 | 'There is another right wing party in Scotland. There was a time when the Labour Party wanted to change society: now all they want to do is change their name. Scottish New Labour is what they're now called: SNL. SIMPLY NOTHING LEFT!' Alex Salmond at the SNP Conference 1998. |  |
Introducing Jim Mather, the SNP's candidate in the Ayr by-election, the first of the Scottish Parliament, Mr Salmond forecast he would put the Nationalists first past the winning post on March 16.
In a sign of the changing times in politics, Mr Mather, a 52-year-old computer millionaire, claimed another first when he distributed his campaign literature to the mystified media on a compact disc. In the shadow of the Ayr Racecourse grandstand, he pledged to put Ayr back on the map by attracting jobs, driving up living standards and fighting for better public services. Mr Mather predicted he would come from third place to win.
Whether Mr Salmond will celebrate a betting coup to keep up his recent run of successes as The Herald's tipster remains to be seen. Ladbrokes in London yesterday had not heard of the by-election and said they did not think they would be laying odds.
On a less frivolous note, Mr Mather's campaign launch was overshadowed by hints from the leadership that the debate over Section 28 was causing the Nationalists fresh concern.
Although Mr Mather said Section 28 was not a doorstep issue in the same league as education, health, jobs and crime, Mr Salmond appeared to give the impression that the SNP's support for Labour's repeal policy was softening. SNP MSPs have already been offered a conscience vote.
Mr Salmond attacked Labour for pressing ahead with its policy before the results of its consultation exercise were known and he hinted for the first time that the SNP might be having second thoughts about how to replace the law.
Asked if he now backed statutory guidelines for teachers after repeal of the section which bans the promotion of homosexuality in schools, Mr Salmond said legal enforcement was "something it is possible to do" and it was "perfectly possible to see how it could be done".
He suggested that one way of dealing with the issue would be to introduce a requirement in the Ethical Standards Bill - the Bill being used to repeal Section 28 of the Local Government Act - compelling local authorities to respect new guidelines without writing the guidelines themselves into statute.
Asked if the SNP feared its support for Labour's repeal policy would rebound in Ayr, deputy party leader John Swinney denied there was a change of tack by the SNP.
"Our position is clear," he said. "We have argued that there should be proper consultation about the status of the guidelines. This is not the same position as the Executive. We remain in principle in favour of repeal but we must be assured about the guidelines and their status. This is a position in which it is the Labour Executive which seems to have the problem."
Nationalists claim they can win Ayr if the trend towards them in recent elections continues. They point to the 23% swing they accomplished in Hamilton South, where they failed by a whisker to unseat Labour in one of its safest seats, and to the fact that they need only 9% in Ayr.
But the Tories, who held the seat in Westminster until 1997 and will hold their launch tomorrow, require an infinitesimal swing to wipe out Labour's 25-vote majority, the smallest in Scotland.
22 nd February 2000
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