ALEX Salmond has criticised Nicola Sturgeon over a failure to yet deliver Indyref2 as he launched a fierce attack on the record of the government led by his successor.

He cited policies implemented made by his own SNP administration - including free university education for undergraduates, scrapping prescription charges and bridge tolls - before arguing the current Scottish Government, led by the SNP and Scottish Greens were becoming "incompetent and accident prone".

Mr Salmond was First Minister from 2007 to 2014, when he stood down in the wake of the independence referendum, lost by the Yes side by 45 per cent to 55 per cent.

He set up the pro-independence Alba Party last year taking two SNP MPs and some councillors with him amid a spate of defections after falling out with Ms Sturgeon.

However, the new party did not get any candidates elected to Holyrood last May with Mr Salmond failing in his own bid. Now the Alba party is hoping to hold onto seats in councils at the forthcoming local government elections in May.

Closing the Alba Party conference at Hampden today, as the Scottish Government's handling of a £97 million ferries contract dominated the headlines, he reflected on his own career as First Minister before he underlined the troubles of the administration led by his successor.

"As First Minister I pursued a strategy which sought to persuade people to independence on the basis of good governance of the devolved Parliament," he said.

"Our unionist opponents were very frightened of it. You may remember Lord George Foulkes once whined on the radio that the Scottish Government were creating a position where services in Scotland were manifestly better than they were south of the border.

"When the bemused interviewer asked isn’t that what we were meant to be doing, Foulkes replied. 'Yes but they are doing it deliberately' He was right. We were doing it deliberately.

"I wanted to create a situation where even the most hostile critic of independence - like Lord George - was forced to concede the competence of Scottish Government."

Mr Salmond added: "Now we have moved to a position where even the most ardent supporters of independence know that the SNP/Green administration is becoming incompetent and accident prone."

On independence, the former First Minister drew attention to a BBC interview in January this year with Ms Sturgeon when she was told of the almost annual commitments since the Brexit vote in 2016 to hold Indyref2.

"One thing I thought I would never see, was a BBC presenter hounding a Scottish First Minister about when she would hold an independence referendum," he said.

"And yet, that is exactly what happened with Nicola Sturgeon and Sophie Raworth earlier this year.

"Painfully - and for any real independence supporter it was painful- the BBC’s Sophie Raworth went through the many occasions since 2014 when the SNP have promised an independence referendum and failed to deliver."

He added: "There have been five national elections in Scotland since the first independence referendum. In each of them, the parties of independence have won a majority of seats. In last year’s Scottish election it was both a majority of seats and, thanks to Alba's small contribution, a majority of votes as well.

"And in all that time, with all these mandates, nothing has happened - there has been absolutely nout doing. Of course there is always a reason. Brexit, pandemic, war in Europe - all mighty and important things.

"But none of these have been allowed to stop the democratic test of elections. Nor should they have.Why then should they stop the democratic imperative of a referendum, or another electoral test, on Scottish independence."

Coinciding with the party spring conference Alba released a "Wee Alba Book" updating the case for independence to answer questions on Europe, currency, borders and finance.

He said it was not an Alba manifesto but "a common-sense conversation on the fundamentals of the independence case" adding that 100,000 copies of the book were being published.

The former FM also dedicated part of his address to Scotland's renewable energy, saying it should be the "people's energy".

He called for the Scottish Government to have a share in all offshore wind developments, saying North Sea oil and gas fields should not be shut down "as bizarrely advocated by the SNP/Green Government".

He said: "In this energy-rich Scotland of ours we produce all the electricity we need from renewable sources and are several times self-sufficient in natural gas.

"So why exactly are our electricity bills up 50% already with the same again to come?

"Why are Scottish heating costs already sky-high and dictated by the marginal price of world gas?

"Why are we facing huge amounts of fuel poverty in energy plenty Scotland?

"The answer is because we allow our vast resources, which by rights belong to the people, to be controlled by the pernicious combination of Westminster Government and international capital."

He will continue: "Instead of closing down the North Sea as bizarrely advocated by the SNP/Green government, Alba say make every consented field invest in carbon capture as a condition of licence approval.

"Let us manage our resources in a way compatible with the future of the planet.

"And instead of the great billion-pound give-away to foreign capital of our offshore wind licences, which could in time produce up to five times our own electricity needs, then let us take a public share in every single field.

"Let Scotland do with renewables in this century what the Norwegians did with oil in the last - make renewable energy the people's energy."

In February, Mr Salmond announced he was suspending his show on the Kremlin-backed network RT due to the war in Ukraine.

RT later had its licence revoked by the regulator Ofcom.