Sky News just provided the most enjoyable political scrap in a long while, covering the allegations against Salmond to some of the more controversial statements from Alba’s candidates. Guido’s not sure why Salmond is in London during a) an election in Scotland and b) travel restrictions between the two countries…

Watch the sparring match in full below:

Alex Salmond on the state of the Scottish media:

“Incidentally I wouldn’t take your information from the mainstream press in Scotland, I mean these are people who would have slept through the Sermon on the Mount”

It seems the tide is finally turning in Nicola Sturgeon’s favour. After multiple polls showed the SNP’s potential majority hanging in the balance, a new survey by Opinium says that the party is now on track to win an overall majority in next month’s Holyrood elections, with 53% of voters expected to select the SNP candidate as their constituency MSP, with the Tories lagging at 21% and Labour down at 18% . That’s a 7% increase for the SNP since March…

In the Holyrood regional member vote, 44% of voters chose the SNP, whilst the Tories sit at a distant second at 22%. Crucially, translating these numbers into seats would hand the SNP a parliamentary majority of 13, bringing their total number of seats to a comfortable 71…

Guido suspects the disastrous polling numbers for the Alba Party are most likely to bring a smile to Nicola Sturgeon’s face. According to Opinium, Salmond’s new pet project is unlikely to gain a single seat in Holyrood next month, polling at just 2% in the regional vote. It looks like the declining support for Labour and the Tories has fallen in Sturgeon’s favour – not Salmond’s…

It’s clear Scottish voters just don’t trust Alex Salmond. A poll by Savanta Comres yesterday showed the former First Minister’s net favourability rating stuck in the gutter at -51% (lower than Boris Johnson’s), and today’s data bears that out. Over 63% of Scots take an unfavourable view of a coalition between Alba and the SNP…

While Salmond’s Alba party is creating family infighting among the Scottish independence camp, Guido enjoyed watching a similar row over the weekend between Scottish Tories and George Galloway’s “All For Unity” party. Not only are the Tories threatening he’ll split the vote and let in Sturgeon, some are even claiming he’s actually an anti-union sleeper agent. Paranoid…

Galloway isn’t spending time firing back at the Tories, however – he’s got Salmond in his sights. Yesterday he published an open letter laying down the gauntlet for an Andrew Neil-chaired debate between the two on Spectator TV, claiming it’s “the debate that the public have been longing for. Box office, TV gold. The heavyweights of Scottish politics.”

“I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it is an outrage and a disgrace that the BBC and STV continue to exclude us from the televised debates, despite polls showing that both of our parties are set to win seats in the next Scottish Parliament.”

Galloway says he’s happy for it to go down “any time, any place”. Guido’s got all his fingers crossed that the fiery debate goes ahead…

Yes it’s easy to mock technical difficulties. But. pic.twitter.com/U38uULOI4c

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) March 26, 2021

As the Scotsman’s Alexander Brown points out, you can tell Salmond worked at Russia Today given all the journalists have been silenced…