How long will Alex Salmond’s honeymoon with the voters of Scotland continue? Given that
his next mission is to hold and win an independence referendum, much depends on his popularity and that of his party. Today, a third opinion poll puts support for the Scottish National Party at
just under half of the national electorate. Angus Reid, polling for the Sunday Express, puts support
for the SNP has now hit a remarkable 49 per cent. Given that the Nationalists only won 45 per cent of the votes in May’s election – enough to sweep all the unionist parties into the
background – this new high just shy of 50 per cent really does represent an extraordinary development in Scottish political terms.
The poll also shows how far the Liberal Democrats have fallen. Coalition with the Tories is not helping the Scottish Lib Dems, who saw their support collapse to 5 per cent in the poll – just above the “others” on four per cent.
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