Is the SNP on course to take every Scottish seat?
Caught up with Nicola Sturgeon today in the SNP HQ in Edinburgh.
She and her team are dismissive of the idea they’ll win every seat in Scotland at the general election but they know they’re on to something big.
I asked if given the potential SNP hegemony she might consider relaxing the SNP’s message discipline a little. She said there was no control freaked and the Scots would never tolerate such a thing. I said MSPs didn’t seem to challenge their leader in Holyrood in contrast to the Commons. The SNP leader said I needed to turn up more often.
Message discipline may be about to take a turn anyway for the SNP, the price of success. Look down the list of potential MPs (which is the entire list if you believe the MORI/STV poll today) and you see plenty of people not used to toeing the line.
I put it to Nicola that she also has a party membership much of which is brand new. They have joined in the excitement and aftermath of the referendum campaign. Some, a senior SNP source acknowledged, are driven by anger, others by joy and hope. But will they want a referendum a lot earlier than she would like?
A senior SNP figure says there have been extensive efforts to “get to know” the new base and he judges they’ll be just fine waiting for 15 to 20 years for another vote.
All potential problems of success for Nicola Sturgeon … Labour would kill for the luxury of having to ponder them.