 However, those investigations, as you understand, are on-going, and as soon as the facts are available, we'll put them in the public domain. We now move directly to the next item of business, which is a statement by Alex Summond, the First Minister of Scotland. Firstly, I have to, and not for the first time in this chamber, disappoint Willie Rennie. I took it from his question that First Minister's questions last Thursday, that he was making a very subtle last-ditch attempt to persuade me to stay in post. I have given his suggestion great thought, but I have decided to resign anyway at the start of parliamentary business tomorrow. This notice should allow Mr Rennie ample time to secure his nominations to have a tilt at the job. I assure him that, if he so decides, I will weigh up his candidacy with great care before casting my vote for my friend and colleague Nicola Sturgeon. There are now only a minority of members here today who, like you and I, attended the opening ceremony of this reconvened Parliament in 1999. It was a great day. We heard moving poetry. The late Donald Dure gave the finest speech of his life, and when Sheena Wellington sang A Man's A Man, the entire chamber joined in the final verse. However, one other thing struck me about that day was that when the MSPs entered the General Assembly building on the mound, we were cheered in by the public. I had never seen that level of public engagement in politics before, and until this last summer, I had never seen it since. The public enthusiasm on that first day was an inspiration but also a challenge. It was Eddie Morgan who captured the mood perfectly five years later and the poem to mark the opening of this Parliament building. We give you our consent to govern. Don't pocket it and ride away. We give you our dearest wish to govern well. Don't say we have no mandate to be so bold. My view is that, on the whole, this Parliament has fulfilled the public wishes and earned their consent. We have accepted the mandate to be bold. Our composition now reflects much of the diversity of modern Scotland. We have become the chief hub of national discourse and debate, the full cram of Scottish public life, the chamber that people expect to reflect their priorities, their values and their hopes. That is not because of any one political party, it is because of the commitment of so many of the members over the last 15 years. I think in particular of some of the MSPs who are no longer with us, Donald Dewar, Margaret Ewing, Bashir Ahmad, Phil Galley, Donald Gory, David McLechey, Brian Adam, Helen Eadie, John Farkham and Roe, Sam Galbraith and, of course, the truly remarkable Margaret MacDonald. This Parliament's proceedings are not perfect, how in earth could they be. We are not actually 15 years old, we are 15 years young and you, Presiding Officer, have implemented significant improvements. This Parliament has great strengths and we should never underplay them. On the last speech that I made in this chamber, it was at the business and parliament conference where 100 businesses and representatives were sitting in the chamber here alongside six ministers, 17 MSPs and people from the third sector and from the wider public sector. Last year, more than 400 different organisations held events in this building. Overall, in 15 years, we have welcomed more than 4 million visitors. That degree of accessibility is not unique in the democratic world, but it is very rare and pretty impressive. Throughout my time as First Minister, I have tried to reflect that and approach the Government to our key social partners. Last week, the STUC made exactly that point at our regular meetings between Government and General Council. I have led a minority administration and a majority one. Minority Government requires negotiation to recognise honest disagreement and then compromise in the public interest. I have absolutely no idea if my experience of minority government in this place will ever come in handy in another place. Interestingly, when we had that minority Government, the SNP was on the side of the majority for 80 per cent of the votes in this chamber. There were hardly any occasions where all the other parties lined up against us. Mind you, there was that small matter of Edinburgh trams, but perhaps the better, more important point to reflect on today is that, on so many occasions in both minority government and in majority government, there have been cross-party support for social and economic change. For example, on February 2008, when the Liberal Democrats and the Greens voted with us to restore the principle of free higher education in Scotland, or June 2009, when we passed the most ambitious climate change legislation of any country in the world, we had the support of every party in this chamber, including the Conservative Party. On March of this year, when Labour, Liberal Democrats and the Greens joined with us to ensure that nobody needs to face eviction from their homes as a consequence of the bedroom tax. Most of all, I think about the consistent and often joint endeavour against the headwinds of economic circumstance and austerity to make Scotland a stronger, fairer and more cohesive nation. Throughout my time as First Minister, I have heard it said by some in this place that the Government's pursuit of national independence crowded out other issues, even that the constitution was of little interest to Scotland, but that has not been the experience or the verdict of the people. We have all just lived through one of the most invigorating, extraordinary debates of the democratic era, one of the most impressive of any country, anywhere, at any time. It has argued that people everywhere have become disengaged from politics, not in Scotland in 2014. It has said that they no longer care about the business of governance, not in Scotland in 2014. In the last few months, we have watched an electorate passionately engaged in the business of fashioning their own future. I see little evidence that the people of Scotland resented the Government pursuing that business with them and for them. It was considered, if the Daily Record newspaper, a consistent bulwark of this Government over the last seven years, to provide a poll today showing 50 per cent SNP support on the very day that I am leaving. Mind you, it might be because I am leaving, but it is a wise newspaper that listens to the verdict of its readers. The more important realisation is this. We are on a political journey, and each step along the way has been dictated by the impact of the constitution on issues that mean the most to ordinary Scots. This Parliament was reborn out of the realisation that we could no longer afford to have our domestic politics dictated by Governments without democratic legitimacy. We progressed because people became impatient with politicians who wanted to administer rather than to govern, and we will grow further yet because people wish to shape the circumstances around them and are demanding, in a Parliament, fully equipped for that task. The past 12 months have been an extraordinary example of this nation's talents and capabilities. It has been a year of substantial economic progress—50,000 people, more people are in employment in Scotland. We have a record total of women in employment in Scotland. There are figures showing inward investment at a 17-year high. We have hosted a year of homecoming, staged the Rider-Cup and organised the greatest-ever Commonwealth Games, and we have managed a referendum that has been hailed around the world as a model of truly participative democracy. Scotland has a new sense of political confidence and a new sense of economic confidence. They are reinforcing each other, and wherever we are travelling together as a nation, they are transforming this country for the better. That new sense of political confidence of engagement is the point on which I wish to end. At the start of my speech, I mentioned the enthusiasm that was generated by the re-establishment of this Parliament in 1999, when the MSPs were applauded into the assembly hall in the mound. Fifteen years on, that applause has evolved into something much more meaningful—sustained and critical constructive engagement involving people in every part of the country. Scotland now is the most energised, empowered and informed electorate of any country in Europe. We have a new generation of citizens who understand that their opinion matters, who believe that their voice will be heard and who know that their vote can shape the society that they live in. For all of us, that should be a point of pride—a source of challenge. For me, the sense of generational change has been a factor in deciding that time is right to move on from being First Minister. For this Parliament, it should spur us on to become even more accessible, to serve the new expectations of the people. For everyone in public life, it should inspire us to involve, include and empower the electorate, as we continue to quest to create a more prosperous and more equal Scotland. I wish each and every one of you well in pursuit of that endeavour. It has been the privilege of my life to serve as First Minister for these last seven and a half years. Any parting is tinged with some sorrow, but in this case it is vastly outweighed by a sense of optimism and confidence—confidence that we will have an outstanding new First Minister, confidence in the standing and the capability of this chamber and most of all confidence in the wisdom, the talent and the potential of the people of Scotland. Scotland has changed, changed utterly and much for the better over the 15 years of this Parliament in the seven years of this Government, but I am happy to say with every degree of certainty that more change and better days lie ahead for this Parliament and for Scotland. Jackie Baillie, I congratulate the First Minister on his statement to this chamber and associate myself with much of what the First Minister said and thank him in particular for recognising those MSPs no longer with us. We are a young Parliament and Alex Salmond has been First Minister for almost half of our lifetime. He and I have sparred, we have disagreed, we have fallen out, we have fought across the floor of this chamber and I have particularly enjoyed our own personal jousts at First Minister's questions. Can I thank him in particular for all the name checks that he has thrown my way? Is it seriously done wonders for my profile? It would be wrong of anyone, not least myself, not to recognise the commitment of the First Minister to Parliament and to public service. No one of any party is able to deny the First Minister's passion for Scotland or his love of his country. We know, though, that the First Minister also brought to bear mainly on the opposition but not always his very significant political talents. The Scottish Parliament and Scottish politics in general need people of talent from whatever political persuasion because that is how we improve our political debates and our institutions and the First Minister's considerable abilities will be missed. We know, given his track record, that he might just emulate Arnold Schwarzenegger and proclaim that he will be back. I also know how much of a toll being an elected member just takes on family life, so I hope at least that the First Minister gets some time to spend with his wife Moira and I wish you both well for the future. I could also have suggested, not that I would, that it would have given the First Minister more free time to play golf, but that is one thing that appears not to have been affected by the burdens of office. I also know, though, how proud the First Minister's father is of his son's achievements. Robert Salmond has been to the Parliament on a number of occasions, seen his son in action in the chamber, and I am sure that, Presiding Officer, there could have been no prouder moment for Mr Salmond than to see his son elected as First Minister of Scotland. The First Minister has had a long and distinguished career, but it was not all plain sailing. Who knew that the First Minister was expelled from the SNP? Indeed, if anyone is so minded, you can catch this on YouTube, the First Minister marches out of SNP conference in Perth, with, among others, Kenny MacAskill, Stuart Stevenson, Roseanna Cunningham and, of course, the late Margu MacDonald. A word of warning is that it is 10 minutes out of your life that you will never get back. It did not take the First Minister long before he was back in the fold and he took over leadership for the first time of his party. It will forever be a matter of record and for historians to write about that that the First Minister took his party from relative political wilderness to minority government in 2007 in a relatively short period of time. Indeed, for the First Minister to then go on to achieve majority government is something that still has John Curtis scratching his head. The First Minister can be assured and rightly proud of his record as leader of his party. But there is no doubt that the single biggest issue to have dominated his term in office and the lifetime of the Parliament was the referendum campaign. Now, whatever side of the debate you were on, nobody can deny that it wasn't invigorating. Never should any politician ever be afraid of welcoming political engagement from whatever quarter that that may come. But all of us in this place, let's be honest, would love to see turnouts of the level experienced on the 18th of September. Did you know more than anything else? Before we are SNP members, before we are Labour members, we are Democrats. To see so many Scots participate was a genuinely heartening experience. That the First Minister has done the honourable thing and taken responsibility for that defeat is to his credit. That does seem only fair, because, after all, as the First Minister apparently said on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, it could have never happened without him. Presiding Officer, the First Minister knows that I always like to be helpful. So I think that I know where yes went wrong. After the First Minister's comments that he single-handedly would have prevented the crash of RBS saving the entire world from an international banking crisis, surely it is clear to the SNP and everybody in this chamber. Now, if only the First Minister had been running the yes campaign. Presiding Officer, I can understand Mr Salmond's disappointment, but you should take heart, because it appears that the First Minister has started a bit of a trend with the 45ers. No Presiding Officer, I am not referring to those in denial over the referendum result. I am referring to the supporters of Keith Brown, who are telling all who will listen that he actually won that the membership figures for Clackmann Insurance and Blane SNP are now on a par with the population of China. Presiding Officer, I understand that the First Minister is writing a book, and I will rush out to secure my copy. He is apparently promising some surprising revelations. Does he really reveal that he has eventually found the missing EU legal advice? What about a crumpled-up receipt for some swanky American hotel? Who knows? Who knows? He might even get some writing tips from his biographer, David Torrance. He knows him, the guy off the telly, not quite sure who he is, but I understand the First Minister writes about him regularly. Last week, I asked the First Minister to describe himself in one word. None of us was surprised when he suggested that that was wholly inadequate for a man of his considerable talents. I agree because such considerable talents that monuments are, as we speak, being erected to pay tribute to his time as First Minister. I know that that sounds interesting to many. A standing stone in Edinburgh being erected to celebrate Alex Salmond. I never knew that we had such a celebrity in our midst, Presiding Officer, but perhaps of more interest, who knows who was the kind benefactor. Whatever happens, I am sure that we have not heard the last from Alex Salmond and neither have the listeners to read you. The big question on everyone's lips is when will we hear from Alex from Strickan again? If rumours are true, Alex's colleagues in Westminster will be hearing a lot of him in due course. The First Minister has never been lacking in ambition for Scotland, but he moves now on to pastures new, and I genuinely wish him well in his future career. Quite what the new deputy leader of the SNP Stuart Hoosie will make of Alex returning to Westminster is unknown, or indeed the leader of the SNP in Westminster, Angus Robertson. However, they need not worry because Alex Salmond will leave them well behind. His ambition is, of course, to be the Deputy Prime Minister. But as the First Minister steps back from the front bench to the back benches to contemplate, his future place in history, both of the Scottish Parliament and of Scotland, is assured. He has without doubt been a towering figure in Scottish politics for a decade and more. He has been Scotland's longest-serving First Minister, and I thank him for his service to this Parliament and to the country. I want to close by repeating a line from our national anthem that could be about our departing First Minister. No Presiding Officer, it is not that we sent him home to think again, but perhaps more apt when will we see your likes again. I now call Ruth Davidson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I add my own best wishes and those of my party to the First Minister today as he leaves office? It's traditional at this point that I should now also add a few words about how enjoyable retirement is, how pleasant the golf course looks, but seeing as there seems absolutely no chance that Alex Salmond is actually going to retire, I'll leave that to one side for the moment. It is said that all political careers end in failure, except Alex Salmond. He is the archetypal Teflon Don, whose career doesn't appear ever to actually finish. Claims to lead the SNP to 20 seats in 2010 actually saw a drop from seven MPs to six. Both of taking Glasgow City Council in 2012 and claiming three MEPs in the summer of 2014 all died at the ballot box, but still the juggernaut rumbled on. He is a political Lazarus railing against a Westminster elite that he's been part of not once but twice and after May could return to for a third time. No doubt, Nicola Sturgeon doesn't want a backseat driver directing traffic from the Subledge Committee here in Holyrood, but regardless of whether this is an end or merely a brief pit stop before Mr Salmond's next lap of the political track, let me today pay tribute and pass comment on the First Minister's period in office, and let me start by touching on where I began. If there's one thing that we can all recognise that distinguishes Mr Salmond from many other of his contemporaries, is that quite remarkable longevity. When I was elected Conservative Party leader, he kindly called me to offer his congratulations and quickly said, excuse me for asking, but how old are you? When I answered, he quite wistfully replied, I was 35 when I first led my party. What a contribution he has made to that party. To many people for many years, he simply was the SNP. The pressures of leadership are immense, and to have served two decades at the helm and more than seven years as First Minister is a feat of enormous stamina, of willpower and of discipline. There are, I believe, very few people who are capable of it. What has also distinguished him has been the way that he has stuck to his course for all that time. Reading Mr Salmond's maiden speech to the House of Commons from 1987 is to look back to a different era, but there he is as if it was yesterday moaning about the Scottish Tories, aiming a low blow at the Labour Party for failing to take us on and banging on about the constitution. If sometimes he may appear like a stuck record, the truth is that it is because Alex Salmond has stuck to the same tune over such a long period of time that, like an earworm, the lyrics have been retained in people's brains. We on the side of the chamber may not have agreed with him very often, but it is unusual to find a politician who, for nigh on three decades, has relentlessly made the same case over and over again, and we would be chirlish not to recognise the belief, the persistence and the stamina that that takes. However, it is as First Minister today that he is resigning, and it is his record as First Minister that Scotland will ultimately decide his legacy. The record, I believe, is mixed. I believe that, for simplicity's sake, it can be neatly divided into a game of two halves. In his first term from 2007 to 2011, Mr Salmond's minority status ensured that he had to gain consensus and reach out to other parties for support. The fact that sceptical Scottish voters were worried about a nationalist administration meant that Mr Salmond had sometimes to tone things down. Sometimes he appeared to have de-clawed himself, maybe counted to 20 every time he was about to say something about independence and focused on mouthing lots of positive but sometimes vague statements on progress. Ever the populist, he saw better than any of his predecessors how public funds could be used to win support among key target voters, hence early decisions to cancel bridge tolls, scrap university tuition fees and prescription charges. We even worked with them to bring forward a number of other policies, 1,000 extra police officers, a fund to regenerate our town centres and a new drug strategy for Scotland. There could be no doubt across Scotland that we now had a Government that looked and sounded like it knew what it was doing, even if you didn't much like sometimes what that was. The result was that, despite not having a parliamentary majority, no party sought to try and bring the SNP Government down during that first four years. On Thursday, the First Minister joked to my Labour and Liberal colleagues that working with the Conservatives was electoral suicide, despite the small matter of us having defeated him at the recent referendum. Despite all that, I believe that one of the reasons for his administration gaining a reputation for competence and stability during those first four years was because he needed, sought and received support from the Scottish Conservatives to pass his budget and keep his Government on the rails. One might say that the First Minister and Annabelle Goldie stood shoulder to shoulder to make the Government work. I wouldn't go so far as to say that they were better together, but such a close working relationship was no drag to his electoral prospects in 2011. If that was the first half, we are all too aware of the second. With that remarkable majority, the referendum on independence was agreed, and I believe that it is a tribute to both Scottish and UK Governments that it was done so with good faith on both sides. It is from then on that I believe that Mr Salmond's record will be judged perhaps not just quite as kindly by some. I do not begrudge Alex Salmond for devoting the Scottish Government's time and energy to campaigning for independence that was his right and his democratic mandate. Rather than in time, I believe that questions may be asked over the way in which Alex Salmond fought that campaign. I believe that there was another case that could have been made, a case that accepted and acknowledged upheaval that separating our United Kingdom would have caused, an acknowledgement that some things would be worse at least in the short term, and Alex Salmond could have used his powerful political and communication skills to have argued that all of that notwithstanding the goal of a fully sovereign Scotland was worth it. I am not saying that our own campaign was perfect and indeed not. What I am saying is that it was the First Minister who had ultimate responsibility for setting out to people the fact about independence and on that crucial task, I am afraid, he came up short. His decision to resign immediately after the referendum was an honourable one, and I believe that many of us here have, however, greatly enjoyed the salmon done leashed that we have had since, the greening letters, radio show phonins and the opening supermarkets out of peak. But if we remember on the day that he took over as the First Minister in May 2007, Alex Salmond said, and I quote, The Parliament will be one in which the Scottish Government relies on the merits of its legislation, not the might of a parliamentary majority. The Parliament will be about compromise and concession, intelligent debate and mature discussion. Inevitably, given the passions raised by the independence referendum, it has not been easy to maintain those noble ambitions. However, Mr Salmond has led a Government which has often tried to do so, and for that he deserves great credit. I agree with Mr Salmond that this Parliament has indeed become the centre of gravity for Scottish politics, and for that too he and his team deserves our regard. This Parliament's stature is now recognised by all. We are all committed to ensuring that far greater powers and responsibilities are passed to this place. He can leave today in the knowledge that he has taken his party from the fringes to a position of enormous strength. His leadership has been characterised by a remarkable instinct for the exercise of power. It kept him at the top of his party for two decades, it brought him to the top of Scottish political life and it made him a dominant politician of this era. I find myself in a remarkable position. I stand before you today as possibly one of those rarests of breeds and opposition leader in the Scottish Parliament who appears to have outlasted Alex Salmond. That is, of course, unless he decides to come back. On the assumption that he doesn't, can I once again extend my very best wishes to him, to Moira and to his wider family today? Last week, the First Minister said that he had quoted the wrong general when he rejected appeals to return as leaders of his party back in 2004. Apparently he meant to quote General MacArthur with I Shall Return. MacArthur made the remark upon arrival in Australia following a harrowing escape from Corrigidor to organise the offensive against Japan in 1942. The past of the First Minister and mine have crossed occasionally. I don't know if he remembers, but we first met in the Bridge cafe in Concardin on polling day in the Dunfermlyn by-election when he confidently predicted that he was going to win that by-election. Less than a week later, I am sure—I am sure that it was cheering—that I heard him cheering in the Commons when I took my seat being sworn in that day. I start a reminder to the First Minister that winning is not the sole preserve of his party and that, just like General MacArthur, we shall return too. The original statement that the First Minister actually made in 2004, if drafted, I will not run, if nominated, I will not accept, if elected, I will not serve, comes from the Sherman pledge, a remark made by the American Civil War General, Sherman, when he was being considered as a possible Republican candidate for presidential election in 1884. A variation was crafted a century later. Democratic congressman Mo Yudhael of Arizona was asked if he would run in 1984 against President Ronald Reagan. Yudhael responded, if nominated, I shall run to Mexico. If elected, I shall fight extradition. I can guarantee him that if the First Minister wants to follow suit, I can promise we will not seek his extradition. He will certainly not be part of any new fresh talent initiative. Alex Salmond sat behind me on the green benches for four years, offering words of encouragement. I have been returning the favour from this seat ever since. I can now let him into a secret. I listen to him in Westminster as much as he appears to have listened to me here. To be fair, after my proposals for investing in nursery education for two-year-olds were repeatedly dismissed by the First Minister, he did finally accept that I was right after all. The First Minister has attracted many names during his tenure, some not suitable for this chamber. I am sure he will reject this comparison and I say this to pull his tail, but he is a bit like Margaret Thatcher, a marmite figure with his supporters as passionate as his detractors. His lasting legacy will be almost securing independence for Scotland in the biggest democratic experience of all our lifetimes. On the one hand, it attracted the highest turnout in any election for decades, and for some it was uplifting and engaging. On the other hand, it was far from a universal experience. For too many families, friends and communities, the referendum was divisive. He may not wish to accept it, but that will be as much his legacy as all the positive attributes that he would describe. It will take many years for those wounds to heal and the unity that we once enjoyed to return. I hope that he reflects on that in his retirement. With his resignation today, a mantle passes from him to me. Ruth Davidson pointed out that I was now the longest-serving party leader with the privilege of regularly quizzing the First Minister. Not by long, but I will take any prizes these days. That I spend Thursday mornings honing and crafting the 200 words to deploy each week is a credit to the standards that he has set for First Minister's questions, and that he has been so relaxed about providing answers each week also reflects his political ability. I was grateful for the kind words he offered when I returned from my back operation last week. In the same spirit, I hope that the First Minister's arm is healing. As the new veteran leader, can I offer some advice to the departing First Minister? We all need to take care of our health. I intend to get back running as soon as possible. I would encourage the First Minister to spend some time with his beloved golf clubs. I am sure that I speak for many that he should take his frustrations out on inanimate golf balls rather than opposition politicians. To lead a Government and a country is a privilege and an order. It can, I imagine, at times be an ordeal. Every remark analysed, every move studied, every posture photographed. I think that we can all recognise that and the personal commitment that Alex Salmond has made. I wish him well for the future. Nothing lasts forever said Francis Arcott. Even the longest, most glittering reign must come to an end. Alex Salmond's tenure as First Minister has certainly been long by the standards of the office. While his supporters might have called it glittering and his critics might compare his record with the worst misdeeds of Francis Arcott, the truth, to be honest, is probably somewhere in between. I am sure that Mr Salmond's backbenches will understand if all opposition leaders feel the need to reflect on some of the lows as well as the highs. I will start with a low so that I can end on a high. I hope that that is forgivable. I have chosen a low point that allows me to insult somebody other than the First Minister. I hope that that is also agreeable, because he may already regret ever falling into the orbit of Donald Trump. A First Minister of Scotland should always try to recognise the distinctive Scottish values, which surely embrace an egalitarian approach to life, to enter into dealings with a man who embodies the values of me, me, me, more, more greed and overconsumption, nothing so much as the nauseating values of Tea Party America. Such dealings could never have ended well. What I find bewildering is that the Scottish Government seems about to repeat those mistakes on the other side of the country. I ask the First Minister to take this last opportunity, perhaps his last act before he leaves office, to sever all links with this delusional bully. A fear if he does not not only is successor, but the rest of the country too will come to regret it. On to the high point. No doubt some would expect me to cite the Climate Change Act, the moment when Holyrood agreed without a single dissenting vote to set clear and binding emission targets. It was a moment to remember, but it was only a half measure of consensus. We agreed on the goal but never how it was to be achieved. The high point that I would credit Alex Salmond with in this area, the important contribution that I want to recognise on this occasion is not on a target but on an idea. By putting his personal weight behind the concept of climate justice, he helped to advance an argument that is only going to grow in its global importance in the debate on climate change. For a wealthy country, a country that contributed greatly to the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution which followed, a country that benefited from the carbon age. Sadly, which is still not broken, its perilous dependence on the production of fossil fuels. For such a country to argue that clean, sustainable, low-carbon economic development must be linked to justice between rich and poor and are the human rights of those least responsible for climate change but most acutely affected by it and by the damage we have done and continue to do, this was an important argument to make. Alex Salmond used the office of First Minister to advance that argument and he is due great credit for doing so. Mr Salmond brings his tenure as First Minister to an end after a referendum that has changed Scottish politics irreversibly. It did not lead to the change that we both sought, though at 45 per cent the level of support for independence was certainly higher than many had predicted at the start of that long campaign. The case was advanced and I do not believe that it will retreat from that point. If and when Scotland ever comes to ask itself that question again it will do so from a more developed starting point with few remaining doubts from any part of the political spectrum that Scotland has what it takes to be a successful independent country. It may be that too narrow an emphasis was placed on one particular vision of independence, one book of answers, that may be a lesson for another time. For now, though the vote went against the yes campaign, the experience has been transformational, the re-engagement with politics, the spectacular turnout, the channeling of understandable and justifiable anger with a broken political system into something constructive and positive, a movement for change. Those are things that Alex Salmond did help to bring about and indeed it is possible they could not have happened without him. I believe that Scotland has been trying to vote for change for a long time now in creating this Parliament, in bringing new voices into it, in trying out coalition, minority and majority government and then finally in testing this question of independence at the polling stations. That urge to change our politics, to build something better will stay with us. I have no doubt that Alex Salmond will continue to play a significant part, whether here or elsewhere, in ways that inspire his supporters and infuriated critics in equal measure. I thank him for his service to Parliament and to the country. George Stevenson Alexander Elliott to Anderson Salmond was born to privilege. Not the privilege of rank, not the privilege of money, not the privilege of connections, but the overwhelming privilege of being a black bitch. That, of course, for those who do not understand that, is the appellation for people who are born in Linlithgow. The black bitch that is on the town's crest carries beneath it the motto fedeles, faithfulness, and Alex has been a faithful servant of this Parliament and of this country. He was born with the privilege of caring and nurturing parents, the privilege of a free education to liberate his potential. The foundations of his ambitions for all are people. From day one, he was a disruptive influence, being born on Hogmanay who could hardly be otherwise. The parties were somewhat subdued on that particular day. He has been a potent agent for change. His life has been and will remain in the public gaze, but not everything is known. Alex's sons will do left the family home. His mother Mary breathed the great sigh of relief. A certain calm fell over 101 Preston Road in Linlithgow, but it was actually going to be a few years before Alex finally departed. His mother, fed up with his still occupying an entire room in the house, moved all his political impedimenta he had accumulated in its many boxes and disorder into the front garden. She phoned him to remind him that she lived a mere 300 metres from Linlithgow's recycling centre. Strangelyt, the garden was soon restored to its natural order and Mary and Robert had the room in their house back. So, when we read his autobiography—and I have the money waiting here now, First Minister—remember its genesis in that front garden. His grandfather was a wonderful storyteller who equipped him with that ability to construct a story, to tell the story and to seize the imagination. In May 1961, John F Kennedy committed his country to land a man on the moon before the decade was out and returned them safely to earth. It was not known that it could be done. It was not known how it would be done, but he knew that it had to be done. Alex comes from that mould—a formidable leader, a formidable challenger of the status quo, a man who sets the rest of us for formidable challenges. He is the toughest boss I have ever worked for or with, and the fairest, and a team builder. However tough he has been on me, or tough on the rest of us, he has always been tougher on himself. A driven man building on the achievements of our previous three First Ministers, he has raised the bar still further for our next First Minister, raised the bar for Nicola. He has always been conscious that we are all here—parliament, office life—for but a short passage of time, and hence that everything is about people. For me there are two events that illustrate that in the referendum and an echo from a previous campaign. Some 15 years earlier, when I was driving him around Scotland—yes, I used to be Alex, I'm in his driver—we came up this incline and we found someone lying in the middle of the road with a beating heart but a tortured mind. Alex was first out of that car to help that person in their distress. Our plans for the day were put on hold until we returned them to their family and he'd listened to their story and he'd offered help. Not a thought for his personal safety on a busy road or for the day's political objectives. During the referendum campaign, so recently passed, the most telling moment for me, if perhaps not for others, was when he met a young man who came up to him and explained politely that he was voting no. Alex didn't seek to belittle that young man. He softly regretted the decision that he'd made but he shook his hand, held his hand and listened to that man. If we learn anything from Alex, it is that we must listen, perhaps especially to those with us differing from our own, however much we don't want to hear them. However, whatever we say this afternoon to Alex, we speak of transition, not of an ending. FMQs will of course be different and Nicola will put her own stamp on that as Scotland's new leader. We'll miss your irritated flick behind the right ear when you judge that the question from the benches on the left is more inadequate than usual. We shall miss your careful checking of the wallet in the hip pocket when you've had a question from the benches on your right. We shall miss your checking that your jacket pocket flats are out as you remember your spouse's commands for the day. Let me say to you, Alex, our First Minister, perhaps the last time I shall address them thus, whatever the future may hold, take from all of us our good wishes, our thanks and our love. Well, briefly, and I promise briefly, Presiding Officer, Jackie, small corrections, saving the world was Gordon Brown, not me. It wasn't in Perth that I was expelled from the party. It was an heir at the Dampart pavilion, and you're wrong. Your YouTube, go and look at it again. I did not walk out. I was flung out. I merely offered you this just in case you're ever in that position. Never go willingly. Wait to be expelled, Jackie. I thought the rocks would melt with the sun before Jackie Baillie said something nice about me, but I was wrong. She did. I thank her for that and her contribution in terms of First Minister's questions over the past few weeks. Ruth Davidson, I had no idea that you were so close to voting for independence. You were on the very cusp if only we had found the argument in the right way to take you over the finishing line. I was so delighted to discover that the achievements of implementing SMP policy between 2007 and 2011 were actually the achievements of the Conservative Party. I'll just say it since you mentioned Annabelle Goldie. Somewhere there is a video of me doing a toast to the lassies and Annabelle doing a reply at the scout and guide association of just a few years ago. Thankfully, due to a series of injunctions, interdicts and superinterdicts, Annabelle and I, acting together, have managed to keep that off YouTube for the time being. If it ever does emerge, then we'll both have to stay in retirement, I fear. Willie Rennie, that thing about telling you the SMP we're going to win the by-election in that cafe—I thought you were a voter, Willie. I didn't recognise you. I have no doubt that the Liberal Democrats will return, Willie. I'm just not quite certain what you'll return to, let's say. Patrick, I listened with great care. I was still left hand as to whether I was closer to Francis Urquhart or to Donald Trump, but I've always regarded you and your interventions in the term of a critical friend. I thank you for both of those aspects, and I thank you for your remarks today. Stuart Stevenson is right that a black bitch is a term of huge praise in the borne within the sound of St Michael's bells, but it does confirm just about everything my political opponents have ever thought about. Stuart, can I just say you're wrong about the Hogmanay celebrations in 1954? My dad went off to the Harps Hibs match and it was the same for some considerable time thereafter. However, Stuart Stevenson has been my friend and colleague for now in 40 years. I hope that we can do another 40 years together. Stuart, I thank you for your remarks today. Through you, I wish every single one, every member of this Parliament well, and through you, I wish everyone good bye and good luck. The last time I will say, First Minister, I wish to record my thanks to you as the First Minister for the courtesy and the respect that you've shown to me as Presiding Officer and to this Parliament over the last seven years. I now suspend this meeting until 3.25.