It will take more than a scolding from Salmond to see off Sturgeon

Watching Alex Salmond rail against Nicola Sturgeon for sidetracking the Scottish independence movement with gender identity ideology is both uncanny and oddly nostalgic. Salmond was Sturgeon’s mentor and is largely responsible for putting her in the post she now holds.

For ten magical years between 2004 and 2014, they were the dream team of Scottish politics. Together they wrested control of Holyrood from Labour, lead a nationalist march through the institutions and civil society, and convinced 45 per cent of Scots to vote for secession. They made history and came damn near close to unmaking the United Kingdom.

Now Salmond has scolded his protege in a Burns Supper speech in Dundee that is being touted by people with a limited understanding of Scottish politics as ‘devastating’ to Sturgeon. It is not, but it does make some worthwhile points and it makes them fairly well.

Salmond contrasts his coalition-building approach to independence with Sturgeon’s red-line drawing purism and dalliance with what he regards as fringe political priorities.