Alex Salmond – Slugger O'Toole

Should auld acquaintance be forgot?

Blaine McCartney on March 24, 2021, 7:32 am

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Blaine McCartney is a Co. Down-based writer Yesterday, March 23rd 2021, the first anniversary of lockdown, is surely a day of mixed emotions for Nicola Sturgeon. Having yesterday been cleared of breaching the Scottish Ministerial Code, she nevertheless told reporters this morning that she wants to “leave politics to others today”. Scottish Tory Leader Douglas Ross, among others, have been happy to oblige on Twitter and elsewhere, as they proverbially rage, rage against the dying of the light at the …

Alex Salmond accused of sexual assaults on 10 women…

Brian O'Neill on November 21, 2019, 1:07 pm

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From the BBC report: Alex Salmond has appeared in court charged with carrying out a series of sexual offences against 10 women while serving as Scotland’s first minister. Mr Salmond faced a total of 14 charges at the High Court in Edinburgh. He denies all the allegations, which include one attempted rape, one intent to rape, 10 sexual assaults and two indecent assaults. The offences are alleged to have happened between June 2008 and November 2014. Yikes, that will be …

Theresa Villiers: “ultimately it is parliament’s decision whether we repeal the 1972 European Communities Act or whether we don’t.”

Pete Baker on June 27, 2016, 7:22 pm

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Andy’s valiant attempt at providing clarity on the role of the devolved institutions in the UK’s withdrawal from the EU doesn’t appear to have worked for some of our local representatives. The Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, couldn’t have been clearer. “In the weeks and months ahead we will be working with both the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive on all these matters,” [Theresa Villiers] told BBC’s Sunday Politics show. “But ultimately it is parliament’s decision whether we …

Unionism’s experience in NI should give Alex Salmond pause for thought on Derry’s Walls tomorrow…

Tom Gallagher on June 9, 2016, 11:52 am

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When travelling outside Scotland, Alex Salmond usually doesn’t miss an opportunity to characterise his Scottish National Party as ‘peaceful, civic, and inclusive’. He did it in Bilbao in January when he was receiving the Sabino Arana award from the authorities in the Basque Country. He is likely to bathe it in the same virtuous light this Friday when he comes to Derry to address the city’s Chamber of Commerce He will be in a place where anti-British nationalism is based …

“Granted, that reality wears tinfoil but that’s an essential protective measure these days.”

Pete Baker on March 25, 2015, 8:07 pm

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[But the tinfoil works? Doesn’t it?! – Ed] That’s what they say… In the Spectator, Alex Massie takes a look at the state of Scottish politics in the aftermath of the referendum for Scottish independence – and the resulting ‘No’ vote. One of the most notable features of Alex Salmond’s account of the closing stages of last year’s referendum campaign is his hatred of the press and, indeed, the media more generally. Newspapers which run inconvenient stories are ‘anti-Scottish’ and journalists who …

Alex Salmond plans to return to Westminster

David McCann on December 7, 2014, 1:54 pm

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If the good people of East Sussex think I’m as big a danger to the Westminster Parliament as Guy Fawkes, then they’re right. Alex Salmond Scotland’s former First Minister, Alex Salmond is attempting to make a return to the Westminster Parliament in May 2015. Salmond who has always enjoyed the House of Commons, will likely play a key role mentoring and building what is expected to be a much larger SNP parliamentary party. He has said he will not be …

Alex Salmond: “For me as a leader my time is nearly over…”

Pete Baker on September 19, 2014, 4:23 pm

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Following defeat in the Scottish Independence referendum, Scotland’s First Minister, and SNP leader, Alex Salmond has announced he will stand down as First Minister in November when a new SNP leader will be chosen. More at the Guardian’s Scotland Independence live- blog Adds Here is the official resignation statement, via the SNP, from Alex Salmond I am immensely proud of the campaign which Yes Scotland fought and of the 1.6 million voters who rallied to that cause by backing an independent Scotland. …

#IndyRef: In a battle for a nation’s hearts and minds it has to be both…

Mick Fealty on September 12, 2014, 7:55 am

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Now, this is interesting. It’s a fairly aggressive question from the BBC’s Nick Robinson on “why a Scottish voter should believe you, a politician, against men who are responsible for billions of pounds profit?”… Not his greatest moment implying as it does an ad hominen appeal to absent and unaccountable authority (a classic of the cave) rather than a question with its own internal logic. What follows is a long hectoring lecture from the Scottish First Minister on Number 10’s …

The #indyref essential count guide.

David McCann on August 26, 2014, 9:39 am

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The last major debate happened between Alex Salmond and Alastair Darling last night and commentators where flying with debates about who won (yes, some poor buggars thought Darling did win). Yet, very few people seem to know just what exactly the process for the count will be and providing the public service that we do here on Slugger, I thought I would put up the guide as published by the Electoral Commission for the how the count will take place. …

The Scottish independence debate goes colourful…

Brian Walker on May 4, 2014, 11:31 am

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The Herald on Sunday is the first Scottish newspaper to come out clearly in favour of independence. The front page designed by the artist Alasdair Gray makes quite a splash and the editorial arguments are balanced and reasonable. (The case for independence) seems to us to be a more exciting, imaginative and inspiring proposition than the alternative proposed by the No campaign. That it has been remorselessly negative need not detain us here. Its leaders have told …

Damning comparison between Dev’s Ireland and Salmond’s Scottish Free State

Brian Walker on May 2, 2014, 12:33 pm

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Kevin Toolis, a Scot of born of Irish parents who wrote “Rebel Hearts”, one of the best books on the IRA on the ground, returns to a previous theme and makes this devastating comparison between an independent Scotland in prospect and post 1916 Ireland in the FT(£). We do have one good historical model of what it is like to carve out a nationalist state from within the political union of the UK but it is not one the SNP is …

Scotland Essays: The pro-Union cause has four months to unite, learn identity politics and make a new devolution pact now!

Brian Walker on April 26, 2014, 1:49 pm

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The difference between before and after the Scottish referendum is as fundamental and unknowable as the black hole between life and death. Yet the fate of the Union may depend on what people believe now about what may happen then, in that currently unknowable state. With the polls narrowing near the point of cross over, London- based politicians and commentators are at last stirring themselves, the Conservative commentator and ex-MP Matthew Parris in the Times (£) being the latest in assuming a torrid fall-out from …

After the Currency Union debate the #IndyRef is dead, so long live the SNP…

Mick Fealty on February 20, 2014, 12:33 pm

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Lots of remarkable happenings in the last week or so in Scotland’s #IndyRef debate. Some of it needs taking with salt. For instance, whilst Barroso is correct to say that an independent Scotland will have to apply for membership of the EU, it’s hard to see what grounds anyone in the EU would have for saying no. It’s also true to say that the No campaign has hardly set the world alight. There have been precious few inspiring reasons given …

David Cameron and love bombing the Scots

Brian Walker on February 7, 2014, 10:11 am

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The tempo is picking up at last with maybe just a hint of panic? The BBC, the Times£, the FT, even the Sun are splashing David Cameron’s defence of the Union in the patriotic venue of the Olympic Park. The future of the United Kingdom is up in the air, David Cameron will warn today as he urges every Briton with a friend or family member in Scotland to persuade them to vote against independence.. My argument is that though …

The Scottish referendum campaign: personal relations are affected as the arguments become keener

Brian Walker on January 30, 2014, 12:24 pm

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Both sides of the independence referendum campaign are busy spinning Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s warning to Alex Salmond that “some ceding of national sovereignty” would be necessary as the price of independent Scotland’s desire to keep the pound. The Nats are treating it with all the appearance of calm acceptance; the No campaign, championed here by former Scotsman editor Iain Martin, that Carney has spiked Salmond’s guns. The Nats’ case has rested forever on the allegation that the Westminster parliament …

Alex Salmond’s case for a surviving Social Union undermined

Brian Walker on September 10, 2013, 1:27 pm

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Polling on Scottish independence shows opinion staying stuck broadly against it in familiar proportions, despite the rising volume of campaigning. But as this will be is an unprecedented once for all exercise with plenty of “don’t knows”, or “not yet decided” in the frame, there are no grounds for complacency. The SNP’s White Paper on independence is expected next month on which they will be judged. Meanwhile the classic case for the Union is made by Jim Gallagher, a principal architect of devolution. …

Salmond prepares to let Westminster take the hit over post-Leveson press regulation

Brian Walker on March 20, 2013, 11:59 am

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It may surprise you to learn that a separate Scottish response to the Leveson report on press regulation is looking unlikely. Stage One was a separate report by an “expert group” headed by the former Scottish judge Lord McCluskey who recommended “draconian “ powers and a regulator appointed by the Scottish government. If the London negotiations fail to produce the necessary statutory underpinning for a Leveson-compliant Regulatory Body with universal jurisdiction, then Scottish Ministers may consider introducing legislation separately to …

Unionists be warned. Negative campaigning against Scottish independence is not enough

Brian Walker on February 14, 2013, 12:56 pm

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A warning shot against unionist complacency in Scotland… Backing for independence among voters aged 18 to 24 stood at 58 per cent, according to the latest Ipsos MORI survey on voting intentions for the 2014 referendum…There were 34 per cent who supported Scotland leaving the UK, the poll of more than 1,000 people interviewed between 4 and 9 February showed. Support for Scotland staying in the Union fell slightly, going from 58 per cent to 55 per cent over the …

Bold alternative urgently needed to Scottish independence

Brian Walker on January 21, 2013, 2:29 pm

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In Scotland the Better Together campaign has deservedly come in for some stick. The pro-Union cause has so far failed to agree on devo-more, the alternative to independence many politically aware Scots seem to want. (Incidentally if it ever comes to an NI referendum, their website is not the model to follow: remarkably for a Save the Union umbrella organisation it’s trite and one dimensional. They key critique is made by my friend Alan Trench whose Devolution Matters blog is the …

“For the first time, Alex Salmond has been made to look ridiculous”

Brian Walker on October 25, 2012, 9:29 am

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Alex Salmond has had his worst week in years. The SNP annual conference revealed a split over continuing membership of Nato. Then he was exposed for, shall we say, stretching a point to its limits by claiming he had legal approval for insisting that an independent Scotland would smoothly inherit EU membership from the former UK. Small wonder that David Cameron, no mean connoisseur of omnishambles himself, crowed at PMQs yesterday. Iain McWhirter in the Herald, explains why Salmond’s spinning …