Views Differ at New Parliament’s Opening

Queen Elizabeth II opened Scotland’s first Parliament in nearly 300 years in what nationalists declared a warm-up for full independence. Britain’s Labor Party government hopes its diluting of power from London will preserve Scotland’s long union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland and head off nationalist demands. But the opening in Edinburgh also underlined the risk that the United Kingdom will break apart. “As a rehearsal for independence day this is fantastic,” said Margo MacDonald of the Scottish National Party, the second-largest group behind Labor in the 129-member regional Parliament. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in Northern Ireland battling to get Protestants and Roman Catholics to form a local government, missed the opening ceremony.