"It could be Alex Salmond"

[RescueRangers]

Said Clegg today, "It could be Alex Salmond, it could be Nigel Farage or it could be me and the Liberal Democrats."

Am I missing something?

Is he deliberately saying Salmond in some sort of snide get at Nicola Sturgeon, or was this a mistake?

I have noticed quite a few times that other politicians have continued to talk about Salmond as if he were in charge of the SNP.

Is he being sexist?

AIBU to think that, whatever his reasons, he should get it bloody right?

Salmond is running as a Westminster MP while Sturgeon is a Member of the Scottish Parliament, so won't have the same sort of position.

Yes I agree, I think it's because Salmond would be sitting in Westminster.

Exactly. An MSP can't form a coalition with and MP.

That was my first thought but on reading the actual comments Clegg said Salmond could be a cabinet minister which is correct.

I wondered about this too. I'm glad someone cleared that up!

He did get it right in the context of the UK parliament. Can anyone who isn't either an MP or in the Lords be in the cabinet? Maybe they'd have to give Ms Sturgeon a peerage....

Oohhhh I see (now I feel stupid). Thanks!

It is a bit confusing - and would probably remain so. Arguably, the 7-way debate should have been among the potential UK parliament leaders. It highlights how problematic a coalition with the SNP would be - it's lead by someone with absolutely no mandate in the rest of the UK.

Are you sure it's not a way of making people think the worst - ie, oh no, we don't want Salmond, we don't want that to happen - it doesn't specifically refer to Westminster, isn't it just playing on assumed ignorance?

But it won't be Alex Salmond - he's not the SNP Leader in the House of Commons. Clegg was wrong, probably deliberately so, to encourage people to think the worst.

IIRC, the current SNP Leader in the House of Commons is Angus Robertson and, again IIRC, Alex Salmond has stated that he's happy to take a back seat. We shall see.

I'm not sure that 'It could be Angus Robertson' would be better, given that TBH I doubt many people south of the border have heard of him. Odd that - why wasn't he in that leaders debate instead of Ms Sturgeon?

Hm, well apparently he's not in favour of coalitions, he's talking about 'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_and_supply confidence and supply]] deals. Really not good, for Mr Milliband, the Labour party or the rest of the UK.

I think he said Alex Salmond because there is a perception that he is more scary / direct than Nicola Sturgeon. Nicola Sturgeon's public image isn't as forthright as her predecessors'.

With Angus Robertson as the last SNP leader at Westminster standing again and Stewart Hosie the Deputy Leader also standing again he is wrong to say that Alex will be the parliamentary leader?