A PEER who shot to fame after she made a rude hand gesture in the House of Lords has denounced First Minister Alex Salmond as a "mad man".
Former Bletchley Park codebreaker Baroness Trumpington, 90, also said that she thought that the SNP's push for independence was "absolutely crazy".
The peer became an internet sensation two years ago after footage emerged of her making the obscene signal towards her Conservative colleague Lord King. She has since insisted that he "got what he deserved" after he made a reference to her age during a debate in the Lords.
The former agriculture minister, who served under Margaret Thatcher, laid into Mr Salmond in an interview with the BBC's Daily Politics.
She said: "The Scots are really led by a mad man. I think it's absolutely crazy what they're trying to do. Well, I hope their leader goes down, down, down."
A spokesman for Mr Salmond declined to comment on her remarks last night.
Baroness Trumpington was made a life peer in 1980.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article