As the leader of Scotland, but not an independent Scotland, Alex Salmond has fulfilled one half of his ambitions. In an exclusive interview, he talks about the ups and downs of his time as First Minister.
“Before you ask, it’s Tunnock’s.” Alex Salmond gestures at the plate of biscuits on the table between us. Ever with half an eye on political one-upmanship, the First Minister is referring to Gordon Brown’s tortuous non-response to the simple question ‘what is your favourite biscuit?’.
Despite the fact an accident on the Forth Bridge means he’s missed dinner, and it’s sailing towards eight o’ clock on a Friday evening, Salmond’s hand strays no closer to the plate during the course of an hour-long interview.
That’s because the First Minister is on a diet. “I haven’t eaten a chip since December 23,” he says. He’s coy about revealing how much weight he’s lost only saying there’s still some way to go but this writer estimates around one and a half to two stones of the First Minister has disappeared.
“I don’t mind the long hours that come with the job, but the problem is you eat too late.”
Though he’s still, technically, First Minister for another five weeks and another four years if he gets re-elected the Scottish Parliament has been dissolved and Alex Salmond is on the campaign trail.
As such he’s swapped the ministerial Mondeo for an SNP colleague’s eight-year-old Audi and is meeting The Courier at Michelin’s tyre plant in Dundee, where he’s been pressing the flesh.
The last four years have been heady times for the Nationalists, with them enjoying their first taste of what it’s like to run a country.
How would he assess his own record? “We froze the council tax and scrapped the bridge tolls,” he says. “We’ve recruited 1000 extra police officers.
“A lot of people said we’d never get our first budget through but we’ve done so for four years. As a minority government you don’t win everything but we’ve won 75% of votes in Parliament.
“Some things you don’t manage to achieve. I’m aggrieved about minimum pricing on alcohol. Scotland has a significant problem with alcohol that we have to address.”RegretsAsked what’s the greatest regret of his time in office, there is no pause whatsoever before Salmond responds, “The Edinburgh Tram Project. We managed to get the bulk of what we wanted through but the other parties united to defeat us on this one, with the result that we’ve wasted £500 million.
“Think what could be done with £500 million of capital. Think what that could do for the people of Scotland.”
The trams were a pet project of the Labour-Lib Dem coalition that was narrowly ousted in 2007. Those parties united to force the SNP into continuing the project, since when the costs have grown substantially from the previous administration’s initial estimates.
Labour leader Iain Gray recently blamed the spiralling costs on Edinburgh City Council’s SNP/Lib Dem leadership for getting the project bogged down in contractual disputes.’Mr Trams'”Iain Gray was the transport minister who sanctioned the project,” Salmond responds. “He is Mr Trams.”
The First Minister explains what he thinks are the reasons for the tram project’s current chaos by way of a homely anecdote.
“When I was a wee boy growing up in Linlithgow my grandad was a plumber and I used to follow him around and carry his tools. People would ask him things like ‘Sandy, we’ve been looking for these drains but they’re not where they’re supposed to be.’
“He would usually know where they were because he’d lived and worked there for so long. But none of them were where the plans and blueprints said they were.
“That’s because Linlithgow is a medieval town. Nothing is where it’s supposed to be. Edinburgh is a medieval city. Nothing is where it’s supposed to be. That’s why the project is getting so expensive. It’s nothing to do with the contract.”
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So Salmond is adopting a slow and steady approach to achieving independence? “I would say steady, anyway. There’s nothing wrong with gaining ground.”
Away from politics, Salmond’s fondness for following Hearts and enjoying a flutter on the nags he used to write a weekly column on horse racing are well documented, but one passion overrides all others.
“It’s golf, golf, golf,” he says. Salmond is an 18 handicap, although he admits he’s had much less chance to play over the last four years. “Having said that, one of the greatest pleasures I’ve had was when I got to play the Eden in Hong Kong during an official visit as First Minister.”
His finest golfing moment came much closer to home though. “Not long after I became First Minister I won the Inch pro-am tournament as part of a team of four,” he says. “I played like God’s own anointed that day. So did the rest of the team. It was all the more satisfying because the honorary president of the club was Gordon Brown.
“I sent him a message to let him know I’d won, but strangely I never heard back from him.”CommittedSalmond doesn’t carp too much about not having enough time to spend on the golf course. “I’ve always been busy and committed. That’s part of the job if you’re a politician. I’ve loved every minute of being First Minister if I didn’t I wouldn’t be applying again for my position.”
One person who has been and will remain conspicuously absent on the campaign trail is Salmond’s wife, Moira. Seventeen years older than the First Minister, she has never courted publicity and lives at the couple’s home in Strichen, Aberdeenshire, comfortably away from the public eye.
Given that he has always been careful to keep his wife out of the spotlight, does it concern him that she still has a higher profile than Labour leader Iain Gray?
The question tickles Salmond’s funny bone. After a gust of laughter, he takes a moment to compose himself before giving the question a serious answer.
“I think the system we have in Scotland where, by and large, people’s families are not prominent in politics is perhaps a better system than elsewhere,” he says.
“I’m not judging how anyone else does it, but the tendency in Scotland has always been not to play the family card. I haven’t done it, Donald Dewar didn’t do it, neither did Jack McConnell or John Smith.
“We don’t have anything like a First Lady position, official or unofficial, and I think that’s a good thing. Being a politician is one of the greatest jobs there is. Being a politician’s spouse is not. You get all of the downsides and none of the upsides.”
Almost every recent opinion poll has put the Nationalists a few points behind Labour and, despite an almost chronically low profile (a recent survey showed only one in five recognised him from a photograph) Iain Gray is currently the frontrunner to be the next First Minister.
“People have been focused on the last Westminster election,” Salmond counters. “The public isn’t like you (a journalist) or me (a politician). They don’t live and breathe politics.
“Many people will only be turning their attention to the Scottish election over the coming weeks.
“When Ed Miliband spoke at the Scottish Labour Party Conference he made a speech saying winning the Scottish Election was a springboard for winning the UK election in four years’ time. There’s a breathtaking arrogance in treating Scotland as a testing ground or springboard for an election in Westminster. This election is about Scotland, the Scottish economy and who is the best person to run Scotland.”
Last week’s budget saw Chancellor George Osborne announce the creation of 21 new ‘enterprise zones’ in England, which will offer discounted business rates and reduced planning laws.
Do these concern the SNP? Isn’t there a danger that, say, wind turbine manufacturers might relocate from Tayside to Humberside if rates are cheaper there?
“I don’t see anything in the concept of enterprise zones we shouldn’t take advantage of,” says Salmond. “(If re-elected) we’re going to have four of them in Scotland.Renewables”To be competitive in an industry like the renewables sector you need commitment to the industry. We’ve had 42 major renewable applications in four years twice as many as our predecessor government.
“By the year 2020, there will be 50,000 jobs in the Scottish renewable sector. I expect a lot of these jobs will go to Dundee.”
Over the past few years, Salmond has thrown most of his energy eggs in one basket, setting his minority administration’s face against nuclear power and throwing as many resources at renewable energy as he can lay his hands on.
Dundee has been at the forefront of this drive and Salmond lays out his image of how the city will look in a few years’ time with some eloquence.
“My vision of Dundee is of it as a city of the future,” he says. “If I drive across the Tay Road Bridge and look to my left I’ll see the Victoria and Albert building emerging from the riverside bringing a new cultural depth to the city.
“When I look to my right I’ll see wind turbines being assembled, reflecting the city’s position as a hub for renewable energy. Beyond that I’ll see a city that’s combining a flourishing life sciences sector, a successful computer games sector you have companies like Outplay, which is bringing 150 jobs to Dundee and a cultural imprint that will do the city proud.”IndependenceWe’ve now had four years of a Nationalist administration, albeit a minority one, yet we’re no closer to the SNP’s most cherished goal. Does Salmond feel the economy has driven independence off the table?
“We’re further ahead in some ways,” he says. “We have new legislation coming through Westminster which will increase the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
“Now, obviously I would go much further but it’s a step in the right direction. Of course we were disappointed we couldn’t get a referendum bill through in this parliament. But one of the consequences of us winning this election will be the re-endorsement of the people which will give us a fresh mandate to bring forward a referendum bill again.”
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