Norway is still doing pretty well.But of course they are an oil and gas producing small independent nation that set up an oil fund.Had Scotland become independent in the 1970s and set up an oil fund,no one would be sneering at any Celtic Lion tag now.

Most of the Salmond speech still holds good.U.S. venture capital will still be attracted to our renewables industry.Wind and wave power doesn't run out.Not that Scotland's oil is going to run out this century if anyone takes the trouble to find out.

ln the May 5th Elections the Lib-Dems polled 6.6% or 261,186 votes for a total of 5 seats. The Tories in Scotland did better with 13,13% or 522,619 votes for 15 seats.
Labour (new and auld) 28.99% or 1154020 votes for 37 seats.
The SNP won 44.71% of the votes with 1779336 and doing the constitutional impossibility of gaining and out and out majority with 69 seats.
All of this 2007 /2008 crises and with a minority Govt.
Digging up old speeches in some putrid attempt to discredit is the past-tense politics beloved by Labour. They were beaten by using the same auld same auld.
In panic they rushed out a pamphlet quoting the Telegraph and the Daily Mail while urging Scottish voters to defeat the Tories by voting Labour.(sic)
Labour in The Scottish Labour party has three big strikes against it.
It simply is not Scottish enough-thirled to London Labour and more concerned with British Labour than Scottish people.
It is not Labour enough; having designed a politics to win south of Birmingham they have thrown out the interests of Scotlands workers, poor, old and students.
Labour in Scotland is no longer a popular (people's)Party. It has become a Chicago styled claque of hustlers with so few genuine activists that they did not have the bodies to canvass in May. Instead they took they took the London coin and abd with it London's campaign strategy.
Until Labour Scotland's national interests then no amount of auld cauld kail can influence a single vote.
As a 30 + year supporter of Labour only Scottish sovereignty will satisfy me and that at the moment is the SNP (or Greens or Scottish socialists).

Anything to discredit the cause for Scottish independence, eh?

Formerly a fan, currently disgusted.

"If Scots independence is worthwhile,then its politicians must be able to take criticism..."

Starting to sound a bit Mr. Cholmondeley-Warner are we not David?

But let me ask you this.If a Cameron,Clegg or Milliband speech from three years ago had been just taken down would you have bothered to devote a whole piece to it?

And Gerry,stop being so casually partisan.Know your place!

How smug. Concentrate instead on undersanding Alec' and Scotland's mature desire for constitutional change in the former UK.

This piece is pointless or self-defeating or both. Is Mr Green trying to remind us that Alex Salmond was once infatuated with the Irish model? Well, we already knew that - he came under considerable (and deserved) criticism for it within the SNP. Or is he just trying to point out that Salmond is now embarrased about having once been infatuated with the Irish model? In which case: cheers! This tacitly re-affirms the SNP's social democratic credentials. Although for explicit confimation of those you could just look at the Scottish Government's record over the last 4 years. Salmond was certainly wrong about Ireland and Iceland, the two 'arc' countries which had most fully embraced neo-liberalism. The arc did however have three points - the third being Norway. Norway, a high tax and high public expenditure economy, offers the most credible model for Scotland after Britain. Post-crash I would bet Salmond and the SNP leadership return to this view. As for being 'casually partisan', perhaps DAG could have a wee word with his new Scottish leader about that.

"Their holding of the Saltire as their own really annoys me."

Can you refresh our memory as to which legislation the SNP passed preventing anyone else from waving a Saltire?

As far as I'm aware, the SNP are a Scottish party and as such are fully entitled to display the flag of Scotland. The other parties are too - if they choose not to, vent your anger on them, not the SNP.

Adam

Unity at Ministry of Truth has deftly dealt with your concern: http://bit.ly/kJbsJI

As much as the SNP's brush with neoliberalism was ill-fated, it's clear that the vision they presented at the May elections was something substantially different, and more socially progressive than anything on offer from Labour. Which is partly why Salmond won a majority. It's worth pointing out that Iceland's ongoing economic recovery is also impressive. The Icelandic government also negotiated with the IMF to retain the Nordic social welfare model- a significant achievement when you consider the austerity implicit in the UK's patchy economic recovery.

Whoops, keyboards fault. Honest.

As a Scot, who does not back Alex Salmond or the SNP, this doesn't surprise me. The SNP are notorious for shouting down criticism as 'negativity' and 'anti-Scottish', when its not. Their holding of the Saltire as their own really annoys me. Scottish Labour, Tories and Lib-Dems are as Scottish as them, they only really differ in their views on Scotland's constitutional future. Most Scots support more power but no independence. So why no federalise the UK? Create equality for all nations and then have a UK government above on welfare, defence, macroeconomics and foreign policy. It'd be the best option to me. Gives England free reign on her affairs and Scotland the greater control it wants.

I hate the idea that because I feel British as well as being a proud Scot makes me less Scottish. Its offensive to me. Salmond and his party cannot take criticism well, I remember Iain Gray criticising the way in which the SNP have run the education system and implemented the new cirriculum and he was heckled by the present SNP minister for being engaged in a negative campaign and was some how not a believer in the Scottish education system. Its just completely a one sided debate up here. The SNP seem to just dominate on all fronts, the media give Salmond a much freer hand than Westminster politicians get and the most critical writings I can ever see on him and his administration is from Margo MacDonald, former SNP MSP, who writes in the Edinburgh Evening News.

I feel uneasy with Salmond and his government, they have run Scotland pretty well, no major errors, but where there has been mistakes the criticism from opposition parties of any colour has been ignored and painted with the brush of 'negativity' and 'not backing Scotland's future'. I want to see a succesful Scotland, which punches above her weight and has a distinct character to the rest of the UK, but I do not see the need nor the imperative to become an independent state. If anything the past few years have shown us it is better to have the power we need here but to be backed and supported by a wider Union which has a much larger clout in the EU, IMF and other organisations.

@DAG:

Indeed he has. Many thanks for that link.

So, what we know is that the list of Salmond's speeches contained an incorrect link to the Harvard speech until yesterday lunchtime, after which the link was corrected.

The speech itself may or may not have been there all along, but since there was nothing that linked to it, there is no way to tell.

It strikes me that the most likely explanation is as follows: the speeches were moved into an archive in May this year. The links on the list of Salmond's speeches were mostly updated at the time to point to the new locations, but the one on the Harvard speech got missed.

Of course it's possible that this was a giant conspiracy to try to pretend that Salmond never gave the speech, but a straightforward cock-up seems so much more likely, doesn't it?

It really doesn't strike me that there is that much of a story here. Perhaps the only story is that the press office got defensive rather than simply saying "oops, we goofed, let's fix the link", but in the grand scheme of things, I find it hard to get excited about that.

Andrew

You are talking absolute rubbish, a great many Scots live in England and never suffer any problems, yet the those who suffer the most racist attacks in Scotland are the English.

Most of the English population really can't be bothered and Alex Salmond himself said recently on Question Time that if the Independence Referendum including England, Scotland would achieve Independence.

So don't try and pull a racist slur on the people of England, the most tolerent nation in Western Europe just to suit your own prejudice!

Policitian in 'Says Something Which Later Proves to Be Wrong' shocka.

Can't believe Salmond didn't predict the credit crunch. Amateur.

Er, good story, apart from one teeny-weeny little detail: the speech is available on the Scottish government website.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Speeches/Speeches/First-Minister/harvard...

Could that be the reason why they told you this post would be misleading?

Come off it Alexander Mitchell even down here in England we've heard quite a lot of the barbs directed at the SNP. What you wish is obviously not what rthe majority of Scots want. I envy them so they have the chance to break away from the Westminster Village of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, lucky people!

Meanwhile down here Cameron peomised an English Grand Council for England before the election and now the Tories say "but you have the same as Scotland in the Councils."

I wish Alex Salmond and the SNP well and hope that the UK breaks up. No more Eton Old Boys ruling the roost!

How very interesting, the speech is now available again. That's good.

Wouldn't the changing of facts warrant a change of opinion?

What's your beef, DAG?

I can offer no explanation for how the speech is now available again on the Scottish government website.

However, I can add this statement from Donna Rafferty at the First Minister's Press Office:

“This is misleading, because all Ministerial speeches recorded in the Speeches and Statements section during the previous administration (2007-2011) remain available. These speeches include the First Minister's speech at Harvard and can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Speeches/speeches .

“Following normal website housekeeping, a new Speeches and Statements section has been created for the present administration with its new team of Ministers, and is part of the main navigation at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/news/speeches.“

When Salmond mention the arc, he was really talking about Noah's Ark.