Three years ago, he was Scotland’s most unpopular politician. More unpopular even than Boris Johnson. And north of the border, that’s really saying something.

Three months ago, his Alba party lost both MPs in the UK general election – unsurprising since they were first elected under a Scottish National party flag, but marking the end of Alba’s brief presence at Westminster. The party also lost its deposit in every one of the 19 seats it contested.

Yet despite this, the party’s leader, Alex Salmond, remained optimistic. In truth, he had no other setting. An opinion poll in June for the Holyrood elections had given his party 5% of the vote – a pitiful showing compared with those heady days as SNP leader. But enough, in Scotland’s proportional voting system, to elect three Alba MSPs in the 2026 Scottish parliament elections. And one was bound to be Alex Salmond.

No longer. His unexpected death in North Macedonia this weekend has created shock waves in Scotland, out of all proportion to Alba’s popularity or Salmond’s current clout.

He was a man so habitually described as Marmite, so often labelled divisive, so nearly written off after a court case for sexual assault (in which he was acquitted), and so determined to have his day in court against the party and government he once........

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