31 Facts About Alex Salmond SNP

1. Alex Salmond SNP takes an interest in Scottish cultural life, as well as watching Star Trek and listening to country and western music.

2. In January 2016, Alex Salmond SNP prompted by broadcasting colleague Iain Dale, called Trump a "chicken" for refusing to appear on his LBC talk show, which had then been recently launched.

3. Alex Salmond SNP lost his seat as member for Gordon to Colin Clark of the Conservatives, receiving 19,254 votes to the Conservatives 21,861.

4. Alex Salmond SNP has experience of troubled political buildings, having opposed the construction of the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh when cost estimates rose from £50m to £230m in 2000.

5. In October 2016, Alex Salmond SNP said Liverpool or Manchester would be an ideal site to rebuild the Houses of Parliament, to make the economy less dependent on London.

6. Alex Salmond SNP tweeted the party would advocate a "pro Europe", "pro developing world" and "against military adventurism" stance.

7. On 7 December 2014, Alex Salmond SNP announced that he would stand as the SNP candidate for the Westminster constituency of Gordon in the 2015 May election.

8. On 7 November 2012, Alex Salmond SNP became the longest-serving First Minister of Scotland, when he surpassed the 2,001-day term of his predecessor, Jack McConnell.

9. Alex Salmond SNP responded to a freedom of information request for information on his spending six months after receiving it, and referred to it as "ridiculous frippery".

10. In December 2011, Alex Salmond SNP spent £260 on a pair of trews that he wore to a ball in China.

11. At this election, Alex Salmond SNP was reelected for Aberdeenshire East, essentially a reconfigured version of Gordon.

12. Alex Salmond SNP declined to attend those held on the BBC and ITV, and Angus Robertson agreed to take his place in the other debates.

13. Alex Salmond SNP said it would be "unacceptable" for the SNP to be excluded from the 2010 UK election televised debate and sought "guarantees of inclusion from the broadcasters, given their inescapable duty to ensure fairness and impartiality in election-related coverage in Scotland" in the buildup to the 2010 UK general election.

14. In November 2007, Alex Salmond SNP received The Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year award for his "brilliant campaign" and "extraordinary victory" in the Scottish Parliament elections, thereby ending eight years of Labour rule.

15. Alex Salmond SNP reduced the size of the Cabinet from nine members to six, and said he would seek to govern on a "policy by policy" basis.

16. Alex Salmond SNP became the first nationalist politician to hold the office of First Minister.

17. Alex Salmond SNP has gone further than many anti-war politicians in claiming that Blair's statements on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were consciously intended to deceive the public.

18. Alex Salmond SNP was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and was one of its highest-profile members.

19. Alex Salmond SNP was opposed to the conflict because it was not authorised by a United Nations Security Council resolution, which was a controversial subject at the time.

20. Alex Salmond SNP increased its number of MPs from four to six in the 1997 general election, which saw a landslide victory for the Labour Party.

21. Alex Salmond SNP went on to win the leadership election by 486 votes to Ewing's 146.

22. Alex Salmond SNP served as a member of the House of Commons Energy Select Committee from 1987 to 1992.

23. Alex Salmond SNP was at this time still viewed as being firmly on the left of the party and had become a key ally of Jim Sillars, who joined him in the House of Commons when he won a by-election for the seat of Glasgow Govan in 1988.

24. Alex Salmond SNP was, along with other group leaders, suspended from membership of the SNP when the 79 Group was banned within the larger party.

25. Alex Salmond SNP started his political life as a committed left-winger inside the SNP and was a leading member of the socialist republican organisation within it, the 79 Group.

26. Alex Salmond SNP contributed regularly to oil and energy conferences.

27. Alex Salmond SNP studied at Edinburgh College of Commerce from 1972 to 1973, gaining an HNC in Business Studies, and was then accepted by the University of St Andrews, where he studied Economics and Medieval History.

28. Alex Salmond SNP was succeeded as SNP leader by his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, as she was the only candidate to stand for the leadership election.

29. Alex Salmond SNP has campaigned on global warming and in government has committed Scotland to legislation on emission reduction and the generation of renewable energy.

30. At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the Alex Salmond SNP won with an overall majority, a feat previously thought almost impossible under the additional member system used in elections for the Scottish Parliament.

31. Alex Salmond SNP served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon from 2007 to 2011, and for Aberdeenshire East from 2011 to 2016.