PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
SNP POLICY ON KOSOVO (29 March 1999)

That this House regrets the conduct of the SNP, whose Convener, the honourable Member for Banff and Buchan, used a television broadcast on 29th March to condemn publicly NATO's action in Yugoslavia as 'unpardonably foolish'; notes that he did not articulate his alleged principled objections to NATO's policy, nor his alternative strategy to address the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo, when he questioned the Prime Minister on 23rd March; notes that no SNP honourable Member contributed in response to the Deputy Prime Minister's statement on 24th March nor in the debate on 25th March; further notes that the Parliamentary Leader of the SNP, the honourable Member for Moray, made no mention of her party's objection to the action, nor of an alternative strategy, in her question to the Prime Minister on the very same afternoon when the honourable Member for Banff and Buchan's public condemnation was broadcast; recognises the distinction between expressing reasonable concerns and reservations on the one hand and outright condemnation on the other, and therefore calls upon the SNP, in order to counter accusations of acting in an opportunistic way, to explain why none of their honourable Members have expressed their objections to the House on the many occasions when they have had the opportunity to do so.

Sponsored by:
Lord Wallace of Tankerness (Liberal Democrat)