EDINBURGH (CWNews.com) - The Scottish executives plans to repeal Section 28 has turned nasty with members of the Liberal Democrat Party making personal attacks on Cardinal Thomas Winning of Glasgow and businessman Brian Souter who is bankrolling the campaign to keep the legislation.

    The clause which prohibits the promotion of homosexuality in schools is to be abolished under Scottish Executive proposals. At the Liberal Democrats' spring conference in Dundee this weekend, delegates condemned the tactics used by Keep the Clause campaigners as importing the worst excesses of American politics.

    The highly-charged debate also heard Cardinal Winning being called a bigot.

    The party's former chief executive, Andy Myles, told the conference: I deeply regret that a leader of one of our churches has used a position of immense authority to pedal intolerance. If gay men and lesbians are going to be accused in absolute terms of being perverts the person stating that opinion is a bigot.

    A spokesman for Cardinal Winning, told today's Daily Telegraph: We have reached a new low when church leaders are attacked for accurately presenting the official teaching of their church.

    He continued: One would have thought that a party which claims to value toleration would have been a little more tolerant of the views of others. In addition, it should be remembered on the whole question of Section 28 Cardinal Winning speaks for a far larger part of the population than the Liberal Democrats.