Euan McColm Euan McColm

Alex Salmond’s firebrand reinvention is hard to take

(Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

In power, Alex Salmond was, according to the senior lawyer who successfully defended him against a series of sex charges, ‘an objectionable bully’. Out of power, he breezed into a new career as a presenter on the Kremlin-funded propaganda channel, RT. He maintained his relationship with the broadcaster until the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Salmond deserves to be yesterday’s man. He’s utterly discredited, both morally and politically – and yet, he’s back. The current crisis in the SNP, still under investigation by Police Scotland as a result of fraud allegations, has given Salmond an in. Suddenly, every TV channel and radio station in the country wants to hear from Nicola Sturgeon’s mentor-turned-enemy. It has become hard to avoid hearing Salmond on some programme or other, expressing his deep sorrow that things had gone so badly wrong under his treacherous successor.

Salmond deserves to be yesterday’s man. He’s utterly discredited, both morally and politically – and yet, he’s back.

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