The news of the death of Alex Salmond has come as such a shock to everyone who knew him. I heard the news from my LBC boss as I was driving home on the M25. I couldn’t believe it. Alex was such a force of nature, the kind of person who you might imagine could survive death, if you see what I mean. The thought of him collapsing after making a speech in North Macedonia is too awful to think about.
I first interviewed Alex Salmond back in 2008 when I spent a couple of hours talking to him for Total Politics magazine. The interview created quite a storm when it was published, mainly because he committed the treasonous act of maintaining that Margaret Thatcher wasn’t all bad. The Scottish media went into full ‘outrage mode’ and the story led the Scottish news agenda for a couple of days. It was difficult for Salmond to maintain he had been misquoted because the interview wass a verbatim transcript. When I saw what was happening I almost doubted my own recording so I went back and checked that the transcript was 100% accurate. Luckily – for me – it was. He told me some years later he wondered if he would have to resign over it. You can read the full interview HERE.
In 2015, after he had lost the independence referendum and resigned as Scottish First Minister, he and I started to host a weekly phone-in on LBC. He absolutely loved it and was a natural. [Pic above in the LBC newsroom on his first day. Pic by Tim Humphrey]. He loved taking on aggressive callers, and thrived on the in studio banter with me. We never fell out or came to blows, but I remember one particular show where we weren’t far off doing so. The show went so well that LBC then offered him his own show on a Sunday afternoon. Somehow, doing a solo show didn’t really work. He missed someone to bounce off, and the show only lasted for six months.
Alex didn’t take it well, but he’s not someone to wallow in self pity and within months had set up his own production company with Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, and he started presenting a weekly politics and interview show on the much criticised Russia Today, later RT. Frankly, I was appalled that he would sully his reputation taking the Putin Rouble and told him so in no uncertain terms. He was unrepentant, although to his credit, he pulled the show over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. By that time we had at least partially repaired relations when I reached out to him after he was found not guilty over sexual harassment allegations.
That court case would have knocked the stuffing out of most people. The most vile things were said about him, but his resilience shone through. He refused to be cowed by the case, but when the verdict came through, he was dignified and calm, and did not go on any sort of victory lap.
By that time he had been out of the political limelight for some time, but having had a stain on his character removed he decided to re-enter the political fray by forming a new pro independence party, Alba. It generated far more publicity than votes, and it failed to make any sort of political breakthrough. Without Alex at its head, it’s difficult to see how it can survive.
Salmond’s relationship with his one time deputy, and eventual successor as SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, hit the rocks way before the sexual harassment court case. The two became bitter enemies. My suspicion is that both parties said things about each other that they later regretted. But there was no going back. Nicola Sturgeon told me that she did not believe their friendship could ever be resurrected, and nor it seemed did she want it to be. I never quite believed that. Alex seemed more open to the prospect, but remained hyper critical of her to the last.
Even his most bitter political enemies cannot deny that Alex Salmond was a titan of both Scottish and UK politics. It was he who led the SNP into government, after decades of semi-irrelevance. It was he who was more articulate than anyone in pushing the argument for independence. It was he who achieved the impossible and led the SNP to an overall majority in 2011. It was he who was First Minister for 7 years and persuaded a Conservative prime minister to grant a referendum. It was a referendum that he came closer to triumphing in than most had predicted. I remember broadcasting from a hangar in Edinburgh that night and seeing that picture of Alex being driven from his count once the result was known. He was ashen. I was on air the next day when news of his resignation came through. It was the end of a remarkably political journey.
For the last three years I have invited Alex to be part of my Edinburgh Fringe show. He always attracted a good audience. I was so disappointed this year not to be able to host the show myself. Instead Matthew Stadlen stepped in, and I’ll be uploading that to my ‘Iain Dale All Talk’ podcast feed on Monday. Last year he and David Davis appeared jointly, partly to publicise their own Fringe show which consisted of a series of House of Commons style debates on the big issues of the day. I was seconder in a debate on Brexit. Alex introduced David and I like this: “Please give a warm welcome to the Dastardly and Mutley of the Leave campaign.” The audience roared with laughter and so did we.
The last time I saw Alex was in May this year when we were both on the panel of BBC Question Time in Aberdeen. Typically, Alex stole the show by arriving late and taking his seat on the panel after the recording had started. I much enjoyed the banter we had during the programme, and so did the live audience. At the end of the show we went backstage where there was a buffet dinner. I spent quite some time chatting with Alex, and as ever he was incredibly entertaining, but also very concerned about my state of health. But his first priority at the end of the show was to phone his wife Moira. He wanted to reassure her that he would soon be home. He then handed the phone to me and said: “Here, have a word with your biggest fan. She loves your voice.” And Moira and I chatted away for a good few minutes as if we’d known each other for years. And it is Moira, who is uppermost in my mind as I write this. It’s awful to lose your husband at any time, but to lose him in this way, when he died thousands of miles away, is an added cruelty. I am sure she has family and friends looking after her, but I would love to be able to give her a hug.
I can’t quite believe I will never see Alex again. I’ll never see that cheeky twinkle in his eye as he’d think of another way to wind me up. But I will always be able to remember the way in which he added to the quality of our political life. He was the most brilliant debater. He was a great political strategist, and a superb interviewee.
Alex loved hearing about my Scottish ancestry and was bowled over when I told him that Robbie Burns is an ancestor of mine. So let me finish with a poem on the prospect of death written by Burns.
O Thou unknown,
Almighty Cause Of all my hope and fear!
In whose dread presence, ere an hour,
Perhaps I must appear!
If I have wander'd in those paths
Of life I ought to shun,
As something, loudly, in my breast,
Remonstrates I have done;
Thou know'st that
Thou hast formed me
With passions wild and strong;
And list'ning to their witching voice
Has often led me wrong.
Where human weakness has come short,
Or frailty stept aside, Do Thou, All-Good -for such Thou art-
In shades of darkness hide.
Where with intention I have err'd,
No other plea I have,
But, Thou art good; and Goodness still
Delighteth to forgive.
Our body politic will miss all that. Scotland will miss all that.
For me it is very simple. I will miss my friend.
