Alex Salmond: My Part in his Downfall - The Cochrane Diaries

by Alan Cochrane

Alan Cochrane – or ‘that ghastly man from the Telegraph’, as Alex Salmond’s wife calls him – emerged as a Unionist hero in Scotland’s recent independence battle. Using his newspaper column and his list of Westminster and Scottish contacts, the veteran journalist mounted a personal mission to ensure the survival of the United Kingdom and the downfall of Alex Salmond’s Scottish nationalist cause.

At the same time, Cochrane was keeping a diary of the campaign, from Westminster’s decision on whether to allow the ballot to go ahead to Gordon Brown’s late entry onto the scene as tensions mounted in the No camp. Through the pages of this journal, Cochrane reveals how the UK was won, offering biting analysis, telling detail and trenchant wit.

As the polls narrowed in the run-up to 18 September, the historic fight for Britain brought out the best and the worst in the characters involved. With his behind-the-scenes access to David Cameron, Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown and everyone in between, Alan Cochrane raises the curtain on the panicked, incompetent and cynical world of modern politics, sparing no one from his acerbic tongue.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published December 4, 2014

About the author

Alan Cochrane is a journalist, the Scottish editor of the British broadsheet newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

Cochrane was born in Dundee and educated at Grove Academy in the city's Broughty Ferry area. He entered journalism as a sub-editor and reporter for DC Thomson before joining the Daily Express in Glasgow. Between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s he was based in London, covering political issues across a number of newspapers.

In 1994 he was appointed as editor of the Scottish Daily Express before becoming deputy editor of Scotland on Sunday. In the late 1990s he became a columnist at The Daily Telegraph before taking up the role of its Scottish editor.

Reviews

[Geoffrey Charlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny overview of the referendum that gripped Scotland by one of the key journalists writing during the campaign. The gossip and insider meetings with major payers of the campaign was great and it was enjoyable reliving those years, even if it looks increasingly likely that we will have to suffer through another referendum before long. A must read for anyone who campaigned on the no side of the referendum.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm leaving the rights and wrongs of his political stance to one side as this is a book and not a referendum review. it's a bitchy and snappy diary and makes for a very amusing read if you followed scottish politics in the run up to the referendum.