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Scottish leader promises historic prize: independence

Alex Salmond is a man with a historic prize in his sights. Within 100 days of his party taking power after the Scottish elections in May, the nationalists would seek control of North Sea oil, introduce a sovereign civil service, and pave the way to total independence from the rest of the UK.

Salmond told a rally in Glasgow on Sunday that the Scottish National Party (SNP) was on the brink of winning a historic victory on May 3, claiming that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had brought Scotland to the brink of independence by forcing through an unpopular war in Iraq, the replacement of Trident and a decade of "London-run" government.

"We're on our way in ... our time is coming ... we are the future now," he said.

Blair had followed Margaret Thatcher in proving why Scotland needed home rule, he added.

"Tony Blair has taught us the lessons of why we need independence -- to have responsibility for the big decisions on the economy, for the environment, against war and to stop weapons of mass destruction being deployed in Scotland. Scotland needs real powers. We need independence," he said.

The SNP had opened its pre-election conference on Saturday with two headline-grabbing coups.

It received the personal endorsement from one of Scotland's most successful corporate executives, Sir George Mathewson, who retired as chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland last year after building it into the world's fifth-largest banking group. It also received the largest donation ever given to a Scottish party, from Brian Souter, the multimillionaire founder of the Stagecoach bus and rail firm, who pledged ?500,000 (US$971,000).

These coups follow opinion polls which suggest Labour is facing a humiliating defeat on May 3 at the hands of the SNP, overturning nearly five decades of dominance of Scottish politics just as Gordon Brown is expected to become prime minister, and bringing to power a party which wants to make Scotland independent after 300 years of union with England.

The SNP is convinced it will win thanks to a collision of events, from the Iraq war to "cash for honors" and Trident, combined with a surge in personal popularity for Salmond and a wider weariness with Labour after 10 years in power. In political terms this is a "perfect storm."

The SNP's success in converting disillusion into support has been in part due to an unprecedented telephone campaign which profiles every constituency and voter in the country. It has recruited more than 500 party activists as part-time canvassers, working in parallel with four call centers which employ 70 full-time operators. By early this month they had contacted 500,000 voters.

The SNP has focused on single issue campaigning to build "national communities" of supporters, including erasing student debt, wiping out business rates for small firms, a 25 percent higher "citizen" pension, and a pledge to stop hospital A&E departments closing.

Salmond said he would start work on many of those policies within 100 days of taking power.
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