DOLLY the sheep was yesterday thrust into the general election campaign in Scotland - alongside Mr John Major and Mr Tony Blair.
Scottish nationalists produced a giant poster featuring a picture of Dolly - the Edinburgh sheep which made scientific history as the first animal to be cloned from living adult animal cells - beside images of Mr Major and Mr Blair.
Launching the poster in Inverness, the SNP leader, Mr Alex Salmond, said Dolly was not the first clone - "Tony Blair has cloned an entire political party from the Tories."
He said the poster underlined that both the Tories and Labour had converged on a "Middle England" social and economic agenda which was irrelevant to the needs of Scotland and the Highlands.
Meanwhile, Labour in Scotland proclaimed itself "the party of law and order" and pledged to tackle crimes that included drug dealing paedophilia and stalking.
It claimed that crime had "soared" under the Tories despite 26 Bills to change the criminal justice system. And it claimed that conviction rates had fallen, with the conviction rate for serious assaults alone falling 22 per cent since 1980.
It also pledged action to streamline the courts to tackle these "appallingly low" rates and a range of measures which would include a free vote in parliament on a total ban on handgun ownership.
The shadow Scottish home affairs spokesman, Mr John McFall, said: "After 18 years in which the government has done nothing to stop rising crime, Labour will tackle crime in key areas.
"We will have zero tolerance towards drug dealers, paedophiles, stalkers and anti-social neighbours who are such a blight on our communities. On top of this, we also recognise the critical importance of tackling the key causes of crime, such as youth unemployment, which leaves so many of our young folk idle."