In 2014, Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling stood on a stage and — in front of the cameras, with thousands watching on and a landmark referendum just weeks away — they set out their arguments for Scotland’s future.
Ten years on, and both of them are dead. It’s been a long time since Scotland seemed farther from independence — and a long time since the benefits of the union were less apparent.
Salmond’s legacy will of course be overshadowed by the disturbing sexual misconduct scandal of recent years. In many respects, his shadow looms large over the modern-day SNP. But on the other hand, the First Minister, John Swinney, a long time colleague of Salmond’s, is a gradualist on independence, in contrast to the more bullish philosophy of the man from Aberdeenshire and his allies. So for the foreseeable, a second referendum seems to be off the table.
As for Darling’s side of the bargain — well, he was the chancellor for Labour’s last Westminster government. He implemented Gordon Brown’s financial agenda. But Keir Starmer seems to be substantially to the right of Brown, who regularly takes to The Observer to call for more progressive measures. Brown might be blue in the face, but Starmer and Rachel Reeves are true blue, as they’re increasingly keen to make out.
In recent months, it also seems the Scottish government are keen to replicate Reeves’s economic philosophy at Holyrood. It’s funny; ten years ago, prominent SNP and Labour figureheads profoundly disagreed. Now, at times, it seems that you could scarcely fit a cigarette paper between them. Both have substantially scaled back their ambitions, at a time when public services are crying out for serious investment, and their answer to deeply damaged societies seems to be to simply cut further.
It’s curious. ‘Yes’ campaigners used to promote independence as a way of freeing Scotland from the constraints on policy imposed by Westminster, especially during Tory austerity. Independence would finally allow the nation to spread its wings. To decarbonise and become a world leader on climate. To generate genuine social reform. To end child poverty in Scotland. It’s this angle that drives young people to engage with independence, and it matters to an increasingly large and vocal number of Scots.
The SNP doesn’t want to tackle these issues. By and large, it has shied away from them, folding on transgender rights, infrastructure spending, and — humiliatingly — on climate commitments, one of the landmark achievements of Nicola Sturgeon’s tenure. Under successive leaders, the internally riven SNP struggled to face up to these issues: she deserves credit for holding them together for a time, before the Scottish Government became torn between progress and the denial of progress. Nobody could have done it forever.
Salmond might have brought Scotland to the edge of independence, but he shared that antagonism towards progress. It defined his final political project, the controversial Alba Party. It’s an antagonism that’s steering them away from independence yet again. And if Swinney cannot turn his party towards the light, then Salmond’s shadow will continue to loom large.
“Portrait of Alex Salmond” by Scottish Government is licensed under CC BY 2.0.