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Alex Salmond 'stoking anti-English feelings with Braveheart video on breaking spines of oppressors'

Former MSP Alex Salmond kicks off Alba Lothian campaign on Calton hill in Edinburgh -  Euan Cherry
Former MSP Alex Salmond kicks off Alba Lothian campaign on Calton hill in Edinburgh - Euan Cherry

Alex Salmond has been accused of pandering to extreme Scottish nationalists after his new party released a campaign video which spoke of breaking "the spine of English superiority” and he claimed the support of a King who died nearly seven centuries ago.

The former First Minister’s Alba Party on Monday broadcast a supposed endorsement from Robert the Bruce, who successfully led Scotland during the first War of Independence against England in the fourteenth century.

Watch: Alex Salmond demands Alba Party’s inclusion in TV debates

In the clip, 'The Bruce', who actually died in 1329, predicts that Mr Salmond’s new rival party to the SNP would “unite the clans”.

The bizarre video was in fact voiced by Angus Macfadyen, an actor who played the Scottish King in the 1995 blockbuster Braveheart, and is a supporter of Mr Salmond’s party.

In it, modern-day images of pro-independence activists are shown during a supposed monologue from The Bruce.

The Saltire-waving campaigners are apparently compared to what are described as the Scottish "forces of freedom" who famously defeated armies of the English "oppressor" at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

The demonstration of “people power by the sma’ [small] folk of Scotland was the straw that broke the spine of English superiority”, it claims.

Opponents claimed that Mr Salmond had resorted to anti-English bigotry in his attempt to make a breakthrough in next month's Holyrood election.

ALBA Party leader Alex Salmond at a photocall on Calton Hill, Edinburgh - Andrew Milligan/PA
ALBA Party leader Alex Salmond at a photocall on Calton Hill, Edinburgh - Andrew Milligan/PA

Opinion polls show he faces an uphill struggle to win a single seat and is far more unpopular among Scots than Boris Johnson.

Pamela Nash, chief executive of the pro-UK Scotland in Union campaign group said “the nationalist mask has slipped” and described Mr Salmond’s campaign as “700 years out of date.”

“Salmond is making it clear that for him and his colleagues this election is a battle between Scotland and England,” she said.

“They talk of uniting Scots against ‘English suppressors’ which voters will find pathetic and divisive.”

Mr Macfadyen, a journeyman actor who remains best known for his role in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart 26 years ago, said the video, which he produced and was officially adopted by Alba, was “ever so slightly tongue in cheek but still makes a very serious point”.

With Mr Johnson so far refusing to countenance granting an independence referendum, the actor claimed “It is the “sma folk” or people power who hold the key to Scotland’s future. That was fact in 1314. It is true in 2021.”

Angus Macfadyen In 'Braveheart' - Moviepix/Moviepix
Angus Macfadyen In 'Braveheart' - Moviepix/Moviepix

Mr Salmond said: “With Robert the Bruce on our side the other parties should start to tremble.” In response to criticism of the video, he said victory at Bannockburn was a souce of "national pride" and that those attacking its message had "scant regard for the history of Scotland."

However, his opponents dismissed attempts to portray the video as light-hearted, claiming it was designed to stoke up anti-English sentiment.

Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary said that the “unpleasantness of Alex Salmond’s mob” had been revealed by a video which promoted “hateful division”.

He added: "Scratch the surface of many involved in Scotland's nationalist movement and you reveal the bigotry beneath the surface.

"England isn't the foreign oppressor and the English are not our medieval enemy.

"They are our friends, family, and neighbours - and this kind of rhetoric deserves to be left in 1314.

"We need a Scotland focussed on a national recovery - not this kind of hateful division."

Alba Party Leader Alex Salmond Campaigns On Calton Hill -  Jeff J Mitchell/Getty
Alba Party Leader Alex Salmond Campaigns On Calton Hill - Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

In a further blow to Mr Salmond, a rival Robert the Bruce, the actor David Paisley who starred as the King in the BBC docu-drama Rise of the Clans, criticised Alba's message.

He said: "This Robert the Bruce can categorically say he doesn't support your bigoted hateful vanity project of a party. I know Alba are seen as regressive but I wasn't expecting to be dragged back to the 1300s."

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