Salmond lambasts Cameron over broken promise and warns against interference in referendum

ALEX Salmond last night showed his determination to take on the UK Government when he launched a blistering attack on David Cameron and declared that the respect agenda between London and Edinburgh was now “dead”.

The SNP leader claimed that the Prime Minister did not understand Scotland and signalled that any Westminster-based attempt to take over the independence referendum would be fiercely resisted.

In his keynote speech to the party faithful at the SNP conference, Salmond said that “no London politician” would “determine the future of the Scottish nation”.

“The Prime Minister should hear this loud and clear,” Salmond said. “The people of Scotland – the sovereign people of Scotland – are now in the driving seat. The days of Westminster politicians telling Scotland what to do or what to think are over. The Scottish people will set the agenda for the future.”

Salmond claimed that the promise made by Cameron when he came to power to set an “agenda of respect” that would see Westminster and the Scottish Parliament work in partnership was now meaningless.

As he did so, he also ridiculed the UK Government’s Scotland Bill that was intended to give the Scottish Parliament more teeth.

“The UK Government haven’t even gone through the motions of considering the views of the Scottish Government. The respect agenda lies dead in their throats.”

George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander were also singled out by the First Minister as he attacked the UK Coalition’s attempts to wrestle with the independence issue. “They have formed a Cabinet sub-committee to attack Scottish independence,” Salmond said.

“Let’s get this right. Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Alexander sit in a committee working out how to do down Scotland and they engage in this while the European monetary system teeters on the brink of collapse, while the jobless total in England is at a 20-year high and inflation more than double its target.

“These politicians wonder why they carry no confidence among the people of England never mind the people of Scotland. Our message to this quad of ministers is stop attacking Scottish aspirations and start supporting economic recovery.”

Around 900 SNP delegates squeezed into the Eden Court theatre, Inverness, to listen to the First Minister make his first speech to conference since May’s election victory. A further 700 supporters watched the speech on televisions in five over-spill rooms.

Salmond received a rapturous standing ovation from the audience as he delivered a speech with three policy announcements on new schools, apprenticeships and renewable energy. He also indicated that the £975,000 left to the party by the late poet Edwin Morgan when died aged 90 would be used as a referendum war-chest.

Much was made of his vision to develop off-shore renewable energy. On North Sea oil the First Minister said: “London has had its turn out of Scottish oil and gas – let the next 40-years be for the people of Scotland.”.

Salmond will attempt to strengthen his argument that only the Scottish Parliament has a mandate to hold a referendum by tabling a “claim of right” at Holyrood next month. The parliamentary motion will have the same wording as the cross party document signed in 1989 that was regarded as an important staging post on the road to devolution.

Salmond hopes his political opponents will put their names to the motion, which will “acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of government best suited to their needs.”

The First Minister also revealed that he had been impressed by the name of an outdoor centre near Inverness called “Nae Limits”, which he believed summed up the SNP. “We shall prevail, because we share a vision – a vision of a land without boundaries. Of a people unshackled from low ambition and poor chances. Of a society unlimited in its efforts to be fair and free. Of a Scotland unbound. Nae limits for Scotland.”