Former SNP MSP slates Salmond & Co on spin

Having sacrificed some credibility by owning up to watching  a bit of Celebrity Big Brother last night, I'm now slightly wary of quoting another publication from the Desmond empire, the Daily Express, but needs must, I guess.

The other day, Dorothy-Grace Elder, herself a former SNP MSP, had a right old go at the current administration for the amount of money it wastes on its spin operation.

The price for 11 ‘special advisers’ to Scottish Ministers has zoomed to £822,000. That’s on top of the fortune for Scottish civil service PRs. The SNP upped the spin bill by £120,000 in election year, but this week Lord David Steel became the first person with inside knowledge to rubbish official spin. The Scottish Government press release on Steel’s resignation as scrutineer of complaints agiainst Scottish ministers read: “Lord Steel indicated that he wished – after a term of three years – to demit the post.”  Spin-concocted “reason”: he’d served three years; he merely “indicated” and “demitted”.Truth: a big, bloody row. Statement from Lord Steel: “The reason was that I was appalled by the language being used by Alex Salmond, Kenny MacAskill and an authorised spokesman (ie spin doctor)  [etc]. So was the Government’s creepy cover-up worth that £822,000 you pay?

The interesting thing was the fact that the bill had gone up by such a huge amount in election year. I'd like to know more about that. Memo to ace Holyrood Lib Dem team - get some Parliamentary questions in.....