ARMED Forces Minister John Reid yesterday denied that he was being used by the Labour leadership as part of a blunt campaign against the SNP, claiming that a speech was intended as a low-key intellectual analysis of national identity.

He told Edinburgh University Fabians - a necessarily thin gathering given the Bank Holiday and pressure of exams - that it was wrong for the Nationalists to insist that a Scottish identity could be expressed only through the

vehicle of a nation state.

''It is the legacy of old failures, not the unpopularity of the Government's new policies, on which the Nationalists base their appeal,'' said Dr Reid: ''However, I believe that the Scottish people have not rejected Britain, what they have rejected is conservative Britain.''

He said Labour was proud that it was ''not obsessed with re-fighting the battle of Bannockburn, but committed to winning the battles against poverty, homelessness, and social exclusion''.

However SNP chief executive Michael Russell said: ''What John Reid had to say today was virtually identical to the Tories' rantings before the General Election. But Scots got sick and tired of a succession of Tory Ministers coming up from London and laying down the law as to what Scots can and can't do.

''Scots will grow equally tired of New Labour repeating the failed tactics of the old Tories. New Labour policies are virtually the same as old Tory policies, and now the rhetoric is identical too. Scottish voters judged the policies on that, and now they will judge the politicians too.''

Dr Reid denied that he was part of a blunt offensive against the Nationalists, portraying them as wreckers: ''In contrast to Labour, the SNP's programme, were they to become the dominant party in the Scottish Parliament, would almost inevitably cause economic instability and political confrontation between Edinburgh and Westminster, and that it would be part of a programme to break up Britain.

''These are not in any way insults. They are at the bottom of the essence of what it is to be SNP. They are entitled to campaign for this but not to disguise the cost and pain involved.''

While the shouting match between Labour and the SNP is set to be a familiar feature of coming months, so too is the sound of Liberal Democrats banging their heads together. SLD chief executive Willie Rennie insisted yesterday that the electorate wanted constructive debate, not a slanging match.

Meanwhile, SNP leader Alex Salmond called on the Prime Minister to retract statements the Government made when the transfer of the Georgian nuclear waste to Dounreay was first made public.

He said that Tony Blair should withdraw the comments ''in light of recent revelations'' about the controversial Scottish plant.

Dounreay's safety record was ''appalling'', he said in a letter to Mr Blair, adding: ''Such a record is clearly incompatible with the Government's position that Dounreay is the safest place in the world to treat nuclear waste.''

He told the Prime Minister: ''I am calling on you to withdraw unreservedly inaccurate Government statements to this effect.''

His comments came amid reports that the management of Dounreay could be taken away from the UK Atomic Energy Authority and handed over to British Nuclear Fuels.

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