Salmond and Sturgeon pledge SNP victory in 2007
New SNP leaders Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon today promised to take the SNP to victory in the 2007 Westminster elections.
Mr Salmond said he would lead “with the head and the heart” and “touch the soul of Scotland”.
Ms Sturgeon added: “As a party we might lack the resources of our opponents. But what makes us strong is the belief we all carry in our hearts that Scotland should be free. It is a simple but noble belief and if we unite behind it, I know we can inspire the people of Scotland to believe it too.”
Mr Salmond, who earlier today was re-elected leader of the SNP after holding the position from 1990 to 2000, said the party would develop a “new vision” of social democracy in Scotland.
“We currently, as Scots, pay social democratic tax rates, we have social democratic levels of spending – but we don’t have social democratic levels of service. We have to offer a Scottish way to deliver the standards of services which the people of Scotland are entitled to,” he said.
The MP for Banff and Buchan revealed that the party would develop a new economic policy based on the idea that there could not be a competitive economy if individuals and companies were facing interest rates, water charges, and other charges that were higher than those in competing economies.
Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon, who was today elected SNP deputy leader, vowed to “shape up the SNP so we can ship out Labour” and attacked the “mind-numbing mediocrity” of the Labour-Liberal Executive.
Ms Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, also promised to “take on and defeat” First Minister Jack McConnell, saying: “As the real battle – the battle for the future of Scotland – commences, I draw confidence from the advantages I know I have over McConnell.”
