Salmond back from US with high hopes for independence

Published on Sunday 6 April 2008 21:58

SCOTLAND will become independent "in my lifetime", Alex Salmond declared yesterday.

Buoyed by a week of events and speeches to promote Scotland in the United States, the First Minister returned to Edinburgh saying he was more confident than ever in Scottish independence.

"Some people said we'd never see a Scottish Parliament. Wendy Alexander (the Scottish Labour leader] said I wouldn't become First Minister in my wildest dreams. Well, I must be having pretty wild dreams these days.

"The forecasting powers of my opponents are not fantastic, and, yes, I believe I will see independence in my lifetime," he said.

In New York, Mr Salmond took part in the annual Tartan Day parade, and posed for pictures with Lawrence Tynes, the Scottish-born kicker for the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants, and John Smeaton, the baggage-handler who helped to foil the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport last year. The First Minister claimed Scotland Week – as Tartan Week is now called – had been a great success, citing messages of support from the presidential candidates Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, as well as from George Bush, the US president.

Mr Salmond's aides claimed there had been "record interest" from the US media, referring to interviews and reports in eight newspapers and on seven television programmes. However, there has been little coverage so far and, although some of the most prominent US newspapers have interviewed the First Minister, few of them have actually printed any articles on his visit or on Scotland Week.

Mr Salmond said: "We had exceptional political support throughout the week: from the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, a 47 strong Congressional membership of the Scottish caucus – and soon to be 20 members in the Senate as pledged by Senator Jim Webb at the Tartan Day reception."

In an interview with a Sunday newspaper, the First Minister turned his fire on Labour, accusing the party of being full of "ultimate B-league players".

He said: "They have an inferiority complex as wide as the Clyde, always deferring to Westminster. They have no ambition for the country. They don't regard themselves, never mind the rest of us, as important enough to be talking about things that matter."

He went on: "Labour in Scotland never learn their lesson. It is their very defensiveness, their narrowness, their small mindedness, which will keep them in opposition.

"A lot of people in Scotland believe the guff about the economy which has been talked for a generation – that Scotland is a poor, wee, dependent place. In fact, Scotland is potentially one of the richest countries on the planet, and if we became independent next week we'd be the third most prosperous country in Europe."

Mr Salmond's push for a referendum on independence was given a further boost yesterday when Henry McLeish, the former Labour first minister, said Scotland's future should eventually be solved with a plebiscite.

Going against Labour policy, which is to reject all calls for a referendum, Mr McLeish said: "I think the issue has to be resolved at some point with a referendum, but for that to happen there needs to be a more informed debate, and I think the public are both bemused and confused by so many conversations taking place."