Blair breaks moratorium

'My good friend and client of many years' standing, the Rt Hon John Smith, MP and Leader of the Opposition, died in 1994 shortly before the European Parliamentary elections of that year. Immediately all the main political parties suspended campaigning until after his funeral. As I was in charge of my wife's campaign throughout the vast Highlands & Islands Euro constituency (the same size as Denmark, bigger than Belgium), I can vouch for the fact that we kept our part of the bargain - and Winnie ended up with over 58 % of the vote in a seven-candidate contest. I have to ask your readers to contrast the events of the week which saw the death of Allan Macartney MEP for North East of Scotland, perhaps the most admired and popular Member of Parliament in our country. Once again the SNP suspended campaigning until after the funeral (31 August). What did Mr Blair do? He came up to Scotland on a Friday day-return ticket and wittered on in his tiresome Nat-bashing mode that for so many Scots is proving to be a real turn-off.' Stewart Ewing in the Scots Independent, October 1998.

Blair's silence takes heat out of row with Nationalists

By Frances Horsburgh in the Herald

He angered Nationalist leaders with interviews on the eve of his four-day visit to Scotland in which he accused the party of seeking to wreck the Holyrood Parliament and claimed they wanted to wrench Scotland out of the UK.

SNP chief executive Mike Russell claimed he had been assured by a Labour Party official that the party would respect the moratorium, and he hoped Mr Blair's attack was an unfortunate error which would not be repeated.

Scottish Liberal Democrat party sources also let it be known that their leaders were not impressed by the timing of the attack.

Mr Blair never mentioned the SNP by name when he took part in a question-and-answer session with an audience of young people in Glasgow. He made only one possible reference to the Nationalists, when he warned against those who might claim that student tuition fees could be ended, at the same time as the number of students increased.

The Prime Minister was greeted outside the Glasgow Film Theatre by people waving placards calling for an end to education fees and spending cuts. They also condemned a "jobs massacre" in Scotland.

- Aug 28