Blair wrecks Labour Party election chances in Scotland

From British daily The Independent:

SNP boosted by Blair‘s visit

By Francis Elliott

Published: 08 April 2007

Tony Blair‘s intervention in the Scottish election has driven more voters into the hands of the SNP, according to polls published today.

The Prime Minister launched Labour’s campaign last week with a warning that SNP spending plans would lead to an annual £12.9bn deficit, the equivalent of £5,000 for each Scottish family.

But the first full week of campaigning ends today with polls suggesting that Jack McConnell, Scotland‘s [Blairite Labour] First Minister, is heading for a resounding defeat.

The survey in The Mail on Sunday suggests that the SNP will win 56 seats in the Scottish Parliament, Labour 40, the Liberal Democrats 13 and the Conservatives 17.

Mr McConnell has recently suggested that he would be willing to form a minority government in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, an admission of Labour’s increasingly forlorn prospects.

The claim that Mr Blair is an electoral liability is supported by a survey by the BBC, which suggests that two-thirds of Scots want British troops withdrawn from Iraq.

Though acknowledging that he is a “controversial figure”, Mr Blair is due to make at least three more visits to Scotland before polling day on 3 May.

See also here.

If I would be Labour Party election campaign manager (there will be Welsh Assembly and English local elections as well on 3 May), I’d say: dump Blair, before the first of his planned yet three or more visits to Scotland brings yet more ruin.

And put him on trial for war crimes.

Latest on Blair’s cash for peerages scandal: here.

Labour has been the biggest party in Scotland for about a century, whether its leader was a popular politician, a yellow dog, or a broomstick.

That Blair will lose this position now to the Scottish National Party is really an “achievement” …

The SNP’s main tenet of independence for Scotland is supported by only a minority of the electorate, according to polls.

However, the SNP opposes the bloody Iraq war, and the Trident weapons of mass destruction.

And, it is not led by Pinocchio Blair. That, in this election, seems to be enough.

If I would be SNP election campaign manager, then maybe I would pay Blair to be in Scotland all days until the election, resulting in zero Labour Members of the Scottish Parliament elected …

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