Humza Yousaf is due to deliver a speech in Glasgow later today.
We hope his delivery is a bit sharper than it was yesterday.
That link is the original Sky News clip and is not open for comments from 'normal' Twitter/X users.
Here's a transcript:
Well, that's pretty much what you expect HY to say in the circumstances and he managed to squeeze in a few pre-election soundbites, mini-manifesto nibbles for the general audience.
But here's a clip which shows what happened next (from 55secs on):
He's then asked when he first heard about Murrell's arrest, his membership status etc.
Aside from the curiously stilted delivery (which has sparked some lurid speculation we won't repeat), the mangled syntax and jarring repetitions, what's most striking is the interviewer's presentation of a 'line' to which HY seems oblivious.
'The party is a victim.'
This is stated as fact rather than posed as a question. It gives HY the opportunity to put further distance between his party and Murrell. But he misses it. He could've pursued the 'one bad apple' line and reinforced the idea that no-one in the wider party had any idea what was going on. But he didn't.
(Social media is already awash with archive clips showing Sturgeon and Mike Russell issuing sanguine reassurances that finances were all in order, that no funds were missing etc.)
It should also be noted that the interview was conducted in the relative safety of Bute House.
So, this very short interview tells us a lot, not only about Humza's current demeanour and performance under pressure, but it reveals the line that HY and other SNP ministers will be taking in the weeks and months ahead: Murrell had gone rogue, no-one knew anything about it, and the 'victim' of any criminality wasn't those who donated their cash to the 'ring-fenced' indyref2 fund. No - the victim here is a much-maligned SNP government which could never have imagined that one of its own, so trusted and admired as 'a proven winner', would ever stoop to such dastardly doings.
Where did this 'victim' angle come from? Was it Humza's people or did the interviewer come up with it all by herself? Did Humza decide not to run with it or did he genuinely miss it?
More questions than answers. We've a feeling that he might be facing more, in much more testing circumstances, later today. If he shows up.
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