Alex Salmond, Scotland’s longest serving First Minister

So Alex Salmond has achieved the feat of becoming Scotland’s longest serving First Minister. This is a notable achievement. After all, he has avoided the fate of one of his predecessors – resigning in disgrace – and another: being defeated at the ballot box.

Salmond has just served as Scotland’s First Minister for 2001 days, or five and half years, just eclipsing the term served by Jack McConnell between 2001 and 2007.

But even he would agree that the field to contest this landmark is not a large one. Scotland has only had four first ministers since 1999. The first, Donald Dewar, lasted just a year before his death in 2000. The second, Henry McLeish, also lasted a year before resigning over an office expenses scandal. McConnell was the third and he steadied the devolution project, bringing some much-needed calmness to the enterprise and serving a largely unremarkable five and half years before election defeat to Salmond in 2007.