By WILLIAM CLARK,
Scottish Political
Correspondent
THE Scottish National Party made clear yesterday it is prepared for a
bitter war of attrition against Labour in the Glasgow Central
by-election with a spirited defence of MP Mr Jim Sillars ''Uncle Tom''
gibe.
Candidate Mr Alex Neil, who hopes to benefit from the Govan effect,
said the attack on Labour Shadow Scottish Secretary Mr Donald Dewar was
''fair political comment.''
Labour, Tories, and Democrats had combined since to retaliate against
Mr Sillars, calling him ''Hitler,'' ''Idi Amin'' and the ''Bully boy of
Govan.''
Mr Neil added: ''It is clearly a case of the pot calling the kettle
black. I regard it as fair political comment on the role that Mr Dewar
is fulfilling in Scotland today.
''He is trying to undermine Scottish self-consciousness. I feel he
would prefer a Thatcher Britain to a Scotland independent in Europe.''
Mr Gordon Wilson, SNP chairman, said: ''In any case it is remarkably
mild compared with some of the things I have heard at our conference.''
The SNP intends mounting what it described as ''a modern, progressive,
and futuristic'' campaign on refusal to pay the poll tax, poverty and
deprivation, and its independence in Europe theme.
It also hopes to use Labour leader Mr Neil Kinnock's intervention to
permit the Budget and the vote by Labour MPs to allow English members on
to the Scottish Education Bill as evidence of Labour's impotence.
Mr Neil said: ''There is now active collusion between the watered-down
Tories who lead the Labour Party and the official Tories who try to do
down Scotland and the Scottish people.''
He claimed the Labour leadership was out to lower the horizons of the
Scottish people to disguise its inability to defeat Thatcherite policies
in Scotland.
Both men claimed the SNP's campaign to build a ''Can pay, won't pay''
army of 100,000 against the poll tax had been highly successful but said
there would be no publication of the details of the public petition
until after the beginning of July when the first quarter's payments were
due.
There would be around 500,000 non-payers which was ''a loud and clear
message from the people of Scotland'' and would bring a clear defeat for
Mrs Thatcher who would eventually be forced to legislate for a poll tax
replacement.
The refusal to release details of the SNP's army of non-payers seems
to see it swathed in the same mists that enveloped the rebel Labour
Committee of 100's efforts to bring about non-payment.
Mr Neil denied there was any mystery about the whereabouts of the
SNP's army which would be wheeled into sight ''at the right time in the
battle.'' It was still the intention to make the poll tax uncollectable
with the acid test being how many did not or refused to pay.
* The Labour short leet for the Glasgow Central by-election will
include Mrs Ann McGuire, the favourite who lost out at the last hurdle
at Govan. Labour's national executive vetting committee interviewed all
seven nominated candidates at the Scottish Labour headquarters in
Glasgow yesterday and selected a leet of three.
The local party will tonight decide from former regional councillor
Mrs McGuire, who is backed by Hutchesontown-Kingston branch and the Nupe
and GMB unions; Scottish executive member Mr Mike Watson, backed by
Central-Calton branch and his union, Manufacturing, Science and Finance,
and Mr Archie Graham, nominated by building trade union UCATT.
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