Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) (Amendment) Order 2009

I accept that and we are in agreement. I am grateful for the correction. The one thing I am deeply disturbed about, and on which I am going to seek in even stronger terms than the noble Lord, Lord Steel, an assurance from the Minister relates to the terms of this order. What happened was a despicable and deliberate piece of deception by the SNP. It was disgraceful and I have not seen the like of it from any political party. The Liberal Democrats get up to one or two little tricks from time to time, the Tories have been known to do it and even the Labour Party has tried it in certain parts of the country, but I have never seen the like of this before. I shall slightly correct the noble Duke by saying that it was not the one candidate, but all the candidates for the regional list in every region of Scotland who had as their party description, "Alex Salmond for First Minister". Not only is that a manifest nonsense as a description of a party and not only was it sloganising and propagandising, but it was chosen so that the SNP would be the first party in the list because the name "Alex Salmond" begins with an "A". Alex Salmond said that the SNP could not be doing it for that purpose, "because my mother would not have realised that we were going to be standing in these elections when I was born 58 years ago". But that was not the point. The fact is that Alex Salmond saw the opportunity to use his name as a description and took it, and the SNP would do it again if it had the chance. That is why I have reservations about any suggestion that total responsibility should be passed to a Parliament where he is still the First Minister. I seek a clear assurance from my noble friend, and if he cannot give one to me today, I concur with the noble Lord, Lord Steel, that we should get it tomorrow or some time soon from the Advocate-General. Indeed, I would like to see the Advocate-General here, since he is paid quite a lot, as I keep reminding him. However, that is in no way to say that my noble friend Lord Brett is not an entirely adequate person to deal with this. However, it would be useful if the Advocate-General or indeed the Secretary of State himself in another place could give a clear, written guarantee that the provisions of this order will stop the abuse that the SNP carried out last time. I am not absolutely sure that it will because I think that ways around it can be found and that the noble Lord, Lord Steel, is correct in his suspicions. I am sure that the Minister understands our concerns. If he is not able to give us an absolute assurance today that this practice will be eliminated, I hope that he will find an opportunity to do so through one of the other Ministers on another occasion.