Labour under fire

'I have here a copy of Labour's education policy. And I know it is true because its in the Record, who usually have a good idea of what Labour is thinking! 'Dewar plans war on teachers' and that was before he appointed Helen Liddell for a gentler touch!' Alex Salmond at the SNP Conference 1998.

Labour under fire as European by-election comes to life

By Murray Ritchie, Scottish Political editor in the Herald

The Scottish Liberal Democrats led the way when Keith Raffan, the Tory who defected after being defeated at Westminster, attacked Labour's "disgraceful" record in local government.

Mr Raffan told ruling LibDems on Aberdeenshire Council: "Whenever Tony Blair visits Scotland yet another no-go area seems to have been added to the already long list - Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, East Ayrshire. If Labour incompetence and sleaze in local government keeps spreading at its present rate, the Prime Minister will soon have to turn back at Carlisle."

He added: "Unlike Labour, we Liberal Democrats don't have to call ourselves `new' to try to dissociate ourselves from an old party of which we are ashamed."

Aberdeenshire LibDems had a reputation for good management and sound administration, despite Scottish Office cuts, he said. "By sticking to Tory spending limits - something Ken Clarke has said he would never have done - Gordon Brown has put intolerable pressures on local government, forcing councils into cuts and closures."

Ian Hudghton of the SNP - who is favourite to win the seat - accused Labour of creating a rural crisis in Scotland. After visiting Thainstone Mart in Inverurie he condemned the Government for blocking [sterling]140m in compensation for farmers and said the decision had affected incomes in every farming sector.

"The Tory-generated beef crisis rumbles on with no definite date for lifting the ban on Scottish beef exports," Mr Hudghton said. "The Labour Government has failed to get to grips with any of the problems facing the industry and are turning the situation into one of total crisis."

The Tories' candidate, Struan Stevenson, waded in by attacking the Prime Minister for reneging on a manifesto commitment to set up a UK food agency - "breaking yet another pledge to the electors in the process".

Mr Stevenson said that if the Scottish Parliament set up a Scottish food agency it would be strongly opposed by Scottish farmers if it led to more bureaucracy and started a cross-border food war.

"While the safety and excellence of Scottish farm produce is of paramount importance to the industry, many farmers I have spoken to regard with horror the thought of a new bulging bureaucracy, run by Labour or the SNP and no doubt hell-bent on distributing a blizzard of forms to be filled in and licences to be purchased. This sort of added pressure would be an unwelcome additional burden at a time of unprecedented hardship for our farmers and rural communities caused by this government."

Labour's Katherine Walker-Shaw will launch her campaign next week. A party spokesman said: "We will go big guns then. At the moment this is just the phoney war. Let the opposition parties have their five minutes of fun. We will go on the offensive on the issues which matter to the people of the North-East of Scotland."- Oct 29.