 | 'If nominated I'll decline. If drafted I'll defer. And if elected I'll resign.' Alex Salmond MP, June 2004. |  |
| 'If nominated I'll decline. If drafted I'll defer. And if elected I'll resign.' Alex Salmond MP, June 2004. | |
Alex Salmond 's decision to vie for the
leadership of the Scottish National Party
must rank among the great political
u-turns of our time.
A month ago, he flatly declared: "If nominated I'll
decline. If drafted I'll defer. And if elected I'll resign."
No ambiguities there.
Now, on the eve of the nominations closing, he has
entered the ring. The likely scenario is that Nicola
Sturgeon will abandon her bid to become the party
leader and hitch her bandwagon to the Salmond
campaign in the hope of becoming his deputy.
The MP for Banff and Buchan since 1987, Alex
Salmond has shown himself to be a man of surprises.
In 2001, he held onto his Westminster seat in the General Election, which was hardly a shock given the
bedrock of nationalist support in the north east of Scotland.
What was surprising was that he stood at all. He had previously, widely and loudly, announced his
retirement from the House of Commons to concentrate on the Scottish Parliament.
Dawn of devolution
His volte-face in remaining at Westminster was not the only surprise he had unleashed; his resignation
as leader of the Scottish National Party in 2000 was equally unexpected.
True, the SNP had suffered some troubled times, but Mr Salmond had successfully led the party into the
new political dawn of devolution for Scotland.
During his 10-year tenure he had repositioned the party significantly, defining it as more social
democratic and pro-European.
In July 2000, a number of political pundits
suggested Mr Salmond would reshuffle his
front-bench team, but few could have predicted he
would include himself in any changes.
Reacting to his resignation, the then Secretary of
State for Scotland, Dr John Reid, said: "Alex
Salmond's decision to stand down at this juncture
obviously comes as a surprise."
That sentiment was echoed by the then First
Minister, Donald Dewar, who said: "Like everyone
else I am surprised at the news."
The 49-year-old is said to be a tough, intelligent and
hard-working politician, unafraid to speak his mind.
Ejected from chamber
In particular, he aroused controversy when he opposed Nato action in Kosovo during the 1999 Scottish
election campaign.
Eleven years earlier he had interrupted the chancellor's Budget speech in protest at cuts in income tax
rates and the introduction of the poll tax in Scotland - for which he was thrown out of the chamber for a
week.
After leaving St Andrew's University, the young Mr Salmond became an economist, first for the civil
service then specialising in oil for the Royal Bank of Scotland.
He also wrote extensively for the daily and specialist
press on politics, fishing, oil and economics.
Active politics beckoned and in 1973 Mr Salmond
joined the SNP and became a member of its NEC in
1981 and elected vice-convenor of publicity in 1985.
By 1987 he was on the road to the leadership. That
year he was elected MP for Banff and Buchan, as well
as becoming deputy leader, and in 1990 he won the
leadership of the party.
A new chapter looks set to be written in the political
of life of the charismatic Mr Salmond.
When he stepped down in 2000 he said he had no
complaints or regrets and saw his 10 years at the head of the party as a "rare" privilege.
That rare privilege could come his way again.
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