Analysis: Alex Salmond's passing casts a shadow over SNP

As a private family funeral was held today for the former First Minister Alex Salmond in his home village of Strichen, Aberdeenshire, it is hard not to dwell on events in the wake of his passing. 

Many think these have not shown the Scottish Government at its finest.

The Herald columnist Andy Maciver, a former director of communications at the Scottish Conservatives, wrote last week there was a certain 'tawdriness' over the former First Minister's repatriation.

When businessman Sir Tom Hunter stepped in to organise and pay for a chartered flight to bring the former First Minister back home the obvious question was 'could the Scottish Government not have done that?'

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The difference between Mr Salmond's departure from North Macedonia and his arrival in Scotland was stark. 

Six soldiers carried Mr Salmond's Saltire-draped coffin onto the plane at while other soldiers stood in a guard of honour lining either side of the red carpet.

At Aberdeen Airport, no senior Scottish Government official or no Scottish minister was present and there was no red carpet.

The group waiting airside to take him home was made up of his wife Moira, his family members and his close friend, his SNP and latterly Alba Party colleague Kenny MacAskill. They were all clearly devastated by his sudden death at the age of 69.

But the former First Minister's unexpected passing was also distressing for many Scots who admired his ambition for his country, his competence in running the devolved government for seven years, for putting Scotland firmly on the world stage and for the way he brought Scotland closer than ever to his party's founding goal of independence.

It is hard not to see the shambles over his repatriation - and the absence today of First Minister John Swinney from Mr Salmond's funeral at his family's request - as reflecting the tensions between Mr Salmond and the party he once led (from 1990 to 2000 and then from 2004 to 2014) that existed in the years before he died.

At the time of his death of a heart attack on October 12 the former First Minister was pursuing a case of alleged "malfeasance" against former and current Scottish Government civil servants with his legal team arguing that they "conducted themselves improperly, in bad faith and beyond their powers, with the intention of injuring Mr Salmond”.

In August this year the former First Minister's lawyer Gordon Dangerfield told the Court of Session that Mr Salmond was seeking "significant damages" and compensation for loss of earnings that could total millions of pounds.

The case related to his acquittal at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2020 of charges of sexual assault and in relation to an unlawful and flawed Scottish Government investigation into complaints made against him. 

While it will be up to Mr Salmond's family to decide whether to pursue the case or not, it is widely expected the case will continue.

Separately, following Mr Salmond's death Police Scotland confirmed that a criminal investigation into evidence given by a senior Scottish Government civil servant to a Holyrood inquiry into how complaints were handled by the SNP administration is still ongoing.

In addition a cloud of controversy now hangs over James Hamilton's investigation into whether Mr Salmond's predecessor Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code.

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The former First Minister referred herself to Mr Hamilton in January 2019 in response to allegations she had misled Holyrood in relation to the inquiry into the botched investigation of harassment complaints against Mr Salmond. 

Mr Hamilton, a former director of public prosecutions in Ireland, cleared Ms Sturgeon of breaching the code in his report published in March 2021. 

Last weekend a release of documents by the Scottish Government in a long running freedom of information battle with the Information Commissioner showed lawyers raising concerns about the independence of that inquiry after a secretariat set up to support Mr Hamilton was staffed by a civil servant who briefed Mr Swinney (then Deputy First Minister) on aspects of the probe before its report was published.

In relation to the Hamilton report a freedom of information case seeking evidence submitted to the inquiry by the Scottish Government is also still continuing.

Each of these cases has the potential to prove a major headache for the Scottish Government in the months and years to come and will cast a long shadow over the SNP.