I congratulate the First Minister on his statement to the chamber and associate myself with much of what he said. I thank him in particular for recognising those MSPs who are no longer with us.
We are a young Parliament and Alex Salmond has been the First Minister for almost half our lifetime. He and I have sparred, disagreed, fallen out and fought across the floor of the chamber, and I have particularly enjoyed our personal jousts at First Minister’s question time. I thank him for all the name checks that he has thrown my way—they have seriously done wonders for my profile. However, it would be wrong of anyone, not least me, not to recognise the First Minister’s commitment to Parliament and to public service. No one of any party is able to deny his passion for Scotland or his love of his country.
We know, though, that the First Minister also brought to bear—mainly on the Opposition, but not always—his very significant political talents. The Scottish Parliament and Scottish politics in general need people of talent of whatever political persuasion, because that is how we improve our political debates and our institutions, and the First Minister’s considerable abilities will be missed. Given his track record, we know that he might just emulate Arnold Schwarzenegger and proclaim that he will be back.
I know how much of a toll being an elected member takes on family life, so I hope that the First Minister gets to spend at least some time with his wife Moira, and I wish them both well for the future. I could also have suggested—not that I would—that he will now have more free time to play golf, but that is one thing that appears not to have been affected by the burdens of office.
I know how proud the First Minister’s father is of his son’s achievements. Robert Salmond has been to the Parliament on a number of occasions to see his son in action, and I am sure that there could have been no prouder moment for Mr Salmond than to see his son elected as First Minister of Scotland.
The First Minister has had a long and distinguished career, but it was not all plain sailing. Who knew that he was expelled from the Scottish National Party? If anyone is so minded, they can catch on YouTube the First Minister marching out of the SNP conference in Perth with, among others, Kenny MacAskill, Stewart Stevenson, Roseanna Cunningham and, of course, the late Margo MacDonald. However, I issue a word of warning: that is 10 minutes of their life that they will never get back.
It did not take the First Minister long before he was back in the fold, taking over the leadership of his party for the first time. It will forever be a matter of record for historians to write about that in a relatively short period of time he took his party from relative political wilderness to minority government in 2007. The fact that he then went on to achieve majority government still has John Curtice scratching his head.
The First Minister can be assured and rightly proud of his record as leader of his party, but there is no doubt that the single biggest issue to have dominated his term in office and the lifetime of the Parliament was the referendum campaign. Whatever side of the debate they were on, no one can deny that it was invigorating. No politician should ever be afraid of welcoming political engagement, whatever quarter it may come from, but—let us be honest—all of us would love to see turnouts of the level that was experienced on 18 September. More than anything else, before we are SNP members or Labour members, we are democrats. To see so many Scots participate was a genuinely heartening experience.
That the First Minister has done the honourable thing and taken responsibility for the defeat in the referendum is to his credit. That seems only fair because, after all, as he apparently said on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, it could never have happened without him. The First Minister knows that I always like to be helpful, and I think that I know where the yes campaign went wrong. After the First Minister’s comment that, single-handedly, he would have prevented the crash of RBS, thereby saving the entire world from an international banking crisis, surely the answer is clear to the SNP and to everybody in the chamber: if only the First Minister had been running the yes campaign.
I can understand Mr Salmond’s disappointment. He should take heart, because it appears that he has started a bit of a trend with the 45ers. I am referring not to those who are in denial about the referendum result but to the supporters of Keith Brown, who are telling all who will listen that he actually won and that the membership figures for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane SNP are now on a par with the population of China.
I understand that the First Minister is writing a book. I will rush out to secure a copy. Apparently, he is promising some surprising revelations. Will he reveal that he has eventually found the missing European Union legal advice? What about a crumpled-up receipt for some swanky American hotel? Who knows? He might even get some writing tips from his biographer, David Torrance. He knows him—the guy off the telly. Although he is not quite sure who David Torrance is, I understand that the First Minister writes about him regularly.
Last week, I asked the First Minister to describe himself in one word. None of us was surprised when he suggested that that was a wholly inadequate task for a man of his considerable talents. I agree: they are such considerable talents that, even as we speak, monuments are being erected to pay tribute to his time as First Minister. I know that that sounds interesting to many: a standing stone is being erected in Edinburgh to celebrate Alex Salmond. I never knew that we had such a celebrity in our midst. Perhaps of more interest—who knows?—is who the kind benefactor is.
Whatever happens, I am sure that we have not heard the last from Alex Salmond, and neither have radio listeners. The big question on everyone’s lips is, “When will we hear from Alex from Strichen again?” If the rumours are true, his colleagues in Westminster will be hearing a lot from him in due course.
The First Minister has never been lacking in ambition for Scotland but he now moves on to pastures new. I genuinely wish him well in his future career. Quite what the new deputy leader of the SNP, Stewart Hosie, will make of the First Minister’s return to Westminster is unknown—as is, indeed, what the leader of the SNP in Westminster, Angus Robertson, will make of it. However, they need not worry, because Alex Salmond will leave them well behind: his ambition is, of course, to be the Deputy Prime Minister.
As the First Minister steps back from the front bench to the back benches to contemplate, his future place in history—the history of both the Scottish Parliament and Scotland—is assured. He has, without doubt, been a towering figure in Scottish politics for a decade and more and has been Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister. I thank him for his service to this Parliament and to the country.
I close by repeating a line from our national anthem that could be about our departing First Minister. No, it is not that we sent him home “to think again”; it is, perhaps more aptly,
“When will we see your like again?”
14:37
I add to those of my party my best wishes to the First Minister as he leaves office today. It is traditional at this point to add a few words about how enjoyable retirement is and how pleasant the golf course looks, but seeing that there seems to be absolutely no chance that Alex Salmond is going to retire, I will leave that to one side, for the moment.
It is said that all political careers end in failure—that is, except for Alex Salmond’s. He is the archetypal Teflon don whose career does not appear ever to actually finish. Claims about leading the SNP to 20 seats in 2010—actually, they saw a drop from seven MPs to six—and boasts about taking Glasgow City Council in 2012 and claiming 3 MEPs in the summer of 2014 all died at the ballot box, but still the juggernaut rumbled on.
He is a political Lazarus, railing against a Westminster elite that he has been part of not once, but twice, and to which he could after May return for a third time. No doubt Nicola Sturgeon does not want a back-seat driver directing traffic from the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee here in Holyrood.
However, regardless of whether this is an end or merely a brief pit stop before Mr Salmond’s next lap of the political track, let me today pay tribute to, and pass comment on, the First Minister’s period in office. Let me start by touching on where I began, because if there is one thing that we can all recognise that distinguishes Mr Salmond from many of his contemporaries, it is that quite remarkable longevity. When I was elected Conservative Party leader, he kindly called me to offer his congratulations and quickly said “Excuse me for asking, but how old are you?” When I answered, he quite wistfully replied, “Ah. I was 35 when I first led my party.” What a contribution he has made to that party. To many people for many years he simply was the SNP.
The pressures of leadership are immense. To have served for two decades at the helm and for more than seven years as First Minister is a feat of enormous stamina, willpower and discipline. There are, I believe, very few people who would be capable of it. What has also distinguished him has been the way that he has stuck to his course for all that time. To read Mr Salmond’s maiden speech to the House of Commons in 1987 is to look back to a different era, but there he is, as if it were yesterday—moaning about the Scottish Tories, aiming a low blow at the Labour Party for failing to take us on and banging on about the constitution. If he sometimes appears like a stuck record the truth is that it is because Alex Salmond has stuck to the same tune over such a long period of time that, like an ear worm, the lyrics have been retained in people’s brains.
We on this side of the chamber might not have agreed with him very often, but it is unusual to find a politician who, for nigh on three decades, has relentlessly made the same case over and over again. We would be churlish not to recognise the belief, persistence and stamina that that takes.
However, it is as First Minister today that he is resigning and it is his record as First Minister of Scotland that will, ultimately, decide his legacy. The record is mixed and, for simplicity’s sake, it can be neatly divided into a game of two halves.
In his first term from 2007 to 2011, Mr Salmond’s Government’s minority status ensured that he had to gain consensus and reach out to other parties for support. The fact that sceptical Scottish voters were worried about a nationalist administration meant that Mr Salmond had sometimes to tone things down. Sometimes he appeared to have declawed himself; maybe he counted to twenty every time he was about to say something about independence and focused on mouthing lots of positive, but vague, statements on progress.
Ever the populist, he saw better than any of his predecessors how public funds could be used to win support among key target voters, hence the early decisions to cancel bridge tolls and scrap university tuition fees and prescription charges. We even worked with him on a number of other policies, including the provision of 1,000 extra police officers, a fund to regenerate our town centres and a new drugs strategy for Scotland. There could be no doubt across Scotland that we now had a Government that looked and sounded as if it knew what it was doing, even if we did not much like what that was. The result was that despite not having a parliamentary majority, no party sought to try and bring down the SNP Government during those first four years.
On Thursday, the First Minister joked to my Labour and Liberal colleagues that working with the Conservatives was electoral suicide, despite the small matter of our having defeated him in the recent referendum and despite, also, his knowing that one of the reasons why his Administration gained reputation for competence and stability during those first four years was that he needed, sought and received support from the Scottish Conservatives in order to pass his budgets and keep his Government on the rails. One might say that the First Minister and Annabel Goldie stood shoulder to shoulder to make the Government work. I would not go so far as to say they were better together, but such a close working relationship was no drag on his electoral prospects in 2011.
If that was the first half, we are all too aware of the second. With a remarkable majority, the referendum on independence was agreed, and it is a tribute to both Scottish and UK Governments that it was done with such good faith on both sides. However, some will not judge Mr Salmond’s record from then on quite so kindly. I do not begrudge his devoting the Scottish Government’s time and energy to campaigning for independence; that was his right and his democratic mandate. Rather, in time, I believe that questions might be asked about the way in which Alex Salmond fought that campaign.
Another case could have been made that accepted and acknowledged the upheaval that separating our United Kingdom would have caused. He could have acknowledged that some things would be worse, at least in the short term. Alex Salmond could have used his powerful political and communication skills to have argued, that all that notwithstanding, the goal of a fully sovereign Scotland was worth it.
I am not saying that our own campaign was perfect; indeed, it was not. I am saying that it was the First Minister who had ultimate responsibility for setting out to people the facts about independence; on that crucial task, I am afraid that he came up short.
His decision immediately after the referendum to resign was an honourable one. Many of us here have, however, greatly enjoyed the “Salmond unleashed” that we have seen since: the green ink letters, the radio show phone-ins and the opening of supermarkets out of pique.
We should, however, remember that Mr Salmond said, on the day that he took over as First Minister in May 2007, that
“The Parliament will be one in which the Scottish Government relies on the merits of its legislation, not the might of a parliamentary majority. The Parliament will be about compromise and concession, intelligent debate and mature discussion.”—[Official Report, 16 May 2007; c 24.]
Inevitably, given the passions that were raised by the independence referendum, it has not been easy to maintain those noble ambitions. However, Mr Salmond has led a Government that has often tried to do so, and for that he deserves great credit. I agree with Mr Salmond that this Parliament has become the centre of gravity in Scottish politics. For that, he and his team deserve our regard.
This Parliament’s stature is now recognised by all, and we are all committed here to ensuring that far greater powers and responsibilities are passed to this place. Alex Salmond can leave today in the knowledge that he has taken his party from the fringes to a position of enormous strength.
His leadership has been characterised by a remarkable instinct for the exercise of power, which kept him at the top of his party for two decades, brought him to the top of Scottish political life and made him a dominant politician of this era.
I now find myself in a remarkable position, Presiding Officer. I stand before you today as one of the rarest of breeds: an Opposition leader in the Scottish Parliament who appears to have outlasted Alex Salmond. That is, of course, unless he decides to come back. On the assumption that he will not, I once again extend my best very wishes to him, to Moira and to his wider family.
14:45
Last week the First Minister said that he had quoted the wrong general when back in 2004 he rejected appeals to return as leader of his party. Apparently he meant to quote General MacArthur saying “I shall return.” MacArthur made that remark on his arrival in Australia, following a harrowing escape from Corregidor, to organise the offensive against Japan in 1942.
The paths of the First Minister and me have crossed occasionally. I do not know whether he remembers that we first met in the Bridge cafe in Kincardine on polling day for the Dunfermline by-election, which he confidently predicted he would win. Less than a week later, I am sure that I heard him cheering when I took my seat to be sworn in. That is a stark reminder to the First Minister that winning is not the sole preserve of his party and that, just like General MacArthur, we shall return, too. [Laughter.]
The statement that the First Minister actually made in 2004 was:
“If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve.”
That comes from the Sherman pledge, which is a remark that was made by the American civil war’s General Sherman when he was being considered as a possible Republican candidate for the presidential election of 1884. A variation was crafted a century later. When Democratic Congressman Mo Udall of Arizona was asked whether he would run in 1984 against President Ronald Reagan, he responded:
“If nominated, I shall run to Mexico. If elected, I shall fight extradition.”
I can guarantee that if the First Minister wants to follow suit, we will not seek his extradition. He most certainly would not be part of any new fresh talent initiative.
Alex Salmond sat behind me on the green benches for four years, offering words of encouragement. I have been returning the favour from this seat. I can now let him into a secret: I listened to him in Westminster as much as he appears to have listened to me here. To be fair, although the First Minister repeatedly dismissed my proposals for investing in nursery education for two-year-olds he did accept, finally, that I was right after all.
The First Minister has attracted many names during his tenure, some of which are not suitable for this chamber. I am sure that he will reject this comparison, which I make to pull his tail, but he a bit is like Margaret Thatcher: a Marmite figure, with his supporters being as passionate as his detractors.
His lasting legacy will be that he almost secured independence for Scotland in the biggest democratic experience of our lifetimes. On the one hand, the referendum attracted the highest turnout in any election for decades and was for some people uplifting and engaging, but that experience was, on the other hand, far from being the universal experience. For too many families, friends and communities the referendum was divisive. The First Minister may not wish to accept that, but it will be as much his legacy as all the positive attributes that he would like to be ascribed to him. It will take many years for the wounds to heal and the unity that we once enjoyed to return. I hope that he reflects on that in his retirement.
With the First Minister’s resignation a mantle passes from him to me.
Ruth Davidson pointed out that I am now the longest-serving party leader with the privilege of regularly quizzing the First Minister—not by long, but I will take any prizes these days. That I spend Thursday mornings honing and crafting the 200 words to deploy each week is a credit to the standards that Alex Salmond has set for First Minister’s questions. That he has been so relaxed about providing answers each week also reflects his political ability.
I was grateful for the kind words that he offered when I returned from my back operation last week. In the same spirit, I hope that the First Minister’s arm is healing. As the new veteran leader, I offer some advice to the departing First Minister: we all need to take care of our health. I intend to get back running as soon as possible. I encourage the First Minister to spend some time with his beloved golf clubs, and I am sure that I speak for many when I say that he should take his frustrations out on inanimate golf balls, rather than Opposition politicians.
To lead a Government and a country is a privilege and an honour. I imagine that it can, at times, be an ordeal—every remark analysed, every move studied, every posture photographed. I think that we all recognise that, and the personal commitment that Alex Salmond has made.
I wish him well for the future.
14:51
“Nothing lasts forever”, said Francis Urquhart, “Even the longest, the most glittering reign must come to an end.”
Alex Salmond’s tenure as First Minister has certainly been long, by the standards of the office. While his supporters might call it glittering, and his critics might compare his record with the worst misdeeds of Francis Urquhart, the truth is probably somewhere in between. I am sure that Mr Salmond’s back benchers will understand it if all Opposition leaders feel the need to reflect on some of the lows as well as the highs.
I will start with a low so that I can end on a high; I hope that that is forgivable. I have chosen a low point that allows me to insult someone other than the First Minister. I hope that that, too, is agreeable.
The First Minister may already regret ever falling into the orbit of Donald Trump. A First Minister of Scotland should always try to recognise distinctive Scottish values, which surely embrace an egalitarian approach to life. To enter into dealings with a man who embodies the values of me, me, me, more, more, more, greed and overconsumption—nothing so much as the nauseating values of tea party America—such dealings could never have ended well. What I find bewildering is that the Scottish Government seems about to repeat those mistakes on the other side of the country. I ask the First Minister to take this last opportunity—perhaps his last act before he leaves office—finally to sever all links with that delusional bully. I fear that if he does not, not only his successor but the rest of the country will come to regret it.
Okay, on to the high point. No doubt some would expect me to cite the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009—the moment when Holyrood agreed, without a single dissenting vote, to set clear and binding emission targets. It was a moment to remember, but it was only a half measure of consensus. We agreed on the goal but never on how it was to be achieved. The high point that I credit Alex Salmond with in this area—the important contribution that I want to recognise on this occasion—is not on a target but on an idea. By putting his personal weight behind the concept of climate justice, he helped to advance an argument that will only grow in its global importance in the debate on climate change.
Ours is a wealthy country—a country that contributed greatly to the enlightenment and the industrial revolution that followed; a country that benefited from the carbon age; and, sadly, a country that has still not broken its perilous dependence on the production of fossil fuels. For such a country to argue that clean, sustainable, low-carbon economic development must be linked to justice between rich and poor, and to the human rights of those who are least responsible for climate change but most acutely affected by it and the damage that we have done and continue to do—that was an important argument to make. Alex Salmond used the office of First Minister to advance that argument and he is due great credit for doing so.
Mr Salmond brings his tenure as First Minister to an end after a referendum that has changed Scottish politics irreversibly. It did not lead to the change that we both sought, although, at 45 per cent, the level of support for independence was certainly higher than many had predicted at the start of the long campaign. The case was advanced, and I do not believe that it will retreat from that point. If and when Scotland ever asks itself that question again, it will do so from a more developed starting point, with few remaining doubts from any part of the political spectrum that Scotland has what it takes to be a successful independent country. It may be that too narrow an emphasis was placed on one particular vision of independence—on one book of answers. That may be a lesson for another time.
However, for now, although the vote went against the yes campaign, the experience has been transformational. The re-engagement with politics, the spectacular turnout, the channelling of understandable and justifiable anger with a broken political system into a constructive and positive movement for change—those are things that Alex Salmond helped to bring about. Indeed, it is possible that they could not have happened without him.
I believe that Scotland has been trying to vote for change for a long time now—in creating this Parliament; in bringing new voices into it; in trying out coalition, minority and then majority Governments; and then, finally, in testing the question of independence at the polling stations. That urge to change our politics, to build something better, will stay with us, and I have no doubt that Alex Salmond will continue to play a significant part, whether here or elsewhere, in ways that will inspire his supporters and infuriate his critics in equal measure. I thank him for his service to Parliament and to the country.
14:56
Alexander Elliott Anderson Salmond was born to privilege—not the privilege of rank, not the privilege of money, not the privilege of connections, but the overwhelming privilege of being a black bitch. For those who do not understand the term, that is the appellation for people who are born in Linlithgow. The black bitch that is on the town’s crest carries beneath it the motto, “Fidelis”, which means “faithfulness”, and Alex has been a faithful servant of this Parliament and of this country.
Alex was born with the privilege of caring and nurturing parents and the privilege of a free education, to liberate his potential—the foundations of his ambitions for all our people. From day 1, he was a disruptive influence—being born on hogmanay, he could hardly be otherwise. The parties were somewhat subdued on that particular day. He has been a potent agent for change. His life has been and will remain in the public gaze, but not everything is known, so—
Alex, as sons will do, left the family home, and his mother Mary breathed a great sigh of relief as a certain calm fell over 101 Preston Road, Linlithgow. However, it would be a few years before Alex finally departed. His mother, fed up with his still occupying an entire room in the house, moved all the political impedimenta that he had accumulated, in its many boxes and disorder, into the front garden, and phoned him to remind him that she lived a mere 300m from Linlithgow’s recycling centre. Strangely, the garden was soon restored to its natural order, and Mary and Robert had the room in their house back. So, when we read his autobiography—I have the money to buy it waiting here now—we should remember its genesis in that front garden.
Alex’s grandfather was a wonderful storyteller, who equipped him with the ability to construct a story, tell a story and seize the imagination.
In May 1961, John F Kennedy committed his country to landing a man on the moon before the decade was out and to returning him safely to earth. It was not known that that could be done and it was not known how it would be done, but Kennedy knew that it had to be done. Alex comes from that mould. He is a formidable leader and a formidable challenger of the status quo. He is a man who sets the rest of us formidable challenges. He is the toughest boss I have ever worked for or with, and the fairest, and he is a team builder. But, however tough he might have been on me or on the rest of us, he has always been tougher on himself. A driven man building on the achievements of our previous three First Ministers, he has raised the bar still further for our next First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
Alex has always been conscious that we are all here—Parliament, office, life—for but a short passage of time and, hence, that everything is about people. For me, two events illustrate that: one from the referendum campaign and one an echo from a previous campaign. Some 15 years earlier, when I was driving him round Scotland—yes, I used to be Alex Salmond’s driver—we came up an incline and found someone lying in the middle of the road with a beating heart but a tortured mind. Alex was first out of the car to help that person in their distress. Our plans for the day were put on hold until we had returned that person to their family, he had listened to their story and offered help. He gave not a thought for his personal safety on that busy road or for the day’s political objectives.
During the referendum campaign that has so recently passed, the most telling moment for me—if, perhaps, not for others—was when Alex met a young man who came up to him and explained politely that he was voting no. Alex did not seek to belittle that young man; he softly regretted the decision that he had made but shook his hand, held his hand and listened to him. If we learn anything from Alex, it is that we must listen, perhaps especially to those with views that differ from our own, however much we do not want to hear them.
Of course, whatever we say to Alex this afternoon, we speak of transition, not of an ending. First Minister’s questions will be different and Nicola Sturgeon will put her own stamp on them as Scotland’s new leader. We will miss Alex’s irritated flick behind the right ear when he judges that the question from the benches to his left is more inadequate than usual. We shall miss his careful checking of the wallet in the hip pocket when he has had a question from the benches to his right. We shall miss his checking that his jacket pocket flaps are out as he remembers his spouse’s commands for the day.
I say to Alex, our First Minister—perhaps the last time that I shall address him thus—whatever the future may hold, take from all of us our good wishes, our thanks and our love.
15:02
I promise that I will be brief, Presiding Officer.
I have small corrections for Jackie Baillie. Saving the world was what Gordon Brown did, not me. It was not in Perth that I was expelled from the party; it was at the Dam Park pavilion in Ayr. She is wrong about YouTube. She should go and look at it again, because I did not walk out—I was flung out. I offer her this in case she is ever in such a position: never go willingly—wait to be expelled, Jackie.
I thought that the rocks would melt with the sun before Jackie Baillie said something nice about me, but I was wrong. She did and I thank her for that. I also thank her for her contribution to First Minister’s questions over the past few weeks.
I had no idea that Ruth Davidson was so close to voting for independence. She was on the very cusp, if only we had found the right argument to take her over the finishing line. I was delighted to discover that the achievements of implementing SNP policy between 2007 and 2011 were actually the Conservative Party’s achievements.
As Ruth Davidson mentioned Annabel Goldie, I say that, somewhere, there is a video of me doing a toast to the lassies and Annabel doing a reply at the scouts and guides Burns supper just a few years ago. Thankfully, because of a series of injunctions, interdicts and superinterdicts, Annabel and I, acting together, have managed to keep that off YouTube for the time being. If it ever emerges, I fear that we will both have to stay in retirement.
Willie Rennie mentioned that thing about me telling him in a cafe that the SNP was going to win a by-election. I thought that he was a voter—I did not recognise him. [Laughter.] I have no doubt that the Liberal Democrats will return; I am just not quite certain what they will return to.
I listened with great care to Patrick Harvie, but I was still left hingin as to whether I am closer to Francis Urquhart or Donald Trump. I say to Patrick that I have always regarded him and his interventions in terms of a critical friend. I thank him for that and for his remarks today.
Stewart Stevenson is right that “black bitch” is a term of huge praise in Linlithgow—it means someone who was born within the sound of St Michael’s bells—but it confirms just about everything that my political opponents have ever thought about me. I say to him that he is wrong about the hogmanay celebrations in 1954—my dad went off to the Hearts-Hibs match and was not seen for some considerable time thereafter. Stewart has been my friend and colleague for nigh on 40 years, and I hope that we can do another 40 years together. I thank him for his remarks.
Through you, Presiding Officer, I wish every single member of this Parliament well and say goodbye and good luck. [Applause.]
First Minister—that is the last time that I will call you that—I record my thanks to you for the courtesy and respect that you have shown to me as Presiding Officer and to the Parliament over the past seven years.
I suspend the meeting until 3.25.
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