How do you solve a problem like Carmichael?

THE MOUND OF TRU FIC(tion)

Or maybe a pile of doo-doo?  There was certainly something very shitty about the #Frenchgate memo was leaked in April, alleging that our First Minister had told the  French Ambassador that she would prefer to see David Cameron win the forthcoming general election and did not consider Ed Milliband to be Prime Ministerial material.  Which the gullible Torygraph duly printed as the truth, and was then picked up by several politicians wishing to use it against the SNP.

Swift and total denials from both Ms Sturgeon and the French officials who she'd met with soon followed, and an enquiry was launched into the affair.  It quickly became clear that the memo had come out of the Scotland Office where the responsible ministers were Alistair Carmichael and David Mundell.  The former denied he'd had any knowledge of the memo and said that 'these things happen' in an election campaign.  Quite.

Several weeks, £1.4million and an election later the enquiry got to at least some of the truth, and Carmichael now admits to having known about the fraudulent communication and authorised its release.  By which time he had managed to hold on to his seat as an MP, the only Lib Dem in Scotland to do so and that with a greatly reduced majority of under a thousand.  Oh, and one Mr Mundell clung on too, leaving the new Tory government with only one choice to replace Carmichael as Secretary of State for Scotland.

Carmichael lied to his electorate, costing the taxpayer a small fortune, yet refuses to resign his seat.  And the Liberal Democrat party, that bastion of integrity, does not think Alistair has done anything so wrong that it merits any action on their part.  So the fingernails are digging in, clinging to the figment of credibility that remains, whilst petitions are demanding he resign and his constituents are starting to raise their voices.  What's it going to take to get him to sing So Long, Farewell and go off to be a Lonely Goatherd.

Compare and contrast, compare and contrast.  Carmichael lies, profits from the lie, all at the cost of ourselves, yet thinks he continue in his privileged position.  Meanwhile William McNeilly, the Trident whistleblower, tells the truth (at least, as he sees it) in the public interest, with no benefit to himself, and is now detained on a military camp awaiting a decision on his future.  Which one deserves our thanks and which our approbation?  I think the answer to that is as simple as do-re-mi.

Oh, and will we ever know what a certain David Mundell knew about the infamous memo?  Anyone posting that question on his Facebook page finds their query is swiftly deleted....