Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats Offer Real Alternative on 5th May

11.58.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 3rd May 2005

Scottish Liberal Democrat President Malcolm Bruce and Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Jim Wallace today set out how only the Liberal Democrats can be trusted to deliver for Scotland.

At a press conference in Edinburgh Mr Bruce and Mr Wallace spelled out that this election is more than a battle between the parties on specific policy choices; at stake is the bigger issue of which Party can be trusted with the stewardship of the country.

Malcolm Bruce said:

"Politics should be a battle of ideas not of insults and abuse. There is more to this election than a battle between the parties on specific policy choices. The question of trust is important, because so many of the judgements which politicians have to make have nothing to do with the promises in their manifestos. The clearest example of this during the course of the last Parliament was of course the issue of Iraq - a word which did not appear in Labour's 2001 manifesto.

"On the single most important decision this Government made in the last parliament, the fateful decision to go to war in Iraq, every piece of

information has been wrung out of them in the face of stiff resistance.

"It has taken a series of leaks before, after two years, we were able to see the full legal advice of the Attorney General. For Tony Blair to contemptuously describe this document as a 'damp squib' just betrays how unrepentant and out-of-touch he has become.

"It is not a 'damp squib' that the Attorney General warned that he could not guarantee the Government would win if a legal challenge was brought against them.

"It is not a 'damp squib' that the Attorney General told the Prime Minister that "regime change cannot be the objective of military action", and yet we know that he had already signed up to the US policy of regime change a year before the war.

"It is not a 'damp squib' that advice so equivocal, so full of warnings, arguments, counter arguments and caveats was never seen by the Cabinet and Parliament before the decision was made to send British troops to invade Iraq. It was not even seen by the Chief of the Defence Staff who is responsible for our soldiers.

"Just because you strip caveats out of a document, doesn't mean they no longer exist - it just means that the Cabinet, Members of Parliament, and the public don't know they exist.

"On May 5th it is quite clear who the real alternative is: it's the Scottish Liberal Democrats."

Speaking at the press conference Mr Wallace said:

"Yesterday I visited all five of the Scottish Liberal Democrats top target seats. Our message is resonating on the doorsteps. Our poll ratings are at their highest ever level.

"Following the further revelations about the war in Iraq it is clear that Tony Blair has undermined trust in government and politics. Every day it

seems more and more apparent that Tony Blair persuaded himself to follow his friend George W Bush into war and then scrambled around for a justification for doing so.

"The Liberal Democrats have set out a positive message for Scotland and a programme based on fairness. The Liberal Democrats are the only party at this election that will deliver additional resources to invest here in Scotland. We will invest £1.8 billion in our children and in delivering a fairer deal for our pensioners.

"We offer a real alternative to the authoritarian Labour Party at Westminster, to the insular and narrow-minded instincts of the Conservatives and to the irrelevance of the SNP.

"More and more people see the Liberal Democrats as the real alternative to Labour.

"We have addressed people's hopes, not played to their fears. We have set out our positive message for Scotland. We will work relentlessly over these last few hours to make sure everyone hears that message.

"History will certainly judge Tony Blair on Iraq - but first the people of Scotland and Britain will judge him on Thursday."