The Salmond conundrum

The Scottish National Party today launched their manifesto for the European elections amid many questions about senior Nationalist Angus Robertson's expenses claims. But that should not distract from the real confusions at the heart of SNP policy.

The SNP riduclously claimed to be "focused on protecting jobs”, although over 20,000 jobs in Scottish construction were lost in 2008 because of the failure of the SNP’s Scottish Futures Trust. Just last week, senior business leaders warned that SNP policies are putting another 15,000 jobs at risk. The Scottish economy has lost £1 billion of construction work under the SNP while the First Minister fiddles with his Futures Trust.

As Labour MEP David Martin said while we were campaiging today in Ayrshire, "Alex Salmond's sudden interest in protecting jobs because of the European election is an embarrassing pretence which will not be lost on those who have lost their jobs as a direct result of his failures.”

Campaigning today led several of the Labour candidates to Kilwinning and then on to Thornliebank. Meeting pensioners over lunch at their club in Kilwinning gave us all lots of energy. Margaret (73), Betty (82) and Margaret (who preferred not to disclose her age) refer to themeslves as "the Golden Girls" and are very much representative of the pensioners who have gained so much under a Labour government since 1997 ... and they were full of good advice.

As for the Nationalists, the Financial Times today again exposed the idiocy of SNP separatism. Every single argument that the SNP have made on the economy is in tatters. They said we could rely on oil and gas - but the price has collapsed to $50 a barrel. They said we could rely on our banks - and the UK Government had to invest £50bn to protect workers and savers. They said we should model ourselves on Ireland and Iceland, only to back away from that argument too in recent months.

Perhaps the next 3 weeks until the European elections will shine some light on the Salmond conundrum for me. After 15 years working in the European Commission, I simply do not see any logic in his claim that a vote for separatism strengthens Scotland across Europe. I am not holding my breath for a convincing explanation.