THE mainstream media can knock him, the snide critics try to mock him, but Alex Salmond retains the affection and trust of many, many thousands of people in the SNP and the independence movement generally.

As was shown by the reception given to his speech at an open meeting in Edinburgh’s Church Hill Theatre organised by SNP Morningside, the former First Minister has lost none of his verbal and oratorical talents and the 400 people in attendance saw a bravura performance typical of the man – but also heard the product of the thoughts he has been inculcating since losing his parliamentary seat last May.

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Yesterday The National featured the key elements of that speech, but Salmond then went on to host a genuine question and answer session with the audience, receiving no notice of the questions, unlike many other senior politicians we could name.

In what was his first extended appearance on the political stage, rather than the showbiz version with his successful Unleashed show, the former First Minister was asked if he thought the British Establishment was on “maximum freeze-out” of the SNP and the Yes Movement.

Salmond replied: “I don’t think that’s a new development, I think this has been going on for a period of time. The British Establishment is fundamentally weaker than it was in 2014 because it is fundamentally fractured on the issue of Europe.

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“If you think about it, it’s not often you find a Conservative government pursuing a policy which is not the favoured policy of most of the Establishment.

“It’s very seldom you see a Conservative government pursuing a policy which is so antipathetic to the views of the House of Lords, for example.

“So the fracturing of the British Establishment strikes me as a substantial advantage for the forthcoming Yes campaign which wasn’t there in 2014.”

Salmond then took an old opponent to task – the BBC, which he called his “blind spot” during the referendum.

“Why was my blind spot the BBC?” he said. “Well, in every single election campaign I had fought in 30 years – every single one, once you got into the campaign proper – broadcasting was fair and square.

“It was absolutely fair and square. And that didn’t happen in the referendum.

“I should have realised that, the reason was on the tin, the ‘British’ Broadcasting Corporation. It belied all my previous experience, but I am quite certain Nicola will not have that blind spot.”

In fairness it should be reported that a BBC spokesman said yesterday: “We covered the referendum in line with our editorial guidelines on fairness and accuracy. No complaints of bias in our reporting of the referendum were upheld by the BBC Trust.”

That will be the BBC Trust populated by Unionists and with only one Scottish trustee, and a Trust which did its job so well it was scrapped last year ... and more than a few independent researchers concluded the broadcasters in general were biased.

As for the press, Salmond said: “I told the Leveson Inquiry the Daily Mail is the price we pay for press freedom – and it’s a price worth paying.”

He questioned the general attitude of the press: “I think a lot of people would like a more optimistic portrayal of the prospects of the country, and more self-belief, and more of an attitude of celebrating achievement and ambition and good things happening, as opposed to an anxiety to drag everything and everybody and every policy and every government down.”

Salmond also ventured his opinion on the recent controversy over Paisley and Renfrewshire South SNP MP Mhairi Black claiming that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had told her he was in favour of independence for Scotland.

He said: “I think I hear Mhairi’s side on that one, certainly in terms of the conversations I’ve had in the past few years.

“I can see why people are attracted to Jeremy Corbyn. I’ve known him for 30 years and he’s been consistent, he’s been principled on a range of issues, he’s taken unpopular stances because he believed in them.

“I saw Alastair Campbell had written a piece recently, and obviously Alastair carries the baggage of the dossier and all the rest of it, but most people would say he’s a pretty perceptive commentator and the point he was making was that if an Opposition leader is going to win then at this juncture, facing the weakest Conservative government in living memory, then you would expect the opposition party to have a commanding advantage.”

Speaking about the currency issue which bedevilled the Yes campaign in 2014, Salmond said: “The policy [keeping the pound sterling] we had in 2014 was a policy designed for the time, and at that time we expected Scotland to become independent when our near neighbours were a partner country in the European Union, so there was a logic and a sense.

“That logic and sense doesn’t have the same resonance when that country is likely to be out of the EU and sterling is likely to be more like an offshore trading currency as opposed to a currency of reserve.

“The best policy is that of the time, and you choose the optimum policy of the time. You don’t pretend there is only one policy, you choose what’s right for the moment.”

Asked why a Westminster government would allow another independence referendum, Salmond said: “Once you have established a precedent, and we established a precedent, that is to say a vote carried forward by the Scottish Parliament for a mandate [for a referendum], it would be very difficult for a UK Government, particularly this weak Government, to hold out against it.

“It would be very, very difficult once the precedent has been established as it was in 2014.

“I am quite certain, however, that Nicola Sturgeon has a whole range of political options.”