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The Week

The Week

Alex Salmond: charismatic politician who nearly broke up the Union

The Week
Summary
Nutrition label

80% Informative

Alex Salmond , who has died aged 69 , transformed SNP from fringe party to political force.

He was leader of the SNP from 1990 , and later first minister.

He came within a few percentage points of breaking up the United Kingdom .

Salmond was accused of sexual misconduct in the wake of the 2014 independence referendum.

He took the SNP government to court over its handling of the case, but it was deemed unlawful.

In 2007 , the SNP beat Labour , and Salmond became leader of a minority government.

He removed bridge tolls, abolished tuition fees and scrapped prescription charges.

He used planning laws to veto nuclear plants and promote onshore wind farms.

In 2011 , despite a proportional representation system that seemed to exclude the possibility, he seized an outright majority.

In 2017 the SNP lost support, and he was among the MPs unseated.

VR Score

85

Informative language

85

Neutral language

39

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

46

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

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