THE SNP was locked in a familiar wrangle with the BBC last night as the screening of Question Time from Glasgow went ahead with no official party representative in the line-up.
Actress Elaine C Smith is accustomed to dealing with difficult men in her Mary Doll role opposite Rab C Nesbitt, but last night she was pitched against political bruisers Donald Dewar for Labour, Liberal Democrat MP Charles Kennedy, and Scots Tory chairman and former Minister Raymond Robertson.
Although she is not actually an SNP member, the party was confident Ms Smith would be capable of holding her own against the men in suits.
However, it claimed typical London arrogance from the BBC and the independent production company which produces the programme had caused the wrangle.
SNP chief executive Michael Russell, who has been locking horns with the BBC for years, was outraged last week when he heard the three politicians had been lined up, but no approach had been made to his party in the very week it took the lead over Labour for the first time in the Herald/System Three poll.
He contacted them offering to nominate a speaker from the SNP but was rebuffed. It was then said Ms Smith would fill the fourth slot, often earmarked for a non-politician or, should the line-up be male-dominated, a woman.
In the face of continuing complaints, the BBC relented this week and said party leader Alex Salmond could go on but only if Ms Smith were dropped. The SNP said this would make it appear as if they were responsible for having the actress bumped off the discussion programme.
A spokeswoman for the BBC in London insisted last night: ''We are happy with the make-up of tonight's Question Time panel. Following representation from the SNP last week and earlier this week we were prepared to reconsider its make-up as the SNP was the only party not to be represented by a professional politician.
''SNP leader Alex Salmond was given the opportunity to appear on tonight's programme and Elaine C Smith was prepared to step down to make way for him if necessary. However, Alex Salmond was not prepared to appear if this meant Elaine C Smith was dropped.
''As it was not possible to have two SNP supporters on the panel, it became impossible for Mr Salmond to appear. It should be stressed that both the BBC and the SNP are very happy to have Elaine C Smith on tonight's panel.''
Mr Russell, however, said the behaviour of the BBC had been appalling, and should have been prepared to increase the panel to five, as has been done in the past.
He said: ''The BBC's mistake in 'forgetting' about the SNP was unforgivable but they compounded the error in attempting to dump Elaine C Smith to cover up their mistake. The BBC south of the Border have again shown themselves to be incapable of understanding, let alone reflecting Scottish politics and this augurs ill for the impartial and accurate coverage that the next year of Scottish politics demands.''
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