THE Scottish Secretary yesterday employed a new style of quiet diplomacy to wage the war on the SNP which will mark the next 12 months of hostilities running up to the elections to Holyrood.

The new stance, the quiet boast of achievement wrapped around an iron fist of criticism of Nationalists, is to be the new method and although Mr Dewar did not use these words he accepted the analysis.

''Yes, that is fair,'' said Mr Dewar. ''I believe, as you know, that the election should be about positive policies for the Scottish Parliament. I believe the need of Scotland is to make that Parliament work.

''And I am very conscious of the fact that there is something of a contrast because the Nationalists have put great emphasis on independence referenda and related issues, and I think the phrase they have used is that if they don't get that all policy areas will become a proxy in the constitutional struggle.

''I just don't think that's a recipe for stable or good government and there is a contrast to be made there. But I would be very anxious to retain a strong, positive policy element right through until we hand over to the new Parliament.''

Mr Dewar revealed that three times as many Scots employers were signing up to the Government's New Deal for young unemployed than was the case with their English counterparts.

He employed the new laid-back method of pushing the Government's cause which his advisers say offers the best chance of overturning the current polls and vanquishing the SNP a year from now.

Mr Dewar was at his most charming as he held court inside his Ministerial colleague Henry McLeish's office at St Andrew's House, flanked by his new personal press secretary, special adviser David Whitton.

The ostensible purpose of the briefing was to outline the latest advances in the New Deal training scheme for unemployed youngsters, and Mr Dewar glowed with pride on the achievements thus far.

But he admitted that the bottom line was that the Government had to start gaining credit for its achievements thus far, if it was to fight off the advances of the SNP.

Of all the UK firms participating in the New Deal, many of them household names, around a third of them were Scottish based, from banks to service sector companies.

Mr Dewar conceded that it was still too early to draw conclusions about the working of the scheme, but he believed it was working well and drawing in employers in the same way it had won over ordinary Scots.

He hope to have ''as many again'' employers to boast of in the months to come to buttress the initial response. There is to be the development of a group of trained volunteers to act as mentors to the young people in the programme, and the comparison between former apprentices and journeymen was made.

There was even talk of Harry Truman's original Tennessee Valley programme from which the Government has borrowed the New Deal name.

But it soon became evident that yesterday's exercise with the press was about more than a vague update on one programme, albeit a flagship policy, on which the jury remains out. Mr Dewar admitted as much.

''I don't feel we have to create three policies before breakfast,'' said Mr Dewar, but he did mention schools, health, and urban regeneration in the same breath.