Salmond at his most dangerous

If you had hoped for dynamite from Alex Salmond’s first public outing in the Sturgeon affair, you will have been disappointed, for the first few hours at least.

Instead, the usually smug Salmond came across calm, measured and even demure at times. And always polite, particularly to the committee convener, Linda Fabiani, even during his coughing fit.

Yet that does not mean the former first minister was anything other than dangerous. You might say lethal, certainly cunning. It’s just that it took a few hours before today’s Committee hearing at Holyrood – not helped by some pretty awful questions from MSPs – got under the skin of what Salmond claims is the SNP government’s unlawful investigation of sexual harassment claims made against him.

When the meat came, it was red raw. The former first minister said Nicola Sturgeon’s administration has “failed” and that it has “acted illegally” in its handling of the allegations, suggesting even that the SNP government is not fit to lead it to independence.

Salmond even accused his successor, Sturgeon, of using a Covid-19 press conference to further her case: “I watched in astonishment on Wednesday when the First Minister of Scotland – the First Minister of Scotland – used a Covid press conference to effectively question the results of a jury.”

What’s more, Salmond claimed the Committee in its inquiry had been “systematically deprived of the evidence it has legitimately sought” and had been asked to do its job “with both hands tied behind its back and a blindfold on”.

Rather than attack the institutions themselves, he said it was the personnel that were at fault. “The failures of leadership are many and obvious but not a single person has taken responsibility, not a single resignation or sacking, not even admonition.

“The Scottish civil service has not failed, its leadership has. The Crown Office has not failed, its leadership has failed. Scotland hasn’t failed, its leadership has failed.”

While he still wanted Scotland to be independent, he also wanted it to be a country with robust safeguards where citizens were not subject to “arbitrary authority”.

But the inquiry, he asserted, was not about him: “I have already established the illegality of the actions of the Scottish Government in the Court of Session, and I have been acquitted of all criminal charges by a jury in the highest court in the land.

“The remit of this inquiry is about the actions of others, whose investigation into the conduct of ministers, the Permanent Secretary, civil servants and special advisers.

“It also requires to shine a light on the activities of the Crown Office.”

There was live dynamite, but it came towards the end of the hearing when he alleged the identity of a woman who accused him of sexual assault was passed to his former chief of staff by the Scottish Government.

Second, he argued that there should be a “further police investigation” into a leak to the Daily Record newspaper about complaints against him, claiming that it could only have been politically motivated, and was perhaps easy to trace because the report used the same language as the permanent secretary’s report on the inquiry. This suggested it was clear the paper had either been passed the full document or an extract. “If they do leak they don’t leak to the political editor of the Daily Record.”

It’s too early to declare a victor in this battle royale between Salmond and Sturgeon. But what is clear from today’s testimony is that politics is always personal.

How else to explain the choice of the Robert Burns room in which to hold the inquiry. As well as being Scotland’s finest poet, Burns was also a well-known womaniser, fathering 12 children. See our leader below for more analysis.

Moral duty

Union leaders representing teachers, the police and prison officers are unhappy with the decision to put age before occupation as the basis for the next stage of the vaccine roll-out.

But Matt Hancock, the health secretary, explaining the choice at tonight’s press briefing, said that doing so is a “moral duty”. Not only that, but he added that it is also the “fastest and simplest way” to continue with the vaccination programme.

On this, logic is on Hancock’s side. Once you start trying to prioritise occupations – or those who are full-time or part-time – it would far too easy to get bogged down with process.

Indeed, one of the astonishing feats of this vaccine roll-out is the speed with which the NHS, the army and all the other authorities and volunteers involved, have been able to get through the top four most vulnerable groups.

Trying to interfere with that process, as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has warned, would be too complex. And risk slowing down the programme.

Yet continuing on the current age-based route, the NHS hopes to have everybody who is eligible vaccinated by July. So far, more than 18 million people in the UK have received a first dose: why would you start messing with that?

Or, as Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said more generally about the easing of restrictions: “Don’t wreck this now… it is too early to relax”.

And as if we needed reminding, another 345 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, albeit a fall of 35 per cent compared with last Friday.

The cows will stay

Hurray for common sense. Plans by Cambridge Council to stop its so-called ‘Pinder’ service which allows cows to graze freely around the city’s many commons have been scrapped.

The Labour-led council had hoped to save £8,000 a year by pulling the service which covers the cost of employers looking after the cows out-of-hours if they have accidents, like falling into the River Cam, or becoming ill after eating too much litter left on the commons.

If the service had been dropped, each of the individual farmers or graziers would have had to look after their own animals at night and weekends.

But the graziers warned that they would be unable to watch over their cattle on a 24/7 hour basis and that they would up sticks and take their cows elsewhere.

This was one penny saving too far for the city’s townies and gownies, who have been leading a campaign to keep the centuries-old tradition alive.

Luckily, the council saw sense. It will also look at other ways of keeping the cows even safer, such as a new ramp over the river. Leading the charge was Lib Dem councillor, Katie Porrer, who said: “Unfortunately the cows don’t only choose to jump in during office hours, so I do think an overnight provision is going to remain essential for some considerable time”.

Have a good Weekend. Enjoy our brilliant writers on Tchaikovsky and Tuscany in Reaction Weekend, and the balmy weather.

Maggie Pagano,
Executive Editor