{"id":152629,"date":"2024-10-12T19:03:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T19:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/12\/obituary-the-political-titan-that-was-former-first-minister-of-scotland-alex-salmond\/"},"modified":"2024-10-12T19:03:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T19:03:13","slug":"obituary-the-political-titan-that-was-former-first-minister-of-scotland-alex-salmond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/12\/obituary-the-political-titan-that-was-former-first-minister-of-scotland-alex-salmond\/","title":{"rendered":"Obituary: The political titan that was former first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Obituary:<\/div>


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Alex Salmond has died at the age of 69.<\/p>\n

Love or loathe Mr Salmond – who was described as a “Marmite man” during his high-profile court case – few would dispute his skill and achievements as a politician.<\/p>\n

Under the leadership of the keen golfer and horse racing fan, the SNP rose to power and became a titan party north of the border.<\/p>\n

Some would argue if it were not for the political talent of Mr Salmond, there would have been no Scottish independence referendum at all in 2014.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Mr Salmond. File pic: AP
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

As the tributes flood in following his death<\/a><\/strong>, we take a look at the man who was once first minister of Scotland.<\/p>\n

Mr Salmond was first elected to Westminster in 1987 as the SNP MP for Banff and Buchan – a position he retained until 2010.<\/p>\n

In 1990, he successfully defeated Margaret Ewing in the SNP<\/a><\/strong> leadership contest and would go on to campaign for Scottish devolution in 1997.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Former\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Mr Salmond giving the victory sign after speaking at the SNP party conference in 1997. Pic: Reuters
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In 1999, after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament as a result of devolution, he led his party through the first Scottish parliament election and became MSP for Banff and Buchan as well as leader of the opposition – with Labour in power.<\/p>\n

A year later, Mr Salmond<\/a><\/strong> quit as SNP leader amid a series of high-profile fallouts with party members and was replaced by current first minister John Swinney<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 2001, he then stood down from Holyrood in order to lead the SNP group at Westminster.<\/p>\n

Following a disastrous 2004 European parliament election for the SNP, Mr Swinney stepped aside as party leader with Mr Salmond re-elected with overwhelming support from the party’s members.<\/p>\n

Following a highly effective campaign in the 2007 Scottish election, the SNP gained 20 seats, giving the party a total of 47 seats in Holyrood – one more than Scottish Labour.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Alex\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Mr Salmond and his wife Moira leaving the Scottish parliament chamber after he was elected as first minister in 2007. Pic: Reuters
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Although the party didn’t have an overall majority, new Gordon MSP Mr Salmond became first minister of Scotland in 2007.<\/p>\n

In the 2011 Scottish elections, the SNP secured the first outright majority in the history of the Scottish parliament, and Mr Salmond won a second term as first minister while MSP for the new constituency of Aberdeenshire East.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Scotland's\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon launching the White Paper in 2013. Pic: PA
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In 2012, Mr Salmond signed an agreement with then British prime minister David Cameron to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Scotland's\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon pictured in May 2013 while launching a paper on the economic case for independence. Pic: PA
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\n \"First\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Then first minister Mr Salmond on polling day in 2014. Pic: PA
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The historic event – which would have seen Scotland<\/a><\/strong> break away from the rest of the UK – took place on 18 September 2014 and saw more than two million people (55.3%) vote No and 1.6 million (44.7%) vote Yes.<\/p>\n

Following the defeat, Mr Salmond stepped down as first minister and SNP leader and was replaced by Nicola Sturgeon<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\n \"First\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Mr Salmond following the Scottish independence referendum. Pic: PA
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Mr Salmond returned to the Commons as MP for Gordon in the 2015 general election but was ousted in the 2017 election by Conservative Colin Clark.<\/p>\n

The loss marked the first time since 1987 that Mr Salmond was not in an elected position at either Westminster or Holyrood.<\/p>\n

Mr Salmond would go on to launch The Alex Salmond Show on RT, the former Russia Today channel editorially controlled and funded by the Russian government.<\/p>\n

Mr Salmond was criticised by Scottish politicians over the decision to host it on RT, with Ms Sturgeon saying she would have advised against it.<\/p>\n

The show, which also featured Mr Salmond’s prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, was suspended following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Not to be stopped, a new show titled Scotland Speaks with Alex Salmond launched a year later via Turkish public broadcaster TRT. The first episode featured an interview with Hollywood actor Brian Cox.<\/p>\n

Before that, however, Mr Salmond resigned from the SNP in August 2018 in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct while first minister.<\/p>\n

Mr Salmond said he wanted to avoid internal division within the party amid calls to suspend him.<\/p>\n

Denying any wrongdoing, Mr Salmond vowed to re-join the SNP once he had an opportunity to clear his name.<\/p>\n

Mr Salmond went on to take the Scottish government to court to challenge the complaints procedure which had been activated against him.<\/p>\n

The investigation was deemed by a judicial review to have been “tainted by apparent bias”, with Mr Salmond awarded \u00a3512,000 as a result.<\/p>\n

In January 2019, Mr Salmond was arrested by Police Scotland and charged with 14 offences, including two counts of attempted rape, nine sexual assaults, two indecent assaults, and one breach of the peace.<\/p>\n

In March 2020, Mr Salmond was cleared of all charges. A jury found him not guilty of 12 charges, one charge was dropped by prosecutors during the trial, while another charge was found not proven.<\/p>\n

During a procedural hearing of the case, reporting of which was banned until the end of the trial, Mr Salmond’s defence team claimed the Scottish government and those working there turned to the criminal process to try to “discredit” him after he won the civil case into how the administration handled sexual harassment complaints against him.<\/p>\n

Details heard during the trial was devastating to Mr Salmond’s public image, with allegations of bullying and demanding behaviour.<\/p>\n

Defence advocate Gordon Jackson KC put it to the court that Mr Salmond was a “touchy-feely kind of person”.<\/p>\n

Jurors heard details of inappropriate behaviour, including Mr Salmond admitting that he had a “sleepy cuddle” with one complainer and sexual contact with two complainers, neither of them his wife, Moira.<\/p>\n

In his closing speech, Mr Jackson described his client as a “Marmite man” as well as someone who “could have been a better man”.<\/p>\n

Two subsequent inquiries into the conduct of ministers and officials saw Salmond asserting his belief that many in his former party had colluded against him in an effort to block any final return to frontline politics.<\/p>\n

After being cleared, Mr Salmond vowed that evidence of a plot to discredit him would “see the light of day”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can receive Breaking News alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News App<\/strong><\/a>. You can also follow @SkyNews on X<\/strong><\/a> or subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/strong><\/a> to keep up with the latest news.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Alex Salmond has died at the age of 69. Love or loathe Mr Salmond – who was described as a “Marmite man” during his high-profile court case – few would dispute his skill and achievements as a politician. Under the leadership of the keen golfer and horse racing fan, the SNP rose to power and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/10\/768x432\/skynews-salmond-alex_6714304.jpg?20241012180436","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[21999,2124,88457,234,40212,2378,37410],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152631,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152629\/revisions\/152631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}