"The first year of the new millennium was a year of strong progress for Scotland's party."

Wrong. The year 2000 was the last year of the 2nd millennium. Why so many people have a problem grasping that since there was no year "zero" the new century doesn't start until 1st January 2001 is beyond me. Surely a politician like John Swinney is aware of this? So do people think that Scotland will become independent within the third millennium?

Odds on it will IMO but only because the Tories will eventually answer the WLQ by removing Scottish MPs voting rights on England and Wales affairs and by forcing the Scottish parliament to raise its own revenues and the EU is likely to scoop up most of Westminster's remaining powers to a stage that having London as an intermediary in Brussels will eventually seem pointless. The SNP will have to waken its ideas up considerably if it wants to hasten this process along in any way IMO. "Scotland's party" is just too out of tune with mainstream Scottishness most of the time right now for the 45%+ of the vote that will probably be needed to get a referendum to be on the cards any time soon. Most Scots feel British as well as Scottish, have no problem with being part of Nato and either support or have no problem putting up with the Windsor monarchy, and are unlikely to vote for higher taxes unless given a very clear and concrete reason why they should do so. Most SNP activists are much more out of tune with mainstream Scottish viewpoints and values than New Labour activists are over stuff like that despite the fact that Labour has adopted an agenda more suited to "Middle England" than central Scotland to win at Westminster.

If Tommy Sheridan wasn't so far left he would really be onto something IMO by having a party that supports independence but only as a means to adopt and promote a set of values that are unlikely to ever be implimented at Westminster but is a lot more feasible at Holyrood rather than having a seat at the UN between Saudi Arabia and Senegal as some sort of end within itself when that simply isn't a key priority for most people in Scotland. Now that Home Rule is a reality the SNP will have to slowly adapt to the new reality and become more moderate and mainstream and amenable to coalition building but I doubt it will happen until after the next Westminster election. Will the SNP hold onto its 6 seats or will there be enough of a Tory comeback for a couple to be lost? I suspect that having Alex Salmond as a candidate might make things more solid than they would be otherewise by playing it safe and keeping the political landscape as familiar as possible until the exact nature of the changes that will eventually flow from Home Rule in the campigning dynamic of Westminster elections becomes more obvious. Who knows the SNP may even be able to pick up Inverness East from Labour and the Lib Dems may suffer a Holyrood related backlash? What the Scottish Labour Party will do when it has power at Edinburgh but is in opposition at Westminster and whetehr it would still be as likely to stick to the Millbank line will probably not be a scenario that will play itself out later this year but I suppose it can't be completely ruled out as a possibility. Does anyone living in England think that a Tory comeback is possible? I never could fully understand what drove people there voted for Maggie and Major in 87 and 92 anyway. The "winter of discontent" and then the Falklands Factor and Michael Foot make 79 and 83 more understandable.

A happy new millennium when it arrives,

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