This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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D-Day 60th anniversary
04/06/2004
First Minister Jack McConnell has
accepted an invitation to attend the D-Day 60
th anniversary commemoration in northern France
this weekend.
He has changed his plans and will not now be a guest
at the 250
th anniversary dinner of the Royal and Ancient
inSt Andrews.
Mr McConnell said:
"Nothing is more important to me as First
Minister than the credibility and reputation of our
Scottish government. I have absolutely no wish to see
these very important commemorations turned into a
political contest. What matters to me is the decent
families of Scotland and the descendants of those who
died.
"These people want to see Scotland represented at the
very highest level and I have a responsibility to them.
Therefore it is only right that I attend."
"If the families of those who died in Normandy are upset
by me not attending then they matter to me more than
anything else this weekend."
The Queen, UK Prime Minister TonyBlair,USPresident George Bush and other heads of state from
acrossEuropewill attend the ceremony with about 10,000 war
veterans returning to the beaches where the D-Day landings
happened onJune 6, 1944.