> Ayr campaign heats up

Ayr by-election 2000

'This is a telling indictment of New Labour. At a time when the NHS is crying out for more money and New Labour are refusing to increase income tax on the rich to pay for it, they are happy to save themselves Ł5000 each by extending this tax avoidance dodge North of the Border. I will be tabling a motion in the Scottish Parliament on this and writing to all the Ministers asking them to make a Ł5000 donation to the NHS.'
SSP MSP Tommy Sheridan, 15 th February 2000.

Ayr campaign heats up

From BBC News

As Tony Blair rallies Labour troops at their party conference in Edinburgh, the Scottish National Party says it is the only party which can keep the Tories out in Ayr.

The Conservatives are attacking Labour as being "divided, leaderless and devoid of ideas".

Labour won Ayr by just 25 votes over the Tories at the elections last May, the narrowest majority in the parliament.

'Two-horse race'

SNP leader Alex Salmond said: "Next Thursday's by-election is a straight choice. A return to failed Tory policies - or a sensational SNP victory that will put Ayr constituency back on the map.

"We have made huge progress in turning this by-election into a two-horse race between the SNP and the Tories.

"So much so that the newspapers, the bookies and even Labour pollsters are in agreement.

South of Scotland MSP Mike Russell concluded: "The Tories can only win this by-election if they get some help from New Labour.

"There is now no question, a Labour vote in this by-election is a vote to let the Tories back in."

Scots 'disillusioned'

Campaigning for the Tories in Ayr, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, said: "History will not be kind to this Labour Scottish Executive of the new Scottish Parliament. Nor to its First Minister Donald Dewar.

"For Labour has lost touch with the ordinary Scot, and pursued an agenda that is too high up and too far away from the rest of us.

"The vast majority of Scots voted for a parliament that would bring a change for the better to their everyday lives. That would improve the public services of schools, hospitals, housing and law and order.

"But almost a year into the Parliament, most Scots have become sorely disappointed and disillusioned with Labour's leadership and their performance.

"To most of us, little has changed, and what adjustments there have been, have too often been a change for the worse - the proposed abolition of Section 28 to name but one."

Sir Malcolm described the executive as "a phantom government" which at times "barely seems to exist at all".

10 th March 2000

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