ALASDAIR CLARK: Alex Salmond would have championed Andy Murray legacy – here’s what he told me
The former first minister had an eye for the moments that would bring Scots together, and the three-time Grand Slam champion’s retirement would have been marked.
Many Scottish politics watchers often wonder why Alex Salmond is still a headline grabber.
One the face of it, their confusion seems understandable. His electoral efforts as leader of the pro-independence Alba Party have so far proved unsuccessful.
But we know that audiences are still interested when the former first minister speaks (more on the conversation I had with him this week later in the column).
His attacks on the party he led to unprecedented victories at Holyrood are never far from the front page.
Neither are his broadsides against the record of his three successors as SNP leader.
The truth is quite simple: Mr Salmond remains quite unique among Scottish politicians in understanding how to set the news agenda.
His skill at this is something I’ve thought about this week as we learned plans to honour the career of the three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray and doubles star brother Jamie with a legacy sports centre have been scrapped.
It means that apart from a mural organised by a local community group and a perfunctory nod on Twitter by First Minister John Swinney, one of Scotland’s greatest ever sportsmen has bowed out with barely a whisper.
Alex Salmond would have got behind Andy Murray legacy effort
As Dundee-based MSP Michael Marra put it, Judy Murray has been forced to do something neither of the Murray brothers have ever done and admit defeat after a years-long effort.
