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A First Minister is the leader of a government cabinet.

Canada[link]

In Canada, "First Ministers" is a collective term that refers to all Canadian first ministers of the Crown, otherwise known as heads of government, including the Prime Minister of Canada and the provincial and territorial premiers. It is used in such formulae as "first ministers' meetings".

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Inuit self-governing region of Nunatsiavut provides for a First Minister responsible to the Nunatsiavut Assembly.

Norway[link]

The head of government of Norway was called First Minister (Norwegian: førstestatsråd) between 1814 and 1873, while it was in personal union with Sweden. In 1893, 12 years prior to the dissolution of the union, it was changed to Prime Minister (statsminister).

United Kingdom[link]

In the United Kingdom, the term First Minister was once used interchangeably with Prime Minister, as in Winston Churchill's famous line: "I did not become His Majesty's First Minister so that I might oversee the liquidation of the British Empire!"

Nowadays, the term is used to describe the leaders of the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. See

• First Minister of Scotland
• First Minister of Wales
• First Minister and deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland)

Other[link]

The title First Minister may be used to refer to the political leader of a subnational entity or a dependent territory. George Price held the office of First Minister of Belize between 1961 and 1964, when the title was changed to Premier. In Germany, the first minister in the federal states is known as the Minister-Präsident.

See also[link]

• Chief Minister

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The Right Honourable Alex Salmond MSP
First Minister of Scotland
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 May 2007
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Deputy	Nicola Sturgeon
Preceded by	Jack McConnell
Leader of the Scottish National Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 September 2004
Preceded by	John Swinney
In office 22 September 1990 – 26 September 2000
Preceded by	Gordon Wilson
Succeeded by	John Swinney
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Aberdeenshire East Gordon (2007–2011)
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 May 2007
Preceded by	Nora Radcliffe
Majority	15,295 (50.5%)
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Banff and Buchan
In office 6 May 1999 – 7 June 2001
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Succeeded by	Stewart Stevenson
Member of Parliament for Banff and Buchan
In office 11 June 1987 – 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Albert McQuarrie
Succeeded by	Eilidh Whiteford
Personal details
Born	Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (1954-12-31) 31 December 1954 (age 57) Linlithgow, Scotland
Political party	Scottish National Party
Spouse(s)	Moira Salmond
Residence	Bute House, Scotland (Official) Strichen, Scotland (Private)
Alma mater	University of St Andrews
Profession	Economist
Religion	Church of Scotland[1]
Website	Scottish National Party

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond ( /ˈsæmənd/; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Gordon. From 1987 to 2010 he served as Member of Parliament for Banff and Buchan in the UK House of Commons. Salmond previously held the position of leader of the SNP from September 1990 until he stepped down in September 2000.

Originally from Linlithgow, West Lothian, Salmond is a graduate of the University of St Andrews, where he achieved a Joint Honours MA in Economics and History. After earning his degree he began his career in the Government Economic Service (GES), and later joined the Royal Bank of Scotland as an energy economist where he wrote and broadcast extensively for both domestic and international media outlets.

Following the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999, he was elected MSP for Banff and Buchan, thus simultaneously representing the area as both Member of Parliament (MP) and MSP. Salmond resigned as SNP leader in 2000 and did not seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament. He did however retain his Westminster seat in the 2001 general election. Salmond was once again elected SNP leader in 2004 and the following year held his Banff and Buchan seat in the 2005 general election. In 2006 he announced his intention to contest the Gordon constituency in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, an election in which Salmond defeated the incumbent MSP and in which nationally, the SNP emerged as the largest single party. Salmond was voted First Minister by the Scottish Parliament on 16 May 2007.

As First Minister, from 2007 to 2011 Salmond headed a minority Scottish Government, but after the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the Scottish National Party, which he leads, emerged with an overall majority. Politically, Salmond is one of the foremost proponents of Scottish independence, repeatedly calling for a referendum on the issue. Salmond has campaigned on global warming and in government has committed Scotland to legislation on emission reduction and the generation of renewable energy. Other recurring campaign themes include nuclear disarmament and Salmond's strong opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Early life and career[link]

Salmond was born at Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland on 31 December, (Hogmanay) 1954.^[2] He is the second of four children born to Robert Fyfe Findlay Salmond and Mary Stewart Salmond (née Milne), both of whom were Civil Servants.^[3] His father's family had been previously resident at Waterfoot, near Keswick.^[4][5]

Salmond attended the local Linlithgow Academy before studying at the University of St Andrews, where he lived in St Salvator's Hall and graduated with a Joint Honours MA in Economics and History.^[6]

In 1978 he entered the Government Economic Service as an Assistant Economist in the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland, part of the now defunct Scottish Office. Two years later he joined the Royal Bank of Scotland where he worked for seven years: first as an Assistant Economist before being appointed Oil Economist in 1982, and from 1984 combining that role with duties as a bank economist.^[6] While with the Royal Bank, he wrote and broadcast extensively for both domestic and international outlets. He also contributed regularly to oil and energy conferences. In 1983 Salmond created a "Royal Bank/BBC oil index" that is still used.

Personal life[link]

Salmond and his wife Moira have never had any children and the couple closely protect their private lives.^[2] Moira Salmond, formerly McGlashan, was a senior civil servant and became her future husband's boss when he joined the Scottish Office in the 1970s. The two were married in 1981.^[7]

Salmond's main interests outside work and politics are golf, horse racing, football and reading.^[8] He supports Scotland and Heart of Midlothian F.C. and sometimes attends matches. He also attended the 2008 UEFA Cup Final between Rangers FC and Zenit St Petersburg.

He takes an interest in Scottish cultural life, as well as watching Star Trek and listening to country and western music.^[9] For Children in Need in 2008, Salmond performed an impersonation of the Rikki Fulton character, the Reverend I M Jolly.^[10]

He has also been a Visiting Professor of Economics at Strathclyde University. He and his wife Moira live in a converted mill in the village of Strichen in Aberdeenshire.^[7]

Early political career[link]

Salmond became active in the SNP when he joined the Federation of Student Nationalists at the University of St Andrews in 1973. Although a left-winger at the time he joined, he had considerable doubts as to whether or not the Labour Government would legislate for a devolved Scottish Assembly.

Salmond started his political life as a committed left-winger inside the SNP and was a leading member of the socialist republican organisation within it, the 79 Group. He was, along with other group leaders, suspended from membership of the SNP when the 79 Group was banned within the larger party. In 1981, he married Moira French McGlashan,^[11] then a senior civil servant with the Scottish Office.

Following the SNP's National Council narrowly voting to uphold the expulsion, Salmond and the others were allowed back into the party a month later, and in 1985 he was elected as the SNP's Vice Convener for Publicity.

In 1987 he stood for Parliament in Banff and Buchan and defeated the incumbent Conservative MP, Albert McQuarrie. Later that year Salmond became Senior Vice Convener (Deputy Leader) of the SNP. He was at this time still viewed as being firmly on the left of the party and had become a key ally of Jim Sillars, who joined him in the British House of Commons when he won a by-election for the seat of Glasgow Govan in 1988. Salmond served as a member of the House of Commons Energy Select Committee from 1987 to 1992.

First time as SNP leader[link]

When Gordon Wilson stood down as SNP leader in 1990, Salmond decided to contest the leadership. His only opponent was Margaret Ewing, whom Sillars decided to support. This caused considerable consternation amongst the SNP left as the two main left leaders were opposing each other in the contest. Salmond went on to win the leadership election by 486 votes to Ewing's 146.^[12]

First Minister Salmond speaks at the launch of A National Conversation

First Minister Alex Salmond at the riding for the official opening of the 4th term of the Scottish parliament. On the left a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament

His first test as leader was the general election in 1992, with the SNP having high hopes of making an electoral breakthrough. Whilst considerably increasing its share of the vote, it failed to win a large number of seats. Sillars lost his, causing him to describe the Scottish people as '90 minute patriots'. This comment ended the political friendship between Salmond and Sillars, and Sillars would soon become a vocal critic of Salmond's style of leadership.

The SNP increased its number of MPs from four to six in the 1997 general election, which saw a landslide victory for the Labour Party. After election, Labour legislated for a devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.

Although still committed to a fully independent Scotland, Salmond signed the SNP up to supporting the campaign for devolution, and, along with Scottish Labour leader Donald Dewar and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace, played an active part in securing the victory for devolution in the Scotland referendum of 1997. However, many hard line fundamentalists in the SNP objected to committing the party to devolution, as it was short of full political Scottish independence.

Salmond's first spell as leader was characterised by a moderation of his earlier left-wing views and by his firmly placing the SNP into a gradualist, but still pro-independence, strategy.

Salmond was one of the few politicians in the UK to oppose the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999.^[13] He was opposed to the conflict because it was not authorised by a United Nations Security Council resolution, which was a controversial subject at the time. Despite this, Salmond was heavily criticised in the media for describing Tony Blair's decision to intervene militarily as an "unpardonable folly".^[14]

Several years as party leader earned Salmond an unusually high profile for an SNP politician in the London-based media. In 1998, Salmond won the Spectator Award for Political strategist of the Year. Following an appearance on the entertainment programme Call My Bluff, Salmond used one of the 'bluff' cards that are used as props in the show in the run-up to the first elections to the Scottish Parliament. To counter his frustration at having to sit in silence through what he claimed was an inappropriately political speech by Tony Blair at a charity lunch, he held up the bluff card as the Prime Minister began querying Scotland's economic prospects should independence occur.^[15] Throughout his time in politics, Salmond has maintained his interest in horse racing, writing a weekly column for The Scotsman and appearing a number of times on Channel 4's The Morning Line.

Salmond and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the launch of A National Conversation

Salmond was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and was one of its highest profile members. He stood down as SNP leader in 2000, facing internal criticism after a series of high profile fall-outs with party members,^[16] and was replaced by his preferred successor John Swinney, who defeated Alex Neil for the post. He left the Scottish Parliament in 2001 to lead the SNP group in the House of Commons.

During the prolonged parliamentary debates in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq he voiced strong opposition to the UK's participation. In the aftermath of the war, he lent support to the attempt of Adam Price, a Plaid Cymru MP, to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq issue. Salmond has gone further than many anti-war politicians in claiming that Blair's statements on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were consciously intended to deceive the public.^[17] He has also claimed that Blair had made a pact with George W. Bush "to go to war come what may".^[17]

Return as leader[link]

On 15 July 2004, Alex Salmond said that he would be a candidate in the forthcoming election for the leadership of the SNP.^[18] This came as a surprise because Salmond had previously declared that he would definitely not be a leadership candidate.^[18] In the postal ballot of all members he went on to receive over 75% of the votes cast, placing him well ahead of his nearest rival Roseanna Cunningham.^[19] Although he was re-elected in the 2005 general election, he made clear his intention to return to the Scottish Parliament at the 2007 Scottish parliamentary election in an attempt to win power for the first time.^[19]

In that election, Salmond stood as a candidate for the Gordon constituency, which had been represented since 1999 by the Liberal Democrat Nora Radcliffe.^[20] Salmond won the seat with 41% of the vote, and a majority of 2,062, returning to the Scottish Parliament after six years' absence. In the election the SNP emerged as the largest party, winning 47 seats to Labour's 46.

First Minister[link]

Scottish cabinet.

Having won more seats than any other party in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP initially approached the Scottish Liberal Democrats to form a coalition, but they declined to take part in negotiations.^[21] This left the SNP without any possibility to form a coalition with an overall majority. The Scottish Green Party agreed to support an SNP minority administration on a confidence and supply basis.^[22]

First term[link]

Salmond (right) meets Lord Bannside (centre) and Martin McGuinness (left) at Edinburgh Castle in February 2008.

Salmond was elected by the Scottish Parliament as First Minister on 16 May 2007, and was sworn in on 17 May after receiving the Royal Warrant from the Queen and taking the official oath of allegiance before judges at the Court of Session.^[23] Under section 45(7) of the Scotland Act 1998 he became Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland at the same time.^[24] Salmond is the first nationalist politician to hold the office of First Minister.^[25] He reduced the size of the Cabinet from nine members to six, and said he would seek to govern on a "policy by policy" basis.^[25] In order to concentrate on his new role as First Minister, Salmond stood down as the SNP group leader at Westminster and was replaced by Angus Robertson.^[26]

The Guardian reported in November 2007 that Salmond believed Scotland would be independent within "the next decade".^[27]

In November 2007, Salmond received the The Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year award for his "brilliant campaign" and "extraordinary victory" in the Scottish Parliament elections, thereby ending eight years of Labour rule.^[28]

UK general election debates[link]

First meeting of the Scottish Council of Economic Advisers (Scotland)

Salmond said it would be "unacceptable"^[29] for the SNP to be excluded from the 2010 UK election televised debate and has sought "guarantees of inclusion from the broadcasters, given their inescapable duty to ensure fairness and impartiality in election-related coverage in Scotland" in the build up to the 2010 UK general election. The party used the Freedom of Information Act to see if the BBC could have broken its own rules. Salmond said it was entirely unacceptable to Scotland as well as to the SNP for the broadcasters to exclude the party that forms the Scottish Government and leading in Westminster election polls. He emphasised, however, that he was not trying to stop any debates from being broadcast.^[30] After having failed to change the BBC's decision to not include the SNP in the final British debate, in line with the decision by ITV and Sky News, the SNP mounted a legal challenge to the BBC at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Despite earlier reassurances by the SNP that it was not trying to stop the broadcast, it sought an 'interim interdict' to prevent the debate being broadcast without the participation of the SNP. However, the Court of Session dismissed the SNP's complaint, and refused to ban the BBC from broadcasting the third debate in Scotland, on the grounds that the SNP had left the bringing of the case "far too late", had not contested the broadcasting of the first two debates by ITV and Sky Television, and that the third debate would in any case be broadcast by Sky on satellite across Britain, which a Scottish court had no power to block. The judge, Lady Smith, further ordered the SNP to pay the BBC's legal expenses. The SNP's political opponents described the SNP's contesting of the case as a "stunt".^[31]

There were Scottish debates dealing with specifically devolved issues which Salmond had accepted the invitation to attend along the other parties within the Scottish Parliament on Sky TV. Salmond declined to attend those held on the BBC and ITV, and Angus Robertson agreed to take his place in these debates.^[32]

Renewable energy[link]

Alex Salmond in his 2010 New Year message highlighted the importance of sustainable development and renewable energy in Scotland and the required increase in powers of the Scottish Parliament needed to help harness Scotland's green energy potential and therefore take full advantage of the "renewable revolution".^[33]

Earlier in December 2009, he campaigned for climate change legislation at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to promote Scotland's role in tackling and mitigating climate change. This included signing a Partnership Agreement with the Maldives, one of the most exposed countries to the consequences of rising sea levels.^[34][35]

Second term[link]

2011 Scottish election[link]

In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the Scottish National Party, won by a landslide and emerged with an overall majority. As a result of this Salmond now has the ability to call a referendum on Scottish independence. On the 9 January 2011 he announced that referendum would be held in Autumn 2014.

Sporting interests[link]

Salmond is renowned for his interest in horseracing^[2] and for his support of Heart of Midlothian F.C.^[36] He was made a patron of Aberdeen University Shinty Club in 2011 after attending their 150th anniversary celebrations at the Sutherland Cup final. This was Salmond's first ever shinty game.^[37]

See also[link]

• Referendum (Scotland) Bill, 2010

Further reading[link]

Biographies[link]

• David Torrance, Salmond: Against The Odds, Birlinn, 2010

Other[link]

• Goring, Rosemary (2007). Scotland, the autobiography: 2,000 years of Scottish history by those who saw it happen. Viking. pp. 432–4. ISBN 978-0-670-91657-3. 
• Lynch, Peter (2002). SNP: the history of the Scottish National Party. Welsh Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-86057-003-2. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alex Salmond

• Rt Hon Alex Salmond MSP (alexsalmond.org)
• Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) (Scottish.parliament.uk)
• First Minister (Scotland.gov.uk)
• Official biography (www.snp.org)
• Guardian profile, Electoral history and profile (guardian.co.uk)
• TheyWorkForYou.com
• Voting Record — Alex Salmond MP, Banff & Buchan (10525) (The Public Whip)

Offices held[link]