Salmond: Charles and the truth about THAT picture
HIS ‘black spider memos’ have repeatedly courted controversy and are said to exasperate many ministers of state.
But Alex Salmond has claimed that most of Prince Charles’s letters to SNP politicians are ‘ entirely sensible’ and the heir to the throne has a ‘great love’ for Scotland.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Spectator magazine, the former First Minister also discloses:
How much he dislikes a ‘ridiculous’ photo of him slumped, ashen-faced, in
‘I was not in the depths of despair’
the back of his car as his independence dream was crushed.
If he secures a ‘kingmaker’ role in a hung parliament at Westminster, Nationalist MPs could vote on Englishonly legislation in return for a series of concessions.
He believed he would win the referendum and blames the defeat on an opinion poll that put the Yes campaign in the lead with only 12 days to go, triggering panic in Downing Street.
Prince Charles frequently speaks his mind on issues he is passionate about and there are claims he will continue to do so when he becomes King.
Last month the UK Supreme Court heard calls for the documents to be disclosed to the public.
Mr Salmond told The Spectator: ‘I don’t think I’ve met anyone with a greater love of Scotland than Prince Charles. Some newspapers get extremely upset and irritated by the messages he sends to ministers. But I have never been upset about any of them. Most of them sound to me entirely sensible.’
Mr Salmond also spoke about September’s referendum and claimed as many as 10 per cent of voters were swayed by the Unionist parties’ last minute ‘vow’ after a YouGov poll put Yes in the lead.
Beaten in his own Aberdeenshire backyard, the then First Minister did not attend his local count and was f l own by private j et to Edinburgh.
He was photographed in the back of his car on the way to Aberdeen Airport, and the picture went around the globe.
But Mr Salmond told the Spectator: ‘That ridiculous photo that keeps getting used. I was looking at my laptop, the reflection is the laptop, that’s what it is.
‘I was not in the depths of despair, I was trying to read the results on my laptop at Aberdeen Airport.’ Mr Salmond now hopes to return to Westminster as MP for Gordon. He hopes the SNP will hold the balance of power in a hung parliament, propping up a Labour-led government in return for a deal over issues such as the renewal of Trident. However, on the matter of English votes for English laws, Mr Salmond insisted that not voting on devolved matters would be ‘my choice’ but that he would listen to ‘counsel’.