The "Demise of a Leader" and the rise of his Replacement

The whole sorry saga over Alex Salmond and his "alleged" behaviour towards women who worked for him has been a potentially enormous banana skin for the SNP and the present leadership.

That banana skin provided the Scottish opposition parties with the ammunition they so desperately needed as the inexorable rise of Scotland's desire for Independence gathered with 20 + successive polls showing a lead for the SNP.

Alex Salmond's resignation from the leadership of the party in 2014 and he was replaced by Nicola Sturgeon, but continued as an MP in Westminster until he lost his Gordon seat to of all people, a Tory of whom nothing is known, Colin Clark !  This pillar of Conservatism (Clark) lasted a whole two years before disappearing from public view.  

In truth, I thought myself fairly up to date with politics in Scotland until this came up!  In the Scottish world of political movement to have unseated what was a metaphoric giant of the political sphere north of the border and then to disappear after a mere two years in politics takes some doing. 

In August 2018, he (Salmond) resigned from the SNP in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct in 2013 while he was First Minister. In a statement he said that he wanted to avoid internal division within the party and intended to apply to re-join the SNP once he had an opportunity to clear his name.

There's an "oxymoron" if ever there was one! 

"Alex wants to avoid internal division within the party"

This is precisely what he has caused and to greater effect than all the opposition representation combined.

My opinion (for what it's worth) is that having admitted and apologised for his behaviour to one woman, and acquitted on numerous other charges (?) there is no doubt that his attitude towards women under his power/influence is that of someone who thinks that he can behave in a chauvinistic and frankly misogynistic fashion towards them. My heartfelt sympathies lie with his wife, an innocent in this moral debacle. He truly has done more damage to Independence than the entire Westminster cabal and if it results in the loss of Independence then he would be well advised to emigrate.