YESTERDAY morning, for about an hour, nearly 1,400 men, women and children queued patiently in the glorious Edinburgh sunshine waiting to get into the capital’s vast conference centre.
By the time The National had arrived, the line stretched down Morrison Street all the way round onto Lothian Road.
Every single person waiting was here for the launch of the SNP’s manifesto.
Most were activists, some were candidates. There were even a couple of cabinet ministers all waiting their turn. It was a grand levelling of the party.
The event started late. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when you consider organisers had around 1,400 people all trying to squeeze in. But the atmosphere was great.
They cheered John Swinney like a rock star. One man yee-ha’d when Nicola Sturgeon talked of taking the fight to the Tories.
After Sturgeon had finished her speech, there was a moment when the crowd, mid-standing ovation, spontaneously stopped clapping and held their newly printed manifestos high in the air. Those of us who were looking on were left with the slightly surreal sight of Sturgeon standing in a silent room on the middle of a stage surrounded by lots of pictures of her face. But the party are big on Nicola Sturgeon’s face. And on Nicola Sturgeon.
There she was on the front of their manifesto. And in the manifesto. In fact, 31 photos of Sturgeon grace the manifesto. She was on the rubber bracelets given to everyone who walked into the event as well.
There was some sniping that such presentation was more presidential than we’re used to, but that’s nonsense. It’s no more or less presidential than Cameron, Blair and Salmond, or even Major and Thatcher.
The SNP’s leader is clearly a huge asset. A political anomaly in many ways, she has been in government for nine years – one-and-a-half as First Minister – and yet, as she seeks a third term for her party, Sturgeon has popularity ratings so high that it’s almost embarrassing to mention them (Sturgeon +30 compared to Ruth Davidson + two, Kezia Dugdale -20 and David Cameron on -44).
The SNP have achieved that most remarkable thing, they have renewed themselves in the eyes of the voters and renewed themselves in government. They are going into this election seen not as the incumbent, but as the insurgent.
Sturgeon has managed to do what Gordon Brown failed to when he took over from Tony Blair.
There has been no squandering of good will here. And as much as the other parties may sneer at Sturgeon’s profile, they would love their leader to have half her approval ratings.
But it’s not just because of Sturgeon. You could say an SNP victory will be on the back of an exceptionally weak opposition, but even that’s not enough.
Last year, Angus Robertson claimed the SNP were the most “effective campaigning political organisation in the UK”.
And one of the reasons for the effectiveness is the sheer number of activists willing to go out and knock on doors.
People don’t knock on doors just for a popular leader, or just because they worry a weak opposition might get in.
They knock on doors, cold-call strangers and spend hours leafleting streets because they believe in what they’re selling.
Yesterday, Sturgeon gave them a manifesto they could believe in. There was little new here. Most of the big policies, the baby boxes, additional childcare and more money for the NHS, had been trailed in advance. What the crowd was waiting for was what it would say about independence.
There was, not unsurprisingly, little advance on what Sturgeon has said before. But it was explicit. There in black and white.
The next referendum will happen when she knows it can be won.
To lose one referendum may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.
Sturgeon: We will build enough support to win a second referendum
How did the other parties react to the manifesto?
Analysis: Sturgeon, the SNP’s biggest-ever asset, presented a manifesto her party could believe in
The National View: When will the next indyref be? When we know we’ll win
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