Scottish independence, Alex Salmond to fly to America and blow £360,000 of taxpayer’s money on another ‘jolly’, can’t get an audience in Scotland to listen to his miserable driveling crap anymore!

Dear All

A sign that a politician is fading is when they start going abroad to make speeches, towards the latter end of Gordon Brown’s Premiership, he was off abroad at the drop of a hat.

It is to try and make them look ‘statesmanlike’, in the case of Alex Salmond, he can’t get an audience with the Scottish people, they have turned their back on him.

Alex Salmond on his way out the door is burning Scottish taxpayer’s cash on another jolly.

As poor people suffer the bedroom tax which his SNP right wing government supports, the ‘Tartan Tory’ is going with his entourage to the annual Tartan Week celebrations in New York and Washington.

The good ole US of A!

Apparently he will discuss the "economic viability and credibility of an independent Scotland" but Donald Trump has branded Alex Salmond as “dishonest”, “untrustworthy” and “lacking in integrity”.

And he added in “two faced”.

A pretty fair assessment of the provincial minded nationalist leader, soon to be ex leader!

Trump said:

“His total lack of integrity reflects negatively on Scotland and his reputation for being untrustworthy and two-faced has been noted by many in the global investment community”.

And Alex Salmond thinks people will invest here after the way he treated Trump?

Salmond’s speech ironically is to the Carnegie Council for Ethics in New York on Friday, Salmond is completely lacking in ethics, here I draw on my own personal experience to usher in that view point.

As he tours the USA, one thing he wouldn’t be picking up is votes, he wouldn’t be picking up support and the Obama Administration is pro UK.

Part of the jolly is to hold meetings with potential business investors and help launch VisitScotland's Homecoming 2014 tourism drive in the States; since Scots won’t turn up at his events, he needs foreigners to pad out the numbers.

Labour MSP James Kelly, Scottish Labour's chief whip, said:

"The First Minister should be representing Scotland's interests when he is abroad, not the SNP's. Alex Salmond should be using this trip to talk about investment and jobs, not bang the drum for independence at the taxpayers' expense. Yet again, his priorities are all wrong."

Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said:

"The separation of Scotland from the rest of the UK should not be the priority business for the taxpayer-funded Scottish Government. When the First Minister embarks on these jollies, the least he could do is try to promote trade and tourism. Instead, he will spend his time drumming up US support for independence, no doubt at the cost of thousands of pound to the hard-pressed public purse."

So, there you have another publicly funded jolly as Alex Salmond rakes in as money, food, holidays and whatever else he can lays his hands before the end of his miserable career implodes in 2014.

Donald Trump built a golf course in Scotland, he spent a lot of money which boosted the Scottish economy; Salmond wanted him to back the freeing of the biggest mass murder in Scottish history, Al Megrahi.

Trump said no, and you can see why, his business interests and contacts in the US would have dried up.

The Scottish Government then approved the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) wind farm off the shore of Mr Trump's golf resort at the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire.

Who in their right mind who is a global investor would put a plug nickel into Scotland when they see the treatment Trump received?

And global investors are pretty smart; the ‘jolly fat man’ routine of Alex Salmond won’t work on them.

£360,000 wasted, Salmond is racking up millions on his holidays…… not long now to the end of his career.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University