This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

For those who like their news weird, unpleasant and with a twist of buffoonish absurdity, the Alba Party has been a veritable cornucopia since its inception.

Who doesn’t remember the halcyon days, not long after it was launched as a revenge vehicle and vanity project by Alex Salmond, when the party began its candidate selection process? Can we forget, for instance, the profound thoughts from boxer Alex Arthur?

 I reproduce his Twitter statement here in full, in the same humble but dutiful fashion as the compiler of Shakespeare’s First Folio preserved the Bard’s words: “Them Romanian beggars in Edinburgh ain’t hungry!! Just drove past them all ready to switch up begging posts and ALL em fat as big juicy over fed [pig emoji] pigs! [crying with laughter emoji].”

Scholars will ponder the profundity of this statement for generations. 

Then came Alba’s’s incredible electoral performance, with the party winning anywhere between 0.5% to 1.6% of the Scottish vote.

Still, Alba had three sparkling representatives in the Scottish and UK parliaments: Kenny MacAskill, Neale Hanvey and Ash Regan. They were all SNP defectors, though. And Regan later quit to sit as an independent.

Joy continued unabated for many a year, as Alba bowled the country over with increasingly ridiculous behaviour and bonkers statements. 

Last April, we were treated to the news that Christopher McEleny, Alba’s general-secretary, was suspended from the party after being “dismissed” from his role for alleged “gross........

© Herald Scotland