SNP keeping an eye on the prize

Alex Salmond will address the SNP's last annual conference before the 2011 Holyrood election

The past few years in Scottish politics have been pretty exciting.

In contrast to previous devolved administrations, a party in minority government for the first time has been forced to fight for every policy and make concession after concession before anything makes it into law.

On the other hand, the global economic events of the past few years have shown the limited powers of the Scottish Parliament.
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SNP conference 2010

• Swinney warning on pay restraint
• SNP to cut NHS management by 25%
• Scotland 'can't afford the Union'
• SNP offers two-year tax freeze

With massive spending cuts on the way, the Holyrood government will have to make do with what it gets from the UK Treasury. These are the two big issues facing the SNP, as it holds its final annual conference before next May's Holyrood election.

But, rather than seeing them as a problem, the party is determined to make them its platform for winning a second term in power.

Hot on their heels is a Labour party that, while out of power at Westminster, is the largest party in Scotland, in terms of its number of MPs and MSPs.
All eyes will once again will be on Westminster next week, as the chancellor announces the spending review. Deep cuts to the Scottish budget, still funded through the Treasury block grant, are on the way

The SNP is basing its campaign strategy on its record in government - the achievements the party lists includes cutting NHS waiting times to a "record low", building or refurbishing more than 300 schools, putting more than 1,000 extra police on our streets - resulting, it says, in crime rates falling to a 30-year low - and freezing council tax.

The Nationalists also argue they have spoken up for Scotland as never before and offer a real alternative to the "London-based parties". But a campaign based on the SNP's record in government are exactly what its opponents are hoping for.

Labour, the Lib Dems, the Tories, and others have focussed on the SNP's dropped manifesto pledges - included in that list is the local income tax, cutting class sizes for P1 to P3 pupils to 18 and, most controversially, the independence referendum bill.

Other policies, such as minimum alcohol pricing are heading for defeat at Holyrood, and, in this seeming age of austerity, the affordability of universal benefits such as abolishing prescription charges and the student graduate endowment are being questioned.