Nicola Sturgeon does not wish to spend this election talking about Alex Salmond but she cannot escape his overbearing presence either. Speaking to the SNP’s “virtual conference” she made but a single, fleeting, reference to her predecessor. Having done so, she moved on, presumably on the basis that if no one mentions the bear outside the window the bear may disappear. This is no time for putting self-interest before the national interest, Sturgeon said, though that is a self-serving, even self-interested, appraisal of this election’s new circumstances. Whether one approves of him or not, Salmond’s analysis of the election arithmetic is sound: except in the south, many SNP list votes do little to elect SNP MSPs.

Source: The Times March 29, 2021 15:56 UTC