Salmond carries on the age-old battle cry for Scottish independence

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March 14, 1999
Web posted at: 1:06 p.m. EST (1806 GMT)

In this story: Biggest test ahead Touting 'higher growth' RELATED STORIES, SITES

ABERDEEN, Scotland (Reuters) -- The man who would deliver Scotland today from England's clutches bears little resemblance to William Wallace, the legendary figure who tried to do the same 700 years ago.

Alex Salmond, the diminutive leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), wears pinstripe suits instead of tartan kilts and wields economics statistics instead of Wallace's sword.

But Salmond and Wallace, immortalized for many by Mel Gibson's film "Braveheart," both wanted the same thing: an independent Scotland treated as an equal by its larger and more powerful southern neighbor.

"Nations are nations if they feel themselves to be a nation. And Scotland overwhelmingly feels itself to be a nation," Salmond, a former economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland, told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview.

"It had 1,000 years as an independent nation before the union," said Salmond, an affable man recently voted Britain's parliamentarian of the year.

Elections set for May

Salmond's SNP faces its biggest test -- and opportunity -- in its more than 60-year history on May 6, when Scots vote to elect a local parliament with limited powers for the first time since joining England to form the United Kingdom in 1707.

Polls show his party neck-and-neck with Britain's ruling Labour party ahead of the vote, but the SNP is unlikely to win an outright majority needed to push through a referendum on separation.

Salmond knows his countrymen are wary of breaking up the United Kingdom -- some polls show only a third want outright independence, although a majority believe it will eventually happen.

Gibson as Wallace in the 1996 movie 'Braveheart'

But he said Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labour party have relied on scare-mongering Scots into thinking separation will hurt their pocketbooks.

On a recent visit to Scotland, Blair said independence would cost each Scottish family some 40 pounds ($65.32) a week in taxes to make up for the shortfall between taxes Scotland pays to Britain and government money spent in return.

Touting 'higher growth'

But Salmond brings a different message. He said an independent Scotland would have no larger a fiscal deficit than most members of the European Union and would easily meet the Maastricht criteria for joining its Euro single currency.

Like Ireland, which has Europe's highest growth rate, Scotland could grow faster on its own rather than tied to Britain's relatively high interest rates and strong pound that slows Scottish exports, Salmond said.

"An independent Scotland has the opportunity for higher growth, higher output and therefore higher employment. Why? Because inflation in the Scottish economy is not as severe as it is in the economy of the southeast of England," he said.

A drawing of Wallace

The left-of-center SNP is trying to woo Scottish business by supporting a corporate tax cut, but many industrialists are not biting, worried independence will mean less investment and a tougher time selling to England, by far its biggest market.

Salmond's quest, like that of Wallace, is difficult. Scots are fervently patriotic but famously insecure about going it alone -- a constant battle between their hearts and heads.

Salmond says he has no such conflict.

"It's head and heart," he said.

Which is why the former economist for the Royal Bank of Scotland is the head of the Scottish Nationalist Party.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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