Peer slams nationalists at Kennedy memorial

FORMER Deputy First Minister Lord Wallace will today issue a plea to Scots to respect opposing political views as he pays tribute to the late Charles Kennedy.

Lord Wallace, the current Lib Dem leader in the House of Lords, will take a swipe at nationalists and urge them to ‘emulate Charles Kennedy’.

The peer will also say the values which shaped the former UK Lib Dem leader ‘set him apart from the cause of nationalism’.

Speaking at the inaugural Charles Kennedy memorial lecture in Lochaber, Lord Wallace will say: ‘Politics is scarred by those who are so bound to the idea of the nation above all else, that all who disagree deserve to have their views trashed.’

Mr Kennedy died in June, when he suffered a major haemorrhage linked to his long battle with alcoholism.

In the run-up to the election he was trolled by so-called ‘cybernats’ and confided in colleagues that he ‘couldn’t understand’ how Scottish politics had become so abusive. One SNP official who trolled Mr Kennedy later quit the party in disgrace, and family and colleagues were so upset by the abuse that his successor as MP, Ian Blackford, was banned from attending the funeral.

An SNP spokesman said: ‘Charles Kennedy set a fine example of how an MP should serve their constituents and Scottish politics is poorer for his passing.’