The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has warned Scots they face a choice of "devolution or divorce" in the elections for the Scottish parliament on May 6th.
Despite denials that he and Labour were engaged in simple "nat-bashing", the Prime Minister had the Scottish National Party firmly in his sights on a visit to Glasgow yesterday, accusing it of "proclaiming patriotism" rather than policies.
Addressing Labour candidates, Mr Blair said the nationalists treated social justice as secondary to the issue of national identity, and were more interested in national anthems than in the National Health Service.
"You cannot evade choices about Scotland's future by wrapping yourselves in Scotland's flag," Mr Blair said.
And he declared: "There is at the heart of the SNP's approach the dishonest assertion that anyone who scrutinises the SNP is seeking to subjugate Scotland."
It was wrong, Mr Blair said, "for any party to claim that it and it alone speaks for any nation, and that for any of its political opponents to question the party is for them to attack the nation". Dismissing the SNP as at root "a party of protest, not a party of power", the Prime Minister said it had a clearer idea of how to raise Scotland's taxes than to increase Scotland's prosperity.
"To those who say that every UK government lets Scotland down, I say, tell that to the child in Glasgow who will soon go to school in a modern classroom, tell that to the 18-year-old in Paisley who has a job because of the New Deal, tell that to the security guard in Dundee who, from April, will get an immediate pay rise because of the national minimum wage," Mr Blair said.
Step by step, he said, the government was confirming that New Labour's values were Scotland's values.
And the election campaign would show a clear dividing line between those who defended a new Scotland and a new Britain and those calling for divorce.
Holding out the prospect of "a Scotland reborn" Mr Blair said: "On May 7th one of two things will happen. Scottish New Labour will go to work for a stronger health service, better schools and a prosperous economy. Or the SNP will file for divorce."
Accusing the nationalists of being more interested in "the trappings of the nation state", Mr Blair said: "Their ambition is not that the devolved parliament succeeds but that it fails."
Pa adds: The SNP leader Mr Alex Salmond, greeted Mr Blair's visit to Scotland by attacking his government's record.
Speaking in Glasgow, Mr Salmond said: "Instead of Natbashing and talking Scotland down, Tony Blair should use his visit to Scotland to explain why key public services are being run down by Labour mismanagement."