Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Alex Salmond speaks exclusively to the P&J about his time as First Minister

Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond

Serving for these last seven years as first minister of Scotland has been the biggest privilege of my life.

It has been an extraordinary time for me personally, for the party I have led and for the country as a whole.

And Scotland, I believe, is a much, much more confident and forward-looking nation that it was when I took office in 2007.

That is not a consequence of one person or one party’s leadership – rather, it is the natural result of a process which has been ongoing since our national parliament was restored in 1999.

However, I am happy to look back with a lot of satisfaction on what has been achieved in the last seven years.

Our economy is in sound shape, recovering well from the financial crisis and in spite of Westminster’s agenda of deep and prolonged austerity cuts.

The right to a Scottish university education based on the ability to learn rather than the ability to pay has been restored after we abolished tuition fees.

This at a time when fees have soared to £9,000 a year in other parts of the UK, putting university out of reach for many without the means to pay.

At the same time, we have boosted apprenticeship numbers to record levels, brought more women into the workforce and are outperforming the rest of the UK on job numbers as whole.

We’ve delivered a record number of police officers on our streets and have seen crime fall to a near 40-year low.

We’ve also tackled the cost of living for ordinary people across Scotland by freezing the council tax, scrapping bridge tolls and abolishing prescription charges.

The last seven years have also seen Scotland take more of a prominent role on the global stage.

We have been praised internationally for our world-leading climate change targets and our revolution in green energy.

We have had successive Years of Homecoming when we have welcomed back many thousands of diaspora Scots and those with a close affinity to the country.

And we also presided over two fantastic global sporting events this summer, with both the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup coming to Scotland.

And while the referendum campaign did not deliver the result that myself and others in the Yes campaign were hoping for, it did spark the most unprecedented level of democratic engagement, of a kind seldom if ever seen before.

That engagement means the people of Scotland are now fully expecting the Westminster parties to deliver on their promises of serious and substantial new powers for the Scottish Parliament.

Above all, it has been a privilege to represent the north-east of Scotland while serving as first minister – something that I look forward to continuing to do.