Because the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats were long-time associates in the quest for a Scottish Parliament it was assumed that they would also work together on a coalition basis within the new Parliament. Well, it is dangerous to assume anything in politics and if Labour didn't know that before, they know it now. Could it be that Scottish Liberal Democrats might find it more congenial to band together with the SNP, if for no other reason than the apparent departure for ever of radical policies from the ranks of New Labour? We have suggested in recent weeks that radical trade unionists might find a better home for their policies, and their cash, with the Liberal Democrats, and now there are suspicions that the supple Mr Charles Kennedy is willing at least to consider the possibility of some sort of working arrangement with the SNP.
This will not go down well with his party leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, who continues to cohabit with New Labour. But the views of Liberal Democrats in England and Wales (some of them, admittedly, unhappy at getting too close to Labour) are mild stuff compared with the very real hostility felt by many Scottish Liberal Democrats towards Labour. They feel they were patronised by Labour during the campaign for a Parliament, then railroaded by Mr Blair when he decided unilaterally to interfere in the referendum.
The problem with this scenario is the SNP's determination to hold a referendum on
independence if they achieve power in the Scottish Parliament. Liberal Democrat leader Mr Jim Wallace has already made clear that he will have nothing to do with it. But recent successes in opinion polls have forced the SNP into some creative thinking. The first fruits have emerged in suggestions that the independence referendum might not be held immediately. Mr Salmond said yesterday that it need only be within the first four-year term of the Parliament. Taken together with whispers that the SNP might opt not to use tax-varying powers, at least for a first Parliament, and in the light of their determination to woo the business community, it is clear that the SNP is changing. Some similarly creative work from Labour is now imperative.
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