LABOUR ADMITS 'THEY (SCOTS) DON'T KNOW JACK AND THEY DON'T LIKE LABOUR'

(from Scotland on Sunday)

What a disgrace - JOE

Scottish Labour have 'given up' on positive electioneering

Plans to discredit SNP are revealed by party sources Independence bashing will be at centre of campaign

Key quote:

"There is nothing that Labour can say that will change peoples' minds about Labour. There is no point in having a positive campaign because it doesn't wash. There isn't a bit of evidence to suggest that going positive will make any difference. They don't know Jack and they don't like Labour." - Labour campaign source

Story in full

JACK McConnell is to gamble his election chances on a relentlessly negative campaign against the SNP, after party chiefs admitted they were giving up their bid to persuade people to back him on his record.

According to senior party sources, internal polling evidence within the Labour camp has concluded that a positive campaign based on Labour's policies is doomed because the public are no longer listening.

Instead, party chiefs now think their only chance of winning them round is to destroy the Nationalists' credibility.

The behind-the-scenes moves came as McConnell yesterday launched an unprecedented personal attack on SNP leader Alex Salmond, accusing him of having "walked out" on the people of Scotland when he left Holyrood prior to the last election.

The speech was intended to kick-start McConnell's bid for re-election following sniping from the SNP last week that he had become "the invisible man".

But Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the turmoil within Labour's ranks is continuing. Last week, Kirsty O'Brien, the party's UK head of policy, was parachuted into the campaign from London, as party chiefs desperately try to haul in the SNP's clear lead in the polls.

Tony Blair's polling guru Philip Gould is also now heavily involved in the Scottish campaign, in a clear sign of the UK party's growing fears over the May 3 vote.

One campaign source said that the party's polling evidence showed clearly that people were tired of Labour's own record and were not for turning. The insider said: "There is nothing that Labour can say that will change peoples' minds about Labour. There is no point in having a positive campaign because it doesn't wash. There isn't a bit of evidence to suggest that going positive will make any difference. They don't know Jack and they don't like Labour."

McConnell yesterday vowed to fight toe-to-toe with Salmond on his record in office. But he then issued a tirade against the SNP leader, accusing him of being a quitter. He told Labour candidates at a conference in Dunblane: "Building Scotland needs staying, not quitting. You don't build a great nation with glib soundbites and self-satisfied smirks, but by hard work and tough choices. You don't build hospitals by talking, but by doing. You don't build schools in Scotland scoring cheap points in Westminster."

McConnell also appealed to voters whose concerns over the SNP may have been softened by the Nationalists' plan to hold a referendum on independence.

The SNP say they will run Scotland as it is until around 2009. Scotland would only become independent if it backed a referendum which Salmond would hold at that time. But McConnell said an SNP victory would lead immediately to "paralysis, conflict, uncertainty and cost".

He added: "It would start immediately. The body politic of not just Scotland but the UK would be convulsed by 'the Scottish question'."

He went on: "If you don't believe it, don't vote for the SNP. There isn't a half-way house."

McConnell's attack comes after a torrid week for Labour in which McConnell was pursued over his refusal to agree to a TV debate with Salmond. A poll in the Scotsman, meanwhile, showed that the Nationalists had a 5% lead over Labour.

McConnell has now agreed to take on Salmond and the other party leaders in a televised debate on April 1.

An SNP spokesman said: "The SNP are campaigning positively on the policies, showing how an SNP administration can make Scotland more successful. That is what the people of Scotland want to hear."

He added: "Personal attacks from Mr McConnell are unworthy of the Scottish election process, and only show that Labour have nothing constructive to say in this campaign."

What the other parties said

THE Scottish Green party yesterday set out their plan to become "the green backbone" of government at Holyrood.

Campaign director Mark Ruskell MSP said the Greens would back a "stable minority government" from the opposition benches.

He said: "We will be instead the green backbone, forcing government to act now and put our agenda first."

At the Scottish Socialists' meeting, leader Colin Fox said the party would back free public transport for all. He also said the party had recovered from its split and the fall-out from former leader Tommy Sheridan's defamation case against the News of the World, insisting the SSP was still "the biggest, best and most successful" socialist party in Scotland.

But at another meeting Sheridan claimed his breakaway Solidarity party - formed after his case last year - would trounce his former colleagues and win seven seats in May's elections.

Sheridan claimed that the lower-than-inflation NHS pay rises announced by Chancellor Gordon Brown last week could scupper Labour's chances.