "These comments – arguably designed to appeal to a specific political cohort – do not sit well with the new, pragmatic and cooperative approach which the prime minister is now injecting into Number 10 and is seeing us improve in the polls."

On Thursday, the Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi condemned Braverman's comments, writing in the Guardian: "Whether this consistent use of racist rhetoric is strategy or incompetence, however, doesn't matter. Both show she is not fit to hold high office."

In recent days Braverman has once more been accused of racial insensitivity after a source close to her said she had criticised Essex police for confiscating a set of racist dolls that had been put on display in the White Hart Inn in Grays.

The source said she believed the police "should not be getting involved in this kind of nonsense".

On Thursday it emerged that police are also investigating the pub's landlord, Christopher Ryley, over online messages in which he apparently joked about Mississippi lynchings alongside an image of the racist dolls.

It is believed the investigation is focusing on establishing whether he intended to cause offence by displaying the dolls. One other possible line of inquiry is whether his posts flouted the 1988 Malicious Communication Act.

Earlier this week, Warsi told LBC: "I think the prime minister has to get a really strong message that this kind of rhetoric, whether it's on small boats, whether it's the stuff she was saying on the weekend which is not based on evidence, not nuanced, not kind of explanatory in any way, it has got to stop.

"And you know, again today, we've woken up to a story where she's having a go at the police for removing golliwog dolls from a pub."

Many senior Conservatives believe Braverman should have found out more about the couple before intervening in their case.

Sally-Ann Hart, one of the Tory MPs on the advisory board of Conservatives Against Racism For Equality (Carfe), said: "I was gobsmacked that people would put golliwogs up in a public space in this day and age."

Asked specifically whether Braverman should have entered the debate, given the past views expressed by the pub owners, Hart said: "I think it might have been a kneejerk reaction, which is so easy to do when put on the spot."

Meanwhile allies of Steve Baker, the minister for Northern Ireland who is a board member of Carfe, suggested he was also unhappy about Braverman's recent remarks.

Albie Amankona, who cofounded the group said: "I think that something isn't happening properly if a minister on a weekly basis is in the news for some kind of racial insensitivity.

"She should just focus on the important things in the Home Office, like reforming the police or trying to stop the boats rather than trying to get tied up in these culture war debates."

Braverman initially ran to succeed Boris Johnson in the first of last year's Tory leadership contests, but was eliminated in the second round of voting. After Liz Truss resigned as Johnson's successor, Braverman threw her weight behind Sunak – which was seen as key to his success.

Her support for Sunak, as a linchpin of the Tory right, was seen as a key reason why Johnson chose not to challenge his old rival to try to return to No 10.

A poll carried out by YouGov on Tuesday found that nearly half of British voters believe it is not racist to sell or display a golly doll, compared with only 27% who think it is.

But attitudes are changing fast – six years ago, 63% thought it was not racist to sell or display a golly doll. And experts say the British public generally does not have the appetite for culture war issues which Braverman appears to show.

Sunder Katwala, the director of the British Future thinktank, said: "Braverman is so keen to enter any culture war debate going that she doesn't seem to have stopped to ask basic questions like, 'How racist is the golliwog display?' and 'Might he be an actual fascist?'

"The British culture war position is a subtler and more nuanced argument than the American or French one.

"Amplifying occasions where the left might be seen to have gone too far works well, but if your position is to pick any fight you can with the liberal left, that is not really where the Conservative party electorate is these days."

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has been clear that all despicable child abusers must be brought to justice.

"And she will not shy away from telling hard truths, particularly when it comes to the grooming of young women and girls in Britain's towns who have been failed by authorities over decades.

"As the home secretary has said, the vast majority of British-Pakistanis are law-abiding, upstanding citizens, but independent reports were unequivocal that in towns like Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford, cultural sensitivities have meant thousands of young girls were abused under the noses of councils and police.

"That's why we have announced a raft of measures, including a new police taskforce and mandatory reporting, to ensure this horrific scandal can never happen again, and bring members of grooming gangs to justice for the victims."

[Sheilbh]

A resonant death in the week of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. It's a reminder of the nature of the conflict, the violence meted out by paramilitaries to their own "side" and what British forces knew and turned a blind eye to for intelligence gathering. Something I imagine still going on for counter-terrorism, organised crime and state-state espionage - I think of the recent court case around an intelligence asset, by the sounds of it in the far-right, but is routinely and horrendously abusive to women in his life.

Also interesting context of the move to peace which really started in 1990 and was, in part, prompted by how riddled with informers the PIRA had become which was turning on itself quite a lot. That first overture was made by Martin McGuinness and an MI5 officer - but there have been persistent rumours from British and Republican sources that McGuinness himself might have been an informer.

The ongoing investigation must report but this is another example of the legacy issues that were largely unaddressed by the peace process and, purely from a victims perspective, needs to be answered. But it is in the interests of both the paramilitaries (and their political representatives) and security services (British and Irish) to draw a veil - one of the prices of peace is men with blood on their hands living respectable lives (see Gerry Adams' selfie with Biden in the Dail) without ever having to reveal where the bodies are buried. It's cruel to the victims and their families, but probably (maybe?) worth it for peace:

Freddie Scappaticci, suspected IRA informer 'Stakeknife', dead at 77
Cold-blooded senior member of the IRA's Belfast brigade who is thought to have been the British Army's 'golden egg'
Wednesday April 12 2023, 12.01am, The Times
Obituaries

Freddie Scappaticci at the 1987 funeral of Larry Marley, an IRA member PACEMAKER PRESS

A man said to be the British Army's top undercover agent within the Provisional IRA, codenamed Stakeknife, has died.

Freddie Scappaticci always denied that he was Stakeknife, a double agent who worked within the IRA's notorious "nutting squad" identifying and interrogating suspected informers during the Troubles.

Scappaticci is understood to have died several days ago and was buried last week.

The west Belfast man fled Northern Ireland in 2003 after several reports emerged in the media claiming he had been working for the army while serving as head of the IRA's internal security unit. He was understood to have been living under MI5 protection after he was exposed.

It is alleged Stakeknife was allowed to commit crimes in order to maintain his position within the IRA.

The news comes after four suspected pipe bombs were found in a cemetery in Londonderry just a few hours before President Biden is due to land in Belfast.

Obituary

On May 10, 2003, a sensational newspaper story rocked republican West Belfast. Stakeknife, a British Army informer who was long rumoured to have penetrated the highest echelons of the Provisional IRA, was identified as the very man on whom the IRA had relied for a decade to root out informers from its ranks.

His name was Freddie Scappaticci. Throughout the 1980s he had headed the IRA's internal security unit, known as the "nutting squad" because its victims were usually bound, gagged and shot in the back of the "nut" (head) before being dumped on lonely country roads. In that capacity he had brutally interrogated many suspected informers and sent them to their deaths. Some really were "touts". Others were probably not.

Worse, it was clear that Scappaticci's British handlers must have turned a blind eye as he orchestrated all those murders, and in some cases carried them out himself. It seemed that they had knowingly sacrificed less valuable informers, and sometimes innocent civilians, in order to protect the man they called their "golden egg" and "crown jewel". Scappaticci was, after all, at the very heart of the IRA's war machine, privy to all its secrets, and doing it incalculable damage.

Scappaticci was spirited to England as the story broke. There he was reportedly offered MI5 protection, but declined. With astonishing chutzpah he flew straight back to Belfast and sought a meeting with the IRA leadership.

Nothing is certain in this opaque story, but a deal was evidently struck. Scappaticci summoned journalists to his solicitor's office in the republican Falls Road and flatly denied that he was Stakeknife. The IRA did the same, accusing the British of seeking to sow dissension within the republican movement and claiming that Stakeknife was in reality an amalgam of different informers and electronic bugs.

Scappaticci must have calculated that the IRA's leaders would not dare to kill him because the embarrassment to the likes of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, who had promoted and protected him, would have been too great. Or because it would undermine the two leaders' claim that they had signed up to the Good Friday agreement five years earlier from a position of strength, not weakness. Or, perhaps, because "Scap" knew (literally and metaphorically) where bodies were buried and who had buried them, and threatened his would-be executioners with exposure if he were killed.

Whatever the reason, Scappaticci was allowed to live unlike the many other men (allegedly 40 or more) whom he had tortured to extract real or imaginary confessions before consigning them to summary IRA courts martial and inevitable execution.

Short, barrel-chested and moustached, with curly black hair, Alfredo Scappaticci was born in or around 1946 and brought up in the republican Markets area of Belfast. His Italian immigrant father, Daniel, ran a chip shop and ice-cream van.

When Scappaticci was 16, Nottingham Forest tried to sign him as a professional footballer, but he was homesick and returned home after three weeks. He became a bricklayer instead.

He joined the IRA at the start of the Troubles. In 1971 he was one of hundreds of republican suspects rounded up by the British Army and interned without trial in Long Kesh, better known as the Maze prison, south of Belfast. There he grew close to Adams and other republican leaders.

He was released in 1974 and became a senior member of the IRA's Belfast brigade, but was soon arrested for VAT fraud.

Exactly when, or how, British intelligence recruited him is unclear, but one story is that he was let off the VAT charges provided he became an informer. Another is that he approached the British after being beaten up by fellow republicans following an affair with a volunteer's wife. A third is that he was befriended by a personable young army officer named Peter Jones, who became his drinking companion in Belfast's clubs and bars.

Whatever the truth, by the early 1980s Scappaticci was being run by a secret new military intelligence cell called the Force Research Unit (FRU). He had acquired the codename Stakeknife or Steak Knife, a reputed yearly stipend of £80,000, and a select team of handlers who could scarcely believe their luck.

As the army was setting up the FRU, Adams and other republican leaders were creating a powerful internal security unit to vet new recruits to the IRA, root out informers and investigate failed operations. Scappaticci, Adams's trusted aide, rose to become head of the unit. A swaggering, self-assured figure, he could summon whoever he wanted to "interviews" and inspired terror in republican circles. Executions of suspected informers rose sharply.

Suspects were taken to safe houses and interrogated for hours, sometimes days. They were stripped, blindfolded, beaten, deprived of sleep and given all sorts of promises in return for their confessions. "Everybody has a breaking point and thinks they're going home. But they don't," Scappaticci once said.

Eamon Collins, an IRA defector later murdered by his former colleagues, recalled asking Scappaticci whether he told his victims they would be shot. Scappaticci turned to another member of the "nutting squad" and joked about one informer who had confessed after being offered an amnesty. He told him he was being taken home, albeit blindfolded for security reasons.

"It was funny watching the bastard stumbling and falling, asking me as he felt his way along the railings and walls 'Is this my house now?'," said Scappaticci. "And then you shot the f***er in the back of the head," his colleague interjected. Both men laughed.

Army sources defended their use of Scappaticci, arguing that he helped the security services foil numerous large-scale IRA operations, including an attack on British military personnel in Gibraltar, and saved many lives.


Scappaticci (left of picture, side on) at the 1988 funeral of IRA man Brendan Davison. Gerry Adams is pictured carrying the coffin PACEMAKER PRESS

But they trod a very dubious moral line. On occasions it appears that Scappaticci warned his handlers that informers were going to be executed on his recommendation but the handlers did nothing to prevent their deaths in order to protect their most valuable asset. Another time British intelligence fed loyalist paramilitaries the name of an innocent pensioner, Francisco Notarantonio, so that they killed him instead of Scappaticci. Rarely, if ever, were those responsible for the murders brought to justice.

Scappaticci's luck finally ran out in January 1990. For reasons that are unclear, the police did rescue an informer, a man named Sandy Lynch, from his interrogators' clutches, believing that he was about to be shot after Scappaticci had extracted his confession. Scappaticci fled to Dublin, where he concocted an alibi with his handlers' help that enabled him to escape conviction on his return. But by then the IRA leadership had begun to suspect their chief mole catcher might be a mole himself. They "retired" him.

Disgruntled, Scappaticci talked to ITV's The Cook Report three years later. "I was at the heart of things for a long time. I'm no longer at the heart of things," he explained. "There's more things in life than killing," he added.

The intelligence services warned ITV that Scappaticci would be shot if his voice were broadcast, and matters would probably have rested there had it not been for a former army intelligence officer named Ian Hurst, who had served with the FRU during the 1980s.

Stakeknife's true identity was a closely guarded secret even within the unit, but Hurst discovered it when Scappaticci was stopped for drink-driving one night in 1982 and called the FRU hotline to request help.

Hurst evidently had scruples about military intelligence letting so many men die to protect Scappaticci, especially when many were informers. In 1999 he told The Sunday Times of Stakeknife's existence. Then, in May 2003, he revealed Stakeknife's real name to three other newspapers.

Scappaticci determined to bluff it out. He not only denied the charge but even threatened the government with legal action to clear his name. He later moved to England on a witness protection scheme, leaving behind his wife, Sheila, with whom he reportedly had six children. She died in 2019.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest the army and intelligence services have, like the IRA, sought to conceal the true story of Stakeknife. Sir John (now Lord) Stevens, the former deputy chief constable of Cambridgeshire who investigated collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the 1990s, told a BBC Panorama programme that documents had been destroyed. He added: "We were told that the army didn't run any agents whatsoever." That, he agreed, was a "flat lie".

Since 2016, at the behest of Northern Ireland's director of public prosecutions, Jon Boutcher, the former chief constable of Bedfordshire, has been leading an inquiry called Operation Kenova to investigate whether Stakeknife, the British Army, the security services or other government personnel committed criminal offences.

The inquiry employs 50 detectives and has cost more than £30 million. It is expected to report this year but many doubt that it will reveal the full truth of one of the murkiest episodes of a notoriously dirty war. The stakes are too high. Scappaticci was involved in many murders, but the British state was almost certainly complicit.

Freddie Scappaticci, senior IRA member who worked as a mole for the British Army, was born in or around 1946. He died aged 77 and was buried last week.

[Josquius]

Interesting story going around about the data reporting trans numbers being faulty.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-does-the-census-say-there-are-more-trans-people-in-newham-than-brighton/?zephr_sso_ott=plGvjK

The logic is sound. Really does sound very dodgy high trans numbers are appearing in areas with a large number of uneducated immigrants with poor English skills.

More sad and interesting about this is that it is as with anything that mentions trans being turned into a culture war screaming match.
Those pushing it seem to be transphobes and taking quite a gloating "see transderism is nonsense!" tone! (definite hints of that in this article) and replies I've seen in social media are idiotic protests that the numbers are right because  of course trans people from conservative Muslim countries would seek refuge in the UK.

[Admiral Yi]

Linkee no workee for me.

[Sheilbh]

Interesting story going around about the data reporting trans numbers being faulty.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-does-the-census-say-there-are-more-trans-people-in-newham-than-brighton/?zephr_sso_ott=plGvjK

The logic is sound. Really does sound very dodgy high trans numbers are appearing in areas with a large number of uneducated immigrants with poor English skills.

It'll be interesting to compare with the Scottish census.

The ONS consulted with Stonewall and other groups and I've no doubt their question ("is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?") is best practice. But I can see how that could be confusing if English isn't your first language - especially if your English isn't great and I believe people answering the question positively increases the lower they rate their English.

I think Scotland just asked "are you transgender?" or something like that, so it'll be interesting to see if there's any difference.

[Josquius]

Yeah. I suspect there's something to consider about asking people to say yes they are this thing they don't understand when the yes option is actually the "no I'm not trans option" option.
The politics around it is a pita but it does seem to be poor survey design

[Syt]

King Charles with some extra from Star Trek Voyager.

[Sheilbh]

Yousaf has now had to deny the SNP are bankrupt. Reports the party may have auditors imposed on them by the Electoral Commission if they can't appoint any soon. Not sure what bankruptcy means for a political party - especially in terms of list seats

Also reports of a collapse in membership and big donor revenue and very serious cash-flow issues. There is possibly going to be a by-election soon as an independent MP (elected SNP) may be suspended for 10 days or more for breaching covid laws, which would trigger a by-election. Her breach was from October 2020 when she'd taken a covid test but not had a result. She got the train from Scotland to London, spoke in parliamentary debate (in person) - then she got a notification that it was positive and got the train from London home.  But SNP is urgently trying to raise money to fight the byelection.

Also reports the police are now looking at Sturgeon's emails as there have been reports that she was personally denying party officers access to financial information.

Still find it slightly insane tthat it's not frontpage news in the national press (from what I saw in the Guardian and the Times). The third party in the country and party of government in one of the nations being potentially on the brink of bankruptcy seems like a really big story - even if, regrettably, it has had the indecency of not occurring in and around Westminster

Edit: Definitely feel slightly sorry for Yousaf now

Edit: Ooof - spoke to soon. The Scottish Sunday Mail (different family of papers than the Mail) now reporting that the police have been passed Sturgeon's emails, they have footage of her telling the National Executive Committee that the accounts had "never been stronger" but they shouldn't talk about them - weeks before the fraud investigation was opened (again as red flags go - leadership saying that stuff seems strong)

Also police apparently looking into jewellery purchases and a Portuguese villa.

[The Larch]

So basically Sturgeon left before the whole thing exploded on her face, right?

[Sheilbh]

So basically Sturgeon left before the whole thing exploded on her face, right?

Yeah. When she resigned her husband/party CEO was already under investigation. I think I mentioned but there was a hot mic at her resignation and there was a journalist who shouted a question about the investigation. She said she wasn't addressing that today but the mic picked up the journalists chatting after and one of them said "there's lots of stuff swirling round at the minute".

So it's not entirely surprising - except, possibly, for poor Humza Yousaf

I think there was a sense this might be why she was going but I don't think anyone was expecting things to escalate this much, this quickly. The fact the SNP haven't had auditors for 6 months and have about 10 weeks to file their accounts is pretty massive to have been kept secret.

[The Larch]

On a different, lighter topic, another victim of Brexit.

Orient Express to axe UK section after 41 years due to Brexit
Luxury train operator cuts service ahead of biometric passport checks so passengers will have to join train in Paris


Things may get worse, Belmond fears, because the UK and EU are planning new biometric passport checks and extra red tape.

"We're adjusting operations in 2024 ahead of enhanced passport and border controls," a Belmond spokesperson said. "We want to avoid any risk of travel disruption for our guests – delays and missing train connections – and provide the highest level of service, as seamless and relaxed as possible."

The EU is introducing a new biometric Entry/Exit System (EES), which will mean most people travelling across the Channel who do not have EU residency will need to provide fingerprints and facial recognition data when they cross the border, instead of having their passports stamped.

If the technology works smoothly, that could mean travellers over 12 years old will be able to use electronic entry gates and potentially save some time. But since even babies will need to provide biometric data, there is scepticism in the tourist industry about how the checks will work in practice. EES was due to begin this year but is now likely to come into force after the 2024 Paris Olympics.

And soon the EU and the UK will be making travellers submit pre-travel authorisation forms similar to the United States' Esta scheme. British travellers will pay €7 to give European authorities personal information not on their passports – such as criminal convictions, education and parents' first names – under Etias, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. European travellers will provide similar details to the British government for the UK's Electronic Travel Authorisation (Eta) programme, although Whitehall has yet to set a fee for it.

This is not great material for cosy mystery stories. "Technology has made many things easier," said Mark Smith, founder of the train travel site The Man in Seat 61. "But the one thing that it's made harder is crossing borders. In the old days, whatever border you're at, there's your passport, off you go. Suddenly everyone wants to take your fingerprints as if you're a criminal."

Losing the British Pullman was a "huge shame", he said. "The British Pullman was the hors d'oeuvre – it set you up with smoked salmon and champagne on the way from London to Folkestone on the traditional boat-train route that passengers heading to the Orient Express would have used in the 1930s. Joining the continental train at Calais in time to get dressed for dinner was wonderful."

Passengers from London will be able to take the modern high-speed Eurostar to Paris and join the VSOE there, but "it's not the same", he said. "It is a great shame if that part of the experience is gone."

Not that the VSOE is entirely authentic, compared with the original service, he added. "It was a much more businesslike train than most people imagine. The real thing would not have had pianos or lounges or bars, and certainly no balcony, whatever Kenneth Branagh thinks. You would have had sleeping cars and sat in your compartment in day mode most of the time."

The original Orient Express began service in 1883, running from Paris to Vienna, and several trains running the route south from France were given the name. The Simplon Orient Express began in April 1919 and Christie was inspired to write her novel Murder on the Orient Express after reading about the train being stuck in snow for five days. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express was revived when James Sherwood bought some 1929 sleeping cars at auction in 1977 and began running the service from London in 1982.

Smith, a former station manager at Charing Cross, said that despite the high ticket prices, the VSOE was not elitist. "Most people are splurging on a special event – it's a once in a lifetime experience. I wondered whether any trip could be worth three grand, or whatever it was I paid in 2003. But here I am 20 years later, married, with a mortgage, kids, two cats and a dog. Powerful magic – we'd only been going out for six months."

Brexit has ended other train journeys as well – Eurostar's service from St Pancras to Disneyland Paris will finish this summer.

The UK is also losing out on tourists from the rest of the world, according to Tom Jenkins, chief executive of Etoa, the European tourism association. "People are starting to drop the UK as a gateway to a European tour," he said. "It's not the only factor, but previously we had been the principal arrival point for people coming to Europe from America, from Japan, and anywhere else.

This is not great material for cosy mystery stories. "Technology has made many things easier," said Mark Smith, founder of the train travel site The Man in Seat 61. "But the one thing that it's made harder is crossing borders. In the old days, whatever border you're at, there's your passport, off you go. Suddenly everyone wants to take your fingerprints as if you're a criminal."

Losing the British Pullman was a "huge shame", he said. "The British Pullman was the hors d'oeuvre – it set you up with smoked salmon and champagne on the way from London to Folkestone on the traditional boat-train route that passengers heading to the Orient Express would have used in the 1930s. Joining the continental train at Calais in time to get dressed for dinner was wonderful."

Passengers from London will be able to take the modern high-speed Eurostar to Paris and join the VSOE there, but "it's not the same", he said. "It is a great shame if that part of the experience is gone."

Not that the VSOE is entirely authentic, compared with the original service, he added. "It was a much more businesslike train than most people imagine. The real thing would not have had pianos or lounges or bars, and certainly no balcony, whatever Kenneth Branagh thinks. You would have had sleeping cars and sat in your compartment in day mode most of the time."

The original Orient Express began service in 1883, running from Paris to Vienna, and several trains running the route south from France were given the name. The Simplon Orient Express began in April 1919 and Christie was inspired to write her novel Murder on the Orient Express after reading about the train being stuck in snow for five days. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express was revived when James Sherwood bought some 1929 sleeping cars at auction in 1977 and began running the service from London in 1982.

Smith, a former station manager at Charing Cross, said that despite the high ticket prices, the VSOE was not elitist. "Most people are splurging on a special event – it's a once in a lifetime experience. I wondered whether any trip could be worth three grand, or whatever it was I paid in 2003. But here I am 20 years later, married, with a mortgage, kids, two cats and a dog. Powerful magic – we'd only been going out for six months."

Brexit has ended other train journeys as well – Eurostar's service from St Pancras to Disneyland Paris will finish this summer.

The UK is also losing out on tourists from the rest of the world, according to Tom Jenkins, chief executive of Etoa, the European tourism association. "People are starting to drop the UK as a gateway to a European tour," he said. "It's not the only factor, but previously we had been the principal arrival point for people coming to Europe from America, from Japan, and anywhere else.