Exclusive:Alex Salmond: Scotland now worse in 'every possible respect' than it was in 2014

The former first minister said there has been a squeeze on living standards, public services are “in a much worse position” and hope is missing from politics.

It came as he spoke about his regrets during the referendum campaign and the “catastrophe” of the SNP’s “retreat” from independence.

"Harold Wilson used to say the Labour Party was a moral crusade or it was nothing,” Mr Salmond told The Scotsman. “Well, the SNP has to be an independence party or it's nothing. The SNP currently is not an independence party."

He added: "Being an independence party is offering people a credible route to Scottish independence."

In the coming days, Scotland will mark 10 years since the referendum that gripped the nation and transformed politics north of the border. Unsurprisingly, Mr Salmond argues Scotland would be in a “much better” position had it voted Yes.

He said it would be in a “super-Northern Irish situation” if the rest of the UK had still opted for Brexit, adding: "Just in a great position economically. Probably putting quotas on the number of English companies who are able to relocate at the present moment. It would be a very, very good position.

“Now, that doesn't mean there wouldn't have been any difficulties over the last 10 years - of course there would be difficulties. But strategically, we would be in a great position economically. A fantastic position."

Mr Salmond added: "I like to think if Scotland had voted for independence then I would have stayed in office, and if I'd stayed in office then the politics of the SNP would have been very different to what they have been. I'm not talking about independence, I'm talking about approaches to other issues in Scottish society."

He said Scottish politics post-independence would probably have been “a lot more competitive” than it has been until recently. “And that's a good thing,” he said. “It stops the SNP going mad, which would be a short description of what the SNP has been doing in the last five years."

Speaking to The Scotsman over a drink at the Jolly restaurant in Edinburgh, Mr Salmond said he was “reconciled” to how the referendum campaign played out. “I think, all things considered, it was basically a bridge too far,” he said.

“We were coming from too far back. And yes, of course, if we'd fought the absolute perfect campaign, 100 per cent of everything, then perhaps the result would have gone our way. But you never fight the perfect campaign."

He added: "I think if we mishandled anything, it was in the last week of the campaign. We hit the front earlier than we had intended to, and that provoked a response from the establishment, and I don't think our response to their response was as good as it could have been."

He said the Yes campaign was operating in an environment where the vast majority of mainstream media outlets were against independence.

But Mr Salmond added: "I think, on balance, I would say any campaign that takes you from under 30 per cent to 45 per cent is probably a successful campaign, even if it's not a winning outcome."

He is highly critical of the SNP’s failure to shift the dial on independence since the referendum. "In the context of the objective of Scottish independence, to retreat in the way the SNP has retreated over the last 10 years, is a catastrophe,” he said. “It requires a radical approach to do something about it."

The former first minister said Scotland is still “fundamentally more likely to vote for independence in some form or other when half the country believe in it than when a quarter of the country believe in it”.

He added: “That's the fundamental bottom line. It is actually easier to get to independence from the current situation that it was, say, in the 1990s or 20 years ago. We just had a very, very, very good run for 10 years. In the last five years, we've had a very bad run. But that bad run was provoked by a lack of strategic thinking."

He argued it is the job of a Scottish nationalist “to make the weather, not to say it's raining”, adding: “For people who believe in the status quo, the establishment, they don't have to do anything. They just have to defend it, and say no a lot.

"It's the job of those who want to change things to make them change. Unfortunately, we've got a group of people who are not capable of doing that."

Mr Salmond’s high-profile falling-out with his successor Nicola Sturgeon has been well covered. Asked if he could see the pair speaking again, he said: "I always say nothing is ever forever. I think Nicola has got her own difficulties at the present moment, so just let her work her way through them, and see if she emerges from them.”

Asked if Scotland is a better or worse country now than in 2014, Mr Salmond is unequivocal. "Worse,” he said. “If you went out on the street there and asked every single person apart from the odd eccentric, they would give you the same answer. It's worse, in every possible respect."

He referenced the "consistent pressure on living standards and life expectations" over the last decade, while public services "are in a much worse position than they were 10 years ago". 

He added: "But I think probably the main missing ingredient from both politics and economics is hope. Scotland was a very hopeful, optimistic place 10 years ago. They thought that whatever difficulties there were going to be in the short-term, things were moving forward, things were going to get better. People were proud of their parliament, proud of their government, even people who didn't vote for independence."