SNP conference: 'Salmond has set the party a new challenge'

THE Scottish Nationalists were in understandably buoyant mood at their spring conference at the weekend. And there was no sign of the restraint some commentators had predicted.

Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie was nearer the mark when she forecast a "lovefest". Activists whooped and cheered First Minister Alex Salmond as he took to the stage at Heriot-Watt University's Riccarton campus and applauded him loudly throughout his speech.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was given a similar reception on Saturday. And there was a special session set aside yesterday morning to rehearse the party's achievements in the 12 months since it won power in last May's Scottish Parliament elections.

But as well as the triumphalism and self-congratulation, Mr Salmond set the SNP a new challenge – winning 20 seats for the party at the next Westminster general election, which must be held sometime in the next two years.

It is a tall order. The Nationalists currently have six MPs at Westminster; the most they have ever had before was their "football team" of 11 back in 1974. And with Scotland's representation at Westminster now reduced to 59, he's talking about the SNP winning more than a third of the constituencies.

But Mr Salmond and his colleagues can justly point out very few people outside the party took him seriously when he said they were going to win 20 seats at last year's Holyrood elections, yet that is exactly what they did.

The dynamics of a Westminster election are different and the SNP does not normally poll as well as at a Holyrood election.

But last year's dramatic results may reflect a deep-seated alteration in voting behaviour that will change all that.If the Scottish Labour bubble has burst, many voters will see the SNP as the natural alternative rather than the Tories or Liberal Democrats.

The other parties will dismiss SNP prospects at Westminster, saying general elections are to choose a government for the whole of the UK and that means Labour or the Tories.

But Mr Salmond held out the prospect of a hung parliament in which the SNP could hold the balance of power and make Westminster "dance to a Scottish jig".

With Labour's currently troubled tenure at Westminster and the party here still in a mess, Mr Salmond's ambitious target should concentrate minds. And it would be a brave person who bet against him achieving it.