Might Salmond stand against Brown?

Iain Dale has a fascinating story up about a rumour that Alex Salmond might stand against Gordon Brown at the next general election. I’d love to see such a contest, Salmond clearly gets under Brown’s skin and the campaign would be great knock about. But I fear that it is unlikely. Considering that Brown won with 58 percent of the vote in 2005, Salmond wouldn’t have a realistic chance of winning and, as Iain notes, running as essentially a protest candidate would undermine Salmond’s standing.

If Salmond did, for some reason, go for it, it would force Brown to spend far more time in his own constituency than he’d like. It’d also put the issue of Brown’s Scottishness front and centre. However, this could rebound to his advantage as he could portray himself as the man fighting for the Union and he would no doubt claim that anyone who mentioned the West Lothian question was just trying to undermine it.