ALEX Salmond has said independence negotiations should start within days of the Holyrood election, despite the ongoing pandemic and economic fallout from lockdown The Alba Party leader said that if a “supermajority” of pro-independence MSPs was elected in May, it would be a clear instruction that the Scottish Government should open negotiations with London “in week one”. At a campaign event in Ellon, he said: “This idea that independence is something that can be pushed to the back isn’t correct. Independence is essential [so] that we ensure that recovery from Covid brings changes, and changes for the better, in Scottish society.”