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A WEEK is a long time in politics, and while Keir Starmer and his once-proud Labour party continue their unremarkable tenure, thousands of us have been mourning the loss of Alex Salmond.<\/strong> A WEEK is a long time in politics, and while Keir Starmer and his once-proud Labour party continue their unremarkable tenure, thousands of us have been mourning the loss of Alex Salmond. His sudden death at a conference in North Macedonia shocked everyone and brought tributes from across the political spectrum. Alex elevated the SNP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHis sudden death at a conference in North Macedonia shocked everyone and brought tributes from across the political spectrum.
\nAlex elevated the SNP from the political fringe to the party of government in Scotland and the way he was subsequently treated by those whose careers he had cultivated is nothing short of a disgrace.
\nI sincerely hope that those in the secretive, authoritarian dictatorship that runs the party get their comeuppance sooner rather than later.
\nStephen Flynn, the SNP\u2019s Westminster leader, spoke eloquently as he led tributes to Alex, Flynn spoke of his own \u2018great, personal sorrow\u2019, that Alex would not live to see an independent Scotland.
\nHe described him as \u201cthe most talented, formidable and consequential politician of his generation\u201d, and went on: \u201cThe challenge for all of us now in the nationalist movement is to make sure we put good his legacy and deliver the future that he so badly fought for throughout his distinguished parliamentary career.\u201d
\nHear, hear.
\nAs I write this, Chris McEleny, general secretary of the ALBA party which Alex led, is still in North Macedonia, helping with the process of repatriating Alex\u2019s body.
\nDiscussions are continuing but politicians in London are trying to balance the political significance of flying Alex back to Scotland with the potential public dismay of bringing him into an English airport.
\nI hope it\u2019s resolved sooner rather than later, for the sake of Alex\u2019s family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"