First Minister pulls out of Irish-Scottish conference

ALEX Salmond was a late and unexpected call-off from the Irish-Scottish conference in Glasgow yesterday.

The First Minister had been due to give a keynote address and take part in a discussion forum with 200 guests who had travelled from Dublin, Belfast, the Isle of Man and all over Scotland to Glasgow yesterday.

However, it was confirmed prior to the conference’s start yesterday morning that the First Minister would not be attending.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond later explained that the First Minister had been working from his constituency base in Aberdeenshire in the early part of the week and had chaired cabinet on Tuesday via a phone link.

Rather than travelling to Edinburgh to stay at his Bute House residence on Tuesday night, he had remained north, only returning to the capital yesterday morning. The spokesman added: “There were four Scottish ministers in attendance, John Swinney, Fergus Ewing, Richard Lochhead and Bruce Crawford so it was not really necessary for him to be there.”