ALEX Salmond will not return to active politics until Nicola Sturgeon calls the second independence referendum, but after that he will be “on his marks”.

The former First Minister spoke at a public meeting organised by SNP Morningside in Edinburgh last night.

He said: “Nicola Sturgeon can have confidence in the party and the Yes movement whenever she calls the referendum. Until then, I have no immediate political ambitions whatsoever, I rather like what I am doing just now. But one thing is for certain, when Nicola fires the starting gun on the independence referendum I’ll be on my marks and ready to help in any way I can.”

Salmond made his declaration during a speech which had been billed as Salmond speaking on the State of the Nation but which was largely his personal opinion of the state of the Yes movement as it prepares for a second referendum, including his view that Scotland should take the EFTA route back to Europe.

Earlier, Salmond gave his thoughts to The National. He said: “The Yes movement is in good heart. I was in Inverness last week for a Yes meeting and 150 people turned up at lunchtime, and of course two weeks ago 40,000, 50,000 or 60,000 people turned up for the March for Independence in Glasgow.

“A lot of folk say that doesn’t matter in this digital age, it doesn’t matter how many people are prepared to go on marches.

Of course it matters, and the argument that five million people didn’t turn up is totally fallacious.

“You need to measure the level of enthusiasm and activity and one way to measure it is by the number of people who are prepared to give up a Saturday and go on the march. Another measure is the comparison with the number of people on the counter demonstration – two dozen or so.

“Go back to 2013 and 2014 when we had two marches in Edinburgh with the referendum already called and on the horizon. They were good marches with 10,000 to 15,000 turnouts, with which we were very pleased, but that was a fraction of the numbers that turned out

in Glasgow.”

Salmond went on: “My assessment of the Yes movement now is that it is in good condition and good heart. Why is that? Every generation and every period in politics has issues which turn focus on the question of independence.

“In the 1960s it was Polaris and nuclear missiles on the Clyde, when people like Isobel Lindsay were attracted into the SNP.

“In the 1970s the discovery of North Sea oil made Scotland confident about its economic future. In the 1980s, Thatcherism made people think about independence.

“In 2003 the issue was the illegal war on Iraq, and now for this generation one of the main issues is Scotland’s position in Europe.

“It is a much broader question than Scotland’s position in the European Union, it is about Scotland’s place in the nexus of European nations, of which we have been one for 1000 years.

“I back the Scottish Government’s Scotland’s Place in Europe position paper which prioritised membership of EFTA as being a practical, pragmatic way of securing Scotland’s position in Europe. This strikes me as a great rallying call for present circumstances because it is immediate, it is deliverable.

“By contrast, the UK Government is in total chaos and confusion over its customs union policy.”

Reflecting on the relationship between the SNP and the wider Yes movement, Salmond pointed out that in 2012, when the referendum was called, the opposition was much stronger.

He said: “For all his faults, David Cameron was an impressive looking Prime Minister, and that’s not the case now. Gordon Brown played his part because had a certain cachet with Labour voters. That wouldn’t happen now.

“It wasn’t until the summer of 2014 that the Yes movement really got going, but we are much further forward now, and it’s not a weakness that people marching for independence believe in different things – that’s a strength.”