Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Chris Deerin: Please, people of the north-east, do Scotland a favour and refuse to resurrect the whiffy corpse of Alex Salmond’s career

Alex Salmond launching the Alba Party.
Alex Salmond launching the Alba Party.

Dear reader, it’s up to you. In your hands lies the decision as to whether Alex Salmond is returned to the Scottish Parliament on May 6. Your vote, your choice.

The former first minister and SNP leader announced last week that he is setting up the Alba Party to contest the additional member lists. Salmond will put his name forward for the North East Scotland region, which elects 17 MSPs in total, seven of them through the list system.

What he needs, according to Sir John Curtice, is just under 6% of you to vote for him. This would give him five years at Holyrood. Five years to haunt Nicola Sturgeon, to toss grenades in her path, to bully the first minister into adopting a more extreme and aggressive approach to securing independence.

Five years to stir up, as he did before, the hardline cybernats and conspiracy theorists in their belief that Scots who take a different view are somehow “traitors” and “Quislings”, “Team UK” rather than “Team Scotland”. Five years to reinject his special brew of arrogance, brutality and deliberate division into the political bloodstream. Five years to foul up the chamber like a toxic bullfrog, sending the message to Scotland – to the UK, to the world – that even after everything, this is the kind of man North East Scotland believes to be a suitable representative of its people.

This is, as it should be, your democratic right. But really, folks, you won’t do it, will you?

Allow me to flatter you, but with genuine feeling: in my experience, you are the best of Scotland, an upright people, hardy and nonsense-free, granite in architecture and in principle, rooted in the land, the speak of the Mearns, the lilt of the Doric, but also at home in this fast-changing, fibre-optic world of ours. You are straight, decent and warm. People like you do not resurrect the whiffy career corpse of a man like Alex Salmond.

Sturgeon Salmond

Do not be gulled by the positivity he is currently spraying around. He says that Sturgeon will and should be first minister, and that he will work with her to deliver independence; that he wants to be part of a pro-indy “super-majority”; and that he would like to help draft the next independence White Paper. He is presenting himself as grudge-free, a wise and constructive elder statesman.


Here is how Scots across the north and north-east split on Holyrood voting and independence


Well, it’s a little late for that. Only around 15% of voters (including SNP voters) have a positive view of Salmond – by contrast Sturgeon attracts a positivity rating of around 80%. Support for independence has been polling higher under Sturgeon’s leadership – even throughout the Salmond scandal and the Covid pandemic – than it ever did under her predecessor.

And let’s remember what kind of man he really is. He admits to being “no angel” in his dealings with women and in court his lawyer confirmed he could have been a “better man”. Out of court, the same lawyer put it slightly differently: Salmond was “inappropriate”, “stupid”, “an objectionable bully to work with… I think he was a nasty person to work for…a nightmare to work for.”

We’ve heard all about the tantrums, about the staff expected to tie his shoelaces and sanitise his hands, about female civil servants only entering his office in twos. Would you be happy for your daughter to work for him?

If you’re the kind of person who intends to vote for Salmond, then I accept there are real and probably unbridgeable political differences between us. So let me make a point about your self interest. I count myself as one of the “indy-curious” – a 2014 No voter who is open to persuasion next time round. You need me – you need lots of me if you are to win the referendum, and especially if you are to win it handsomely.

If, after everything, Salmond is elected to Holyrood and then placed at the forefront of an indyref2 campaign there is precisely zero chance I and, I suspect, many others would vote for independence. The tone, character and judgement of a movement all matter – their spoliation matters too.

Scotland has been through a difficult few years, our public life besmirched by the tawdriest of affairs and a psychodrama played out in public between Salmond and his ego. We all desperately need to move on, and the only way to do that is to remove the source of the trouble.

So, good people of the north-east, the rest of Scotland needs a favour. Don’t send Alex Salmond back to parliament – send him packing.


More from Chris Deerin