SNP not beyond the pale, Gorrie to tell Lib-Dems

He will tell a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrats' national conference in

Edinburgh today that the SNP is by no means ''beyond the pale'' and could

prove

as respectable allies as Labour.

Mr Gorrie will say some Liberals see the SNP as outside the normal range of political views, and therefore not on the list of potential allies in a Scottish Parliament.

However, he believes this is a mistake and insists Liberals have a long

history

of supporting ''good nationalists''.

His comments are likely to be interpreted as an effort to counter the attack

on

the Nationalists launched at last month's Scottish conference in Aberdeen by possible leadership contender Menzies Campbell MP.

On that occasion, Mr Campbell warned that ''when Liberalism sups with Nationalists it should do so with a long spoon'' and suggested ''an

arrangement

between Liberal Democrats and Labour at Holyrood could be seen as a staging post on the progress towards realignment which has lain at the heart of the strategy of every Liberal Democrat leader I have known''.

By contrast Mr Gorrie will claim there is a long history of Liberal support

for

nationalists going back to the time when Charles James Fox and the Whigs supported the American colonies in their War of Independence.

After 1945, he recalls, the Scottish Liberals established support for a Scottish Parliament as a main pillar of their policies and later former leader

Jo Grimond also favoured cooperation with the SNP.

The Liberals, he will claim, have supported responsibe nationalists and ''good'' nationalists but this does not mean they support the SNP. They argue that in the UK responsible nationalism leads to a federal structure and not to

independence.

So they have a major policy difference with the SNP as they have with Labour

on

many issues and with the Tories on most issues. But he will add that: ''I

see

no evidence that the SNP represents the bad strands of nationalism.''

Of the present day, he will tell the Liberal Democrats' History Society: ''The

Parliament will work better if the other parties accept that the SNP is an ordinary political party which other parties oppose rather than some extreme bunch beyond the pale.

Responsible nationalism is a legitimate political philosophy and responsible nationalists are normal flawed human beings who can be respectable allies with

whom Liberal Democrats can cooperate on the right terms in promoting our

agenda

for Scotland, just as we would cooperate with Labour or with both or neither.''

However he will stress that, while both Labour and the SNP are potiential allies for the Liberal Democrats, if the price of a coalition was to promote policies they strongly opposed then the option of constructive opposition to a

minority government might prove a better choice.

Mr Gorrie, who is currently MP for Edinburgh West and heads the party's regional list in Central Scotland, will also recall that many Scottish Liberal

activists, including himself, were very angry and disappointed when the SNP withdrew from the Scottish Constitutional Convention.

''It may have been a good tactical decision for the SNP but it was a bad decision for Scotland. Many SNP members thought it was a bad decision. However

one serious error of judgement doesn't damn a party for ever.''