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Opinion

Alex Salmond and thinking independently

13 Oct 2024 4 minute read
Alex Salmond. Photo Maurice McDonald/PA Wire

Ben Wildsmith

The unexpected death of Alex Salmond yesterday left the British state without its most effective critic.

Having led the independence movement in Scotland to the brink of success in 2014, his final years revealed the price that anybody flying so close to the sun of self-determination will be expected to pay.

There is a difference between commitment to a cause and forging a career by attaching oneself to it. Independence movements are stuffed to the gills with politicians who wear the clothes of self-determination whilst seeking compromise at every turn.

Salmond wasn’t one of those. His final tweet concerned SNP leader John Swinney’s decision to attend Keir Starmer’s ‘Council of the Nations & Regions’.

There speaks the voice of experience. The clammy hand of UK friendship is forever outstretched to peoples who have indicated a desire to go it alone.

Home rule

From Balfour ‘killing home rule with kindness’ in Ireland to the arrival of devolution in Wales and Scotland a century later, Unionist politicians have presented the status quo as being reformed on their watch.

The temporary ceding of power is sold as a direction of travel that negates the need for independence and all the upheaval that would bring.

In time, disquiet grows and further ‘initiatives’ are sold to a new generation of pliable politicians.

Salmond was unusual in his refusal to play ball with these tactics. His successor as First Minister foregrounded her role and secured plenty of attention for her country. She failed, however, to advance the case for independence.

If there is a lesson for nationalist politicians from the last decade it is that a prolonged period in devolved power is incompatible with securing independence.

‘Events’

Macmillan’s ‘events, dear boy’ pile up around any party of government, obscuring its purpose and achievements.

Devolved governments have the unique difficulty of trying to govern under the financial constraints imposed upon them from above. A cynic would suggest that a nationalist government that is funded and regulated by a permanently unionist state is not only bound to fail but designed for that outcome.

For a while, after the Brexit referendum revealed a clear geographical divide in UK politics, Scottish independence looked inevitable. That no second referendum was secured, despite the UK government reneging on the promises it made to win the first will stand as a defining failure of the independence movement of that time.

Moments when change is possible are rare in politics. Keir Starmer has just wasted the 100 most powerful days he will experience as Prime Minister. Along with events, personal vendettas and public disaffection conspire quickly to erode political momentum. For the independence movement in Scotland, the period between Brexit and the pandemic was its golden opportunity.

The circumstances by which Salmond found himself in court for a slew of sexual offences of which he was subsequently cleared are hotly disputed.

Toxic

In terms of independence, however, nobody could dispute that it took a major figure off the pitch at a critical time. Similarly, quite how the toxic and seemingly insoluble question of gender ID became so uniquely central to SNP politics is opaque. That it paralysed the party at a crucial juncture, however, was certainly convenient to those charged with maintaining the structural integrity of the UK.

Salmond ended his days as a marginalised figure.

As the new UK government sought to formalise the reduction of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to parity with English mayoralties, he was shouting through the letterbox of Scottish politics in dissent.

As we approach the Senedd elections in 2026, the near certainty of a coalition government will see Plaid Cymru weighing the virtues of compromise against principle once again. The comforts of government can be the enemy of change.


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j91968
j91968
1 day ago

“There is a difference between commitment to a cause and forging a career by attaching oneself to it.” Mmmn, Interesting. How can anyone else tell which it is, without exhaustively trawling through all the recorded and published utterances of the individual under scrutiny? And is no-one allowed to change their mind, have a damascene conversion or see the error of their ways? In either direction. I know a fair few well-informed, politically aware, thinking Scots who voted for Independence in 2014, who now feel that asking the population the same question again is an unwanted distraction from much more important… Read more »

Annibendod
Annibendod
1 day ago
Reply to  j91968

Which is why polling for yes has crept up since the referendum 🤷‍♂️

BTW, what’s with the pejoratives and ad hominems (elsewhere)? Does it help you feel superior?

j91968
j91968
1 day ago
Reply to  Annibendod

You do realise that every time you express an opinion in a public space you open yourself up to scrutiny, criticism and perhaps even derision? We all do. Every single one of us. It’s entirely up to you how you choose to feel about my more irreverent comments, and it’s entirely up to me if I choose carry on in the same vein. This isn’t a committee meeting with an agenda, for a club or a party with a constitution and a paying membership.There are no line judges or umpires or referees. It isn’t a duel with seconds and observers… Read more »

CapM
CapM
1 day ago
Reply to  j91968

Keep calling people “boyos” if you like. You’re breaking no rules.
It reveals a lot about you which isn’t a bad thing for anyone reading your comments and wondering about your motives/agenda.

j91968
j91968
1 day ago
Reply to  CapM

I openly question the motives and agenda of some on here, I am way past just wondering. I feel much the same about many of the paid contributors on NC as well. Why do I choose to type? Oh, call it a hobby, if you like, especially now the evenings are darkening so early. One can’t just rely on the autumn telly schedule for entertainment.

Steve George
Steve George
22 hours ago
Reply to  j91968

Tory SMSS.

j91968
j91968
1 day ago
Reply to  CapM

Why “boyos”? You must have a very short memory

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-65469558

CapM
CapM
30 minutes ago
Reply to  j91968

Where’s the reference to “boyos” in that article.

Steve Thomas
Steve Thomas
1 day ago
Reply to  CapM

He is best ignored-just another troll who enjoys disrupting decent conversations

j91968
j91968
1 day ago
Reply to  Steve Thomas

I am already stocking up on microwave popcorn ready for 2026

CapM
CapM
15 minutes ago
Reply to  j91968

How clever of you. Enjoy

Popsmith website says
Microwave popcorn lasts about 8 months. But it could develop a rancid taste if you consume it after its best-by date.

CapM
CapM
24 minutes ago
Reply to  Steve Thomas

I know but shooting fish in a barrel is a guilty pleasure
A distraction that’s a borderline hobby!..

Steve George
Steve George
22 hours ago
Reply to  j91968

Mmm! I suspect you’re one of those forging a career by attaching yourself to a cause. All the hallmarks of a SpAD or an SMSS.

j91968
j91968
6 hours ago
Reply to  Steve George

I could be arguing in my free time

CapM
CapM
14 minutes ago
Reply to  j91968

Come on now.
All your time is “free time”

reeses pieces
reeses pieces
5 hours ago
Reply to  Steve George

I am so ancient I had to look up SMSS. Still baffled. What are the hallmarks, please?

Annibendod
Annibendod
1 day ago

Another thought provoking piece Ben. I’ve felt similarily about the SNP’s play it safe approach since Sturgeon became their leader and after. They had a very clear mandate in 2017 and 2019 for a second referendum. They could have called by elections in their constituencies, called a Holyrood election and stood on a single issue. Playing nice played massively into the hands of the Tories at a time when they should have given them hell. Salmond was quite right in his final tweet. I guess I was so ground down by Welsh Labour’s weak acquiesence I missed the SNP approach.… Read more »

Nia James
Nia James
1 day ago

Having had the honour and pleasure of meeting Alex Salmond on more than one occasion what struck me was his intelligence, vision and his razor-sharp critique of the UK State – something along the lines of “an Old Boys decaying vessel”, if I remember. He talked about Scotland as a ‘grand nation’, as one that stood shoulder to shoulder with other States. His “Country not County” swan song speaks volumes of the man and his warning to us not to be fooled by Starmer and Labour’s ‘inclusive regionalism’ as this is merely acting as a smokescreen for the throttling of… Read more »

John Ellis
John Ellis
20 hours ago

It’s surely instructive that while support for the SNP as a political party has slumped dramatically – unsurprising, I think, in the aftermath of the party’s extraordinary, largely unexplained and still murky travails over recent years – the majority of opinion polls seem to suggest that actual support for independence among Scots voters has barely shifted. Which leaves me with the feeling that backing for independence is certainly stalled in Scotland for the time being, but isn’t dead yet. Salmond was a remarkably shrewd and effective British politician, despite his evident and apparently acknowledged personal flaws and indiscretions. Possibly only… Read more »

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