Opinion

Mandy Rhodes - Twelve months after Alex Salmond led the SNP to victory in the Scottish elections, the editor of Holyrood Magazine says he has become king of the political jungle by adapting his spots...

Perhaps it is a mark of mature political leadership when you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If that's the case then the weekly spat at First Minister's Questions last Thursday was Alex Salmond's most public coming of age.

With emergency measures in place to deal with a threatened fuel shortage because of industrial action at the Grangemouth refinery, the First Minister delivered a measured but altogether grandstanding statement which smacked of a man in control. He acknowledged the pivotal role of the UK Government as being in overall management of the matter, refused to be drawn into a blame game, called for calm and told Scotland not to panic.

All this while the leader of the opposition, Wendy Alexander, failed to use her opportunity during the session to even mention what is fast becoming an emerging national fuel crisis and major industrial dispute, preferring to talk about her current "special  pass to the corridors of power" bandwagon.

It was left to Annabel Goldie - who is, should the Labour Party forget when it is laughing and clapping along with Ms Goldie's well-timed retorts and faux displays of school girl flirtatiousness, leader of the Conservative Party in Scotland - to once again steal the opposition show by congratulating the FM on his approach to the dispute.

Meanwhile, Nicol Stephen - leader of the LibDems and a former deputy First Minister, who should really know better - acted like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights and encouraged everyone to panic, panic, and panic. Salmond, the man so often accused of engaging in tit-for-tat attacks, coolly, calmly and diplomatically described a delicate industrial situation that he was very much involved in and on top of.

He stressed they should work together so as not to inflame an already volatile situation and above all stressed the fact no-one needed to panic. His performance last week revealed him as a statesman - head and shoulders above all around him in the Chamber that day.

National emergencies are a time for consensual politics and call for a leadership that transcends party political-point scoring, and the SNP leader proved that not only can he do that, but that during the last 12 months he has become the man best suited to lead. So what has happened during the last 12 months for Salmond to go from being a man once described by political rivals as being not fit for purpose, to being a politician that could steer a country through a crisis?

It was only last June that Salmond's inimitable political posturing, following the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport, raised eyebrows and questions about whether this was a man that could ever put aside his SNP fundamentals when the gravity of a situation demanded something more temperate.

Well, last week he proved he could. No one would have ever argued that Salmond wasn't already a giant of a political beast before last May's results at the ballot box, but now he emerges as a man who has learned to, if not change his spots, then at least adapt them.

The SNP won the election last year on the back of electoral dissatisfaction with Labour at a national UK level; the war, the cash for honours, the sleaze, all contributed to the electorate in Scotland turning away from Labour.

Salmond recognised a political vacuum that his party could quickly fill and he presented his party as one of social justice, anti-war, anti-nuclear, on the left and led by him as a changed and more human man.

One year on and Labour may now hold up the SNP report card and claim it is a party of broken promises, but nothing much has changed in the intervening months to make anyone turn back to Labour.

There has been disquiet over an unelected leader taking control at No. 10, there has been discomfort over Brown's indecision over an election, distrust over illegal donations, upset over a worsening economic situation, a disbelief at attacks on the poor over income tax and a dislike of a perceived bully-boy tactic by Westminster over an SNP Government standing up for Scotland. Add to this an increasing English unrest about Scotland's power, share of money and different form of government that provides free personal care, reduced prescription charges and no tuition fees, and the chasm between what an SNP government is achieving in Scotland and what Labour says it is not is widening.

Labour has still to find its feet in opposition north of the border, exacerbated by what it is doing in government south of the border. Salmond's government may be light on legislation but as a minority administration has achieved a considerable amount in the last 12 months, including signing a historic agreement with local government which has guaranteed a freezing of council tax, abolished bridge tolls, reduced prescription charges, reprieved local A&Es, got rid of tuition fees and overturned the right-to-buy policy.  And on a global stage, the Scottish Government has revealed itself as a major player by announcing a £10m Saltire prize for renewable energy projects.

One year on - as opinion poll after opinion poll reveals the SNP has surprised not only its own supporters, and as a general election edges ever nearer - Salmond isn't just using fighting talk on the home front, but also believes his party could do serious collateral damage on the UK stage. There must be some sweet irony from the SNP camp it is oil that is the catalyst this week for Westminster to sit at a table with Holyrood and discuss the future.

 

 

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