Gloves off in Paisley

'Will these Glasgow councillors just not take a telling?' Ex Glasgow Lord Provost, Michael Kelly in the Scotsman, 29 th September 1997.

SNP pledges war over 'Labour sleaze' in Paisley

By Euan McColm in the Scotsman 20 th October 1997

Sources close to the party's candidate Ian Blackford say the gloves will be off, as he launches a series of attacks on Labour's record in Renfrewshire.

After bringing in big-hitters such as the leader Alex Salmond and MPs Roseanna Cunningham and John Swinney to launch its campaign, the party will use local councillors to attack the record of Renfrewshire Council, and to dissect the infighting after which the Labour MP Tommy Graham suspended following the suicide of Gordon McMaster.

Party sources say the SNP's best chance of winning the seat, which Mr McMaster had held with a 12,000 majority at the general election, is constantly to raise the spectre of Labour's recent "self-destructive" behaviour.

A well-placed source in the campaign office said: "We have started well, talking about the bigger issues - the wider picture. But now we will have to look at the obvious weakness of Labour in this area and that means getting vicious about the people who have been suspended by the party, and about the questions raised of the conduct of politicians at a parliamentary level."

On the day the Conservative candidate Sheila Laidlaw began her campaign, the Labour candidate Douglas Alexander had the help of Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar on a tour of a carpet factory in Elderslie.

Perhaps wary of the sleaze factor which is seen by opponents as his party's Achilles' heel, Mr Alexander was reluctant to answer questions upon his arrival.

His response to a question posed, before his walkabout, about SNP claims that his close relationship with Chancellor Gordon Brown would mean he was more interested in defending Treasury spending policy than fighting for money for his constituents was a simple: "I'll answer that in due course."

For an hour, he and Mr Dewar toured the factory where they were cheered by workers.

Later a Labour party spokesman said: "Douglas Alexander will be a back-bencher, and will fight for the good of the people in Paisley South."

The key topic in the cross-party crossfire yesterday was the Government's spending plans.

Eileen McCartin, the Liberal Democrat candidate, used her second day of campaigning to attack Labour's education record, calling for extra taxes to buy equipment and books.

She said: "The only way to ensure that Scottish education gets the investment it needs is to pay for it through tax. We would add one penny to the basic rate of tax, if necessary, to ensure that."

She claimed that the shine had come off New Labour, and that there was a strong vote against the party building in the constituency.

Andy Myles, chief executive of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, accused the Government of creating actual cuts in Scottish Office expenditure of £98 million for the coming year.

He said: "In the Budget, this government gave extra money to health and education to keep their electoral promise. But what they did not say was that the rate of inflation was higher than expected.

"Although government revenues will increase as a result, Gordon Brown has chosen not to pass on the extra money to departments to prevent spending cuts. So the Scottish Office will actually lose money - £98million in 1997-98 and will gain only £6 million in 1998-99."

Mr Dewar said: "Since 1 May, we have made welfare to work our priority. The emphasis must be on creating a climate in which business can prosper. Partnership with business is a key part of our attack on unemployment."

He said the constituency should be "a priority area" and said government would work with business and Renfrewshire Enterprise to improve the lot of the area.

Mr Alexander said: "We must modernise our local economy by putting economic opportunity in the people's hands."

He said that after 18 years of "economic mismanagement" it was time to end the short termism that has "plagued" the British economy.

He would, if elected, fight for jobs and every investment opportunity in the area.

The Conservative candidate Sheila Laidlaw made a great deal of the fact that she was a "Paisley Buddie" after living in the town for 37 years.

She attacked the conduct of members of Renfrewshire Council, and said her party offered an alternative.

At her campaign launch, where she was joined by the party's Scottish chairman Raymond Robertson, and vice chairmen Phil Gallie and Alister Jack, she said: "What I am not proud of is the sleaze factor and the hooligan antics of Labour and SNP councillors whose ugly behaviour - not least their notorious near punch-ups in the chamber - continues to shame the town far and wide."

She was standing to win, on the policy of asking people what they wanted her to do.

It was not, she asserted, a market research exercise, but a full scale campaign where she would offer the people what they wanted.

Whatever that may be.