Those left behind in the SNP are pygmies compared with Alex Salmond

It is entirely fitting that a politician of Alex Salmond’s reputation should be honoured on Saturday by a memorial service at what’s regarded as Scotland’s principal kirk, St Giles in Edinburgh. He deserves it.

I say that as someone who seldom, if ever, agreed with the man I generally referred to as Wee Eck, after that character in the Sunday Post newspaper.

He knew I wasn’t being complimentary; after all Salmond wasn’t wee, either in stature or political standing. But he never complained; instead, after initially calling me – on account of my age and experience – the “doyen of Scottish political reporting”, he treated me ultimately with outright disdain, bordering on contempt.

And, to return the compliment, it didn’t bother me one bit.

He was never in any doubt that he would eventually win an election and become first minister; in fact he told me so – saying that all oppositions eventually win and become the government. And so he did, in 2007.

We dogged each other’s footsteps all the way from my return to Scotland in 1994, through his initial reluctance and then enthusiasm for the idea of a devolved parliament, until we parted company with his defeat by David Cameron in the 2014 referendum. It might have been narrow in numbers but it was devastating in its effect on him.

Shattering defeat

He didn’t really believe that Cameron was a worthy opponent but he was wrong as the prime minister united every aspect and sinew of the Union – including the recruitment of Alistair Darling, former Labour chancellor – to beat him.

Defeat, when he was so close to victory, shattered him and his status withered dramatically as he became merely a bit player on the political stage.

Scotland then had to witness the wholly unedifying spectacle of Salmond and his former protege Nicola Sturgeon knocking lumps off each other in a bitter and, at times, ferocious personal war. A sensational court case that – in spite of seeing him acquitted of 13 charges alleging sexual assault – did nothing for his reputation, especially given some of the lurid evidence about his behaviour.

However, there is no doubt whatsoever that his absence from the fray has belittled the political scene in Scotland. Those he left behind in the SNP are pygmies when compared with Alex Salmond.

His outright admirers will probably agree with his own belief in himself that he deserved a better fate than the relative obscurity that had become his lot at the time of his death.

But Wee Eck’s downfall was both political and personal, which I am sure – or at least I hope – his mourners accept. He worked no miracles, broke no moulds but fully deserves his place in the political history of his country.

Alex Salmond’s death leaves a huge gap in the lives of many, especially his family. But mourners should not lose sight of the fact that he was human, with perhaps more than his share of human frailties.

However, he did not achieve his dearest political wish of an independent Scotland. And today, without him, that objective looks further away than ever.