Analysis: Budget bluster had more to do with your own career, Alex

By David Torrance
Published on Tuesday 3 January 2012 00:00

Alex Salmond may have claimed many political scalps in his long career, but the Iron Lady’s was not one of them.

In March 1988, when the young MP for Banff and Buchan intervened in Nigel Lawson’s Budget statement, the future First Minister was out to make a name for himself rather than bring down Margaret Thatcher, then nearing her ninth anniversary as prime minister.

By long-standing tradition the Budget statement was heard in respectful silence, but as Lawson worked towards a section in his speech announcing a cut in the basic rate of income tax, Salmond rose from the benches and declared (according to Hansard): “This is an obscenity. The Chancellor cannot do this.”

It was difficult to hear what Salmond said next amid the ensuing uproar on the Tory benches, but one journalist recalled him shout: “Tax cuts for the rich, the poll tax for the poor”. The Chancellor carried on, but when MPs continued to roar, Lawson could be seen turning to the Prime Minister and saying: “This is terrible”.

Salmond later remembered the withering look he was shot by Mrs Thatcher herself. “I reckon that look was a good reason to keep going,” he joked.

The Speaker “named” him and called a division on his suspension from the House. But there is little evidence that the incident “helped to kickstart the idea that the Thatcher government was not impregnable”.

In 1988, the Conservatives were still at the height of their powers, although there was trouble on the horizon. Inflation was on the rise, while rumbles of discontent about the poll tax were beginning to be felt. But those issues would have happened anyway.

Salmond’s intervention had more to do with boosting his own career rather than hindering that of the Prime Minister.

As The Scotsman’s former political editor, Ewen MacAskill, wrote, his act “will have done him no harm in Nationalist circles, and increased his already strong chances of leading the SNP”. And so – more than two years later – it proved.

• David Torrance is author of ‘We in Scotland’ – Thatcherism in a Cold Climate and Salmond – Against the Odds.

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Brit-free

Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 03:29 PM

nah its the poll tax .....Labour were so worried about , desperate for, \Westmonster electability that they had to give a mixed message , one voice for their core vote ....the other voice for posterity , no hostages to middle England fortune ( see also Miners strike ) ...it achieved their purpose, in that it saw them embraced by the establishment , they had ditched their (avowed)principles , and their core vote were left looking for an alternative Social Democratic home ....enter the S N P .....one of whose most dynamic voices was the F M ....remembered in those days for his left wing principles , proving a great weapon to counter the labourite smear " Tartan Tories " ....the rest is history ...the more overtly cultural nationalists were replaced by the more instictively left leaning ....the tories had become used to intimadating the labourites with " looney left " headlines ......the open stance of Alex Salmond against toryism . was a slow burner ,, but who can deny its eventual effectiveness ......? .........as for the downfall ...? there is only ONE Tory M P ....the tiny Holyrood faction are a humourous menagerie ....downfall ....?.

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JohnMcDonaldish

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 07:39 PM

Aye right. And here is someone desperately trying to make a career from being a snide wee Unionist.

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Bruceboy

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 10:31 AM

David Torrence was never right on anything.

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footdee

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 02:02 AM

thomas79 Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 12:40 AM David Torrance is right. Alex Salmond did not play a key part in Thatchers downfall. -----But the poll tax issue did and Alex and the SNP kicked it off

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footdee

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 02:01 AM

It was difficult to hear what Salmond said next amid the ensuing uproar on the Tory benches, but one journalist recalled him shout: “Tax cuts for the rich, the poll tax for the poor”. The Chancellor carried on, but when MPs continued to roar, Lawson could be seen turning to the Prime Minister and saying: “This is terrible”.--------Go oan yersel Alex

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thomas79

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 12:40 AM

David Torrance is right. Alex Salmond did not play a key part in Thatchers downfall. Alex Salmond had a positive confident and inspiring new year message. What a contrast to this silly claim that just ain't reality.

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The Harder They Come

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 12:23 AM

Praytell, what did Labour eve do?

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