Just hours before his death, Alex Salmond took to social media to proudly fight for Scotland – signing off his final post with ‘Scotland is a country not a county’.
THE DEATH OF ALEX SALMOND
The former First Minister, who died of a suspected heart attack on Saturday during lunch at a conference in Macedonia, made a name for himself by fiercely fighting for his nation.
A titan of Scottish politics, the 69-year-old led the Scottish National Party to their first majority in 25 years of devolution, where he secured a referendum for independence from then Tory Prime Minister David Cameron for 2014.
HIS LAST INVOLVEMENT ON EARTH
Mr Salmond posted on social media just three hours before the news of his death was broken, characteristically lauding independence as he urged First Minister John Swinney to think ‘independently, not subserviently’.
Slamming his involvement in Starmer’s Council of Nations and Regions yesterday, he raged that the meeting was a ploy ‘to pull any independence teeth from devolution’, saying that the Prime Minister was ‘freezing Scots pensioners’.
The late politician was in the process of supporting a couple in their 70s, Peter and Florence Fanning from Coatbridge, who are taking a challenge to the Court of Session over Labour’s decision to restrict access to the winter fuel payment.
Salmond said: ‘Tony Blair used to whine that he never really compared the Scottish Parliament to an “English Parish Council”, it was only the nasty Scottish press who twisted his remarks! In fact, he did so compare.
‘Similarly, there is little point in John Swinney complaining that his attendance at the grandly titled Council of the Nations and Regions doesn’t carry a perception of a regional status for the nation of Scotland – it does deliver that status.
‘Of course the First Minister has the right to insist on bilateral JMC meetings with the Prime Minister. I am not sure in which world that correct business approach includes a convivial group selfie with the political opponent who is freezing Scots pensioners.
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He continued, ‘If John or his advisers had read Gordon Brown’s original proposal for this Council, then they would have realised that this wasn’t some ad hoc reset meeting, but part of a plan to pull any independence teeth from devolution.
‘It is designed to diminish the status of our Parliament and the First Minister. Part of becoming independent is about thinking independently, not subserviently. John should have politely declined the meeting with the words “Scotland is a country not a county”.’
Mr Salmond is believed to have collapsed during lunch at a conference in Ohrid, North Macedonia.
