What is a sleepy cuddle?

It sounds like something you’d do with a partner, maybe even a friend or your pet. But not with your boss, even if your boss is the First Minister of Scotland. If my boss tried to sleepy cuddle me I’d be straight to Human Resources and he’d probably be on his way to the hospital.

Yet that is one of the things we know Alex Salmond did with a colleague during his time as leader of this country.

The married 66-year-old also says he had consensual sex with a colleague, and stroked another’s face while she was sleeping, apparently to try and “wake her up”.

The reason I point this out is because it is something Mr Salmond wants desperately to get away from – and which some journalists are more than happy to oblige.

Sure, Channel 4 news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy gave him a grilling on the day he launched his new political party, March 26, and my own colleague Tom Gordon did similar – asking if he was still a creep and bully, or if he had reformed.

But those questions, fielded by predominantly male political journalists, have dwindled somewhat.

Alongside this, Mr Salmond has become more aggressive in his responses if anyone dare ask him why he is fit to stand for political office. It follows a pattern: he repeats that he has gone through “two court trials, three inquiries and was cleared” before berating the journalist for “trying to re-try” him.

There is one problem with his approach. How are the electorate meant to judge his suitability if he will not address the elephant in the room? That’s why the questions, no matter how bullish and rude the responses, should not stop coming.

This hasn’t always happened because his return to politics has injected excitement into what would, until his arrival, have been a relatively boring election campaign.

His behaviour, which surely would have seen him forced to resign had he been in office when it became public, is being slowly brushed aside.

After all, it isn’t like there aren’t other things to report on when it comes to the Alba Party. Many of their online events have been plagued by technical difficulties, which has left Salmond standing in front of a microphone like a bingo caller while his helpers try to fix the internet connection, making a joke, or possibly a new policy idea, about improving the broadband in Scotland.

When asked in one recent interview with Sky News’ Adam Boulton about his conduct with women the former FM trotted out his usual answer: “I like the way you wave away the trials… A trial in front of a jury in which I was acquitted. A jury, incidentally, with a majority of women on it, in front of a lady judge.” He went on: “I think most fair minded people will say ‘That’s that, it’s time to move on’. I don’t

think Sky Television should be trying to retry me.”

Mr Salmond may want to move on, which is all well and good, except being acquitted in a criminal trial does not explain away non-criminal behaviour.

His defence was centred around the former first minister’s assertion that his conduct, while indecent, was not criminal. That was, he has always insisted, a line he never crossed.

But there is a line between the criminal and the indecent and that is where Mr Salmond owes the electorate an explanation.

How are voters expected to decide if he is fit to return to Holyrood if he won’t address these questions? How will women in Holyrood feel about his past behaviour?

This is not about the Alba Party, let me be clear about that. Diversity in politics is good, and some have suggested a move like this has been on the cards for while.

The Herald:

With the SNP being such a broad church, and its only truly unifying goal being independence, it makes sense that other issues such as the gender recognition act reform, or even how to achieve independence, would begin to split the party. Those who have joined Alba are seeking a new way of achieving independence and have strong views on women’s rights which they believe are being eroded by attempts to reform the gender recognition act.

These are important issues; they should be discussed.

It is also entirely legitimate for those candidates to seek a better political home for their views.

The problem is that Salmond is its leader, and some of its supporters already know this presents difficulties. Alba’s policies on women’s rights may be taken far more seriously if this were not the case.

Particularly so as Mr Salmond appears to be using the support of women in his new party as a proxy; an attempt to show that there is no problem with his behaviour of the past.

When it was pointed out to him recently that “some people are a little bit dubious about your record with women”, he instantly replied: “Clearly some of the strongest feminist voices in Scottish politics are not, otherwise they wouldn’t be our party candidates.”

The problem is, women’s concerns about gender recognition and the behaviour of one man, who was the most powerful man in Scotland at one point, are very different issues.

If Mr Salmond truly wanted to show he cared about women’s rights and safety, he should look at his own past behaviour and start answering the questions. Instead he is hiding behind female juries, lady judges and female politicians.