Common Weal director Robin McAlpine says the nature of public debate is becoming increasingly nasty and personalised – only the far-right will win from this

IT IS a sad truth about humanity that whenever we create a new piece of technology, someone will try to use it as a weapon, will try to use it to hurt others.

Salmond: “Most of all I am conscious that if the Party felt forced into suspending me it would cause substantial internal division.”

FORMER first minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond has resigned his membership of the SNP to avoid dividing the party, following allegations of sexual misconduct, which he refutes.

Leah Franchetti (@leahfranchetti), vice-chair of the Shettleston Labour Party and on the steering group of the Scottish Labour Women’s Movement, argues that media reporting of the Alex Salmond sexual harrasment allegations has been unedifying, and raises questions about the extent to which the culture within news rooms – still dominated by men – has changed

As the former first minister challenges Scottish Government procedure in court, Sturgeon calls for the privacy of those who made complaints against him to be respected.

FIRST MINISTER NICOLA STURGEON has stated that allegations of sexual misconduct against her predecessor Alex Salmond cannot be “swept under the carpet” and emphasised the need to ensure “fair and due process”.

Speaking on the Alex Salmond Show, Torra refused to compromise over demands for the release of Catalan independence leaders, and advocated the abolition of the Spanish monarchy

CATALAN PRESIDENT QUIM TORRA has stated that the Catalan Government will not consider any compromise over its demands that pro-independence political prisoners be released, and articulated his hope that both Catalonia and Spain might one day be republics.

Alex Salmond has joined Jeremy Corbyn in expressing doubt over who was responsible for the chemical weapons attack, despite Theresa May’s declarations of certainty over the Syrian Government’s culpability.

FORMER FIRST MINISTER Alex Salmond has stressed the importance of “letting the importance of international inspection complete before military action”, following Prime Minister Theresa May’s repeated assertion that responsibility for the chemical weapons attack in Douma lay with the Syrian Government.

If a North Sea wealth fund had been set up in the 1980s, it would be worth over half a trillion pounds today, the IPPR estimates

THE UK GOVERNMENT missed its chance to establish a wealth fund based around North Sea oil which would today be worth over £500bn, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

Former first minister criticises UK Government’s handling of the North Sea sector, but is rebuked by Scottish environmentalists

FORMER FIRST MINISTER ALEX SALMOND has called for North Sea oil and gas to benefit “the workers, the communities and the people” over the next several decades.

CommonSpace columnist and Common Weal director Robin McAlpine says we need to start owning our own hypocrisy before it's too late

I VERY much hope that as I am writing this the west's liberal opinion-deciders are in a conclave deciding what the 'correct' opinion is on Zimbabwe. I'd hate to get it embarrassingly wrong.

CommonSpace sat down with the former first minister at the Scottish Independence Convention

FORMER FIRST MINISTER ALEX SALMOND believes the UK Government has remained silent on the situation in Catalonia out of fear of reprisals by the Spanish Government in Brexit negotiations.