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EUAN MCCOLM: Gripping TV drama is proof that nationalism blinds its adherents to the ugliness displayed by its leaders

EUAN MCCOLM: Gripping TV drama is proof that nationalism blinds its adherents to the ugliness displayed by its leaders


When you actually wish to know the way harmful and corrupting an ideology nationalism is, then I urge you to take heed to the phrases of Nicola Sturgeon.

Reflecting on the breakdown of her relationship along with her mentor, Alex ­Salmond, in a brand new BBC documentary, the previous first minister considers his legacy.

‘The explanation,’ Ms Sturgeon says, ‘that I paid tribute to him is as a result of he deserved each ounce of the credit score he acquired for what he achieved as SNP chief.’

If ever one wanted proof that, to the Nationalist, ‘the undertaking’ is all, then right here it’s. 

Ms Sturgeon – and lots of others – might speak about Mr Salmond’s unreasonable behaviour, they might sorrowfully recall colleagues diminished to tears by a bully, they usually may even have the braveness to sentence him, however all of this stuff are as nothing in relation to their ‘evaluation’ of Mr Salmond’s ‘achievements’.

The 2-part documentary tells how the Salmond-Sturgeon relationship fell aside

Ms Sturgeon and others might imagine that the previous chief deserves ‘each ounce’ of the credit score he obtained for his political victories however to ensure that them to take action, they need to – and I don’t know the way that is potential – be capable to totally separate the person from the politician.

The reality is that Mr Salmond achieved a lot by being a totally disagreeable bully, a person with a brief mood who’d diminished to tears women and men who’d given him solely their loyalty.

If one should credit score Mr Salmond for what he achieved as chief of the SNP, then one should be capable to justify his appalling behaviour.

The SNP’s successes had been constructed by a person who put his ego and his crackpot undertaking earlier than the emotions of those that labored with him and the implications for many who voted for him.

The brand new documentary – a gripping piece of tv – tells how the Salmond-Sturgeon relationship fell aside. 

It takes us again to the second we realized girls employed by each the Scottish Authorities and the SNP had complained in regards to the former first minister’s behaviour whereas he was in workplace.

We hear the trembling voices of colleagues he ‘betrayed’ and the viewer will probably be left in little doubt that Ms Sturgeon and others now see Mr Salmond as a despicable character.

Nevertheless it’s not as in the event that they didn’t know he was bother, way back.

In the summertime of 2004, I used to be sitting by the pool exterior slightly villa in Aubignan, a Provencal commune. 

It was an excellent sunny day within the south of France and I used to be paying little consideration to the competition, happening again house, to succeed John Swinney as SNP chief.

Then my cell phone began buzzing. ‘All proper, Euan,’ stated considered one of Mr Salmond’s key allies. ‘I’ve acquired a bit of stories for you.’

After I’d flown from Glasgow, Roseanna Cunningham was main Nicola Sturgeon within the race to be the subsequent Nationalist chief. It regarded very very similar to a finished deal.

The revised – and completely inaccurate – model of occasions is that Mr Salmond, having stepped down as SNP chief in 2000, was immediately gripped by the will to return.

We’re invited to imagine that Mr Salmond approached Ms Sturgeon, asking if she may take into account stepping apart and becoming a member of him on a joint ticket. 

The story goes that Ms Sturgeon, selfless to a fault, was approached by Mr Salmond and, after some persuasion, agreed to place her private ambitions apart.

The reality is that Ms Cunningham was heading for victory and Mr Salmond and others thought that might be a catastrophe for the SNP.

Ms Cunningham – ‘Republican Rose’ to these within the Scottish political bubble – had little interest in the gradualist strategy to independence designed by Mr Salmond. Somewhat she was a fundamentalist who most popular a extra aggressively nationalistic fashion.

The one who referred to as me in Provence on that afternoon in 2004 was eager to let me know that the Alex Salmond who is perhaps returning as SNP chief was not the identical Alex Salmond who had stop 4 years beforehand.

There was ‘umming’ and ‘aah-ing’ and quite a lot of “he’s a modified mans’ earlier than we stated goodbye however the gist was that these near Salmond recognised his mood and ego had already induced some political editors (which I then was) to put in writing him off as a dinosaur who was disagreeable to cope with and that we might be stunned to search out he was now a person of empathy and self-reflection.

When Nicola Sturgeon talks about her shock on the manner during which Alex Salmond conducts himself, she does so because of a profile that might not have existed had he not saved her profession.

Inside months of the SNP’s 2007 election victory, rumours about Mr Salmond’s behaviour in direction of employees had been swirling round Holyrood.

Any makes an attempt to analyze additional had been shut down not solely by Mr Salmond however by those that now take into account him an enemy.

In 2008, I requested two senior SNP cupboard figures straight whether or not they had been conscious of any considerations in regards to the then First Minister’s conduct.

Not solely did they deny any information, they did so angrily. So angrily, actually, that though I used to be unable to report that the First Minister was a bully, I felt sure his colleagues weren’t being absolutely sincere with me.

I – and quite a lot of colleagues within the Holyrood foyer – would go on to listen to troubling tales about Mr Salmond within the years that adopted however every time we dared point out considered one of these to a senior SNP determine, we’d be slapped down.

Now, it would effectively be that Mr Salmond’s cupboard was stuffed with politicians who had neither heard of nor taken an curiosity in considerations about his behaviour. 

It’d effectively be that any who had heard mutterings thought nothing of the truth that a number of senior journalists and civil servants had been pretty overtly discussing the temper within the First Minister’s official residence, Bute Home.

It’d effectively be that any who had heard mutterings thought nothing of the truth that a number of senior journalists and civil servants had been pretty overtly discussing the temper within the First Minister’s official residence, Bute Home.

I suppose we are going to by no means know.

However I have to say that the brand new documentary tells a narrative of senior politicians and advisers who knew, lengthy earlier than the Salmond-Sturgeon break up, that the then FM was not a straightforward and even vaguely nice man to be round.

The SNP is now a busted flush. The occasion’s undeliverable guarantees and its senior politicians’ pathological lack of ability to take duty for his or her failures has exhausted Scottish voters.

Now, solely the flag-wavers and English-outers imagine that independence is inside their grasp.

However nonetheless they deny actuality, promising their supporters that the case for breaking apart the UK is stronger than ever. Buyers have lengthy since determined to not purchase their apples from that exact cart.

Mr Salmond blustered and bluffed his option to energy, then set about dividing a nation he professes to like.

And all of his colleagues lined up behind him to spout his hateful rhetoric about those that didn’t share their monomaniacal obsession with breaking apart the Union.

Ms Sturgeon seems to be at Alex Salmond’s ‘achievements’ and says he deserves ‘credit score’. I choose the phrase ‘blame’. And Nicola Sturgeon should take her share.

Written by bourbiza mohamed

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