The Scottish National Party uses a saying, “it’s not where you come from that is important, but where you are going”, one of Alex Salmond’s rising stars faces a date in Court over election expenses, question, does that “it’s not” include prison?

Dear All

It seems that one of Alex Salmond’s former rising stars, Highland Council's youngest member Alex MacLeod has resigned.

Hero no more, a hero is down!

He is facing allegations about his election expenses.

As I recall, someone dobbed him in, apparently the tip came from an unnamed individual, it seems that the SNP isn’t a united party as Salmond and Sturgeon would have you believe.

Mr MacLeod studied Law at Edinburgh University which means he has a few brain cells upstairs; he was also very active in the Young Scots for Independence organization. , he rose up in that organization to the position of National Secretary.

In 2010 he was appointed a Parliamentary Assistant to the SNP MSP Rob Gibson.

McLeod was also his Campaign Manager in the 2011 election when Gibson captured the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat from the Lib-Dems.

McLeod also worked for First Minister Alex Salmond, he worked for the First Minister for 10 months in Edinburgh and Aberdeen handling parliamentary and constituency work after he left school.

Prior to last year’s elections, Mr Salmond had urged voters to back the teenager and described him as a "grafter".

Given all this, I guess the ‘I’m a bam defence’ isn’t able to be used.

Alex MacLeod was elected as a councillor in May when he was aged just 19.

He was pretty young to be a councilor and it is a shame that his career should end in such a bad note.

In December, he was reported to the procurator fiscal by police, in connection with alleged offences under the Representation of the People Act 1983.

A council spokesman said the local authority had received notice via e-mail of Mr MacLeod's intention to tender his resignation with immediate effect.

It is a rather unfortunate end to his political career, he had ticked all the boxes for a successful career ahead, however; his focus should have been on making sure his legal obligations were in order.

MacLeod had also previously resigned from Highland Council's SNP group when the scandal broke.

It seems that everything is falling apart in the SNP, awhile ago I proposed training hubs to Scotland's unpopular Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as an idea to improve the quality of SNP candidates, like many a good idea of mine, it was ignored.

What a pity for Mr. McLeod.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University