THE Scottish National Party, which led the battle against the poll tax

on people, yesterday backed demands for a poll tax on deer.

In an attack on estate landowners, the conference heard a call for the

Land Commission to set a quota for each estate with any excess deer

''charged a deer poll tax.''

Mr Charles Douglas, of Glenkens branch, said there were only two ways

of making estate owners do anything -- either bribe them

or punish them financially.

He said: ''I believe you have to take a tough line with them. I am fed

up with handouts going to landowners to do something they should be

doing anyway.''

He called for the deer poll tax to be set around #1000 a deer,

claiming that the benefit of this system over the human poll tax was

that it would be levied on people who could afford it.

He added: ''I would gladly see them bankrupted or the estates closed

down if they failed to pay up.''

Dr Malcolm Kerr, Isle of Arran, said: ''People who wear tweeds and

carry guns are parasites.''