iScot 100, November/December 2024 Quotes

“But politics wasn't a career for him even if he excelled in its arts. He was committed to Scotland and independence spurning overtures to join other parties.

Yet the SNP Alex recruited me into was a sorry place. Severe electoral drubbings adding to a sense of malaise across the land, with a referendum won, albeit marginally. But rigged and taken from us by Westminster duplicity. It has ever been thus.

But he had a dream of what Scotland could be. And a strategy to achieve it. Building a party which then took office, and which so nearly won the referendum.

Setting to with a will and the rest is history. Leading a team of Ministers with no past experience and with no parliamentary majority. But his vision and deft handling ensuring an administration which was recognised even by opponents as credible, capable and competent. Reaping unprecedented electoral success in 2011, something unlikely ever to be repeated.”
― Kenny MacAskill, iScot 100, November/December 2024

“Salmond made a tactical retreat from SNP leadership in 2000. His pre-eminent hatred of war ultimately brought him back after Blair's instant dive into the Iraq whirlpool (while demanding Holyrood Labour subservience to himself). Salmond's resourcefulness in government, his enlargement of its international profile and transmission of joy in Scotland's quest for its seat in the United Nations, carried him far beyond predictions as he took independence all previous heights in Referendum 2014. But however much he was caricatured as 'Smart Alex', he was more deeply self-critical than Parnell, and was unwise to resign premiership and leadership after the referendum's defeat. His encouragement of his juniors generously attributed greater fidelity and integrity than his SNP successors proved to possess.”
― Owen Dudley Edwards, iScot 100, November/December 2024

“Alex had already established himself as a formidable operator in opposition, an inspiring orator in debate, and a tactician who was always a step (or three) ahead of his opponents, but he really came into his own in government. For someone who often made mischief for his opponents, the hallmarks of his own time in office were competence in government and investment for the longer term. Everything was strategic, whether it was capital investment in roads, schools, affordable homes and other essential infrastructure, investment in the NHS and other public services, or investment in people through access to education and skills. It was all oriented towards building a more successful and sustainable Scotland for the future.”
― Eilidh Whiteford, iScot 100, November/December 2024