Alex Salmond: A politician who loved creating headlines

Glenn Campbell
BBC Scotland political editor

Alex Salmond loved creating headlines. He would be disappointed if he gave an interview that was not sufficiently interesting to make the news.

As a young radio journalist, I was sent to see him at a business breakfast event where at that time he was demanding the UK join the single European currency.

When I suggested this was not new, that he’d said it many times before, he said: “Yes but I’m saying it more forcefully now because the case is more urgent.”

Anything to make his contribution count.

Spending time in his company could easily make you late. He tended not to limit interview duration and enjoyed further conversation, debate and showing off a bit after the microphones were off.

I can remember interviewing him in his early days as first minister at his official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh.

The interview was over and I needed to go - but he wanted to show me a collection of silverware that had been found in a cupboard, and share something of its history.

While he could be charming and entertaining and always offered a sharp analysis of the politics of the day, there was also a less pleasant side to his character.

I would wince when sometimes he would show impatience and irritation towards his staff. He could be very demanding of them.

I can also remember bringing a senior BBC editor from the newsroom in London to see him, and was astonished when he asked my colleague if he was on a colonial visit.

He had a love/hate relationship with the BBC. He loved when he was offered a prestigious spot on a network show like Question Time, especially when his political career was in decline.

At other times, he would rage against output he did not like.

He was not happy that I interviewed, anonymously, one of the women who had accused him of sexual offences in court, after he had been acquitted of all charges.

It was not an attempt to re-try the case but a response to his claims of a political conspiracy. I am not sure he forgave me for that.

I travelled with him to Europe, the United States and China. I remember him turning up uncharacteristically early at the Forbidden City in Beijing to meet China’s vice-premier and finding himself locked out.

It would have made powerful TV footage but I don’t think we got it on camera. He thought we had captured this embarrassing moment and gave me a private briefing and a couple of scoops in the hope I wouldn’t use it.

Alex Salmond lived and breathed politics and he seemed completely lost when he was ejected from parliament in 2017.

I bumped into him in Edinburgh soon after and we shared a taxi to Waverley station. Naturally we talked politics and when it came time to part he just kept the conversation going.

In recent years, we talked far less. He refused to take part in a podcast series I made about Nicola Sturgeon’s time in office - which would obviously have included the spectacular rift between them.

That was not like him. In all my previous experience, he rarely missed a media opportunity.

Better in his view to get out there and make his case rather than shy away and let others set the narrative.

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