Scots, Welsh Deny Labor a Free Hand

Scottish and Welsh nationalists denied Britain’s ruling Labor Party outright control of their historic new parliaments, challenging Prime Minister Tony Blair’s boast that separatism had been turned back. Blair claimed victory in the separatist battle because Labor took the most seats in Scotland’s first parliament in three centuries and also ended up the biggest party in the new Welsh National Assembly. But the Scottish National Party and Wales’ nationalist Plaid Cymru, which both want more independence than is now being offered, each took second place and did enough to ensure that Labor does not have a free hand in the parliaments.