BRITAIN:Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond has launched a withering attack on a "counterfeit" Gordon Brown while pitching for English backing for a new "social union" with Scotland. And he has again confirmed his view that Queen Elizabeth could perform a vital role as a "common head of state" for both England and Scotland as independent countries.
With just two weeks to go to Scottish Parliament elections which many believe will severely weaken Mr Brown's Scottish Labour power base, Mr Salmond turned his fire on the chancellor as "Blairite" pressure continued for a serious leadership contest to prevent Mr Brown's "coronation" as Tony Blair's automatic successor.
With Mr Brown's expected premiership fuelling England's "Scottish question", Mr Salmond accused the chancellor of seeking to "ingratiate himself" with the English public, for example when suggesting that his favourite footballing moment had been Paul Gascoigne's goal for England against Scotland in Euro 96.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Salmond said: "One thing that the people of England will not tolerate is a counterfeit . . . someone who is pretending to be not really Scottish . . . pretending to be one of them." Mr Brown, he said, "would be much better trying to be himself".
The newly-emollient Mr Salmond meanwhile asserted that while Scottish opinion was in the driving seat for constitutional change, opinion "south of the border" was catching up - not least because of Labour's controlling tendency to use the votes of Scottish MPs at Westminster to force through relatively peripheral pieces of legislation applying to England.
While this conflict was changing the way in which people in both countries viewed each other, Mr Salmond said that he preferred not to think in terms of breaking up the United Kingdom. "I would rather express it as a new relationship between the countries and the peoples of these islands," he said.
With polls still predicting that the SNP will be the largest party in the new Scottish Parliament, Mr Salmond's putative Lib Dem coalition partners are maintaining public opposition to any power-sharing deal unless the nationalists drop their commitment to a future referendum on independence.
However, well-informed sources here believe that bilateral talks will take place between all the principal parties ahead of polling day and that a post-election SNP/Liberal Democrat deal could be achieved around a compromise proposal for a multi-choice referendum, which would allow people to vote, among other things, for increased powers for the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Salmond, whose party has never been in government, has already confirmed that a second referendum might be held if independence was defeated in a vote expected in 2010, assuming that the SNP makes it into office as a result of the May 3rd elections.
Meanwhile, former Labour leader Lord (Neil) Kinnock has said that he is "in despair" at former home secretary Charles Clarke's continuing effort to promote a heavyweight challenge to Mr Brown in Labour's imminent leadership contest. Lord Kinnock also said he was certain that environment secretary David Miliband would not run against Mr Brown.