Death of a political career: Alex Salmond gets a slot on weekly LBC radio show, says he will ‘shoot from hip’, and be “unburdened from office”, unburdened from reality is probably a more apt description, Salmond needs a spotlight but his mouth will be his undoing, odds on how long it will take to put his foot in his mouth and cause a problem, quite short I would think

Dear All

It seems that Alex Salmond is to host his own radio show on LBC down in London, the format is alleged to be “honest, straight talking... with a bit of fun”.

Having lost the Scottish independence referendum, stepped down as First Minister it appears that Salmond cannot get over himself, his ego demands a platform to hog the limelight.

Salmond isn’t the only one has tread this path, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has done it along with, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.

It is highly doubtful that Salmond will be a success in his 30 minute slot, so I expect him to go the route of shock jock, a platform to spread division in England.

In effect anything to cause trouble.

In Scotland, people have effectively turned off from what Alex Salmond has to say, his career has nosedived so he has taken to making statements which are ill-judged. The outcome of that is that people just pour scorn on him.

One wonders what this whole new audience will comprise of, will it be people phoning up to rip into him?

I noticed that when he did his mean tweets piece on the radio, he tried to bluster his way through it, water of a duck’s back, however, some of the comments stuck home, and he looked a trifle upset.

Maybe he will find out that 30 minute stint on the radio won’t be such a laugh as people phone in to be unkind, brutal and direct.

Salmond is the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman at Westminster, his recent trip to Iran was ill-judged, he looked a fool, but he says he is “unburdened from office” and therefore promises to “shoot straight from the hip”.

Unburdened from reality is how I see it.

Lib Dem Tavish Scott said:

“The last thing Nicola Sturgeon will want is for him to be given free rein for his increasingly bizarre pronouncements”.

As I wrote before, there are two Courts now in the SNP, the Court of King Alex and the Court of Nicola Sturgeon, down the line, there will be trouble, and shooting straight from the hip will be a recipe for disaster.

 Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said:

“Despite complaining repeatedly about austerity Britain, it seems Mr Salmond now wants to supplement his income from two political salaries and a newspaper column with a talk-show.”

Labour MSP Neil Findlay said:

“If Salmond was chocolate he would eat himself. Here we see Alex Salmond, the man who hates Westminster so much he has gone there for the second time, now hosting a radio show in the centre of the city he disparages so much.”

Salmond has no eye for detail, and as I say to others, smart mouth doesn’t always mean smart brain. As First Minister, he had people to do his thinking for him, now he doesn’t, if we are lucky, this radio slot will effectively kill off the rest of his miserable career.

One thing of interest is that Salmond is being paid and the money isn’t going to charity, given the number of jobs he holds, what kind of service do his constituents get as he goes around the place hovering up cash?

Title for his show could be ‘death by a thousand cuts…. All self inflicted’ or ‘It’s all Westminster’s fault’.

It’s all downhill for Alex Salmond, this radio slot is a way station on the descent downwards, he will try and be populist because he doesn’t know anything else but that will only work for so long, the mob will want substance, all Salmond has to offer is ‘bread and circuses’.

Yours sincerely

George Laird 

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University