Alex Salmond’s Solero girl is tracked down in Australia
In 1999 Alex Salmond was pictured feeding a girl a Solero ice cream on the banks of the river next to Stirling university.
The bizarre picture shows the former First Minister feeding the girl the ice cream without explanation and it sparked an online Buzzfeed campaign to find her.
However the Herald has beat them to it tracking her down in Australia.
Kate Adamson, 33, now lives in Melbourne with her two year old daughter. She is still an SNP supporter.
The paper reports:
Then 17, she recalls going along to Stirling University with her father, who was campaigning for the SNP in the inaugural Scottish Parliament elections in 1999, for “something to do”.
There, she was approached by a photographer who asked if she would be willing to have her picture taken with then-SNP leader Mr Salmond, who also happened to be on the scene. One of the snappers produced an ice lolly, and in her words, ‘Solero girl was born’.
She says: “The photographer said they needed someone wearing white – I’m not sure why or if that was even true. They asked me to stand near the tree and lots of photographers were shouting.
“It was strange to have so many photographers shouting instructions and as I was so young and perhaps a little naive I didn’t consider at the time what the outcome would be or what their intentions were.
“When the picture was published in The Sunday Herald they had a thought bubble over Alex Salmond’s head saying ‘there’s another sucker for a vote.’ At the time I thought it was amusing as I couldn’t even vote… It was definitely a lesson for me in trusting the integrity of the media and not believing everything you read or see online or in the papers. It taught me how news can often be manipulated.”