Nicola Sturgeon and her party are more favorite than ever. All the same,there are faint signs hinting at problems to comeAlthough it has been in government in Edinburgh since 2007, the Scottish National party has for years been able to hold its autumn annual conference in relatively small places such as Inverness and Perth, or amid much informality,minimal security, exiguous corporate involvement and with hardly any journalists from south of the border taking any notice whatsoever. Over the coming days, and all that will change. The SNP is gathering in Aberdeen for the last of this season’s major party conferences,has moved into the world of x-ray machines, trade stalls and hundreds of square feet of media space – as well as nearly four times as many seats for delegates compared with last year.
Two things have moved the SNP on to a bigger stage. The first was the surge of support in the aftermath of the September 2014 independence referendum defeat, or which saw SNP membership rise from around 25000 before the referendum to above 110000 in June. Today’s SNP is therefore a bigger party. It is also in some respects a different and younger party,whose political habits and instincts may differ in meaningful ways from the SNP of the recent past. The fit between aged and new in such a politically disciplined organisation as the SNP – accusations of a nationalist one-party state are heard a lot these days – will be one of the most keenly watched questions in Aberdeen.
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Source: theguardian.com