Tories to woo Scots with low tax

SCOTTISH TORIES will fight the Holyrood election as the party of low taxation, their leader, David McLetchie, declared yesterday.

In his keynote address to the Scottish Tory conference in Perth, he said: "The clearest choice of all in this election is tax." He warned that Scottish taxpayers would be in line for a financial pounding with a Labour administration in Holyrood with road tolls, higher business rates and a tourist tax.

And he added: "As far as the Liberals are concerned if Jim Wallace is successful in slipping under the duvet with Donald Dewar you'll get more taxes still."

He said the Scottish National Party would make people in Scotland the highest taxed in the UK, adding: "It's not a penny for Scotland - it's a penalty for being Scots." The Tories, he declared, would stand for, "no new taxes, no increased taxes, a parliament that lives within its means just like every family in Scotland has to do."

Mr McLetchie said Scottish people wanted the parliament to tackle problems in health and education, adding: "They don't want the parliament condemned to endless years of constitutional wrangling. We have had 30 years of debate about the constitution in Scottish politics. The people made their decision in the referendum. We accept and respect that decision. The SNP don't. They want to carry on the war."

Among the cruellest ironies at the Perth gathering was the rapturous ovation accorded to the former cabinet ministers Sir Michael Forsyth and Sir Malcolm Rifkind. The elderly matrons and retired business folk who make up much of what is left of the Conservative faithful north of the border would love either of these two political heavyweights to lead them into the home-rule era. But both have turned their backs on the parliament. Instead of the biting wit and energy of Forsyth or the gravitas of Rifkind, the party has to applaud the stolid performances of Mr McLetchie.

Thanks to the fairer voting system to be used for the elections on 6 May, the Tories are expected to win around a dozen seats in the 129-member parliament. Under the traditional first-past-the-post method they would probably have got none.

No party is likely to have an overall majority and Mr McLetchie signalled that he would use any deciding influence to maintain the union with England - pledging to have no truck with anything that helped the "separatists".

Labour was quick to distance itself from any idea of a "grand unionist coalition" - even a hint of a deal with the Conservatives could be an electoral kiss of death.