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BREAKING NEWS - Alex Salmon intends to stand down

13 replies

Hulababy · 19/09/2014 16:17

www.bbc.co.uk/news/

OP posts:
SlicedAndDiced · 19/09/2014 16:18

He seems sceptical of wm's promises.

Grin I can't imagine why he would think that.

Hulababy · 19/09/2014 16:25

Alex Salmond is to step down as first minister of Scotland after voters decisively rejected independence.

He will also resign as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) after the "No" side won Thursday's referendum by 2,001,926 to 1,617,989 for "Yes".

The national split of the vote was 55% for "Yes" to 45% for "No".

Mr Salmond said: "For me as leader my time is nearly over but for Scotland the campaign continues and the dream shall never die."

Speaking from Bute House in Edinburgh, the first minister's official residence, he told journalists: "I am immensely proud of the campaign that Yes Scotland fought and particularly of the 1.6m voters who rallied to that cause."

Mr Salmond also said there were a "number of eminently qualified and very suitable candidates for leader", although the current deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon, also deputy SNP leader, would be seen as a clear frontrunner.


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BBC is currently being updated with further information apparently.

OP posts:
Isitmebut · 19/09/2014 16:30

Salmon was/is the consummate politician, I suspect he was going to leave anyway, he looked tired.

AMumInScotland · 19/09/2014 16:32

I think Nicola Sturgeon would certainly be the obvious choice.

I'm not surprised he's standing down - it's the obvious choice having got through the referendum and ended up with a No vote.

IamHelenaJustina · 19/09/2014 16:33

I'm kind of gutted now. I didn't realise resignation was the prize. If the Scots had voted YES we could have ditched Dave AND Nick.

Opportunity missed...........mind you an end of the appalling bully Salmond isn't a bad result.

AMumInScotland · 19/09/2014 16:34

TBH I wouldn't have been surprised if he had stood down as leader even after a yes vote, to be an advisor or something rather than having to be all over the place all the time.

watfordmummy · 19/09/2014 16:34

So long, farewell, don't bang the door on the way out!!

mymummademelistentoshitmusic · 19/09/2014 16:41

Astounded he has the decency to go after the shameful way parts of the yes campaign were handles by a minority.

saoirse31 · 20/09/2014 09:15

Sorry to see him go. Hopefully next leader will be able to push devolution which despite all promises in the last wk of campaign is clearly already being pushed further away. Think scotland will come to regret this vote to be honest... particularly perhaps after the next Westminster election and an eu referendum.

STIDW · 20/09/2014 18:08

He may have resigned as First Minister and leader of the SNP but I think Alex Salmond may have realised that the most important job after the Referendum (whatever the outcome was) is negotiating. That would be very difficult for someone to do whilst in office and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him back for a couple more years in the role of negotiator.

Love or hate the man the union has changed forever.

"Forget Bannockburn or the Scottish Enlightenment, the Scots have reinvented and re-established the idea of true democracy."

See Irvine Welsh in the Guardian;

"Forget Bannockburn or the Scottish Enlightenment, the Scots have just reinvented and re-established the idea of true democracy. This – one more – glorious failure might also, paradoxically, be their finest hour."

claig · 20/09/2014 19:27

Thanks for linking that article, STIDW.

It is a very good article and very perceptive apart from his comments on UKIP. He seems to think UKIP are an establishment tool, but UKIP is for leaving the EU, and the establishment, the BBC, the PPEs and the luvvies want to remain in it.

He wrote another good article a few days before the result

'This entire process has been a disaster for the major UK-based parties and the antagonistic mainstream London media (including the publicly-funded BBC, which came over like Pravda). They all lost massive credibility north of the border by seeing the debate as one about narrow nationalism, rather than the extension of democracy it had long evolved into.'

time.com/3386812/irvine-welsh-scotland-has-already-dealt-the-uk-elite-a-crushing-defeat/

Welsh is right that it was really about democracy and representation and rule by the people not the elites.

It is the same thing in England, except it will take a different form, it will be the rise of UKIP to challenge the elites and deliver representation for the people.

claig · 20/09/2014 19:31

'They all lost massive credibility north of the border by seeing the debate as one about narrow nationalism'

And that is exactly the same argument they use against UKIP, and it is because they have nothing else in their locker.

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