The Herald: Leak shows SNP swithered on support for war

JOHN Swinney's European election campaign was again undermined by a rebel MSP yesterday, after the leak of an internal note showing the SNP was ready to switch its stance on the Iraq war.
Written in September 2002 by Campbell Martin, the suspended MSP for West of Scotland, the unofficial minute suggests that rather than opposing the war on principle, the SNP was ready to jump sides as it weighed up the electoral pros and cons.
Mr Swinney has put opposition to the war at the heart of his Euro campaign, and rival parties last night branded him an opportunist...

But the Scottish Socialist party said Iraq would still be a "blood-soaked nightmare" even if the SNP had got its UN resolution.
"These minutes show that the SNP's position is based on electoral expediency as opposed to political principle. We believe parties should base policies on principles not pragmatism."