"For every 100 pounds spent by Scottish councils under the Tories, only 96 has been spent by Labour. That is a disgrace."

They also accused the SNP of narrow mindedness and said "Narrow nationalism is not our way: the little England of the Tories, or the little Scotland of the SNP. But nor is it the stultifying centralism that runs through the veins of Labour, Old and New."

Education is the key to economic success in the long run, along with a sound currency and a big (European) market, but self determination is the master key to that for Scotland, surely Mr Ashdown (liberal leader), as an ex-soldier, knows that.