THE Tories yesterday un-veiled their election manifesto for a ''continuing revolution'' north of the Border, but their supposedly distinctive Scottish programme appeared similar to the pledges they fought on five years ago.

Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth said the manifesto was ''brimming with ideas'' and called it ''the practical expression of our ideals, aimed at further enriching the Scottish people in the expansion of choice and the enlargement of opportunity''.

He spoke of the ''grave and urgent danger'' of rule from Edinburgh or Brussels and warned: ''The tartan tax, the Social Chapter, the minimum wage, the abolition of the unified business rate - these are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse that could bring desolation to Scotland, the leading enterprise economy of Europe.''

However, Labour dubbed the manifesto ''Forsyth's final farewell - a desperate, dishonest and dangerous document'', and their campaign co-ordinator Henry McLeish said: ''Never mind Forsyth's four horsemen of the Apocalypse. The biggest devastation for the Scottish people would be the nightmare of a fifth Tory term.''

SNP leader Alex Salmond called the manifesto ''an anti-Scottish document wrapped in a tartan ribbon'', adding: ''The Tory manifesto offers neither enterprise nor compassion, which is why it will be massively rejected by the Scottish people on May 1.''

Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown said during a visit to Edinburgh the document was remarkable more for what it did not say than what it did. ''I am amazed they think there are more than a tiny handful of people in Scotland who can be fooled again.

''It is neither an affirmation of achievement nor of hope for the future. It is an attempt to frighten people, more of a horror comic really, than a manifesto.''

In its opposition to devolution, to closer European links, to the Social Chapter and to the minimum wage, the manifesto was mainly important for what it was against, but Mr Forsyth claimed that it was also ''brimming with new ideas''.

However, their main fiscal promise - ''To aim to achieve our target of a 20p basic income tax rate over the next parliament'' - sounded very like their pledge of five years ago: ''We will make further progress towards a basic income tax rate of 20p.''

And in spite of Mr Forsyth's claim that this was the first separate and distinctively Scottish manifesto, it looked little different from the one produced five years ago, except that the party logo peppered through it has changed and the paper has become glossier.

The most controversial areas were mainly in trademark Tory areas, where they plan to press on further with more of the same - privatisation, education, and criminal justice. Labour reacted angrily to the plan to sell off Parcelforce and to consider privatisation of the Royal Mail, while in education the extension of vouchers to training colleges and the expansion of the assisted places scheme will become a battleground in the weeks ahead.

Once again, on law and order Mr Forsyth was determined to show the Tories as tougher on crime than any other party, reinstating clauses on longer sentences and electronic tagging lost in the final days of the last parliament.

Building more prisons privately, introducing voluntary identity cards, and threatening lawyers who waste court time with financial penalties are all measures designed to put clear blue water between the Tories and other parties. ''Our principle is to make the punishment fit the crime and our streets safer for the citizen,'' said Mr Forsyth.

In spite of the party's recent record on sleaze, the manifesto included as expected the ''family values'' bonus of tax breaks for married couples where one spouse stays at home to look after children or a relative requiring care. A new deal on private old age pensions into the next century was also in the manifesto, as already indicated.

The Tories also pledged no increase in the top rate of tax, and they will lower inheritance tax and capital gains tax ''as prudent''. As was the case five years ago, there is a Eurosceptic edge to the manifesto, with reform of the Common Agricultural Policy promised once more, but on fishing, five years ago the Tories promised the right to sell quotas - now they promise an end to quota-hopping.

Mr Forsyth said: ''This manifesto, like this election, presents a stark contrast between our continuing revolution to liberate the people of Scotland from state control, regulation, and bureaucracy and the bogus prospectus of the Labour Party, flying under false colours and attempting to disown everything they recently proclaimed.

''The issues are grave and urgent. We are in danger of losing our national identity and sovereignty to a federalist Europe and of destroying our prosperity at the hands of a Scottish tax-raising parliament.''