Well, who would have believed it? Scottish newspapers are suddenly coming out in favour of the SNP! I keep pinching myself to make sure this is not my imagination this but it seems to be true.

All those editors must have seen the future and suffered a reality check as the polls put the SNP just a few days away from being in government.

If we wake on Friday to an SNP administration-in-the-making then it will be no thanks to the Scottish press which has traditionally been unanimously and bitterly hostile to the Nationalists and to independence. Indeed nothing has changed on the issue of independence itself but there has been a sea change in editorial opinion on the main party of independence.

The days when the Scottish press kow-towed to Labour and the Conservatives – in defiance of more than half the population’s views - seem to be passing. We have Alex Salmond and his remarkable political skills to thank for that. To convince the electorate in political debate takes expertise, but to overcome the implacable hostility of the entire national press is a phenomenal achievement. As of yesterday, when four newspapers broke with tradition and endorsed the SNP as the alternative government of Scotland, our nation is a different and better place.

These are historic moments in Scotland’s political evolution. We should put yesterday’s milestone editorials on record and savour them. The Sunday Times echoed the SNP’s election slogan “It’s time” by stating under the heading Time for Change: “We need a change of government, and only the SNP can provide this. Within the confines of devolution, and in the awareness that there will be another opportunity to vote for the Union, we have concluded that an SNP-led coalition is the best option for voters.”

The Sunday Herald said it was taking a leap of faith because Labour had not earned the right to a third term. The paper said the best outcome would be a coalition led by Alex Salmond. “Here's to working as if we live in the early days of a better nation,” it said.

Even the routinely hostile Scotland on Sunday argued for a new vision for Scotland and said Labour did not deserve another four years in office. “The hope is that Salmond's SNP will rejuvenate devolution . . . this, we believe, offers the best chance of restoring public confidence in our democracy, and a new sense of possibility among the people of this country. If this contest really is a battle between hope and fear, we choose hope.”

And the Sunday Express, once the bible of old Tory Scotland, also endorsed the SNP’s campaign slogan. “It’s time,” it said, calling for political change. “In his party's manifesto, Alex Salmond offers fresh thinking and there are few who would disagree that this is exactly what the country needs.”

By now most Nationalists will be rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Can this really be happening? Well, it appears so, but we still have to see what the dailies say in their final election editorials.
But if you want a laugh then keep a note for future reference of the Daily Record (who else?) editorial on Saturday. We know already that the Record is politically the most stupid and dishonest of the tabloids but its editorial took the biscuit. “The way things are going the SNP will be in tatters on polling day,” it said. We’ll see.

Wouldn’t it be fun to be a fly on the wall at this morning’s Labour strategy meeting?

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