As the Euro elections draw ever nearer we can look back on a record of success. Our representatives have always proved to be well equipped with the talents required for their role and we have benefitted from the respect which they have earned. We did well in the last election campaign and our morale enjoyed a very real boost. It is our job now to campaign with commitment to secure a result as good or better.

We have perhaps a special part to play at this time. Although a Party whose purpose is to secure national independence we have always been firm in our loyalty to humanity and democracy, and our brand of nationalism has never been at odds with either of these principles. Ours is a long road, and we are still making our way along it, but our patience has proved sufficent to remove all temptation to employ methods which are to be morally condemned.

So to-day we stand with all those who disown the kind of evil visited upon Madrid. We feel comradeship with Basques and Catalans because in their situation we see many similarities to our own. This comradeship has been extended because we know that those who lead these movements are, like us, never going to employ tactics of savagery.

Every Nationalist must have known that the Spanish Government would never miss such an opportunity to smear ETA, and, by extension, Basque Nationalists in general. Now that it seems certain that the attrocity was the work of al-Qaeda, will we have to listen to many of our fellow citizens claim that "Spain asked for it"? If that wicked silliness is not offered in response to Madrid 3/11, can those who used it in relation to New York 9/11 now perhaps feel a belated surge of shame? We should all try to work out a consistent view of terrorism rather than picking and choosing when deciding who is to be tolerated and who condemned. Inconsistencies and contradictions irritate while we watch those who demanded war in Kosovo now demand with equal fervour an end to intervention in Iraq. We at least have been consistent. We must continue to reject cruelty and murder for political purposes, withholding sympathy and all support even from those whose agenda might bear a superficial similarity to our own.

Remember there are many politicians in Britain who will to-day be overjoyed to peddle the idea that the SNP is somehow to be equated with ETA. We haven't yet heard this from the MPs and MSPs to whom in your minds you can all attach faces and names, but I fear that we will.

Such public figures have shown themselves embittered by all advances which we have made, and our impressive votes and effective representation in Europe irk them sorely. One of Mr McLeish's sins in their eyes was to seek to enhance the powers of Holyrood and extend the scope of its activities. He even let drop the term "Scottish Government" and brought on his luckless head the fury of Labour MPs who feel much more secure with Mr McConnell's plan to "do less better".

At least Henry McLeish wanted an international role for Scotland, commendably even placing a Secretary for Scottish Affairs in Britain's Washington Embassy. He has been punished by having his book launch boycotted by his former colleagues and his book itself rendered as nearly invisible as possible by the Media who never breath its name. But historians some day will enjoy it, will depend on it, and Henry will yet have his effective say.