Salmond sets election target

SNP leader Alex Salmond is to set a target for his party to win 20 seats in Westminster at the next general election.

The first minister will use a speech at the SNP's annual conference in Edinburgh to argue that Conservative gains could result in a hung Parliament, improving his party's position in London.

"We could make Westminster dance to a Scottish jig," he said in a BBC webcast interview yesterday.

And he will argue that Scotland could advance its case for independence if the SNP does well in government.

SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon told the conference yesterday that there was "a real spring in Scotland's step."

"Over the past year, the people of Scotland have discovered that an SNP government has not let to the end of the world as we know it," she said.

"The sky did not fall in. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are not stalking the land.

"The experience of an SNP government has given the lie to all the claims of doom and despair from our political opponents.

"Instead, what we have is a Scottish government at long last prepared to take decisive action in the interests of our country."

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