INDEPENDENCE is so last year. Nothing short of world domination will satisfy the SNP now and, as everyone knows, for that you need an awe-inspiring, hollowed-out mountain lair. "This fits the bill nicely," evil genius SNP chief executive Peter Murrell must have said to himself when he scouted the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena as a possible venue for his party's manifesto launch. "We'll put the laser beams, I mean the podium, over there."
EICA, constructed around an old quarry near Ratho just outside Edinburgh, was indeed an inspired choice, providing a dramatic rock amphitheatre around the stage and its huge yellow "Stronger for Scotland" backdrop and, importantly, space enough for hundreds of party activists. They were pouring into the car park two hours before Nicola Sturgeon was due to speak. Those naive enough to arrive on time had to abandon their cars on the narrow road leading into the centre and run for it, such were the queues.
Inside, the mood was one of high excitement and slight disbelief. Some party stalwarts recalled their last Westminster manifesto launch, in a cramped upstairs room in central Glasgow. A small-ish band of candidates and regular conference faces turned up to witness the start of another lacklustre Westminster campaign in which their party again struggled to make itself relevant. What a difference five years has made. The SNP, on course to win 50 or more seats, expects to hold sway in the next UK parliament and its manifesto, when the odd, hybrid booklet-within-a-booklet, finally appeared, dealt almost exclusively with reserved, rather than devolved issues.
Ms Sturgeon's entrance was as dramatic as the setting. As deputy leader Stewart Hosie attempted to introduce her, she was spotted walking down the steps at the opposite end of the arena. The crowd turned as one, jumped to its feet and whooped and roared in delight. Mr Hosie cut his losses. Several more ovations for Ms Sturgeon followed, before she could utter her opening words. "Nicola rules!" shouted someone when she finished.
The launch will doubtless have looked big, exciting, slick and fresh on television. As she has in the live election debates, Ms Sturgeon will again have impressed viewers across the UK. A villain holding the world to ransom? We come in peace, was her message.
There was one sinister squeak, however. Before taking questions from journalists, which she did at length, she pleaded nervously with party members not to heckle. "They are doing a legitimate job," she implored. "So if you don't like the questions they ask, they have a right to ask those questions and we have a responsibility to answer those questions." They shouldn't need to have been tellt.
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