Alex Salmond’s reckoning is coming – he was far from a saint

Women with unhappy memories of Scotland’s former Nationalist first minister are likely to soon be coming forward

It had taken us a while to find a decent bar amid the packed streets of Venice on Saturday, one that wasn’t swarming with cruise liner tourists taking pictures of each other.
Il Caravellino was just what we’d been looking for. It seemed perfect – all dark wood and a bit dingy. The drinks arrived in no time – a perfectly mixed dry martini for my wife and a large glass of rosé for me to help cool down the 22C temperature as Venice sweltered in its Indian summer.
However, hardly had the first sip been supped when our sister paper in London got through to us: Alex Salmond was dead, having collapsed during a speaking engagement in, of all, places, North Macedonia.
There were no jokes about Death in Venice; instead the next hour was a blur as a column was put together about the demise of a man I had spent decades writing about and who had starred in my diary of the 2014 independence referendum, somewhat erroneously entitled Alex Salmond: My Part in his Downfall.
I wrote a column for the Sunday Telegraph which sought to pay tribute to Salmond’s political strengths as a hugely controversial figure who almost succeeded in his ultimate aim of breaking up Britain.
It did not avoid mentioning the personal proclivities that led to future humiliations for Salmond. As the next day dawned over the Grand Canal, we were increasingly astonished by the veritable social media approval from people who said they knew him.
Indeed, “astonished” may be too mild a description because of a strange attitude that seems to have been quickly adopted by much of Scottish, and indeed British, society in the wake of his death.
It is an attitude that is wholly undeserved.
The view that the former first minister was a formidable politician is without doubt correct. But is it also wholly accurate that he’s also being credited by others with being a boon companion?
The question arises because what many feel to be a disturbing aspect of the comments about Salmond is that because he was found not guilty four years ago on 12 charges of sexual assault and a verdict of not proven was returned on one charge of attempted rape, this period of his life can be, if not completely forgotten, then largely glossed over.
It was a view he always urged on others while he also complained that the case was the result of a conspiracy orchestrated by Nicola Sturgeon, his protege, successor and subsequent deadly rival. She denied his claim.
However, his trial before the High Court in Edinburgh in 2020, heard evidence from Salmond that far from sexually assaulting an accuser they had been indulging in a “sleepy cuddle” and with another he admitted there had been “a bit of how’s your father”.
His own defence advocate had been overheard telling a train passenger that Salmond was a “sex pest”, senior civil servants had stopped some of their junior colleagues working with him, and to my certain knowledge, many women have felt uncomfortable in his company.
Before long I think there will have to be some form of reckoning on behalf of women who have unhappy memories of their dealings with Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond.
His admirers should bear that in mind. Their hero was no saint, instead he was a man with many human failings, perhaps more than most.