ONE of Alex Salmond’s most pungent critics has defended the former First Minister's decision to resign from the party and use a crowdfunder appeal to take the Scottish Government to court.
Jim Sillars, who was Mr Salmond’s SNP deputy in the early 1990s but has since become a frequent critic, said the former leader deserved respect for his record.
He said his resignation from the SNP was “the right thing to do” as it took Nicola Sturgeon “off the hook” of having to respond to opposition calls to suspend him.
Mr Sillars said: “He did Nicola and the party a great favour.”
Despite having five pensions and a show on a Kremlin-backed TV channel, Mr Salmond was not a wealthy man, Mr Sillars said.
He said he had spent a lot of his own money campaigning for independence, including in the 2014 referendum.
It was therefore legitimate for him to crowdfund his judicial review at the Court of Session, especially, as he might also face the Scottish Government’s costs if he lost.
He said SNP members didn’t see it as a fight between Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon, but as a dispute between Mr Salmond and the administration overseen by Ms Evans.
He said: “I think it’s perfectly legitimate for Alex to ask the party that he has served so well over the years for help, and the response from people shows their regard for him.
“The fact is that Alex and I have disagreed over the years both over policy and how to run the party, but you can’t take away the service he has given to the independence movement.”
Mr Sillars also rebuked Noel Dolan, a former special adviser to both Mr Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon as first minister, who said Ms Evans should quit if Mr Salmond won in court.
Mr Dolan, who is now retired from the Scottish Government, told the Sunday Herald: “I have known Alex Salmond for over 35 years and I’ve never seen any inappropriate behaviour, nor have I heard any allegations of sexual harassment prior to [last] Friday morning.
“I expect Mr Salmond to be cleared of these allegations, and when that happens I hope Leslie Evans, the Permanent Secretary, will consider her position and resign.”
However Mr Sillars said it was far too early in the process to start talking about resignations before the process had been examined in court.
He said: “My advice to Noel Dolan is what until we know the full facts and the full judgment before talking about anyone resigning their job.”
In previous years, Mr Sillars has condemned the “cult of personality” in the SNP around first Mr Salmond and then Ms Sturgeon.
In 2012, he also accused Mr Salmond of creating a “totalitarian” party that quashed internal dissent, and had become “intellectually dumb” as a consequence.
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 here