I never met Alex Salmond. For some reason, I always thought we would meet at some point. I suspect I would have liked the man. I'm certain I would have found him stimulating company. Now, that meeting will never happen. On the morning of Saturday 12 October 2024 after delivering a speech in North Macedonia, Alex Salmond died.
On hearing the news of Alex Salmond's death yesterday evening, I immediately went online to find out more. The tributes were pouring in by this time. The first of these tributes that I read was Martin Hannan's touching remembrance of a close personal friend. I haven't read any others. Martin said it all.
Now we all have to live in a world without Alex Salmond, and it will be less colourful, less interesting and certainly a sadder place.
I don't have many political heroes. Politician and hero are words that seldom seen together. Very few earn the admiration I felt for Alex Salmond. He combined the exquisite guile of an exemplary political operator with the inspirational power of a man possessed of an unquenchable dedication to a worthy, honourable, aspirational cause. He possessed the head of a calculating political strategist and the heart of a national hero.
It was this combination of personal qualities which informed the principled pragmatism that made the administrations led by Alex Salmond so effective and popular. In September 2018 I wrote,
The SNP could well be a victim of its success. It may have so firmly established principled pragmatism as the ethos of the Scottish Government that voters will think it a fixed attribute – a constant on which they can rely even as administrations change.
Nicola Sturgeon has to tread a cautious path between the desert of dull managerialism and the mountain of raised expectations.
This is not the time to comment on what was done with the legacy Alex Salmond bequeathed to his successor. It is sufficient now that we recall him as Scotland's most successful First Minister and the greatest leader Scotland's cause has enjoyed to date. He promised to deliver an independence referendum and untypically for a politician, he did just that after first delivering a truly remarkable election victory for the SNP in 2011. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see the flaws in the deal that Alex Salmond secured to allow the 2014 independence referendum. But I am convinced that it was the best deal anyone might have secured under the prevailing circumstances. Let us not forget that there were many who thought it impossible that any kind of deal could be struck. Salmond proved he was the man for the job. In the process, he secured his place in history and in the hearts of all who shared his dream of restoring Scotland's independence.
With that same hindsight, we might wish things had been done differently in the Yes campaign. And we may be aware of the man's entirely human flaws and weaknesses. But nothing can detract from the sense of empowerment Alex Salmond instilled in us in the months leading up to the fateful vote on Thursday 18 September 2014.
But there is another date which to my mind represents the change that Alex Salmond wrought on this nation. On Monday 3 September 2007 the 'Scottish Executive' was renamed the Scottish Government. Although it was purely a cosmetic change, it's significance lies in the way it betokens a mindset founded on the idea of Scotland as a nation on a par with other nations. On that day, even if in name only, Scotland had its first ever elected government of the democratic age. That date marks the start of the modern era of Scotland's struggle against the imperialism of England-as-Britain.
Adopting the title of Scottish Government was not about the politics or practicalities of restoring independence. It was about the spirit of a nation and people reasserting a status and distinct identity long denied. That spirit lives on in Scotland's liberation movement. That spirit is Alex Salmond's true legacy. We commemorate the man best the more determinedly we cling to that spirit.
To paraphrase Alex Salmond in his address on resigning as First Minister.
To paraphrase Alex Salmond in his address on resigning as First Minister, his time among us is over, but for Scotland, the campaign continues, and the dream shall never die.