Questions for Alistair

I find it extremely concerning that our MP has barefaced lied to the people of Scotland and the islands surrounding the leaked memo regarding the French ambassador’s discussions with Nicola Sturgeon.

It is disgusting that before the election he claimed that he knew nothing about the memo and only found out when the media contacted him, and now the investigation has proven that Alistair himself authorised the release of these details.

I understand that Alistair will not resign, that is because it takes somebody with integrity to do the right thing and clearly he is unable to do that.

Since a resignation is not forthcoming I would like to ask Alistair to answer a few questions:

1) You stated that you would have resigned had you still been a government minister, yet you do not believe that impacts your representation of Orkney and Shetland. Why is it that you feel unfit to remain in the cabinet, but are suitable to represent Orkney and Shetland?

2) You allowed the investigation to take place at great public expense (the news are reporting around £1.4 million) even though you knew the answer. Why did you allow this to occur without ‘fessing up’ immediately and saving all this time and public money? Why did you wait until the day the report was released before ‘coming clean’?

3) You have proved yourself to be dishonest, how are you going to assure the people of Orkney and Shetland (along with the people of Scotland) that they can trust you again?

4) Do you still believe in the Lib Dem policy that constituents should be able to re-call their MPs? If so, why don’t you do the honourable thing by resigning and putting yourself though a by-election to see if you still have the confidence of the Orkney and Shetland people?

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5) When you do not resign, what are you going to do to rebuild trust in the political establishment? What are you going to do to engage those who are disenfranchised with the system and see Westminster politicians a far cry away from regular people?

I, and I’m sure other constituents, would appreciate the answers to these questions.

Daniel Robertson
Sullom