We are all hurt by this sleazy McSleaze fest between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon Comment Updated: 27 Feb 2021, 21:35 SCOTLAND increasingly resembles a failed one-party state, a tinpot dictatorship, a fruit-free banana republic where democracy is quietly expiring. Does anyone hold the SNP to account in Scotland? Or can the party — despite its spectacularly rotten record on education, health and drug deaths — now get away with anything? 9 Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond with his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, are at warCredit: PA On Friday, Scotland’s former First Minister Alex Salmond stood before a committee of MSPs and, his words restricted by legal constraints, seethed: “Scotland’s leadership has failed.”