When I served in a NATO headquarters, I recall getting my weekly fix of Scotland through listening to the BBC Scotland’s summary of First Minister’s Questions at the weekend. I confess it was not because I wanted to closely follow every issue. It was solely because I wanted to hear Alex Salmond. I was an RAF legal officer at the time and I therefore had to maintain political neutrality. I was however well known by my colleagues as a liberal and, perhaps aptly, I now lead the Scottish Liberal Party. I opposed Mr Salmond politically, but I was in awe of his performances in the Scottish Parliament. He made everyone else look mediocre, at best. He could receive the most challenging question, play with it, pull it apart and respond with a killer line which resulted in cheers, as opposed to bored ‘hear hears’. Though he bordered on cheerful smugness at points, I found it impossible to resist being impressed. He entertained and caught the imagination. He was the master politician of his generation. Had he joined the Labour Party in his youth and not been obsessed with independence, he would no doubt have been the Prime Minister; and probably a great one. When did we last have one of them? Whatever his talents, he did not persuade me that breaking up the United Kingdom was ever going to be a good idea; that was a bridge too far.
His fall from power was something else I witnessed. I make no comment on his personal standards (other than to note his advocate’s remarks that he was far from perfect), but I detected betrayal and – no doubt – great hypocrisy. Mr Salmond defeated the charges against him (with the able assistance of the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates). It resulted in a political mess and the start of the SNP’s long decline. A film will inevitably be made about him. That is more than can be said for many of those who took pleasure in his troubles.
Allan Steele
Leader, Scottish Liberal Party