First Minister's Admission of Cockiness

Yes in today's Times there is an admission from Alex Salmond that he was "too cocky" during the Glenrothes by-election. That was the election that everybody it seemed, except for those of doing the Lib Dem box counts, thought was too close to call even as the ballots were being counted.

The announcement came that Salmond who personally spent 11 days in Glenrothes said he would be taking a lower profile approach this time around. Considering only last autumn he was basically braying for Gordon Brown to come up and get involved in the fight. But he now states that his too much of a hands on approach cost the SNP the election this is a strange u-Turn for the party that two years ago on their list candidates for Holyrood had 'Alex Salmond for First Minister' rather than the party name.

Maybe as John Curtis, Strathclyde University's Professor of Politics points out this isn't so much about an admission of the First Minister's cockiness, but an admission of defeat.

"If you don't think you are going to win, taking a less visible part in the contest would be the sensible strategy. You don't want to be associated with something which could be regarded as failure but I don't accept that Alex Salmond lost them Glenrothes. They lost because the SNP was out-campaigned by Labour and did not take enough notice of Labour's attacks."

Another admission from a friend is also interesting, stating that he doesn't want to overshadow the candidate former BBC journalist David Kerr, and that "He is mindful that he is not the candidate". Interesting comment in that is he mindful that he is also not a candidate in the Westminster elections coming up next year where he insists on being in on the leadership debates.