Political Frailty

[Comped 500]

8 minutes ago, Nighthawk01 said:

Sky has just confirmed it

 

https://news.sky.com/story/former-first-minister-of-scotland-alex-salmond-dies-13232584

 

edit: Given it was reportedly after giving a speech in Macedonia I'm guessing it was something more sudden

BBC breaking news notification with a few sentence article. He's dead.

[Sod's Law 401]

Shock political death of the year. He never looked in great shape but as far as I know, he wasn't a notorious drinker like Charles Kennedy was. Stress of his litigations got to him in the end, I'm guessing? 

[Windsor 2,221]

1 minute ago, Sod's Law said:

Shock political death of the year. He never looked in great shape but as far as I know, he wasn't a notorious drinker like Charles Kennedy was. Stress of his litigations got to him in the end, I'm guessing? 

He was a fat bastard. We’ve known for years that would be what would kill him and it has. 
 

Brace yourself for the conspiracy theories…

[Brad252 791]

The BBC have already published a full obit, suggesting that it's not just former PMs and Royals they have pre-prepared obits on standby for:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd13102l9g5o

[tomarse 84]

22 minutes ago, La Tombe said:

His last tweet was 3 hours ago.....

https://x.com/AlexSalmond/status/1845087662400499734

 

Unreal first reply to that.

https://x.com/AlisonPegg/status/1845132409999593573

[Katyusha 117]

2 minutes ago, Windsor said:

He was a fat bastard. We’ve known for years that would be what would kill him and it has. 
 

Brace yourself for the conspiracy theories…

 

The greatest anti-vax minds of Twitter are already on the case, of course. There's simply no explanation for an old, overweight, constantly riled up bloke dying of a heart attack that doesn't point back to Pfizer.

[tomarse 84]

8 minutes ago, Sod's Law said:

Shock political death of the year. He never looked in great shape but as far as I know, he wasn't a notorious drinker like Charles Kennedy was. Stress of his litigations got to him in the end, I'm guessing? 

 

I guess you never know.. John Smith almost echo'd this - speaking in the afternoon, dead in his hotel room next morning

[Bentrovato 1,082]

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[Bibliogryphon 9,444]

Since Devolution there have been six first ministers of Scotland and two of them are now dead. In the same period all eight UK Prime ministers are alive.

 

If you look at people like Alistair Darling and Charles Kennedy being a Scottish Parliamentarian should come with a health warning 

[Clorox Bleachman 2,341]

[msc 18,352]

5 minutes ago, Bibliogryphon said:

Since Devolution there have been six first ministers of Scotland and two of them are now dead. In the same period all eight UK Prime ministers are alive.

 

If you look at people like Alistair Darling and Charles Kennedy being a Scottish Parliamentarian should come with a health warning 

Aye and those health warnings are: don't ignore doctors advice after surgery, don't be an alcoholic and avoid stage 4 cancer.

 

I actively try to avoid cancer when I see it walking down the street.

[Ulitzer95 12,189]

17 minutes ago, Sod's Law said:

Shock political death of the year. He never looked in great shape but as far as I know, he wasn't a notorious drinker like Charles Kennedy was. Stress of his litigations got to him in the end, I'm guessing? 

So what?

Is that the only vice that makes you ill/leads to an early death? No.

Salmond lived on an atrocious diet that largely composed of curries multiple times a week. He was a ticking time bomb.

I had a picture of him as my original display picture on here, but gave up waiting for him to keel over from a heart attack. In my mind he could've gone any minute, or could have lasted for another 5-10 years. Obese ppl are always very hard to call for when it comes to deadpooling.

[Brad252 791]

Given he died at 69, it's possible he was in contention to have been Scotland's oldest man.

[Sod's Law 401]

25 minutes ago, Windsor said:

He was a fat bastard. We’ve known for years that would be what would kill him and it has. 
 

Brace yourself for the conspiracy theories…

I still would have put good money on Trump keeling over long before Salmond, especially given his age and the fact that his heart is likely to be under even greater pressure and his cortisol levels even higher. Both are/were obese angry men though so there's a fair bit of coin flipping involved.

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,311]

Shocked and saddened by this news. His poor wife Moira. 

[The Old Crem 3,506]

Just now, Gooseberry Crumble said:

Shocked and saddened by this news. His poor wife Moira. 

She is one to watch as she is now 87.

[Comped 500]

9 minutes ago, Sod's Law said:

I still would have put good money on Trump keeling over long before Salmond, especially given his age and the fact that his heart is likely to be under even greater pressure and his cortisol levels even higher. Both are/were obese angry men though so there's a fair bit of coin flipping involved.

Trump gets better healthcare (military healthcare at a good discount or free) should he choose to use it, and has lost weight since leaving office. Unlike Salmond.

[Ulitzer95 12,189]

50 minutes ago, Gooseberry Crumble said:

Shocked and saddened by this news. His poor wife Moira. 

Pffft as if she gives a shit. The two of them haven't been intimate in years.

Salmond was truly Scotland's answer to Silvio Berlusconi. He was shagging anything but Moira.

She'll just be happy that she lived long enough to cash out his AXA SunLife Plan on a nice cruise round the Med.

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,311]

Just now, Ulitzer95 said:

Pffft as if she gives a shit. The two of them haven't been intimate in years.

Salmond was truly Scotland's answer to Silvio Berlusconi. He was shagging anything but Moira.

She'll just be happy that she lived long enough to cash out his AXA SunLife Plan to cash out on a nice cruise round the Med.

Your very cynical!!!

[Ulitzer95 12,189]

1 minute ago, Gooseberry Crumble said:

Your very cynical!!!

I didn't join this forum to say nice things about people I don't like. I'm the Honest Abe around here!

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,671]

 It was… the salmond mousse.

[Toast 15,968]

2 hours ago, Bibliogryphon said:

Since Devolution there have been six first ministers of Scotland and two of them are now dead. In the same period all eight UK Prime ministers are alive.

If you look at people like Alistair Darling and Charles Kennedy being a Scottish Parliamentarian should come with a health warning 

 

[Tuber Mirum 123]

This for the haters (you know who you are):

 

https://x.com/TheIndyNinja1/status/1845160647727992984?t=i529VAOThiOzCc8DnEJ1rA&s=19

 

[Ulitzer95 12,189]

14 minutes ago, Tuber Mirum said:

This for the haters (you know who you are):

 

https://x.com/TheIndyNinja1/status/1845160647727992984?t=i529VAOThiOzCc8DnEJ1rA&s=19

 

Jimmy Savile did a lot of charity work too.

[Bibliogryphon 9,444]

2 hours ago, msc said:

Aye and those health warnings are: don't ignore doctors advice after surgery, don't be an alcoholic and avoid stage 4 cancer.

 

I actively try to avoid cancer when I see it walking down the street.

 

You make a very good point and introduce a timely reminder. Anecdotal coincidences do not make a coherent theory. Off the top off my head I could think of several hihh profile politicians from Scotland (Robin Cook could be added to that list and someone has already mentioned John Smith) who had died relatively early over the past generation, I extrapolated that with a flippant comment but as all good statisticians know you cannot draw conclusions from small samples sizes. Even if someone ran a full statistical comparison between ages of Death of MPs representing Scottish constituencies and the same for English ones you would need to be wary about drawing any firm conclusions because of the disparity between the sizes of cohorts.