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   Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 01:19:23 JST Mrs Cloudy

   Alistair Campbell seems to have a crush on Anas Sarwar. Building him up as some kind of messiah. Feels more like a media construct than anything remotely related to reality. That endless "police investigation" is really coming into its own as part of the "Labour revival in Scotland". As long as it remains pending, they can continue to sling as much mud as they like. Its certainly in their interest to keep it unresolved.

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 01:35:45 JST Mrs Cloudy

     • Alex 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     @alexlac51 I would put money on it coming back to the fore about three weeks before the next General Election. Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, there's no doubt it's also a handy hook for SLab electioneers to hang their campaign on.

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     Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫ (petealexharris@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 01:42:28 JST Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     in reply to

     @CloudyMrs it's already boring though. It isn't news any more. And it's asymmetric: it can't be used to allege any particular wrongdoing because saying anything specific about an "ongoing" investigation isn't allowed.

     But anyone can say "it's been all this time and money and they haven't found anything in their little forensic tents, it's pure theatre" and that's legally fine as well as having a ring of common sense and plain speaking.

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     ScepticalScot1 (scepticalscot1@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 01:49:04 JST ScepticalScot1

     in reply to

     • Alex 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     @CloudyMrs @alexlac51 my prediction too ot will resurface as speculation on run up to election

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:01:44 JST Mrs Cloudy

     in reply to

     • Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     @petealexharris not being able to say anything about it doesn't seem to have prevented every London podcast from using it as fair game for innuendo and smear. The way they speak about arrests, ongoing investigation, etc etc, is from the point of view of it all being a done deal. Not sure they know they aren't supposed to speculate. I don't even know if they realise they ARE speculating. They all speak as if guilt of something terrible has been established beyond all doubt.

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:02:33 JST Mrs Cloudy

     in reply to

     • Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     @petealexharris I disagree. Shit sticks.

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     Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫ (petealexharris@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:02:34 JST Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     in reply to

     @CloudyMrs Just because something was imagined as a Machiavellian power move doesn't mean it wasn't in fact a Baldrick cunning plan when it met the light of day.

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:05:47 JST Mrs Cloudy

     in reply to

     • ScepticalScot1
     • Alex 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     @ScepticalScot1 @alexlac51 alongside those pictures of the tent in the garden.

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     Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫ (petealexharris@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:08:47 JST Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     in reply to

     @CloudyMrs They grabbed at something that looked like an opportunity, too late to discredit the FM, way too long before the next important election. They got one by-election result out of it maybe, but it's spent. The smear can only be smeared out so thin.

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:16:34 JST Mrs Cloudy

     in reply to

     • Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     @petealexharris they're going for it big time, though, and they are all repeating the same "truth" to the point where it actually becomes true in the minds of those with only a passing interest.

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     Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫ (petealexharris@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:42:34 JST Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     in reply to

     @CloudyMrs But *what* becomes true? What *specifically*? A smear is an easy broad-brush campaigning tool but has a short half-life if no juicy details are forthcoming, and it's not as good as a concrete allegation, which there isn't.

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:54:03 JST Mrs Cloudy

     in reply to

     • Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     @petealexharris but they ARE saying what the smear is supposed to be. Whenever it quietens down a bit, they chuck a new log on the fire. The fact that there are no facts seems to be entirely incidental.

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     Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫ (petealexharris@mastodon.scot)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 02:54:04 JST Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫

     in reply to

     @CloudyMrs I suppose what I'm saying is, an *allegation* is powerful. Spin that out as long as you like, no smoke without fire, the longer you can delay clearing the target's name, the longer they're placed in check.
     But a *smear* isn't like that. The smoke dissipates quickly if nobody can say what fire there is even supposed to be.