Deceitful Alistair Carmichael Should Stand Down As MP For Orkney and Shetland

Deceitful and scheming Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael is the Member of Parliament for the Scottish UK Parliamentary constituency of Orkney and Shetland. He is the former Scottish Secretary in the British Government. When the Scottish National Party swept to an overwhelming victory in Scotland in the UK General Election on 7th May 2015 they won 56 of the nation's 59 seats. The biggest losers were the Labour Party which was left with just one Member of Parliament, losing 40 seats. The other big loser was the Liberal Democrats who lost 10 of the 11 seats it held in Scotland. The one remaining seat is that of Alistair Carmichael who had his majority slashed and only narrowly won against the SNP candidate.

Prior to the General Election the Scottish National Party were riding high in the opinion polls. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister and Scottish National Party leader was becoming increasingly popular. It was clear the British establishment and their friends in the media were panicked. There then began a smear campaign against Scotland's First Minister. The claim was that Nicola Sturgeon said to the French Ambassador that she would prefer the Conservatives to win the United Kingdom General Election. Potentially very damaging in Scotland where the Conservative Party is deeply unpopular. The story was fed to the London controlled media by a senior British civil servant, who of course gobbled it up with glee. 

In the end the smear campaign spectacularly backfired and was seen for the nonsense it actually was and the Scottish National Party reached new heights of electoral success. Now it has emerged that Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem former Scottish secretary, was responsible for the election leak of false information that was intended to damage Nicola Sturgeon. At the time this was the man who was supposed to represent Scotland in the UK Cabinet! This serious breach of protocol shows exactly how untrustworthy this man is and how unworthy he was to hold office. Many of those in Orkney and Shetland would never have voted for such an unscrupulous man had they known about his deceitful behaviour. This would have left the Liberal Democrats without any MP's in Scotland and consigned them to the dustbin of Scottish political history which is just where they deserve to be.

Having failed to cover up his involvement in all of this, discredited Alistair Carmichael has now had to write a letter of apology to Nicola Sturgeon in which he admits ‘I accept that its publication was a serious breach of protocol and that the details of that account are not correct’. Because the deceit also involved the French Ambassador he has to write a letter apologising to the French as well. He has now said in a newspaper interview: "Had I still been a government minister, I would have considered this to be a matter that required my resignation. I have therefore informed the Cabinet Secretary that I will decline my ministerial severance payment." Whilst the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has accepted the apology she has quite rightly called on former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael to consider his position as an MP after being forced to admit being behind this whole unsavoury incident. Writing in the SNP website she has pointed out that: 

"Alistair Carmichael has written to me accepting that the account of my conversation with the French Ambassador was not correct, and apologising for what was a blatant election dirty trick in having it leaked.

"I accept his apology, but the real issue is that he should be apologising to the people of Orkney and Shetland, because he clearly contested the election on false pretences.

"Mr Carmichael said at the time that the first he was aware of this matter was when he received a call from a journalist, but we now know that this is simply untrue. The false memo was leaked by a Special Adviser acting under the authority of Mr Carmichael. He knew all about it, but said in public that he knew nothing until a journalist phoned him.

"As well as the original dirty trick, which was bad enough, Mr Carmichael then tried to cover it up – and is only admitting it now because he got caught.

"He needs to seriously reflect on that – and reflect on whether his actions and attempt to cover them up are consistent with his position as an honourable member of the House of Commons."