Not that less prominent politicians or staff are spared, either. Salmond, for instance, has little truck with Sturgeon’s political advisors. Prominent nationalist Jim Sillars, meanwhile, brands Salmond an autocrat. Salmond was so disgusted with his portrayal that he branded the show “venomous and biased” and urged his supporters to stop watching halfway through.

Such a glut of internecine recrimination after an extended period of restraint may be amusing, but it is also revealing. It allows us to glimpse the nationalist mindset: that nothing, no matter how serious or concerning, trumps the cause of Scottish secession. Thus, Yousaf was more than willing to stand by as Salmond barracked and bullied his way through Scottish politics, purely because Salmond was the man best placed to lead Scotland to independence. For Scottish nationalists, it seems, the ends always justify the means.

But the backbiting underway in this documentary also reveals that even seasoned Nats now recognise what most people in Scotland have known for some time: that independence is finished as a mainstream political concern, at least for the time being. And so senior SNP figures are now finally willing to reflect on what went wrong and who was to blame. The cause that bound them together has faltered, and their discipline has shattered with it.

The interviewees may hope this very public evaluation will help prepare the SNP for future elections, and lay the groundwork for the cause of independence to eventually recover. In that respect, however, they would do better to look to Salmond and his early successes as SNP leader, which sadly — if understandably — are given less attention than they deserve by the BBC.

In almost every way, it was Salmond who dragged the SNP single-handedly into the political mainstream and made Scottish secession a genuine possibility. Few politicians in the last 30 years — bar, perhaps, Nigel Farage — have had such a profound impact on the direction of British politics from a position of relative obscurity. Yet the scale of the challenge facing Salmond — and the Herculean effort involved in overcoming it — never fully comes across. The now-progressive SNP will be wondering if there is any way to recreate that purple patch without the bullying.

Following a brutal defeat at the recent general election, and with further setbacks likely at devolved elections in 2026, there will be plenty of time for the SNP to learn, and further opportunity for reflections and recriminations too. Until then, the BBC has produced a useful and entertaining first obituary for Scottish nationalism. But based on the wild oscillation from discipline to anarchy on display here, it is unlikely to be the last.

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Andrew Liddle is a political commentator and historian based in Edinburgh.

ABTLiddle

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