Death by shaky camera, Alex Salmond’s RT show is remarkably stale, Jackson Carlaw nails it by saying “the only guests Alex Salmond can muster are old pals”, Salmond boasted that it would be an agenda-setting show; someone going to tell him TV Presenting 101; ‘the story’ is the ‘star’, as to reading out tweets Alex Salmond needs to grow up

Dear All

The Alex Salmond Show or as some wags call it, the Alex Salmondski Show, the slide downwards from dignity and grace continues unabated, oh how the mighty have fallen.This seems to be a truth in European politics that towards the end of their tenure, certain politicians just keep making bad decisions. Some decisions however end up being the one that ‘crosses the rubicon’, from there it is said there is no way back.

One of the dreadful parts of the Salmond show is reading out of tweets, as if to justify his show’s existence, it shows a lack of confidence. 

If you look at this episode, which was done for St Andrew’s day, you will see that rather than being an upbeat show, it has a sense of gloom in the air, like someone just lost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsXZ56Z-kBE

For a show with supposed ambition, it is certainly lacking, and who thought it was a good idea for Tasmina Ahmed-Shiekh to do a piece on tartan? 

If this is the fluffy piece, then clearly those behind the show have a steep learning curve to go through. Oh how the wannabe mighty have fallen in the case of Tasmina Ahmed-Shiekh, one day and MP at the House of Commons and then a few short months scratching out an existence doing what exactly?

Will Tasmina be doing a spot promoting and selling vacuum cleaners down the line, after all if you aspire to be serious then surely a piece about hoovering is required viewing for the masses.

As to the Kenny MacAskill appearance, this was just rank, hashing over a dead case involving a now dead man, was this supposed to be a 'history moment' or just plain bad taste because Salmond needed a ‘filler’.

In episode 4, we had the Brexit special, the latter half of the show featured disgraced SNP MP Angus MacNeil who was outed in a 'three in a bed' romp while his then wife was ‘up the stick’, commonly known as preggers.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/sleaze-mp-my-shame-at-3-in-bed-teen-950312

And then of course, there was the next piece of love making;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/16/snps-stewart-hosie-and-angus-macneil-split-from-wives-over-alleg/

Miss Cowdy who ended up with SNP MP Stewart Hosie is said to have told her friends that she saw SNP MPs as romantic revolutionaries, describing them as 'the Mujahideen of British politicians'.

In the jihad to see who would win Cowdy, Angus MacNeil lost out, whether you view that as a good thing or not depends on your taste, but Cowdy was better looking than Hosie and MacNeil’s wives.

In the SNP, there is the Court of King Alex and the Court of Queen Nicola, it seems that the Salmond Court is willing to support his RT show but Sturgeon’s crowd aren’t. Having Angus MacNeil on we are told was without permission of SNP bosses, but I doubt that anything will come of it. If you think about it, as Nicola Sturgeon has destroyed SNP support, the nationalist trend is downwards, the SNP bosses will probably have in the back of their minds ‘what if’, what if Salmond returns as leader in the future.

So, Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil becomes the first SNP politician in office to appear on The Alex Salmond Show, what a badge of honour. This part of the Salmond show had an SNP Fringe meeting about it although Nigel Evans MP joined the chat, he supports Brexit.

As Jackson Carlaw aptly put it:

“It seems the only guests Alex Salmond can muster are old pals. It’s hardly the agenda-setting show he boasted it would be”.

Although RT is registered as a broadcaster, and it does some interesting shows and documentaries, the Alex Salmond Show is remarkably stale, and muted, it seems that Alex Salmond forgot he is the presenter whose job it is to make ‘the story’ centre stage rather than him.

Certainly Alex Salmond is no Andrew Neil of the BBC, and it shows.

Scottish Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"When this show was announced I suggested that the former First Minister might want to use it to highlight the plight of some of those pushing back against the repressive Putin regime, sadly the quality of guest has been rather lower. Nicola Sturgeon will have her head in her hands that another SNP parliamentarian is indulging Putin's propaganda channel."

Finally, I don’t know about you but if I was giving tips for the show, I would say, the lightening is crap; the cameraman needs to hold the camera steady; someone needs to get rid of the ‘haunted’ feel, stop reading out tweets, it is rather sad and pathetic and set an agenda..... if capable.

And address this, “It seems the only guests Alex Salmond can muster are old pals. It’s hardly the agenda-setting show he boasted it would be”.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University