SNP not just a vote for protest, says leader

The Scottish Nationalist leader John Swinney said yesterday that the SNP was no longer a party of protest but one capable of taking power to "release the potential" of an independent Scotland.

In a 40-minute speech full of promises and warnings, Mr Swinney told delegates at the party's annual conference in Inverness that he did not want votes from people looking to register a protest against other parties but from people prepared to support the idea of Scotland thriving independently.

"Our new approach will be to present independence not as a land of milk and honey but as a land of opportunity to compete, an opportunity ... to release our potential as talented and innovative people ... to wave goodbye forever to those who stamp down on Scotland's ambitions," he said amid rousing applause from the party faithful.

Throughout the conference, delegates have been bombarded with the message that to win next year's Holyrood elections the SNP will have to show it can do better than the Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition now in power.

Mr Swinney told delegates that an SNP government would put a halt to the use of private cash in public services, phase out nuclear power stations, provide better pay for nurses, put more police on the streets and provide a passport out of poverty for the one in three Scottish children who need it.

These promises would be paid for by Scotland retaining the tax it sends to Westminster and keeping hold of North Sea oil revenues, he said.