Bug's Bunny's demise gets SNP out of a hole

'We have no bunnies left around here. We have had an outbreak of myxomatosis' SNP Chief Executive Michael Russell.

Activists decide to bury party's much-maligned logo and return to a sweeter symbol

1967	1985	1991	April 1996	August 1996

It had a short miserable life. No-one loved the bunny ... and yesterday it was buried without ceremony, the victim of political myxomatosis. Brought into the world as the bright new face of Nationalism, the bunny had not bargained for the hostility its birth would engender.

Without giving the poor creature a chance, the activists of the Scottish National Party have decided that the only place this rabbit should go is into a stew.

It had all seemed so different when the bunny was introduced to the world at the SNP's spring conference in Dundee. Not for the Nationalists the pale pink Labour rose or the flickering flame of Conservatism. The Liberal Democrat's bird of fredom was at least a living thing, but instead of soaring, its feathers appeared to have been frayed by the strain of take off.

No, the SNP wanted to be modern, yet reflect the past. So its logo had hints of the previous symbol, but its perceived Naziesque edges had been rounded off and a European star added.

However, cynical media folk quickly added Bugs Bunny-style teeth and the bunny was born.

SNP activists did not see the funny side. The ban-the-bunny bandwagon got rolling.

Stunned by the reaction, the party's leadership turned on their fluffy tails to hop back to their North Charlotte Street warren for a rethink.

After much scratching of heads, the bucks came back with a brilliant answer to the problem: ask the members to chose the logo.

And yesterday, at an occasion of great solemnity and dignity, the demise of the bunny was announced. It was officially, an ex-bunny.

A tear in his eye, the SNP's chief executive, Mike Russell - for whom the phrase 'What's up spin-doc' was coined - applied the last rites.

Just about straight-faced, he told the assembled media: 'The bunny had been on death row for some time. Yesterday it ate a hearty breakfast and went down.'

Admitting that the party had spent £2,000 on the now-defunct symbol, Mr Russell revealed that - with eerie echoes of Soviet Russia - not a trace could now be found of it in SNP HQ. 'There are no bunnies left around here. We have had an outbreak of myxomatosis,' he intoned gravely. So what was to replace the culled coney?

The party's publicity convener, John Swinney, said it was 'back to the future' ... a return to the logo of old, a piece of artwork that could make a tasty main course was being replaced by a pudding.

The original classic symbol was, Mr Swinney assured us, affectionately known as the 'clootie dumpling'. So after consulting its members, the SNP leadership had got their just deserts. They are confident there will be no moves to dump the dumpling.