Referendum Special: 15.50-16.30 Reporting Scotland

this is me subtitling. To warm up this bloodshed. Good afternoon.

In ten minutes, we will be listening to a live press conference from the

First Minister, Alex Salmond, with his reaction to today's vote. I'm

joined until then by Andrew Wilson, the former SNP and close confidant

of the first Mr, and John Curtice, a well-kept face on the referendum

trail. Thank you for joining us. Andrew, we are about here from the

First Minister. Any idea what he might be about to say? Hopefully, he

says that we have had a disappointing outcome, but seen in

the context of the sweep of the story of Scotland's progress, it has

been a remarkable night. 1.6 million people voting for yes, and the

momentum behind tremendous change in Scotland that we hope can be driven

forward. I would like to see Scotland controlling its own

relevant finances and defence and foreign affairs being what's left at

Westminster. It has been 15 years since the project here got going. It

is remarkable where we are ready. We can have optimism from what we have

heard today. Hearing that there are now 660 new members of the SNP as of

now from last night, that is a remarkable surge in membership. My

sister text at me to say that she had just joined. There is a vibrancy

in there, of people wanting to keep the energy and bottle it and push it

forward. Talking about a sense of optimism, Alex Salmond was talking

about a journey, but on a personal level, in some ways he got so close

you must be feeling that 11% more and he would have got it. But Italy

for him, he has given two decades to leadership. It is a remarkable

story. -- party to early for him. There are tonnes of people across

the country who have campaigned for years, and everybody will feel

disappointment. We are entitled to have a couple of days to pick

ourselves up but what matters is that everybody unifies behind this

next step. We cannot afford to step back. We have to keep the pressure

on to get more power and do more for the people of Scotland. They have

said that they do not want to be outside the United Kingdom and that

has to be respected. That does not mean we should not get more power,

and not just the yes voters, but tonnes of the no vote is also one

that and that is a good thing. Interesting to view your take, John,

on what has happened. A remarkable 24 hours in Scottish politics. It

has been. And they think a fair judgement of what has happened is

that it is clear that the yes side lost the boat. -- lost the vote, but

it is clear that they also won the campaign. Remember three years ago,

we thought it remarkable that the SNP could succeed at getting 45% in

a Holyrood election. Let your member they got 45% last night, and to that

extent, they have gained and demonstrated an ability to command

the votes of a large section of the Scottish population. The truth is

that as a result of the fact that they clearly increased their support

during the course of the campaign, they in effect have forced the

Unionist parties to go further down the road of promising at least

something about more devolution, albeit I'm sure Andrew will say that

the details are too vague at the moment and the timetable is not one

that we are sure can be delivered, but they have gone further than

intended. To that extent, the truth is that what has happened is another

reiteration of the story whereby the SNP or the nationalist movement more

broadly does well. They threaten the potential interests of the Unionist

parties and their political holes, and as a result, the Unionist

parties respond with more offers of devolution. -- political holes. And

in effect, that has been the principal motivation that has led to

where we are. And we have seen that reiterated. The UK still has

Scotland as a member but it is going to be a member which looks as though

it will be increasingly semidetached. And less detached than

it was. The irony about this is that we were not supposed to have more

devolution on the ballot paper because that would have been a

consolation prize. Arguably, the First Minister could today say that

reasonably, he got his consolation prize anyway. It could be viewed as

a win-win. When you look at this place, this opens tenure to go and

we have been here for 15 years, of course, but even ten years ago, you

probably would not have thought it would be in this situation today. It

may be disappointing, but you are in a strong place. My instinct is to be

positive and optimistic and disappointed for a moment but

hopeful for what is coming. I am supportive of the idea of appointing

Lord Smith of Kelvin to oversee this, one of the few people with the

great public service and private sector career who is equally

respected in Downing Street and Holyrood. You think you will be an

honest broker? I think he will be first class. We need to make sure

that all sides are respectful of each other. We hear that Ed Miliband

wants a UK Constitutional Convention. Fine in principle but we

cannot have Scotland held back waiting for the slowest ship in the

convoy. We need a multispeed approach. We should not be held back

by Ed Miliband trying to tidy up the constitution for the rest of the UK.

We need to respect different paces of doing this on as we did in the

European Union. There is a precedent for that. An unusual move by the

Prime Minister appointing Portsmouth to be the timekeeper in this

programme, keeping an eye on what's going on, making sure that it

follows that times table, -- timetable. An interesting repetition

of the choreography from the 2010 election. We will remember that

during that election we were told by the Prime Minister the idea of a

hung parliament was terrible and we could not have a coalition of them

as soon as the result was known, he moved very quickly and we had a

remarkable announcement that he was willing to talk to Nick Clegg.

Again, it is now quite remarkable in Downing Street that we discover that

as we suspected, the three parties have been talking to each other

quite a lot about what the next step should be although they had not let

on about it. He was very well-prepared to say as far as

Scotland is concerned, this is the next step. Then added a googly about

the West Lothian question which is going to potentially make things

more, get it. Two other things about last night that are found

remarkable, one was the sight of a Conservative Prime Minister

extolling devolution, and the other thing was hearing Lord Michael

Forsyth saying that his own party's proposals for devolution were not

radical enough will stop this was the man who in 1990 denied Scotland

a parliament at all. For now, let's talk to our correspondent, David

Porter, in Westminster. Interesting news this afternoon about Ed

Miliband and his view on the Prime Minister's proposals. It is

interesting. How things move on. Who was it who once said that a week was

a long time in politics? Harold Wilson. These days, a day is a long

time. A momentous 24 hours and the knock on effects are being felt here

at Westminster. This morning, as you alluded to, David Cameron went down

to Downing Street and said that Scotland would be getting more

devolution and also the other parts of the United Kingdom. Then he also

said that the English question would have to be addressed. The West

Lothian question, the rights and responsible it is of Scottish MPs to

vote on matters which they do not control. He gave an indication that

he wanted to see an answer to the English question. Many Tory MPs

would like that to be a long line of Scottish MPs not being able to vote

on English only matters. So far, so good. Ed Miliband give a statement

this afternoon in which he seems to be going back on that. He says yes,

he wants devolution for Scotland and he wants that to go ahead map but he

is also saying, wait a moment and let's not rush forward with some of

the other plans that David Cameron had for further devolution for the

rest of the United Kingdom, and interestingly, the English question,

preventing Scottish MPs from voting on English matters. Why is that so

important? We have a general election coming up. We could find

out that in 2015, it is Ed Miliband that is the Prime Minister in the

House of Commons behind me and the likelihood is that he will have

quite a large block of Scottish MPs. What would happen if legislation was

in place whereby they could not vote on certain English matters? That

could cause problems for Ed Miliband. What he is saying is that

now, he will not sign up to David Cameron's plans to get this through

as soon as is. He wants more time to think about it, to go slow on the

idea of addressing the English question. It is getting very

interesting and it is showing, for want of a better phrase, a building

site for a new constitution in the UK, and how difficult this is going

to be, even with those who agreed before the referendum. Now the

referendum is over they are not seeing eye to eye.

We are hearing Big Ben is striking in the background and we were hoping

to go to the First Minister's press conference. We should be able to get

to it soon. Will he be putting on a pretty brave face this afternoon and

taking the fight to the Prime Minister? Don't think he needs to

put on a brave face. He is naturally brilliant and optimistic. He has

carried his own energy, taking the party from protest to opposition

into a very cultural ease with being in power. -- Bewley in. He's able to

lead a coalition of quite a wide righty of people, because this is

not just the SNP. This is about all sorts of people. It has been quite a

magnificent culture change in Scottish politics. It is not in its

party but gets any more. As our membership is going up dramatically,

the word is that the Labour Party are losing members. That will be a

dynamic that will be interesting to watch. John, you are laughing at

that. As Andrew is pointing out, there is a disparate group of people

rallied around the banner of independence. Do you think that

group can continue? Do you think they will stick together or do you

think that they have lost the referendum, that will now not

happen? Without naming names, can think of a number of prominent

individuals who tenure to go clearly were primarily allied to their own

party. They came out as public advocates of independence, and

perhaps that was an indication of a wider change whereby the nationalist

movement is now eating into traditional territory. Certainly,

the one thing that strikes you when you look at the map of the places

where the yes side did actually have a majority, where are they? They are

in red Clydeside, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Western Barton share.

One part of Scotland that actually had a majority of people in favour

was supposedly the socialist heartland of the country. -- West

Dunbartonshire. If it is socialist, it is nationalist and socialist but

not socialist on its own any more. And personally, Andrew, the

nationalist heartlands of Angus and Perthshire home the majority went

for now. It is maybe a slight switch. -- for a no vote. In many of

these places, like Moray, it is a bigger switch. It is interesting,

because there is a clear dynamic. On average, across the parliament

seats, we have 2500 votes in terms of the swing that we would have

needed to have one. There is not a lot of people. -- to have won. There

is a lot under the surface happening. A bunch of liberals

appear to have voted yes and a small number of conservatives, and a big

chunk of Labour Party people. There is a lot going on and we should take

the time to properly digest it and get the advice of experts like John.

It disappoints me that it turns out his polling was pretty accurate! It

is nice of you to say sell! I think that the results last night revealed

that what some of us thought would be a problem for the yes side is

indeed that many of you are middle-class supporters in the

north-east of Scotland, in some of the strongholds, said, well, I love

the SNP has a party that can defend Scotland's interests but I'm not

sure I believe in independence. Although you successfully persuaded

the community to spend its time focusing on Labour folk who were

going to vote yes, some of us pointed out that if you looked at

the opinion polls, there were almost as many people who said they voted

for the SNP in 2011 who ended up voting now and we suspected that

that would affect you in the north-east. In truth, it was pretty

spot on. That is a fair criticism. It is a fair analysis. Clearly,

there was a job that was not done in terms of persuading people in

different segments of the population. Among the over 65 is,

there was a very significant vote against reform. And that may have

been the risk and reward staff. When it came to the money problems, it

was the YouGov poll on Sunday that showed that the lead for yes was in

place. Westminster then kicked in with the warnings for business. Did

that affect the vote in places like Aberdeen city, which was very firmly

now? We will not know until we analyse it. Intuitively, it feels

that the oldest amongst us would be more deferential to institutions and

big figures in the way that the rest of the population is decreasingly

so. Secondly, the wall of noise, not just from the print media which was

hostile to us and much of the broadcast media did not have a

wonderful campaign map but the wall of noise from the institutions were

saying, don't they are. And a lot of people drew back from that. That is

not their fault, that is our fault. -- don't today. It shows where there

was work not done. Now we must galvanise the positive energy behind

the step that people are prepared to take at this moment, to go at the

pace that people want to go out and that is what we must not let up on.

The demographics, the 25 to 35 age group. Supporting independence. As

time moves on, does independence become more popular, more and more

young people voting, do they get more used to it? It may be... Sorry,

Jon, Alex Salmond is now at the podium.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to make a brief statement and take some

questions. Let me say first, that I am immensely proud of the campaign

that yes Scotland fought. And of the 1. 6 million voters who rallied to

the cause. I am proud of the 85% turnout in the referendum and the

remarkable response of the people of Scotland who participated in this

great, democratic constitutional debate, and of course the manner in

which they conducted themselves. We have now the opportunity to hold

Westminster's feet to the fire on the vow that they have made to

devolve further meaningful power to Scotland. This places Scotland in a

very strong position. I spoke to the Prime Minister today

and although he reiterated intentions to proceed as he has

outlined, he would not commit to a second reading vote on the 22nd

March, a clear promise laid out by Gordon Brown during the campaign.

The Prime Minister says such a vote would be meaningless. I suspect he

cannot guarantee the support of his party. As we have seen in the last

hour, the common front between Labour and Tory, Tory and Labour is

starting to break. But the real point is this, the real

guardians of progress, they are not longer politicians at Westminster,

or even Holyrood. But the energised activism of tens of thousands of

people, who I predict will refuse to meekly go back into the shadows. For

me right now, therefore, there is a decision as to who is best-placed to

lead this process forward. I believe that this is a new, exciting

situation, that is redolent with possibility. In that situation I

think that party, Parliament and country would benefit from new

leadership. Therefore, I have told the national secretary of the snap

Scottish National Party that I shall not accept the position, I shall

stand down to allow the new leader to be elected by due process. Until

then I shall continue to surf as First Minister and offer myself as

member of Parliament for Aberdeenshire east. It has been the

privilege of my life to serve as the First Minister. But as I have said

during the referendum campaign, this is a process not about me, or the

SNP or any political party, it is much, much more important than that.

The position is this, we lost the referendum vote but Scotland can

still carry the political initiative. Scotland can still

emerge as the real winner. For me as leader of my time here, my time now

is nearly over but for Scotland the campaign continues and the dream

shall never die. Now, I am very happy to answer a few

questions. REPORTER: Thank you very much indeed

for that statement. A couple of things, do you have a particular

successor in mind? Can you indicate what was the precise motivation that

has led you to this decision? And mostly, you said during the

referendum campaign, that this was a decision for a generation, possibly

a lifetime, do you believe that the party you have led, now for some

time, will change its nature and become more a party of Scottish

affairs and Scottish interests rather than mainly a party of

independence? No, is the answer to the last part of that question,

Brian. But on the question of who is to be the new leader of the Scottish

National Party and likely, therefore, through parliamentary

process to be the next First Minister, that is a matter for the

membership of the SNP. There are a number eminently qualified and

suitable candidates. We have a strong leadership team. As far as my

comments, I have always believed, as you know, that a republican rum is a

once in a generation process. I mean a political generation. We had a

referendum in 1979 and another in 1987. I did draw attention that it

seemed that the political focus to take forward Scotland has now

shifted. Vows were made in the last stages of the referendum campaign. A

clear timetable was laid out. As I said, I think that the

opportunity for Scotland is two-fold. One is to hold

Westminster's feet to the fire to make sure that there is no slippage

from that timetable. I am disappointed that the idea of a

second reading vote seems to have disappeared as well as the

Labour/Conservative common front on the issue. But the real guardians of

Scotland are not the political parties in Westminster or Holyrood,

they are the activism of the tens of thousands of people in the political

process. That is where the guarantees lie, in my estimation.

REPORTER: And your main reason for standing down? As I said, I think in

these circumstances, you should judge if the party, Parliament,

country, could benefit from a new leadership. I should know, you are

probably the only journalist in the room, Brian, who has covered that

entire political process. I have had ten years as leader of the Scottish

National Party, then a slight pause and another ten years have just been

completed. It is not exactly fly by night in terms of the leadership

spell. But at this stage, this point, and I think this is a moment

of great political opportunity, I had to make a judgment as to whether

I am best-placed to take that opportunity forward. I think that

others are. I think that the party, I am sure,

they will make a wise choice and take party and country forward. The

most important thing is not about who is First Minister but whether

you engage the political process. I think there is a tremendous

opportunity to do it but I think that new leadership can be a part of

that galvanising process. Clare Stuart?

REPORTER: What is your reaction to Ed Miliband not signing up to David

Cameron's defendant luges plan and secondly, how difficult a decision

was this for you? Well, I make this commentary to people, that I, when

the, when Ed Miliband and David Cameron came to Scotland a week

past, I felt that they lacked a degree of credibility in terms of

the last-minute nature of the offer, the last-minute dash to Scotland in

terms of political engagement. It is clear in the last 48 hours, because

of the manner in which the vow was presented, that a number of #350e78

thought it was so explicit, so clear, so defendant, that there

could be no going back from it -- definite, that there could be no

going back from it. Maybe we will get a different statement tomorrow.

There is a parliamentary vote in a set timetable before the general

election, presumably Gordon Brown suggested that as he knows it was

not the exact parliamentary process that counted but having a second

reading vote to demonstrate real commitment. Both that and indeed the

common front between the Prime Minister and the leader of the

opposition which seemed so easy. When people in Scotland were to be

persuaded to vote no, now in the aftermath it seems more difficult.

The guardians of Scotland, as I said, are now the tens and thousands

of people activated into politics. I don't think we longer depend in the

words or the deeds of Westminster politicians or even Holyrood

politicians. That is where the centre of gravity lies. It is on

that basis that I am confident about the future as opposed to the words

of Westminster politicians. They will be judged, of course. Not by

the words that they spoke but by the actions that they now take forward.

Martin, please. REPORTER: First Minister, to be

clear, are you suggesting that the Scottish electorate have been duped

by Westminster? Well, there are 1. 6 million people who made a choice for

independence. That is an extraordinary total. That

is way beyond realistic expectations of the last generation of Scottish

politics. With a succession of polls during the campaign, whether a

multi-option choice was given had independence as the main choice. I

think that the 1. 6 million can speak loud if there is a retreat

from the commitments made. But more than that, I think that many of the

2 million people who were not persuaded by the argument for

Scottish independence, that many felt something else was to be

offered on a timetable that we were told was quicker and more certain

than the process of the #0i7s negotiations. Imagine that these

people in particular will be astonished by the early developments

of Westminster, that the united front, that the easy commitments are

now starting to be withdrawn. Those of us who voted "yes", did so in a

faith and a belief in Scotland's future but also healthy scepticism

of Westminster paper guarantees. Some of the people that voted no

will be incandescent, if they see slippage from a timetable

articulated only a few days ago. Jon?

REPORTER: First Minister, you talk of energised activism but

unmarshaled, and unled, it may not go far. No First Minister with

obligations to the whole of Scotland can hope to become involved in that

activism, hence, will you become buried within it, or will you been

the leader of it, and will you continue to toil for independence?

Well, I'm the First Minister and therefore in respects, the leader of

the country will be that person who the Parliament chooses. I have no

intention of retiring from Scottish politics. There are a large number

of things you are able to do when you are not the firm leader of a

political party, which is still useful. But I think that the whole

point about the energised activism is that it does not depend on the

leadership figures. The whole point about it, the significant

development of the campaign is the emergence of that as grass roots

movement, and by definition, not top-down leadership. So therefore,

why not be the leader of that energised activism by definition. It

does not come from a leadership aspect but I want to be a part of

that campaign. I think it was exciting. It was one of the

underlying amazing stories of this political campaign. I have to say

that those who didn't see that huge story, because they were concerned

about some relatively minor instance from either side on the corner of

politics and missed this extraordinary development in this

modern age of political activism on a scale which certainly Scotland has

never seen, that is one of the underlying wonderful stories of the

campaign. The question is how does it rebalance Scottish politics? I

think it is fundamental. It plays challenges to Westminster. The

ultimate top-down leadership process. And there are challenges to

Holyrood about how activism can be engaged and encompassed. But it does

not depen on a leader figure. That is one of the points.

REPORTER: Will you continue to toil for independence? Toil, I don't

think that is the correct word. I believe in Scottish independence all

of my political life. I shall do everything that I possibly can to

contribute to that cause. But there are many more ways to do it than as

the leader of the Scottish National Party or the First Minister of

Scotland. I think that the position that we

are in now, that Scotland is in now is redolent for opportunity. If you

regard it as a narrow political focus, I don't think we should, then

it is a great opportunity for the SNP and indeed the other "yes"

forces but I am interested in the opportunity that lies ahead for

Scotland. I think that the situation is redolent for opportunity and

political progress for the country. Peter?

REPORTER: First Minister when I interviewed you recently you said we

will win in the south of Scotland and we will win across Scotland. Now

you have lost by a margin of 10% points. That is a very, very big

margin. It seems that you are blaming the Westminster forces. Do

you not take some personal responsibility for this defeat? Will

I will look you in the eye and say that 45% of the vote of 1. 6 million

votes is a remarkable political development. If you have been

interviewing me a few months ago, you did not believe or forecast that

to be the case. I know this absolutely as I saw you say it on

the television a few hours ago! In terms of responsibility, I don't

think there is anymore assured way to take what responsibility than I

have than what I have just said. Mistake made were mine. Nobody else

is responsible. But a balanced judgment will tell you that this

campaign went a long way in a very reasonable short space of time in

the last few months to delivering on that ambition for Scotland.

So, I but in terms the No Campaign is never perfect, of course it is

not. The mistakes made were mine and mine alone.

support as your successor? The conventions in politics. There are a

number of conventions that are broken, but shall I vow on this?

What do you think, David? All the appropriate conventions, I think, in

a membership ballot in a democracy, like the SNP leadership contest, I

think it is incumbent on the outgoing leader not to attempt to

nominate that process. The point about it is that everybody in that

process, like everybody here, has one vote. I will not be put into

instructed the Scottish National party. They are well able. I think

the leadership, the judgement on the main part, when they voted for me,

the SNP have been pretty good. I think the members are well able to

make that judgement without any guidance. REPORTER: First Minister,

with the process of devolution starting soon, time is of the

essence. A quickly will your successor be appointed? -- how

quickly. My successor will be in place at the time of the SNP annual

conference in Perth, on the 13th of November. Andy Parliamentary vote,

the proper process of becoming First Minister, it will then likely be the

next week. The Parliamentary timetable is not from me -- a matter

for me, as the residing officer would likely remind us. Any

leadership campaign, incidentally, it is an energising process. I see

no reason whatsoever that the SNP would not want to engage in that,

and all politics does not stop because you are having a leadership

contest. On the contrary, leadership contest helps to crystallise the

different ways ahead. For me, I have made some observations and it seems

to be a clear priority for Scotland, and political opportunity. But I'm

sure that will develop and emerge as the SNP leadership contest moves

forward. I think you have been through that entire process, along

with Brian Taylor. REPORTER: Talk us through in more detail the

conversation with the Prime Minister, and you raised the matter

of the deadline for the second viewing and what his response was.

-- how you raised. I'd congratulated the Prime Minister, because he is in

fact the leader of the no campaign. I'd congratulated him on his success

in the campaign. He kindly had sent me a note of what he had in mind to

say. There were a number of aspects that are found quite satisfactory.

But when I'm asked the Prime Minister, because I was interested

to know if the Gordon Brown timetable which he endorsed in the

course of the 27th of March, to have a vote on a Scotland bill, the Prime

Minister's response was to say that well, that is a meaningless process

because, of course, it will be overtaken by the UK general

election. I think Gordon Brown knew that when he put forward the 27th of

March. I'd assumed what When you have a contest, people

accept the result. Yes, it is very yes campaign who are disappointed

that we did not win but the yes campaign, I'd clear, has accepted

the result and, of course, are prepared and willing to engage under

the Edinburgh agreement in the terms of not just accepting the results

but moving forward in the best interest of Scotland and the UK. The

words that I have skirts today have come about quicker than I've

suspected because part of the vow seems to have been removed in a

short period. REPORTER: Many of the party members will be upset today

anyway. You not just adding to that by announcing your resignation

today, and how do you feel about that? I'm conscious of that. But I

have consistently argued a position, particularly as this

campaign has emerged, that this was not about and individual or a 1

political party or any political party. This was much bigger and more

important. And therefore, my judgement has to be as far as the

SNP's contribution to that process, would it benefit from having new

leadership? Would the country benefit? And would the Parliament

benefit. My judgement is that it would. Therefore, it is surely in

the spirit of not just saying that it is more important than an

individual, it is actually to carry that forward. REPORTER: Can I ask

when exactly you made the decision to stand down and if this is the end

of you in front line politics or if you could be tempted back if you

were offered a role? If nominated, I will decline. Now, I think, I'd keep

seeing eye and 59 and ask audiences around Scotland to agree that I do

not look it. Why will be 60 on Hogmanay and although that is not an

ageist comments, and many people do things in politics beyond that age,

20 years as leader of the Scottish National Party is a fierce spell of

the last quarter-century. The last seven years as First Minister of

Scotland has been the privilege of my life. But I think that that is a

reasonable spell of service. I think there is an aspect that you have to

understand and recognise when it is time to give someone else a chance

and move forward. Let's stop talking about referendum battles and things

like that and talk about getting up the mountain. I think the base camp

is not far off the summit now. It might be that those that make the

last move to the summit are not those who got it to the current

encampment. I think that is my judgement. And I think that is the

right thing to do. As to when I made the decision, needed this morning. I

was not as rightly set. I'd believed that there was great possibility in

the campaign. And obviously I would not have made the decision if it had

been a yes vote. Given the circumstances of the vote, wonderful

and empowering though it is, I think it is my judgement that someone

else's leadership will be best placed to take that forward to the

summit. Please. REPORTER: Magnus Gardham from the Herald. First

Minister, you are Scotland's longest serving First Minister will stop you

won an election and a majority government which many people thought

was impossible. You staged a referendum of independence and a lot

of people thought was impossible. In that referendum, you secured 45% of

the vote which a few weeks ago, a lot of people would have thought was

impossible. When you come to leave office, how much of you will feel

that you have fallen short and how much of you will feel that actually

you achieved a great deal? I should have spoken to you this morning

because that is a very good description of the process. Magnus,

it is more a judgement of where we are. As I said, I absolutely believe

that the circumstances are redolent with possibilities for Scotland and

the SNP but more importantly for Scotland. There is a judgement to be

made about how best to take that forward. What is the SNP and the

First Minister's contribution to that? I'm convinced that at this

moment, it would be better to have that under new leadership. It is

about the process and how it goes forward. That and only that is my

interest in this matter. In fact, it always has been. James. STUDIO: An

extraordinary career in front line politics draws to a close this

afternoon. This extraordinary Friday afternoon. My time is nearly over.

The campaign continues and the dream shall never die. The First Minister,

Alex Salmond, announcing his resignation in the next couple of

months. I'm joined by Andrew Wilson and Professor John Curtice. Andrew

Wilson, you are a close confidant of Alex Salmond. It must've been a

difficult decision. I'm sure it was but we must pay tribute to someone

who has brought this country to the moment they are and just now, who

has given their life to public service. One of the monumental

lessons of this great moment of change is that the best of

leadership is often about letting go. That is as true of power from

the centre as it is true of the First Minister knowing when his

moment has come. He has given two decades to the party, seven to the

country. What he is saying now is to all of us, not just his successor,

now is the moment to have the torch passed to us. This is a profound

moment in the developing of Scotland's story and I think he has

done something which hopefully across the political spectrum will

recognise both what he has achieved and also the manner of his going. I

was at the hotel in July of 2004 when he announced his candidacy to

be the First Minister. For your party, it has been an incredible ten

years. Monumental. I have taken -- he took the party from the position

of being a protest group in opposition to a point where we have

galvanised 1.6 million people behind the suspects for independence. We

have also transformed the aspects for life across the UK because

everyone is thirsting to have power decentralised out of the hands of

Whitehall and Westminster. That has been his contribution. I would

argued that everyone should celebrate that because we mean to

public servants. Secondly, it is important to recognise that

leadership is not only about leading when you have power but also knowing

when the time has come to pass it on. John Curtice, Eagle describe him

as the Marmite politician, love him or loathe him. -- people describe

him. Even his most bitter enemies will respect what he has achieved.

The first thing to say is that although he may not have realised

what might have been his ambition, to be the first Prime Minister of an

independent Scotland, let's not forget the remarkable achievement

that he is the first SNP leader to have become the leader of a

government and have become the First Minister of this country. Clearly,

that was a substantial achievement. The second thing to say is that

despite having been in power for seven years, he is still remarkably

popular. His populist standing is still remarkably strong, better than

any of the current party leaders in Westminster. That should be

recognised. I think we have also now discovered that Gordon Brown's

timetable has another publication. Because it seems to me that it will

be rather difficult for the SNP to be heavily involved in these

negotiations about more devolution when frankly, it will be in minutes

of a leadership debate. To that extent, at least, to some degree

Alex Salmond's decision cuts across what we thought to be what he was

saying to the party, that it should get involved in this. We may well

this cover that a candidate emerges who says, actually, I'm standing on

the basis that we should not get involved, and as a result, we may

see a debate inside the SNP about whether and not a get -- it gets

involved. The timetable has another publication from Mr Salmond. John,

Andrew, thank you. Let's cross to our correspondent who is in Glasgow.

My goodness, since he first went down to Westminster in 1987, he has

fairly shaken up the logical foundations. I think will come as a

surprise to his supporters that he has announced his resignation today

because of the way that he appeared this morning at that news

conference, even though they had lost the referendum. Clearly he had

won 1.6 million votes and he said that he would accept that decision.

We spoke to people this morning who said they thought he would not stand

down at him going, he has laid the blame at the feet of the Westminster

establishment, saying that they did not believe that Mr Cameron was

likely to go ahead with that timetable for those further powers.

In a way, he is blaming them for his resignation although he said in his

statement that he accepted the responsibility for the fact that

they had lost this, and any mistakes in the campaign that were made were

his. I think also in failing to name a successor, saying that there were

plenty of people who could take over from him, he is laying the way open

for a wide ranging debate within the party itself as to its traction.

There will be people within the party who will say that the strategy

they employed, saying that they would have a currency union rather

than a Scottish currency of its own, that those kind of things were not

hardline enough and that perhaps if they had taken a different

direction, you might have won a referendum. Lots of things to

discuss but clearly, Alex Salmond pointing out that the establishment

itself was partly to blame. And the fact that this timetable has not

been signed up is something that will likely cause disruptions. But

at the end of the day, I think David Cameron will be pleased that he is

going as leader. He had run rings around the Westminster leaders in

this campaign. And clearly, over the next 24 hours, we will see the

reaction. One of the pieces of reaction, Ruth Davidson, the

Conservative leader in Scotland has said that Mr Salmond has clearly

served Scotland but seems to be confused about this timetable, and

one of his cabinet secretaries said that his standing down today is

statesman-like. Tim, thank you very much for that. Now let's cross to my

colleague, David Porter, he is at Westminster. David, Tim was speaking

there about how Alex Salmond was perhaps feared at Westminster and of

course he famously said that he would make Westminster dance to a

Scottish jig. Something that he managed to achieve, probably, with

the referendum? Yes, another extraordinary twist in really a

momentous 24 hours. I think that there will be some on a political

level who will heave a huge sigh of relief that Alex Salmond is deciding

to exit from the political stage. But they will have huge respect for

him as a political operator, as a political strategist. They disagreed

with him on core politics. They may not have liked him as a personality.

But there are politicians here at Westminster, who had great respect

for Alex. Alex Salmond cut his teeth in the building behind me in

Westminster in 1987. Within a year he had grabbed the head lines by

managing to disrupt a budget and get ejected from the House of Commons

but to get huge publicity for the SNP. He was a prime candidate who

could get publicity for the SNP and there are many people who will say

that they don't agree with him or his policies, or where he wanted to

take Scotland but by goodness they respected him as a political

operator. When Alex Salmond became the Prime Minister in Scotland and

the Conservatives took charge of Government here, Alex Salmond met

Oscar Garcia, both men who like to think about how they do things. It

was supposed to be a courtesy meeting for about 20 minutes. An

hour-and-a-half later they were still talking politics, talking from

different sides. But they respected each other. I think as we have seen

from the campaign, that has just finished, the No Campaign won, they

won the election but there are many people who think that the Yes

Campaign won the campaign itself. How Alex Salmond managed to play it

long in the negotiations with the UK Government. He got the date of his

choosing, he got the question of his choosing, he is seen by many at

Westminster as a very, very good political strategist. But in

political terms, I think that they will be quite glad that he is

leaving. David Porter, thank you very much

for that. Now, Alex Salmond has been a

dominant force in Scottish politics. Andrew Wilson, can you sum up that,

the two chunks of leadership, the ten years and the ten years again?

In the first period of his leadership he took the party and

modernised the outlook and the positioning. He prepared it for what

was to come next. When we got to Holyrood or the other Parliament

building as it was at the time, he chose a good moment to pass on what

would be a long period of the next stages of devolution. He was then

persuaded to come back in, the rest is history. He was able to take the

party and galvanise it. Change the culture to be much less opposition,

chippy, to an open hearted and welcoming onement remarkable.

Thank you very much. Now, Alex Salmond, a dominant force in

Scottish politics, announces today that he is leaving the stage.

Leaving the political limelight. He said that the party, Parliament and

country would benefit from new leadership. Here are images of his

career. We are back with an extended Reporting Scotland at 6. 30pm this

evening on BBC One Scotland. Good afternoon.

For me right now, therefore, there is a decision as to who is

best-placed to lead this process forward.

I believe that this is a new, exciting situation, that is redolent

with possibility. But in that situation I think that

party, Parliament and country would benefit from new leadership.

Therefore I have told the national secretary of the Scottish National

Party, that I shall not accept nomination for leader of the annual

conference in Perth on the 13th and the 15th of November. After the

membership ballot I shall stand down as the First Minister to allow the

new leader to be elected by due parliamentary process.

Hello! How you getting on? So, June, first of all, is this

something you have done before?