"Kick Blair but don't destroy the Union". Reality sinks in for the English.

Kick Blair but don't destroy the Union
Daily Telegraph leader/editorial.

(Anti-SNP)

It is not too difficult to understand why the voters of Scotland are
turning against Labour, if the polls are to be believed, in such
massive numbers.

Theirs is a feeling shared throughout these islands. While the local
elections in England and Wales will surely see a heavy defeat for
Labour, those to the Scottish Parliament are perhaps more significant;
10 years of spin over substance, of expediency over principle and an
apparently reckless determination to wreck the British constitution
may bring about the first stage of the dismemberment of the Union.

The Scottish National Party of Alex Salmond is set to emerge as the
largest party in the 129-seat assembly. While there is precious little
support for the main policy of the SNP - independence for Scotland -
there is, as even the Prime Minister has conceded, a burning desire to
give Tony Blair a "kicking".

No amount of scare stories about how badly an independent Scotland
would fare economically appears to have deflected the Scottish voting
public from this desire, nor has the expected departure from 10
Downing Street of Mr Blair and anticipation of his replacement by
Gordon Brown.

The Chancellor has, for decades, regarded Scotland as his personal
fiefdom and has led the Labour charge in denouncing the economic
arguments of the SNP, but with only 72 hours left until polling day
the nationalists are in the ascendancy.

Further proof that Mr Salmond's arguments, and not those of Messrs
Blair and Brown, are getting through comes today in the editorial
columns of several Scottish newspapers. They do not support
independence but say that Labour's stewardship of devolution - where
it has been the dominant coalition partner for the last eight years -
has been hugely disappointing and, therefore, they urge their readers
to vote for Mr Salmond. This would be a mistake.

Frustration with Labour is one thing, but to swallow whole what the
SNP leader calls the "golden thread" of his campaign - namely the
promise of a referendum on Scotland leaving the United Kingdom in 2010
- is naive in the extreme. The nationalists are trying to convince the
electorate that it is ''safe'' to vote for them on Thursday because
independence will only come after that referendum.

But no one should be in any doubt as to how Mr Salmond plans to use
those three years. In spite of his warm words to the contrary, he
would use them to sow the seeds of conflict and turmoil between
Edinburgh and London.

The bitter harvest we would all reap would be the destruction of the
United Kingdom.



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