David Torrance: Alex Salmond failed to convince all comers as he took his ‘charm offensive’ roadshow to Liverpool

Alex Salmond probably fancies he has a certain affinity with the people of Liverpool. During last May’s election campaign he was in the city for a memorable edition of Question Time.

Initially the television audience was lukewarm, but before long the old pro had them eating out of his hand, particularly his warning not to let English politicians destroy “their” NHS.

Last night the First Minister tried to recapture that magic on a return visit, making “The Case for an Independent Scotland” at the sumptuous St George’s Hall. Surprisingly, the venue was packed, full of curious middle-aged and (predominantly) elderly Liverpudlians, as well as those from further afield.

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Liverpool has Nationalist form. Until the 1920s it returned an Irish Nationalist MP, such were the number of Irish immigrants in the city – T.P. O’Connor represented the old Liverpool Scotland seat in which, appropriately enough, Salmond’s speech took place.

Continuing the “charm offensive” (Eck’s description) begun in London a few weeks ago, Salmond repeated familiar themes about making the relationship between England and Scotland more equitable. Interestingly, his Liverpool speech took that argument further by addressing the position of the English regions should Scotland become independent.

Yes, you guessed it, not only will independence be good for England, but it will also revitalise Merseyside. Such a change, argued Salmond, would “require a re-thinking of the structures of the rest of the UK”, not that he was so bold as to suggest what that might involve. But whatever it was, he reasoned, “the end result would surely reflect the needs of the regions better than current arrangements”.

Thus the First Minister presented himself as a Liberal federalist (not that he used the “f” word), committed, as was Gladstone, to “Home Rule All Round”. So far, so logical, only the federation conceived by Alex Salmond would not, if he had anything to do with it, include Scotland. For Scotland is a nation, and although Merseyside was imbued with a strong regional identity, it was not.

Less convincing was his claim that a “secure independent nation in the north” would help “lessen the economic dominance of the south-east” (there was precious little detail as to how). Finally, Salmond switched into “staunch Anglophile” mode, reassuring the audience that independence was nothing to be scared of; things would remain pretty much the same.

At one point, Salmond cast himself as a great Victorian orator. “On this tour of England, all England over,” he proclaimed (and paraphrasing Gladstone), “I’ll be backing the masses against the Westminster classes.” One of those masses, sitting next to me, was not impressed. “I served with a Highland regiment,” he told me, “and I swore an oath to crown and country – he wants to break that country up.” Next stop is the London School of Economics tomorrow; perhaps Salmond will have better luck in the Imperial Capital.