Alex Salmond’s message to Labour supporters: vote ‘yes’ to escape the Tories

When is a conference not a conference? When it’s a rally. Sitting in the hall listening to Alex Salmond this afternoon, it was hard to ignore the feeling that this SNP Spring Conference was about as far away from a party conference as it was possible to get. It really was a political rally – and quite a scary one too.

The warm-up acts for the Scottish First Minister consisted of folk singers from the Hebrides singing ‘it’s our country’ and a group of shouty actors putting on extracts from a pro-independence play which will premiere in Edinburgh this summer.

Then, when one of the actors had a clear go at the press for being unionist, the audience cheered with a vehemence and belligerence that was almost frightening – particularly for those of us sitting in the press seats as hundreds of angry eyes turned to seek us out.

It quickly became clear that Aberdeen’s conference centre this afternoon was not a place of debate but a venue for a rallying cry designed to send all those activists out on to the streets to work hard for the next five months.