Alex Salmond the Biography

Alex Salmond the Biography

Born 31 December 1954
Linlithgow, Scotland
Political party Scottish National Party

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond, known as Alex Salmond (born December 31, 1954), is the current First Minister of Scotland, heading a minority government.

He is Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Member of Parliament for the constituency of Banff & Buchan, & the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon.

He is currently serving his second term as leader of the SNP, taking over from John Swinney. He had previously been leader between 1990 & 2000.

The SNP won by the smallest of majorities (47 seats, 1 more than the Scottish Labour Party) in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. On 16th May 2007, Alex Salmond was nominated to become First Minister, heading a minority SNP administration, by 49 votes to 46. The Liberal Democrats & the Conservatives abstained. The Greens supported him.

Education & career before politics
Born in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Salmond is the son of Robert Fyfe Findlay Salmond & Mary Stewart Salmond (nee Milne), both of whom were civil servants. Salmond was educated at Linlithgow Academy & the University of St Andrews, where he graduated with an MA in Economics & History. He was first employed as an assistant economist in the Department of Agriculture & Fisheries for Scotland from 1978.

In 1980, he joined the Royal Bank of Scotland, for which he worked until 1987, first as an assistant economist, then as the Oil Economist & latterly as Royal Bank Economist. While with the Royal Bank, he wrote & broadcast extensively for both domestic & international outlets. He also contributed regularly to oil & energy conferences, & in 1983 devised the “Royal Bank / BBC Oil Index” which continues monthly publication to this day.

Early political career
Salmond became active in the SNP when he joined the Federation of Student Nationalists at St Andrews University in 1973 whilst a student at St Andrews. As a left-winger at the time he joined, he had considerable doubts as to whether or not the Labour Party would legislate for a devolved Scottish Assembly.

Expulsion & re-admission
Salmond started his political life as a committed left-winger inside the SNP & was a leading member of the socialist republican organisation within it, the 79 Group. He was, along with other group leaders, suspended from membership of the SNP when the 79 Group was banned within the larger party. In 1981, he married Moira French McGlashan (born 1937), a senior civil servant with the Scottish Office.

Following the SNP's National Council narrowly voting to uphold the expulsion, Salmond & the others were allowed back into the party a month later, & in 1985 he was elected as the SNP's Vice Convener for Publicity.

First time at Westminster
In 1987 he was elected Member of Parliament for Banff & Buchan, Scotland, & later that year became Senior Vice Convener (Deputy Leader) of the SNP. He was at this time still viewed as being firmly on the left of the party & had become a key ally of Jim Sillars, who joined him in the British House of Commons when he won a by-election for the seat of Glasgow Govan in 1988. Salmond served as a member of the House of Commons Energy Select Committee 1987-1992.

First time as SNP leader
When Gordon Wilson stood down as SNP leader in 1990, Salmond decided to contest the leadership. His only opponent was Margaret Ewing, whom Sillars decided to support. This caused considerable consternation amongst the SNP left as the two main left leaders were opposing each other in the contest. It was also around this time that Salmond & Sillars drifted apart. Salmond went on to win the leadership election by 486 votes to Ewing's 146.

His first test as leader was the United Kingdom general election in 1992, with a platform of free in 93, with the SNP having high hopes of making an electoral breakthrough. However the party, whilst considerably increasing its vote, failed to win a large number of seats; Sillars lost his, causing him to famously describe the Scottish people as '90 minute patriots'. This comment ended the political friendship between Salmond & Sillars, & Sillars would soon become a vocal critic of Salmond's style of leadership.

Devolution
The SNP managed to increase its MPs from four to six in the 1997 General Election which saw a landslide victory for the Labour Party. After election, Labour legislated for a devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.

Although still committed to a fully independent Scotland, Salmond signed the SNP up to supporting the campaign for devolution, & along with Scottish Labour leader Donald Dewar played an active part in securing the victory for devolution in the Scotland referendum of 1997. However, many hard line fundamentalists in the SNP objected to committing the party to devolution, as it was short of full political Scottish independence.

Salmond's first spell as leader was characterised by a moderation of his earlier left-wing views & by his firmly placing the SNP into a gradualist, but still pro-independence, strategy.

Kosovo
Salmond was one of the few British politicians to oppose the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. He was opposed to the conflict because it was not authorised by a United Nations Security Council resolution, which was a controversial subject at the time. Despite this, Salmond was heavily criticised in the media for describing Tony Blair's decision to intervene militarily as an "unpardonable folly" .

High media profile
Several years as party leader earned Salmond an unusually high profile for an SNP politician in the London-based media, leading to invitations to take part in entertainment programmes such as Have I Got News For You & Call My Bluff. His appearances on the latter, & more specifically the fact that he held on to one of the famous 'bluff' cards that are used as props in the show as a souvenir, proved to have an unexpected significance in the run-up to the first elections to the Scottish Parliament. To counter his frustration at having to sit in silence through what he claimed was an inappropriately political speech by Tony Blair at a charity lunch, he held up the bluff card as the Prime Minister began querying Scotland's economic prospects should independence occur.

Resignation & time in Westminster
Salmond was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 & was one of its highest profile members. He stood down as SNP leader in 2000 & was replaced by his preferred successor John Swinney, who defeated Alex Neil for the post.

In 2001 he left the Scottish Parliament to lead the SNP group in the House of Commons. During the prolonged parliamentary debates in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq he voiced strong opposition to Britain's participation.

In the aftermath of the war, he lent support to the attempt of Adam Price, a Plaid Cymru MP, to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq issue. Salmond has gone further than many anti-war politicians in claiming that Blair's statements on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had been consciously intended to deceive the public.

Return as leader
In a surprise announcement on 15 July 2004, Alex Salmond announced that he would be a candidate in the forthcoming election for the leadership of the SNP (which arose after John Swinney's resignation). Salmond had previously said that he definitely would not be a candidate in that election, even claiming in jest that if he were elected he would resign. In the postal ballot of all members he went on to receive over 75% of the votes cast, placing him well ahead of his nearest rival Roseanna Cunningham.

Although he was re-elected in the United Kingdom general election of 2005, he made clear his intention to return to the Scottish Parliament at the Scottish parliamentary election, 2007, at which point he would take over the role of SNP group leader in the Parliament from his deputy Nicola Sturgeon.

2007 election
He was a candidate in the Gordon constituency held between 1999 & 2007 by Liberal Democrat Nora Radcliffe. He defeated her with a margin of over two thousand votes, returning after six years' absence to the Scottish Parliament.

In the election on 3 May 2007, the SNP emerged as the largest party, winning 47 seats to Labour's 46. Following this close victory, Salmond's attempts to create a governing majority coalition with the Liberal Democrats & Scottish Green Party MSPs were unsuccessful, although the Greens agreed to support an SNP minority administration on finance & confidence issues.

First Minister
As a result, Salmond was forced to form a minority government on a "policy by policy" basis. He was duly elected as the Scottish Parliament's nominee for First Minister on 16 May 2007, & was sworn in on 17 May. He is the first nationalist politician to hold the office, following three Labour First Ministers: Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish & Jack McConnell. In order to concentrate on his new role as First Minister, Salmond stood down as the SNP group leader at Westminster & was replaced by Angus Robertson.

Following the decision of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to refer the case of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi back for a second appeal against conviction, Dr Hans Köchler, UN-appointed observer at the Lockerbie trial, wrote on July 4, 2007 to First Minister, Alex Salmond, reiterating his call for a full & independent public inquiry of the Lockerbie case.

Köchler addressed his letter also to Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith & to the Minister for Africa, Asia & the UN, Mark Malloch Brown.

Trivia
Throughout his time in politics, Salmond has maintained his interest in horse racing, previously writing a weekly column for The Scotsman & appearing a number of times on Channel 4’s "The Morning Line".
Mr. Salmond is a well-known supporter of Hearts & a keen golfer, albeit with moderate skill.

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