 | 'Yesterday a YouGov survey of 1607 Scottish adults, comissioned by the SNP,found 46 % supporting independence, with 39 % opposed.The survey also suggested the SNP werehalf-way towards their goal of gaining an extra 20 constituency seats at Holyrood next year.' Bridget Morris in the Herald, 9 th April 2006. |  |
SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon told members at the party's spring conference they had 390 days to prove they are ready to govern after next year's Scottish elections.
Sturgeon made the rallying speech at the SNP's two-day spring conference in Dundee. The meeting is focusing on the Nationalists' campaign to become the biggest party at Holyrood in the May 2007 Scottish parliament elections.
Yesterday a YouGov survey of 1607 Scottish adults, comissioned by the SNP,found 46 % supporting independence, with 39 % opposed.The survey also suggested the SNP werehalf-way towards their goal of gaining an extra 20 constituency seats at Holyrood next year.
However, the Gordon constituency, which Alex Salmond must win from the LibDems in order to return to Holyrood from Westminster, is not yet guaranteed.
Sturgeon, who leads the party in the Scottish parliament, used her speech to attack Tony Blair over the alleged cash-for-peerages controversy and First Minister Jack McConnell for his 'silence' over Scotland's bird flu scare.
'People are scunnered with Labour,' she said.
Sturgeon paid tribute to Margaret Ewing , who died last month following a long illness, saying the SNP oved it to her and 'other great Nationalists' who had passed away to fulfill their dream of independence.
'Fellow Nationalists, the opportunity to do just that lies 390 days from today,' Sturgeon added.
'On the 3 rd of May 2007 the people of Scotland will choose a new government.For every one of those 390 days our job - your job and my job - is to persuade the Scottish people that weare fit to be, ready to be, hungry to be that new government.
The YouGov survey, published last weekend, found 29 % of the 949 people who definitely intended to vote in next May's Holyrood elections backing the Nationalists in their local constituency contest. This represents qn increqse of five percentage points from 2003 and compares to 30 % supporting Labour, down from 35 % three years ago.
Support for the LibDems in first-past-the-post contests was up from 15 % to 19 %, while the Tories slipped from 17 % to 13 %.
The SNP said the findings would gain them nine first-past-the-post seats from Labour - Dundee West, Cumbernauld, Kilmarnock, Western Isles, Glasgow Govan, Aberdeen Central, Linlithgow, Renfrewshire West and Paisley South - and the Galloway and Upper Nithsdale constituency from the Tories.
Support from former SSP voters could bring the Nationalists three more constituency seats, the party claimed. Alex Salmond conceded the party have morework to do,but would be 'more popular' by next year.
A Scottish Labour spokesman dismissed theSNP as a 'one-trick poney ld by a one man band'.
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