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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

SNP conference - Nicola Sturgeon's speech: Politics Live blog

Nicola Sturgeon, the new SNP leader, speaking at the SNP conference in Perth yesterday
Nicola Sturgeon, the new SNP leader, speaking at the SNP conference in Perth yesterday Photograph: Ken Jack/Ken Jack/Demotix/Corbis

UPDATE: Here is a comment from a spokesman for the Scottish Labour party on the speech.

We are pleased that Nicola Sturgeon has finally recognised that her government needs to take action now on improving childcare, protecting the NHS and introducing a living wage. It’s just a shame that for the last three years her government said this wasn’t possible without independence.

Nicola Sturgeon claims she doesn’t want a Tory government. What this makes clear is that if you want a Labour government and Labour policies like an energy price freeze, increased minimum wage and making sure the most well off pay their fair share with a 50p tax rate then you have to vote Labour. Every vote for the SNP is a vote to help elect David Cameron.

Afternoon summary

  • Nicola Sturgeon has wrapped up a remarkably confident and energised SNP conference with speech urging all Scots - whether they normally support the party or not - to unite behind the party in 2015 to ensure that a large contingent of SNP MPs can force Westminster to deliver on its promise of extra powers to Edinburgh. At the end of two days which have seen SNP figures attack Labour relentlessly, Sturgeon said Labour had “lost its soul” and could no longer represent the party. See 4.07pm.
  • Sturgeon suggested the SNP would only support a minority Labour government if it agreed to remove Trident nuclear weapons from Scotland. (See 3.32pm.)
  • She said that if the SNP won the next Scottish parliament elections in 2016, it would ensure all three and four-year-olds, and some two-year-olds, received 30 hours of free childcare. This echoes a pledge in the Scottish government’s independence white paper.
  • She said she had struck a deal with the Scottish government’s cleaning contractor to ensure all Scottish government cleaners get the living wage by the end of the year. This will affect 117 staff.
  • She said the SNP would increase NHS spending in real terms every year if it won the 2016 election.
  • She said land reform would be a key part of the programme for government she would announce in a fortnight’s time.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Here is some Twitter comment on the speech from journalists.

Sturgeon's speech - My snap verdict

Sturgeon’s speech - Snap verdict: It wasn’t a speech with great rhetorical flourishes, and Nicola Sturgeon will never match Alex Salmond for jokes, but it was a solid, serious, statesmanlike (stateswomanlike?) speech that confirms (as if it needed confirmation) that the SNP leadership is safe hands. What was particularly impressive was that Sturgeon was able to pay a very generous tribute to Salmond without in any way seeming overshadowed by him. She talked about the importance of business, but this sounded a bit tokenist compared to the more leftish meat in the speech, the living wage announcement (see 3.41pm) and what was to me the most surprising passage, the one where she suggested that getting rid of Trident from Scotland would be a condition for the SNP supporting a minority Labour government (see 3.32pm.) At this stage it is hard to tell whether this is just an opening bid in a possible negotiation, or a firm condition. If it’s the latter, then Ed Miliband’s prospects of becoming prime minister have probably suffered a setback, because it is very hard to imagine Labour agreeing.

Overall, though, the big message was probably more important than the policy detail, and it was this: Sturgeon is setting herself up as a national leader, above party, urging people to “lend” the SNP their votes in 2015 to ensure Scotland gets a good deal from Westminster.

To those who have never before voted SNP in a Westminster election, as well as to those who always do

I speak to everyone across our land who wants to see the promise of a powerhouse Scottish Parliament delivered.

Let us come together, this time, as one Scotland.

Lend us - Scotland’s Party - your support.

Vote SNP and the message we will carry to Westminster on your behalf is this.

Scotland’s interests will not be sidelined. Not now, not ever.

It was a compelling line.

Updated

Scotland is better because of the referendum campaign, she says.

We are better too because of the referendum campaign.

Our country is alive, engaged, restless for the next stage of our journey.

1.6 million Yes votes for independence is an achievement our forebears could only dream of.

But it becomes our base camp and from here the summit is in sight.

The challenge is great, but our determination is even greater.

Because the prize is prosperity, equality, opportunity.

The prize is independence.

Friends,

I am ready to lead us on that journey.

I ask you to come with me and, together, let us make it happen.

And that’s it. Sturgeon is now getting an ovation.

But it will be up to the SNP to persuade Scots to vote for independence, she says.

Whatever our opponents do, it will always be down to us to persuade our fellow citizens to take the next step forward and grasp the opportunity of independence.

Sturgeon says she is convinced Scotland will become independent.

Of course, with the UK hurtling head long for the EU exit door, with the Unionist parties watering down their vow of more powers, with deeper austerity cuts and new Trident weapons looming on the horizon, it may be that our opponents bring that day closer than we could ever have imagined on the morning of the 19th September.

Sturgeon says the NHS will be a daily priority for the Scottish government.

The revenue budget of our NHS is set to rise in real terms for the remainder of this parliament.

If I am re-elected as First Minister in 2016, I pledge today that it will rise in real terms for each and every year of the next parliament too.

  • Sturgeon says the SNP would increase NHS spending in real terms after 2016.

Sturgeon says there are few things she holds more dear than the NHS.

In the referendum campaign, we pointed to the financial risks to our NHS that come from privatisation in England.

Make no mistake, these risks remain.

But, conference, hear this -

We will always do everything in our power to protect our public National Health Service.

Sturgeon commits the SNP to extending childcare

Sturgeon says she grew up in a working class family and was the first person in her family to go to university.

Not everyone can become first minister. At least, not for a while, she jokes.

But she wants to extend opportunity.

The work we are doing as a government on early intervention is ground breaking.

Our Early Years’ Collaborative, the Family Nurse Partnership - these all make a real difference to the life chances of our children.

And so does quality childcare.

I was struck this week to hear the CBI call for a significant extension of free childcare ...

We already deliver 16 hours a week of free childcare for all 3 and 4 years old.

From August next year, that entitlement will extend to 27% of 2 year olds as well.

Conference,

That is more hours of childcare than in any other part of the UK and we should be proud of that.

But so important is good quality, extensive childcare to the school performance and life chances of young people, that we will go further still.

I pledge today that our 2016 manifesto will set out an ambitious plan to increase childcare provision.

By the end of the next parliament, my commitment is that all 3 and 4 year olds and all eligible 2 years olds will receive, not 16 hours, but 30 hours of free childcare each week.

Sturgeon says she will become first minister in four days’ time.

I am four days away from becoming the First Minister of our country.

Four days away from becoming the first woman to hold that office.

Now, I know Scotland doesn’t have the fondest memories of the last woman leader to wield power in these islands.

But where Mrs Thatcher divided society, I want to do the opposite.

Sturgeon says people in work should not struggle to make ends meet at the end of the week.

Low pay, especially for women, needs to be addressed, she says.

The Scottish government pays all its staff the living wage.

But today she an announce that the Scottish government has struck a deal with its cleaning contractor. Their 11 staff paid below the living wage will be on the living wage by the end of the year.

And in future, although we cannot mandate it in law, each and every new Scottish Government contract will have payment of the living wage as a central priority.

Friends,

I intend that Scotland will become a champion of the living wage and set a strong example for others to follow.

Updated

Sturgeons says tackling poverty will be her mission

But a strong economy relies on having a well-paid workforce, she says.

A strong economy depends on a having a healthy, happy, well-educated and well-paid population, to provide the workforce and the customers that businesses need to succeed.

Right now, 1 million of our citizens - 220,000 of our children - are living in poverty.

In the 14th richest country in the world, that is quite frankly a scandal.

So let me promise you this.

Tackling poverty and inequality - and improving opportunity for all - will be my personal mission as your First Minister.

Sturgeon says a strong economy is vital

Sturgeon says a strong economy is vital.

Scotland must always be an environment where ideas flourish, businesses locate and jobs are created.

Because then and only then do we have the tools to do what should matter to all of us - and that is to eradicate the poverty that scars the lives of too many of our fellow citizens.

And she confirms the plan, announced overnight, to continue the £165m small business bonus.

Sturgeon describes her programme for government

Sturgeon says he will set out a programme for goverment in two weeks’ time.

At its heart will be radical action on land reform, empowering communities, raising attainment in our schools and tackling some of the deep injustices in our society, like domestic abuse and gender inequality.

Conference,

Labour may have abandoned social justice.

But in the SNP, the people of Scotland will always know they have a party of true social democracy.

Updated

Sturgeon says the SNP has always been the party of constitutional progress.

But she wants it to be “the party of economic and social progress as well”.

In the 20th century, that progressive spirit was the province of a radically reforming Labour Party.

Those days are gone.

The referendum put beyond any doubt that, for Labour, the trappings of Westminster power are far more important than the pursuit of a fairer Scotland.

If there had been any doubt at all, the alliance with the Tories in the No campaign removed it once and for all.

Labour has lost its soul.

Linking arms with the Tories will cost Labour dear - this year, next year and for many, many years to come.

Sturgeon says, if there is a hung parliament, the SNP will never, ever put the Tories into government.

But she raises the prospect of the SNP using its negotiating power to get concessions from Labour.

Think about how much more we could win for Scotland from a Westminster Labour government if they had to depend on SNP votes.

They’d have to deliver real powers for our parliament.

They’d have to rethink the endless austerity that impoverishes our children.

And, conference, hear me loud and clear when I say this

They’d have to think again about putting a new generation of Trident nuclear weapons on the River Clyde.

  • Sturgeon says the SNP could make removing Trident from Scotland the price of supporting a minority Labour government.

Sturgeon says voting Labour is pointless

Sturgeon says there is no point voting Labour.

Labour was once the party of progress.

Now it is just a barrier to progress.

Next May, we’ve got the chance to clear the Labour roadblock out of the way.

For Scotland’s sake, let us grab that opportunity with both hands.

Friends,

Scotland’s patience with Labour - or the ‘dinosaurs’ as Johann Lamont affectionately calls them - is running out fast and they know it.

They’ve got no positive case to make, so they will fall back on the same desperate mantra as before.

You’ve got to vote Labour, they’ll say, to keep the Tories out.

That is the biggest con-trick in Scottish politics and we must not fall for it again.

Sturgeon says she is addressing non-SNP supporters too. All Scotland should unite to ensure Scotland gets its new powers.

I speak to everyone across our land who wants to see the promise of a powerhouse Scottish Parliament delivered.

Let us come together, this time, as one Scotland.

Lend us - Scotland’s Party - your support.

Vote SNP and the message we will carry to Westminster on your behalf is this.

Scotland’s interests will not be sidelined. Not now, not ever.

Sturgeon says the test of his is the general election. If Scotland votes for the Westminster parties, they will revert to business as usual and deny Scotland the new powers they promised.

It was the power of our votes that forced them to make that vow.

And it is only the power of our votes that will force them to keep it.

So let us harness again the democratic power of the referendum ...

The democratic power that is turning opinion polls upside down and sending tremors through the London establishment.

Friends,

Let us turn those tremors into a shockwave and make Scotland’s voice heard like never before.

Sturgeon says Scotland has been revitalised. The SNP will not let Westminster drag it back to business as usual.

The only language Westminster really understands is that of power.

So let them hear this message from all around our country.

Power over Scotland no longer rests in the corridors of Westminster.

In Scotland, today, power rests with the Scottish people - and that is where it will stay.

The SNP has more members than the UK Lib Dems and Ukip combined.

So to include those parties in TV General Election debates while excluding the SNP would be a democratic outrage.

So broadcasters, it’s time for you to think again.

And as you do, make no mistake.

In this election, the SNP will be seen and Scotland’s voice will be heard.

She says almost one adult in 50 in Scotland is a member of the SNP.

We reflect Scotland in all its glorious diversity.

We are part of the very weave and fabric of our land.

Friends,

Be in no doubt -

We are Scotland’s Party.

Okay, now I’ve finished with him, she jokes.

She says she is here to tell the SNP their best days are yet to come.

Sturgeon is still praising Salmond.

Alex Salmond has set the bar high for all those who follow, whether as leader of our party, or First Minister of our country.

He has been a constant support, friend and mentor to me.

As I prepare to succeed him, I know I could not have had a better teacher.

He is a hero of our movement.

And a champion of our nation.

Please join with me in thanking him for everything he has done.

Sturgeon's tribute to Salmond

Sturgeon says Salmond has done more than anyone to make the SNP the force it is.

When Alex first entered politics, the SNP had a mere handful of MPs. We were on the fringes of Westminster politics.

It was all he could do to get us noticed – though it’s fair to say he did it very well.

From the beginning, he was a thorn in the side of the Westminster establishment, speaking up for Scotland and standing up for what was right.

How they must be shaking in their shoes at the very idea of having him back - if he decides to go back. [This gets a laugh. I think we know now that he will.]

Alex played a vital role in securing our Parliament and when he returned as leader of our party, he did so with the single-minded aim of becoming Scotland’s First Minister.

And what an outstanding First Minister he has been.

She welcomes new recruits to the SNP family, and invites people watching to join.

Sturgeon says she joined the SNP at 16. Standing here as leader is the proudest moment of her life.

Know that I am humbled by your faith in me and inspired by your confidence in each other and in the people of this great country of ours.

The morning of 19 September was a moment of heartbreak.

The prize, the precious prize of independence, of a fairer, more prosperous Scotland, had been within touching distance.

And it slipped through our grasp.

I wish, so much, that we were gathered here today celebrating independence, but that wasn’t to be.

Our cause therefore remains un-won.

But, friends, know this - it will be won.

Nicola Sturgeon's speech

Nicola Sturgeon starts by saying it’s traditional for the deputy leader to tell embarrassing stories about the leader when introducing them.

But she has a message for Stewart Hosie, she says. “Your wife is one of my best pals. So I will probably always have the upper hand.”

Hosie says he first met Sturgeon around the time of the Govan byelection, more than 25 years ago.

He introduces her.

Stewart Hosie, the new deputy leader, is taking the podium to introduce Nicola Sturgeon.

Alyn Smith MEP moves a topical motion on an EU referendum. He says he thinks a referendum is inevitable. SNP MPs will try to amend any legislation to ensure that all nations in the UK would have to support a decision to leave the EU, he says.

A delegate asks for the motion to be amended to mention the five nations of the UK, not the four nations of the UK. That’s because Cornwall is a nation, he says.

Kirsty MacAlpine has just moved another topic motion, condemning homophobic bullying.

Alan Roden, the Scottish Daily Mail political editor, has responded to Angus Robertson’s speech mentioning the bedroom tax (see 2.16pm) but retweeting this.

Marco Biagio MSP says that originally when the Scottish parliament first debated votes at 16, people were nervous about it. But when they debated it again after the referendum, people acted as if they could not see what the fuss was about.

Speaking to audiences of teenagers was fantastic because they would ask anything, he says.

And research shows teenagers did not just vote as their parents voted. But who thought teenagers would follow their parents.

The SNP is the party that trusts Scotland. It must be the party that trusts Scottish young people too, he says.

Christina McKelvie MSP is now moving a topic motion reaffirming the party’s commitment to 16-year-olds being allowed to vote.

There’s a slogan, she says: Don’t vote Labour for your grandparents; vote SNP for your grandchildren.

Updated

Mark McDonald MSP has just delivered a speech making a fundraising appeal. Because it was a fundraiser, the BBC Parliament coverage would not broadcast his words. For some reason, that’s against their rules.

Kirsteen Fraser, from the SNP trade union group, says she is someone who has rejoined the party. She feels Labour has no right anymore to claim that it protects the interests of workers.

Carol MacDonald says that, having campaigned for yes, she was prompted to join the SNP after hearing David Cameron on the Friday after the referendum. She was furious about the way he was dismissing Scotland.

Updated

The conference is now hearing from ex-Labour members who have switched to the SNP.

A young woman said the final straw for her was when Labour voted to back air strikes against Islamic State. Paul Leister is now telling delegates how he switched during the independence campaign. As he was campaigning in working class areas, he felt that Labour had failed those communities.

Updated

Here’s the SNP’s latest membership figure.

Robertson appeals to people watching the conference at home who agree with the SNP: “Join us. Join us now.”

He reads out the website address.

Robertson says 47 Labour MPs missed a key vote on the bedroom tax, including 10 from Scotland. They included Jim Murphy, Gordon Brown, Anas Sarwar, and Douglas Alexander, he says.

If they and their colleagues had turned up, the government majority of 26 would have been overturned, he says.

And they did not turn up because they were paired with the Tories. “Better Together” lives on, he says.

(That is interesting. He is arguing that “pairing” - a longstanding Westminster arrangement that allows the government and opposition to “swap” missing MPs, so that MPs can miss votes by agreement without disadvantaging their party, amounts to supporting the Tories.)

The SNP would never cooperate with the Tories, he says.

The afternoon session has started.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, is talking about the general election campaign.

There is no future for the Labour party in Scotland. They deserve to be finished. The people deserve a lot better than the Labour party.

The SNP is in “amazing shape” going into the Westminster elections, he says. It has more members in Scotland than than all the other Scottish parties put together, he says.

It can now think about winning in seats where winning was never possible before, he says.

The SNP is working to expedite the vetting process for candidates, he says. And all nominations should be closed by the end of December.

Here are some tweets from lunchtime fringe meetings at the conference.

Lunchtime summary

  • A leading SNP activist has said the party should reconsider its plan for an independent Scotland to share the pound. In a debate, George Kerevan said that, while nationalists had had the better economic case, they failed to convince many middle-class professionals.

I don’t think we actually won the economic argument during the referendum. I think we had the best case but I think many people, particularly the professional middle-classes, didn’t quite get it. And I’m going to say this very gently - I think the party may have to revisit its position on the common currency.

It is the peoples of the nations of the UK who are sovereign, not Westminster. That reality must be reflected as the relationships between our countries are reconstructed in the coming months.

Reserved powers should mean shared powers and let me make clear that a Plaid Cymru government from 2016 will insist on major decisions at a UK level requiring consensus between the governments.

The people power that grew from a grassroots movement in Scotland during the referendum campaign I’m sure will result in power being delivered to the people.

A new state was not born in September but you’ve built a new democracy and no party, no government can disestablish that.

She also said it would be “undemocratic” for the leaders of parties like the SNP and Plaid Cymru to be excluded from televised leaders debates at the election. Viewers in England had a right to know what the SNP and Plaid’s priorities were since they could hold the balance of power, she said.

  • Alex Salmond, Scotland’s outgoing first minister, has suggested that news of new oil discoveries in the North Sea was deliberately held back until after the independence referendum. (See 12.32pm.)

Back to Scottish Labour for a moment, and my colleague Severin Carrell has more from the leadership hustings.

Neil Findlay, the centre-left and heavily trades union-backed contender for the Scottish Labour leadership, has told the contest’s first hustings event that he sees ending inequality as his main motivation for entering politics.

A former teacher and bricklayer, now an MSP for the Lothians, Findlay listed a series of policy commitments to Scottish Labour’s womens conference in Glasgow to cement his appeal to the party’s left.

Those include 50,000 new council houses for single women and lone parents; new laws to enforce equal pay; empower Holyrood to enforce a living wage; heavy investment on ending health inequalities; increased women’s representation at Holyrood and public bodies.

He told the event: “I’m in politics to tackle inequality, and inequality is at its most glaringly unjust as it applies to women. [If] we are going to win in the future women need to know that Labour will deliver policies that will change their lives - I’m advocating policies that will do that.”

Alex Salmond's BBC Scotland interview - Summary

As promised earlier, here are the highlights from Alex Salmond’s BBC Scotland interview this morning.

  • Salmond suggested he was only thinking as standing as a candidate for Westminster because a hung parliament could create significant opportunities for the SNP.

I have not particular wish to go back to Westminster. I’ve done that.

Why I’m thinking about it was two things. One is that I love my constituency, I love the north east of Scotland, I love Scotland obviously, the folk in the north east are just great. Secondly, there are particular circumstances which may be emerging where the cause of Scotland is going to be in the balance. Scotland could win out of the ashes of the referendum campaign, Scotland can emerge victorious with substantial gains. That is what I’m thinking about.

  • He said that his worst mistake as first minister was not doing more to promote nursery eduction. This is what he said when asked what his worst mistake was.

The worst decisions you make are when you don’t make decisions, the things you don’t do. And I don’t think that early enough - I always think nursery education is a great thing, everybody thinks nursery education is a good thing. I did not realise until the remarkable late Professor Ailsa McKay explained it to me about two years ago just how fundamental to economic progress, as well as social progress, the rapid expansion of nursery education is. ... I absolutely wish that Ailsa had had that conversation with me, and knocked some sense into me, a bit earlier.

  • He suggested that news about new North Sea oil discoveries was held back until after the independence referendum.

In the last few weeks a series of discoveries have been announced in the central North Sea and elsewhere. It seems to me surprising that so much information has been gained about these new discoveries in the weeks since September 18 ... These are definite discoveries of the quantities of oil that are there.

Asked if he was saying this news was deliberate suppressed, he replied:

I’m just saying it’s an interesting coincidence that so many discoveries have been so recently announced.

Lord Ashcroft’s polling was a day after the referendum. It was not a substantial exercise. Lord Ashcroft has found his niche in politics is to produce daily polls. Good luck to him. You’d be very foolish - I know some politicians live and die and breathe by Lord Ashcroft’s poll. I don’t.

For the record, this is what Ashcroft said in a commentary on his post-referendum poll.

My questions on the issues that mattered most in people’s voting decisions suggest the No campaign was right to focus on the currency and the other uncertainties of independence. More than half (57%) of No voters said the pound was one of the most important factors in their decision, and the biggest overarching reason for their decision was that “the risks of becoming independent looked too great when it came to things like the currency, EU membership, the economy, jobs and prices” (a more powerful reason for most No voters’ decision than “a strong attachment to the UK” or the promise of the best of both worlds with guaranteed extra powers for the Scottish Parliament). Pensions, the NHS and uncertainties about tax and public spending were also mentioned by at least one third of No voters.

Updated

Back in Perth Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cyrmu, the Welsh nationalist party, is now addressing the conference.

Turning away from the SNP for a moment, my colleague Severin Carrell has sent me this on developments in the Scottish Labour leadership contest taking place today.

While the SNP hold their conference in Perth, contenders for the Scottish Labour leadership and deputy posts are detailing their agendas on gender equality, equal pay and the living wage and childcare in their first leadership hustings.

Speaking at Scottish Labour’s women conference in Glasgow, the leadership favourite Jim Murphy – now striving to secure the post against a strong challenge from the party’s left, has pledged a raft of new pro-equality measures, not all of which are original.

He’s promised that women ministers will take up 50% of a Labour cabinet at Holyrood; a cabinet minister for women; equal representation on public bodies; forcing large firms to be transparent on pay gaps; and insist on an impact assessment on women from the new powers coming to Holyrood from the Smith Commission. He told the event: “If I am elected first minister, I promise the women of Scotland that equality will be at the heart of everything a Labour Scottish government will do.”

Deputy leadership contender Katy Clark, who has tied her ticket to Murphy’s main challenger as leader and trade union favourite Neil Findlay, has been more ambitious, using the conference platform at the Scottish TUC in Glasgow to make a more expansive offer.

She flagged up zero hour contracts, women on the minimum wage, integrated childcare with breakfast clubs and after school care, replacing the minimum wage with a living wage, guaranteeing free university tuition.

In an implied attack on Murphy’s reputation as a centre-right Blairite, she said the party needed to democratise its decision-making: “These elections offer us the opportunity to take our party back, to bring it home, to return it to its values of social justice and equality: it’s what Labour party membership has been crying out for. It’s what the people of Scotland are demanding.

“Too much policy has been created by too few people in recent years. Local branches, trade unions and our affiliates no longer feel they have voice in the direction of our party.”

“For us to win back the trust and support of the people of Scotland we have to rejuvenate our party. That new life must com from our members, from our affiliates and from our trade unions. No more top down – or should that be south up policy directives”

And here’s more from my colleague Libby Brooks on the gender balance motion.

Conference has just approved a resolution on gender balance, including quotas for 40% representation on public boards, something proposed by the Scottish government before the referendum. And also before the Labour MSP, and Scottish Labour’s expected new deputy leader, Kezia Dugdale MSP spearheaded a cross-party campaign for legal quotas to ensure 50/50 representation of women at Holyrood and across Scottish public life.

Amidst the inspiring inspirational blether about a female first minister “sending out a message to every girl in the country that no office is too high”, as well as concerns that quotas in effect boost the options of middle-class women while failing to address underlying structural inequalities, it’s worth noting this Guardian survey from June which found that the SNP had among the weakest strategies in place on gender equality of all five parties at Holyrood.

By way of contrast, ahead of a hustings at Scottish Labour’s women’s conference this afternoon, the prospective leader Jim Murphy this morning pledged to introduce equal representation between women and men on all boards of public bodies accountable to the Scottish government; and also that at least 50% of any cabinet he led would be female.

Delegates have just passed a motion backing a Scottish government plan for gender quotas on public boards. Nicola Sturgeon was on the platform for the vote and applauded it enthusiastically.

In his speech George Kerevan (see 11.42am) also said that the SNP might have to change its stance on keeping the pound in the event of independence.

As I mentioned earlier, Tommy Sheppard wants to be nominated as the SNP candidate for Edinburgh East. (See 11.11am.)

But, as my colleague Severin Carrell points out, he faces some opposition.

George Kerevan, an energy economist and The Scotsman columnist, just roused SNP conference with a buccaneering attack on the UK’s “disastrous” economy and corrupt City of London. He earned loud cheers for suggesting a new policy for that bevy of future SNP MPs expected to be elected to Westminster next May: “When we get those new SNP MPs in Westminster, we can change British law to put those criminal bankers in jail, where they belong!”

Kerevan has a strong interest in this. He was the SNP’s candidate for Edinburgh East in the 2010 general election – a seat that senior SNP figures are eyeing up for one of the SNP’s newest celebrity members: Tommy Sheppard, a former Scottish Labour assistant general secretary, comedy promoter and yes campaigner.

But it seems that in Edinburgh East, this new blood initiative will run into trouble, as it may in other constituencies with experienced and expectant long-standing contenders. There are several SNP councillors in Edinburgh who also believed they were leading contenders for the seat.

Kerevan, a former Labour councillor in the city, is coy about what he thinks of this potential challenger.

Kerevan says: “I have had approaches from a number of people and a number of constituencies, and I’m considering what I will do.”

Just before Alex Salmond spoke at the conference yesterday, the party played a video tribute summarising his political career, with vintage footage interspersed with Salmond reminiscing about moments like the time he disrupted the budget. It was fascinating for anyone interested in recent political history.

Unfortunately I can’t find a good-quality version to upload, but this YouTube video, shot from within the hall, will allow you to watch it if you don’t mind the distractions.

Yesterday the SNP acted to ensure Yes Scotland activists who have not been party members can stand as candidates in the 2015 election. It got rid of the “13-month rule”, that said people had to be in the party for a year before they could stand as a candidate. And it passed a motion authorising the party to explore letting people stand as candidates even if they are not members.

Tommy Sheppard, a former Labour organiser who runs a comedy club, has announced that he is taking advantage of the new rules and wants to stand as an SNP candidate in Edinburgh.

Sheppard only joined the SNP in September.

As my colleague Libby Brooks reports, there’s a Unison demonstration outside the conference.

In the conference hall delegates have just passed a motion saying that the UK pensions system “has consistently disadvantaged large numbers of women because it has failed to reflect different models of labour market participation or recognise the value of unpaid work such as caring for children or other family members” and that, with control over pensions, a Scottish government could create a state pensions system “that values all of our citizens equally”.

At the conference yesterday afternoon delegates voted to commit the party to oppose plans in the infrastructure bill to allow fracking and oil and gas drilling below homes without consent. I did not include the vote in yesterday’s blog, because I was focusing on Alex Salmond, but here are the details. And here’s an extract from the SNP news release.

The SNP will oppose UK plans which will allow oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing beneath their homes without consent.

The SNP’s Westminster Group will oppose the changes introduced to the Infrastructure Bill in the House of Lords , and have called on the other Westminster opposition parties, including the Labour party, to back the move.

The SNP’s Westminster Energy Spokesperson, Mike Weir MP, made the announcement at SNP Conference in Perth today.

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change has announced proposals to grant automatic underground drilling access to energy companies, in spite of Scottish Government and public opposition, and with no right of appeal or notification for the people who live on the land above such drilling.

But the best SNP-related piece in today’s papers may well be this Cate Devine interview with Nicola Sturgeon in today’s Herald magazine. It’s a personal interview, rather than a political one, but it presents a revealing picture.

Devine describes Sturgeon as “Scotland’s first rock-star politician” because she has embarked on a series of rallies that are attracting huge audiences. The final one will be at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, where she will be speaking to a crowd of 13,000 people. Here are some of the most interesting lines.

  • Sturgeon says speaking at rallies is what she enjoys most about her job.

Doesn’t she find it exhausting? “This is the thing I most enjoy about my job, and when you love what you do adrenalin keeps you going,” she says. “Standing in front of an audience, feeling the energy, is what it’s all about. I could stay on stage and do that for hours.” (It was a similar story at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh the week before, and the Eden Court in Inverness a few days after our meeting; T-shirts bearing slogans such as Sturgeon: The Tour are selling out.)

  • She says she will be a different kind of first minister from Alex Salmond. She says:

I’m a different personality from Alex, though I’ve made a conscious decision that I’m not going into the job thinking of what makes me different from him. Everybody knows my relationship with him is fantastic and I’d never criticise what he has done. I’m not going to rip all that up just to demonstrate that I’m not him. But the differences will become obvious.

  • She says social media is “natural” to her.

Social media is natural to me, and it’s a very immediate way of saying something. It’s the way politics are done these days. In modern politics you can’t ignore that even if you wanted to. I can’t imagine doing politics without it.

But she also has sound rules for using Twitter. She says:

Having said that, its immediacy is also one of its problems. You have got to be careful, because the temptation is to speak before you think. I’ve always applied the rule that you don’t say anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t say on television. And never, ever tweet after a glass of wine.

  • She says she is worried that comments about female politicians’ appearance could deter women from entering politics. She says:

One of the most difficult things about being a woman politician is the derogatory comments about your appearance. I constantly read about the mess of my hair, my clothes or how I look. I have been reading it so long I’m inured to it, but I do get annoyed when I think about some young woman being put off a career in politics by it. That does make me angry: women should be positively encouraged. Having succeeded in having more women get to the top at the Scottish Parliament, you’d hope it would then be easier for the next generation of women to come through.

  • She says that she’s not a great cook, but that she does iron her husband’s shirts. He’s Peter Murrell, the SNP’s chief executive.

Has her culinary knowledge improved “I can make coffee,” she insists with a giggle. “I’m not the greatest cook, but then I don’t apply myself. Peter’s steak and chips are the best, so I don’t really have to. I’m not domestic but I do iron his shirts, that’s my one domestic claim to fame and it makes up for all the things I don’t do.

  • She hints that not having children was not a deliberate decision.

At this point I bring up the elephant in the room - the patter of tiny feet she reportedly mentioned in a newspaper interview about living in Bute House. “I said as a joke something like ‘I’m sure the patter of tiny feet would brighten up Bute House.’ It was lighthearted, “ she says. “People ask me as if motherhood is something that at some stage you’ve made a decision about. It’s not how these things happen.” And we leave it at that.

Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

Here are three SNP conference articles from today’s papers that are worth a read.

The audience believe — with very good reason — he has changed the Scottish political landscape forever. Love or loathe him, has won his place his place in history. A tearful Nicola Sturgeon was right: he will leave “very big shoes to fill”. And a fairly substantial pair of trousers.

But weirdly, after 24 years in charge, speeches aren’t Mr Salmond’s trump card. Where Ms Sturgeon brings the whiff of the contemporary machine politician to her leadership, her predecessor has always seemed at his best when he is off the leash, doing a public service, for example by savaging Jeremy Paxman for the benefit of the Newsnight cameras.

Perhaps confrontation brings out the best of him. Among friends yesterday, he dissed his Labour and Tory rivals with some clever speechwriter’s phrases, but couldn’t pump up the venom which he delivers whenever he encounters any passing journalist.

We should get one thing straight right from the start: this SNP conference is a pretty amazing, not to mention awesome, occasion and if the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties haven’t sneaked in observers to watch the proceedings, then they’ll have to take my word for it.

On this evidence the Nats not only don’t believe they lost the referendum, they plan to keep on and on and on about independence – to the exclusion of all else. And they don’t believe anyone can stand in their way.

Sadly, on present evidence, they might be right. There may have been better attended or more united political conferences in the 20 years I’ve been back in Scotland but I can’t think of one.

That mood of renewed optimism is palpable in Perth. Although the SNP and the yes campaign were defeated in the referendum, the party has soared in the polls in the two months since the defeat. Almost every speaker throughout the day, Salmond and Sturgeon included, has looked ahead to the possibility of a second referendum at some future date, many of them explicitly. Salmond finished his own speech with a “forward to independence” cry, before returning to the rostrum after a standing ovation to declare that “the dream shall never die”.

BBC Scotland are broadcasting a webcast interview with Alex Salmond now. I’ll be monitoring it, and will post the highlights later.

Nicola Sturgeon is now leader of the SNP (she is due to be sworn in as Scotland’s first minister on Thursday) and the highlight of the final day of the SNP’s conference will be her speech this afternoon.

Overnight the party has briefed some extracts from the speech. There are three key messages.

  • Sturgeon will argue that voting Labour is pointless.

Scotland’s patience with Labour - or the ‘dinosaurs’ as Johann Lamont affectionately calls them - is running out fast, and they know it.

They’ve got no positive case to make, so they will fall back on the same desperate mantra as before.

“You’ve got to vote Labour”, they’ll say, “to keep the Tories out.”

That is the biggest con trick in Scottish politics and we must not fall for it again.

Scotland did vote Labour at the last general election, but we still ended up with the Tories - and if the people of England vote Tory again next May, it won’t matter how we vote.

A Tory government is what we’ll get. Or worse, a Tory/Ukip government.

If that happens, the very last thing Scotland will need are Labour MPs who cosy up to the Tories.

  • She will say that the SNP could hold the balance of power at Westminster after the general election - and that they would never back a Tory government.

Perhaps this time Scotland’s votes will count. Scotland could well hold the balance of power in a Westminster parliament with no overall majority.

If that happens, I promise you this - you won’t need to have voted Labour to keep the Tories out, because that’s what we’ll do. My pledge to Scotland today is this - the SNP will never put the Tories into government.

  • She will promise to adopt a pro-business approach as first minister.

Scotland must always be an environment where ideas flourish, businesses locate and jobs are created. Because then, and only then, do we have the tools to do what should matter to all of us — and that is to eradicate the poverty that scars the lives of too many of our fellow citizens.

To reinforce that point, she will announce that a £165m rates reduction scheme for smaller businesses will continue for the lifetime of the next parliament if the SNP is again elected to power at Holyrood in 2016.

As part of the focus on wealth creation, the cornerstone of our support for the nation’s smallest enterprises will continue. The small business bonus will help almost 100,000 small businesses next year to the tune of 165 million. My pledge today is this: That support will continue, not just for the remainder of this parliament, but if we are re-elected it will continue for the entire lifetime of the next parliament as well.

Here’s the agenda for the day.

10.30am: Debates on women’s pensions, Scotland’s economic strength, gender balance and human trafficking.

12pm: Award of the president’s prize.

12.15pm: Leanne Wood, the Plaid Cymru leader, delivers the fraternal address.

2pm: Westminster election campaign session.

2.15pm: Mass membership session.

2.35pm: Topical and emergency resolutions.

3.10pm: Nicola Sturgeon speaks.

Here’s yesterday live blog from the SNP conference, with full details of the deputy leadership election results and Alex Salmond’s speech.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Updated

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