Salmond’s comeback is a pitiful sight

When Alex Salmond lost his seat at the 2017 general election, he finished his concession speech with a quotation from Sir Walter Scott’s poem, ‘Bonnie Dundee’: 

‘And tremble false Whigs, in the midst of your glee/You have not seen the last of my bonnet and me.’ 

Well, it is true that we have heard far too much from Alex Salmond in the years since but all roads, I suppose, led to the wholly unsurprising announcement this afternoon that Salmond is getting back into the game. Hell hath no fury like an ego ignored.

The Alba party – Salmond’s new venture – will contest seats on the list portion of May’s Holyrood election. Its chief purpose, Salmond says, will be to play its part in the creation of a nationalist super-majority that will shame even Boris Johnson – that famously shame-conscious man – into conceding an independence referendum it is very much not in his interests to concede.