Before Alex Salmond, Scottish Independence was an impossible dream, a romantic aspiration, outside the realm of practical politics. After Alex Salmond, it is the dominant question in Scottish politics and by far the biggest threat to the UK state.
I would argue that, with every poll for a decade showing overwhelming support for Independence among the under 30s and support for the UK only in a majority in the over 55s, Alex made Independence inevitable.
In Scotland’s national story, he deserves a place alongside William Wallace and Robert Bruce. (In my last conversation with Alex, about two weeks ago, he told me that new historical research made it pretty certain that Robert the Bruce was born in England. I told him that I knew that – in the family castle near Chelmsford, Essex, to be precise – and I had in fact published it about twenty years ago.)
I am really sad he has left us. It leaves a hero-sized hole in my consciousness. Very shortly after he retired as First Minister and Nicola Sturgeon replaced him, I said in reply to a comment on this blog that while I was not sure about Nicola, I would walk through fire for Alex.
In the end I did have to walk through fire, being imprisoned for publishing too much of the truth about the plot to destroy Alex and his reputation. Afterwards Alex very simply said “You had my back. I will always have yours.” We never mentioned it again; we both understood.
I am not going to give a history of Alex’s political career. There are plenty of others to do that. But I do want to recall that Alex was the only leading British politician to oppose the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 – on the day that Tony Blair called on NATO to intensify the bombing.
Alex vigorously opposed the invasion of Iraq and led campaigns to have Tony Blair impeached by parliament after being proven to have lied over Iraqi WMD, and also campaigned for charges against Bush and Blair at the International Criminal Court. He opposed the devastating bombing of Libya that plunged that country into a chaos from which it has never recovered.
His penultimate tweet referenced Starmer as following in Blair’s warmongering footsteps:
Starmer’s “we stand with Israel” declaration seems eerily reminiscent of a previous Labour Prime Minister’s open-ended commitment of some 20 years ago to stand with the USA on Iraq “come what may”. (1/3) https://t.co/s0oExsqwwc
— Alex Salmond (@AlexSalmond) October 2, 2024
Alex led an extremely tight and efficient SNP government of Scotland from 2007–2014 which had a long list of social accomplishments to be proud of and established Scotland as a more left-wing polity than England, with no tuition fees, free social care for the elderly, better childcare, free NHS prescriptions etc.
His weakness was that he was over-trustful and did not see the British security services coming. I know, because he told me, that Alex regretted allowing Angus Robertson to force through an amendment to SNP party policy in favour of Scotland remaining in NATO. Ironically, Alex did so because he thought it would pre-empt and buy off the US and UK security services, when of course they were actually behind it.
I do not pretend I had more than a nodding acquaintance with Alex before the plot to destroy him came to fruition. When he summoned me to meet him urgently on a cold, damp Edinburgh night I was delighted to go to see my hero. What he told me dropped my jaw.
But what stays with me most about that evening, in a bedroom of the George Hotel in Edinburgh, is that what he told me made it absolutely obvious that the plot against him was initiated in and directed from Nicola Sturgeon’s office. He was plainly in huge emotional pain over this.
He was also focused on Liz Lloyd, whom he believed to be an MI5 agent. He said that Lloyd had no connection to Scottish Independence and had initially been placed inside the SNP as an intern to an MP (or MSP, I forget) by a British Government graduate training scheme.
If you want to revisit today the conspiracy against Alex Salmond, I do recommend you read my affidavits in my own contempt of court hearing (as redacted for publication by the Crown Office).
The state deemed these affidavits so dangerous that Scotland’s corrupt judiciary quite literally ruled that they do not exist at all. They are “so evidently untrue as not to require cross-examination”. They were not accepted as evidence in my own case for which they were my evidence, which is truly remarkable. I was jailed with my evidence not even considered, or tested, as “self-evidently untrue”.
I swear to you and to the entire world, on my life and on every thing that I love or that is holy, that every single word is true. There has never been any evidence that anything in them is untrue. Everything we have learnt about the SNP in the last three years supports the truth of my story. Nothing has contradicted it.
In that last conversation with me, Alex was excited about recent council by-election results for his new party, Alba. It has been obtaining about six per cent, which would be enough to get representation in the Scottish parliament with its proportional system. More importantly, most SNP voters were now giving second preferences to Alba rather than the Greens, which he felt was an important shift.
Alex was very happy that Alba was more openly radical than the SNP. Anti-NATO and anti-monarchy, it represents a more radical route to Scottish Independence.
For a former First Minister to be building up a tiny party from scratch and getting 6% of the vote may be portrayed by some as humiliating. But Alex was really excited and upbeat about it; he relished the challenge and was thinking long term. There were days in his young life when 6% would have been a decent result for the SNP. He was simply bubbling with enthusiasm.
I should also recall the occasion when he hosted Peter Oborne, David Davis and me to dinner at a Mayfair restaurant and we got through three bottles of champagne before we even started to order. Alex was enormously good company and really enjoyed the finer things in life.
Heaven just got more fun. At least Alex will never have to worry about seeing his perjured accusers there.
————————————————
Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
PayPal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Good post Craig. I have suspected for a long time that Lloyd was MI5. With so much evidence against her that seems to get lost between the police and CPS blaming each other it all looks quite suspicious. Hopefully the truth will come out.
LLoyd was Sturgeons handler.
Robert Harris’s roman à clef “The Ghost” suggests that Cherie Blair was Tony’s handler.
HI Craig I never got time to read your affidavits in full . I will now find the time to read with a fine toothed comb.
I am still gutted this morning and planning to pay respects at whatever the funeral/memorial arrangements are.
Lots if people are thinking along the same lines about this tragedy- damned convenient for it to have happened in a puppet foreign state at this point in the proceedings. He was a martyr before and may be an even greater martyr now- God bless and rest his soul.
Condolences, Craig. That’s a brilliant obit and tribute, banged out in no time, and with central details of the story that will be recounted by no “real” (ie, approved) journalist.
I firmly believe that the most important article published on the Wings over Scotland site is; “All the jolly boys and girls” (Nov. 2020). While this article deals comprehensively with a specific subject, there are many additional threads that can be pulled using the basic evidence at the heart of the article, ie the trip sponsored by the US State Department under its International Visitors Leadership Program in July 2016. I have tried to explore some of these disparate threads here and elsewhere.
The IVLP by its own definition sets out to identify “future opinion leaders”. Delegates invited on this trip should therefore by relatively junior or middling in rank. Leaving aside Kezia Dugdale who was Leader of Scottish Labour (during this period, who wasn’t?), this description could be said to fit.
The anomaly would be Liz Lloyd, Chief of Staff to the First Minister. Lloyd sat atop her own specific Castell (the analogy of the Catalan Castell being my choice to conjure the concept of a pyramid of mutually self-supporting individuals reaching a height otherwise unattainable). The question to ask is therefore, was Lloyd being recruited, or was she doing the recruiting?
Still feeling devastated and the tears are still there waiting to surface. Thank you for being such a good friend to the greatest politician Scotland has produced.
David Davis MP, posted this on ‘X’ yesterday :
I was due to see Alec tomorrow night to discuss the next round in dealing with the Scottish Government’s malevolent actions against him.
We differed on some fundamental issues, but he was a great leader for his country.
—
Wonder if he’ll elucidate in parliament?
The divide and conquer, three-way split vote shenanigans, that kept you out of parliament likely had something to do with establishment fears over how you may use parliamentary privilege?
They also got Galloway out of Parliament.
“new historical research made it pretty certain that Robert the Bruce was born in England.”
And from a Presbyterian point of view he didn’t stop being a Catholic when he was excommunicated.
So Hollywood got it right about the scoundrel. He munched on Yorkshire puddings, called Scottish people “Jocks” when none of them were within earshot, and used to say mass every time he returned to his true homeland in Essex.
At least Donald Trump’s mother was genuinely born on the Isle of Lewis long after it stopped being Norwegian soil. That he loves his roots and has a strongly nationalist ancestral memory is evidenced in his enthusiasm for playing golf.
The above has all been verified by the Get-A-Life Twitter account.
When was Salmond excommunicated, and for what? Are there any internet reports about this?
Maybe you should stand for the leadership of the Alba Party? From what you say about Salmond, it may “put the Ross back in your Cromarties”!
Most politicians are ferrets in a sack. That may be because, despite starting with good intentions, they get soured by the inherent compromises of politics. More usually it’s because they’re careerists who come into it rotten straight out of uni and get more rotten with each year that passes. But every now and then you get a giant, a living inspiration, an actual leader who sees the good in politics and makes you believe in it. This generation’s example was Alex Salmond. It’ll be a very long time before his like is seen again.
Incredible, isn’t it, how so many unionist journos dare to recognise him as a political titan, but only in his passing.
Too many politicians today see everything as a short term popularity contest; winning a cheap round of applause from an otherwise hostile audience; or a positive newspaper headline from the otherwise hostile right-wing press being more important than taking an initially unpopular principled stance. Their shallowness breeds cynicism and distrust.
It’s a damn shame Salmond chose to stand down straight after the 2014 referendum. I fully understand why he did; and the unionist media, chastened, by the closeness of the result, were baying for his blood. But nevertheless, had he remained, it’s hard to believe he’d have wasted the powerful legacy of 2014 ‘s referendum campaign, in quite the way the SNP have.
Most of the obituaries/biographies are respectful.
Interesting how Salmond had a career before entering front-line politics, at the Royal Bank of Scotland ; establishing himself as a successful economist, this I’d guess, is why he didn’t crave validation.
I think one of the problems with today’s uni -> SpAd -> MP/MSP, PPE careerist politicians, is they constantly need public approval to feel validated, having done nothing else but politics.
I was so shocked to learn of his passing. He did so much for ordinary people, and the system eventually turned on him.
Thank you for your article. I enjoy reading your perspective on things. With so much of the mainstream media churning out the ‘official’ narrative it is good to have a source based on humanity and reality.
Alex Salmond will be remembered as a patriot who changed the future of his country for the better, and Craig Murray will be remembered as the man who stood up for him when he was down. Salmond was right on the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and right on Iraq, and the fact that most Scots could see it when the Labour Party couldn’t tells you everything you need to know about Labour. Salmond’s only political error was going on Russia Today, but he corrected that by resigning as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine.
Do you also consider it an error if politicians now appear on the BBC? It is supporting regimes that are committing far worse crimes than Russia has in Ukraine. Crimes that most living humans have never witnessed before.
Salmond had no choice but to go on the BBC, as it dominates broadcasting in Scotland. Working for RT was, however, optional.
Scottish demonisation of Russia has somewhat lost its moral force. I’m sure Alex Salmond had started to appreciate that before his sad passing.
Scotland does not demonise Russia. To the extent that Scotland thinks about Russia at all, people are mostly quite positive about the culture and the country, but probably shocked and saddened by the invasion of Ukraine. I am not basing this on any opinion polling, mind you, just on everyday experience as a member of a Russian speaking household, and observing the number of Ukraine flags that people put up in 2022 and 2023. I don’t think you have any evidence to suggest that Salmond was anything other than disgusted by the invasion.
Invasion? Still parroting the lie in 2024? I guess according to you 10 years of creeping genocide of Donbass, constant breaking of Minsk agreements, and indoctrination of population in Russophobia and glorification of actual Nazi supporters guilty of murdering a million innocents during WW2 never happened then? If so, the victim finally reacting after a decade of blatant crimes against humanity is “invasion”. Same as Serbia trying to pacify NATO funded terrorists is “invasion” of Kosovo, Saddam had WMDs, Libya/Syria/Yemen were “invaders” and Hamas “invaded” peaceful and totally not genocidal state that shall not be named for no reason whatsoever, eh?
I used to wonder how people in Germany believed the Gleiwitz lie about Poland starting WW2 by invading poor, innocent Third Reich (here if you never heard of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident ). Now that I see people still parroting nonsense lies about Russia and Palestine I no longer wonder, I just shake my head wondering how they can be so stupid still…
First of all, RIP Mr Salmond. You certainly passed too soon.
But apparently, bereavement doesn’t stop the usual controversies. So, here’s one for the road, from a former associate of Craig Murray. Birds of a feather…
George Galloway: The Russians are coming. Hopefully
Just can’t wait for HIS take on Alex Salmond…
Thanks for your efforts, Craig.
Alex Salmond calls out the “British Brainwashing Corporation” (circa 2010)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFj0CDYtlpI
Thanks Craig. I’ve been in tears this morning. He was the best of us.
Is it possible that he was Robin Cooked?
I was sad to see the news this morning. I am not Scottish and have never been convinced, on balance, that Scottish independence is a wise course. Nevertheless, I increasingly came to respect Alex Salmond as one of the few leading politicians from the British Isles with integrity and courage. I have no idea of Salmond’s personal circumstances but there has to be the suspicion that the smear campaign against him hastened his death. If Nicola Sturgeon was involved in the allegations, then actually I suspect it was at the behest of the British authorities, and that she wasn’t the principal player – although I say that from gut feeling not with great knowledge of Scottish politics. Anyway, I offer my condolences to the friends, supporters and family of Alex Salmond on a sad day.
Sad news indeed, and a fantastic obit from Craig. However, I have reached an age where I cease to be surprised by death. Mr Salmond clearly enjoyed his food and drink (‘3 bottles of Champagne before we ordered’) and for many such an approach to life is life limiting. Others, like Churchill, not so much. The lesson seems to be, live life to the full and bugger the consequences. You rarely know what your DNA or fate has in store for you.
In Mr Salmond’s case the stress alone of the false accusations against him would have knocked lesser men off their perch. It is a travesty of justice that his accusers have not been charged or, officially, not even named.
I await the comments from the tin foil hat brigade on this blog as to how his death was caused by agents of the deep state dripping essence of foxglove into his Scotch.
A wonderful obituary, a fine tribute to a great man, a superb read, and a brilliant expose of (only a fraction) of the nefarious doings of perfidious Albion.
We hope for more when you sit for Alba in the Scottish Parliament – which we hope and trust will by that time have parliamentary privilege – thanks to David Davis (never thought I would ever thank a Tory!)
We have lost the greatest fighter for Scottish independence since William Wallace. We are desolate.
Wings seems to have recovered enough from last night’s TwitterX outbursts to write an obituary for Eck – one that, like our host and unlike much of the press, he probably hadn’t had pre-prepared:
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-giant/
It’s still a good one though; I doubt you’ll find a better paragraph than this in any of the broadsheet obits:
‘Alex Salmond would have wished to die, some decades from now, in the country he fought for all his life, and preferably not before it had recovered its independence. But if he was to depart this life in a foreign land, where could be more apt than Macedonia – the land, after all, of Alexander The Great?’
Hard to believe he has gone, he was truly larger than life, a formidable speaker on the same side as me on so many matters. I never thought about his age but didn’t know he was so much younger than me. Dear Alex Salmond will surely get a biography written that whatever faults places him among the great politicians.
Well said Craig – Alex touched so many lives in a positive way – and he always had Scotland best interests at heart – he’ll be sorely missed.
Lovely tribute. Sturge hoped he would die in prison an innocent man, as did all the other liberal war hawks, zionists and monarchists. Alec cheated them all. God bless.
Alex Salmond was a monarchist, both when he was leader of the SNP, a monarchist political party, and personally as a member of the monarch’s privy council, which he continued to be even after he became the leader of a different political party after he fell out with the new leadership of the other one, which tried to put him in jail on trumped up charges.
He was fairly liberal in some ways too, e.g. he didn’t want to criminalise abortion or homosexuality.
Clue: words mean stuff.
Aye, the type of monarchist who opposed the institution of Monarchy.
https://www.albaparty.org/not_my_king
And how is it possible to be unaware of the term liberal war hawk when you’re one of the greatest living authorities on politics, war, geopolitics, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc etc? 🥸
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_hawk
He was intelligent articulate and likeable.
That’s why the Powers that be nobbled him.
Unfortunately Nicola and her husband have been nobbled too, after all the work they did for others.
Supping with the Devil requires a long spoon.
With this ghastly occurrence, will his lawsuit be resiled or sisted or whatever the technical term is?
I remember when he gave evidence to the Holyrood Inquiry that he often rested his hand on a stack of A4 printouts, carefully turned face down so that neither cameras nor the Inquiry members could see any part of them. He had been warned by the Crown Office that he would face serious consequences if he shared any part of the truth in those documents with the Inquiry.
It is my suspicion that those documents show a very clear trail of evidence of who the conspirators were and how the conspiracy was structured and organised and orchestrated.
If we didn’t live in such as shit world, those documents would surface on somewhere like Cryptome or Wikileaks or maybe even RT. It would be the guilty parties who are sent to the Bar-L for sentences equivalent to that which would have been meted to Alex Salmond if the conspiracy had succeeded in securing guilty verdicts in the Moorov shopping list of charges.
Thank you for this Craig.
Speaking as an Englishman, Alex’s ability, integrity and achievement were never, and are not, lost on me.
May he rest in peace. The more scurrilous of his opponents most certainly won’t.
I always wondered, and still suspect, whether the BBC’s Nick Robinson was demoted from his daily role as Political Editor to the wee small hours presenting the Today programme after he was caught lying about Salmond.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/out-in-the-open/
Very, very sad about this. Well before his time, in the sense that he had plenty more to contribute to Scottish political life and ideas. Leslie Riddoch’s piece in The Guardian has some good anecdotes about his empathy for people and his love of debate. I hope never to hear from Sturgeon about him or Scotland, but no doubt she will be doing some grandstanding and offering utterly ingratiating insincerity and insinuating herself into Alex’s great victories and policies – in comparison to her own dearth of legacy or any achievements at all, other than killing the prospects for independence that Alex handed her.
Looking back you can see the incredible achievement of bringing Scotland to the brink of independence, as well as the policies he implemented when he had the opportunity. It is very sad to me that he didn’t live to see himself vindicated and the Sturgeon cabal cast into the outer darkness where they belong.
Your appreciation of Alex Salmond is the best I have read. His legacy is assured by the “pre-Salmond – post Salmond” comparisons, and that is what is most important. There was never any doubt in my mind that he was set up by the SNP leadership cabal maybe sponsored by the Anglo state, and your account helps to reinforce this. There is also no doubt that this persecution contributed to the health issues which in turn contributed to his death. What would Alex want to be done now – to help cement his legacy? I don’t know, but I suspect that the word “unity” might be part of the answer.
My deepest sympathy on the loss of your friend. He was larger than life in so many ways. we may not see his like again