A Dollar man accused of racism for singing “English Tories Go Home” outside a Scottish Conservative Party conference has walked free from court.

Alan Smart (54), a former head of broadcasting at the Scottish Parliament and once head of Current Affairs at STV, was arrested outside the conference at Stirling’s Albert Halls on 7 June 2013, the day David Cameron was attending.

Smart, who writes and sings under the name Citizen Smart, was recorded singing the lyric, “Go on home English Tories go on Home, Have no got a home of your own?”, to the tune of Irish rebel song Go On Home British Soldiers outside the conference gates, standing behind a banner which read “Stirling’s campaign against the bedroom tax”.

With the help of around 12 fellow protesters and an amplifier, Mr Smart went on, “For 300 years, we’ve fought you without fear. And we’ll fight you for 300 more.” Smart, of Bridge Street, was arrested and charged with acting in a racially aggravated manner which caused or was intended to cause alarm and distress to Mark McIlfatrick, a Scottish Conservative Party member, and Christabel Wandless, a Stirling Council official, and others attending the conference by repeatedly uttering and singing racial remarks and encouraging others to do the same.

On Monday (17 March) at Stirling Sheriff Court, Sheriff Wyllie Robertson found that he had no case to answer.

He told him, “I’m satisfied that in law there is no case to answer. We’ve lost the art of drawing the line, it seems to me. You’re acquitted.” The court heard how the song was sung numerous times over a 30 minute period, causing two people attending the conference to speak to the police.

One of them, Mrs Wandless (5)0, an operations officers for Stirling Council, who was working at the event for the authority, told the court, “It was uncomfortable. I’m English, I have lived in Scotland for 13 years.

“I have no problem with political opinions but I felt uncomfortable as a song like this makes it feel as though this is somewhere English people shouldn’t be.” And Mr McIlfatrick, an oil company executive attending the conference as a member, said in evidence, “The song was telling English Tories to go back to England. If you used any other race, say telling Polish to go back to Poland, or Indians go back to India, then you can’t make those comments and this is also unacceptable.

“It is a racist comment.” Submitting there was no case to answer, Smart’s solicitor, human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, said the prosecution had failed to establish that anyone had been alarmed or distressed.

He said: “In certain circumstances, referring to someone as English could be racially motivated, but it is not the case here. The wording is clearly aimed at the Conservative Party - a party with a historical base in England and one MP in Scotland.

“The song refers to that. It was a song of political protest.” As he left court with his supporters, Mr Smart said, “If the police had just asked me to stop I would have done, if they had told me it had made people feel uncomfortable I would have stopped, I wouldn’t want to do that - making that woman feel uncomfortable is my only regret.

“My two children are half-English.

“A few of the Tories who came out and heard us, and they weren’t offended. I think they even liked it as it was different to them being shouted at.

“In my opinion this was all about Stirling police. This was their big day with the Prime Minister up. They had all these controls in place and we turned up and did something they didn’t expect.

“Any good force would have come over and had a word, but they wanted to be seen to be doing something and they arrested me 10 minutes before the conference was about to break, even though I had been there all morning.

“I don’t know whose interests they were protecting.” Mr Anwar added, “That was a dangerous precedent the Crown were trying to set. As a country we are in the middle of a heated referendum debate and Mr Smart was being prosecuted for singing what was factually correct.

“What effect would that have on free speech in a democracy?

“What would be next, arresting people for singing Flower of Scotland?

A question is why has it got to this stage and at what cost to the taxpayer? Again and again these cases are being brought by the crown.

“In an interview Nick Robinson asked David Cameron if he should go home during his recent trip to Scotland - will we be prosecuting him?”