Salmond strode on to Question Time 10 mins late, like a man who knew the show only started when he turned up

NORMALLY politicians neatly fit into the politics that surrounds them.

- STEPHEN FLYNN

In the case of Alex Salmond, it was the other way around.

He didn't fit in so he set out to reshape his surroundings. In doing so he made himself the gravity, the central force, around which the rest of Scottish politics circulated. And he did it for the best part of 30 years.

The loss of that formidable force, the sudden and shocking loss of the figure who wrote a seismic section of Scotland's modern story, is why his death is so hard to come to terms with. Largerthan-life personalities like Alex always make death feel very distant, they always seem destined to be around forever. I did not know him well and yet he has been a major part of my life. That might seem like a strange thing to say but I think it's a very common feeling for many of us in the SNP and the wider independence movement.