Alex Salmond launches SNP general election campaign

Alex Salmond will today urge voters to see the Scottish National party as the strongest and most effective advocate for Scottish interests, claiming its MPs would be the best campaigners on local issues. The SNP leader and first minister is to launch the party's general election campaign in Edinburgh amid signs its vote is being squeezed by the battle between Labour and the Tories for control at Westminster. Both Labour and the Conservatives insist the SNP, with just seven Westminster seats, is irrelevant in the general election, and are urging voters to choose a party capable of running the UK. The SNP insists that strategy is failing. Although the latest opinion polls show the party is only a few points behind Labour, its campaign appears to acknowledge that it has to heavily promote the local credentials and strengths of its MPs at Westminster to win ground against the two dominant UK parties. For the first time, the SNP, like other parties, will be turning to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in an attempt to engage directly with voters and local issues. Many predict the 2010 campaign will be the first "social media" general election. Most of the SNP's 59 candidates will open Facebook sites, use video blogs on YouTube, conduct online question and answer sessions and tweet regularly, Stewart Hosie, the SNP's general election coordinator, said. SNP polling showed "the largest chunk of people want a party which would stand up for Scotland and would like an MP who would stand up for and champion their community," he said. Using Facebook and Twitter will build "conversations" with voters, he said, adding: "It will be absolutely about dialogue." The SNP has already pioneered a new iPhone app which integrates its Activate voters database onto the smartphone, allowing its canvassers and campaigners to build up live "maps" of voters' intentions and views. Last year, Salmond set the party the formidable goal of winning 20 seats – a target many SNP figures privately believe was far too ambitious. Many observers believe it will struggle to hold Glasgow East, the seat it won by 300 votes in July 2007. However, the party is optimistic about its chances of taking Livingston from Labour after the prosecution of the sitting Labour MP, Jim Devine, for alleged fraud. He has been deselected, and Labour is defending a 2,680 lead. It is targeting Dundee West, held by Labour's Jim McGovern with a 5,379 lead, and Falkirk, held by Eric Joyce with a 13,475 majority. In these seats, SNP canvassing suggests support for the party has increased by between 10% and 20%. "We've set this challenging demand of 20 seats, we're working towards it – but we're not only working in 20 seats," Hosie said. "We're campaigning across the country, and the level of activity in this campaign has been phenomenal." Recent UK-wide polls, with small Scottish samples of between 150 and 600, suggested the SNP's support had slipped substantially down to about 20%, putting it roughly level with the Scottish Conservatives. The Tories believe this suggests they can win up to five seats, particularly Angus as well as Perth and North Perthshire, from the SNP. Hosie said the latest Scotland-only polls, by Ipsos MORI and Comres, put the SNP at roughly 30%, only a few points behind Labour amongst active voters. Of those electors most likely to vote in the Ipsos MORI poll, 34% backed Labour and 32% the SNP. However, one of the greatest issues facing Salmond and the SNP is the sharp fall in his personal popularity, one of the party's strongest political assets. Recent polls have given him a negative rating for the first time since he became party leader, while Gordon Brown's has improved. Party officials say this is the difficulty with "incumbency" because Salmond is three years into a minority government at Holyrood, wrestling with significant policy problems.