FORMER First Minister Alex Salmond has vowed to fight off a Tory challenge for his Gordon seat at next month's General Election.
"It's that in Scotland, and elsewhere in the United Kingdom right now, people of all walks of life, urban and rural, middle class or blue collar, are simply looking for some certainty". The campaign is barely a week old and if the SNP message is already looking shop-soiled that's because it is.
"The SNP has won the election in Scotland and won it loud and clear", Ms Sturgeon said. The difficulty is that if...
Inverurie and District's new councillors are Neil Baillie (SNP), Colin Clark (Scottish Conservative and Unionist), Marion Ewenson (Scottish Liberal Democrats) and Judy Whyte (Independent).
But in the local elections the Lib Dems secured only 6.8% of first preference votes.
"In seats like Rutherglen and Hamilton West, and in most areas across Scotland, it's a two horse race between Labour and the SNP".
But Labour losing control of the council is "part of a historical issue with the party in general, in the context of Blairism and its position in the independence referendum where it sided with the Tories", Mr Smith added.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has declared only her party can lead the "fightback against the SNP", as the Tories made big gains in the council elections.
The local election results saw the SNP lose just seven seats, while the Tories gained 164, mainly at the expense of Labour who lost 133.
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But matters could be complicated by the lack of overall majorities, and complex talks are now getting under way across Scotland to try to stitch together either formal coalitions or informal deals to give councils workable administrations.
"SNP MPs like Pete Wishart will be MPs that go to Westminster to stand up for Scotland, make Scotland's voice heard and protect Scotland's interests".
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the result was "obviously disappointing" but that Labour would "continue to play a major role in local government".
Under the single transferable vote (STV) system, voters are asked to rank the candidates in order of preference, with three or four councillors being elected to serve any one ward.
Maybe we are simply discovering that voters in Scotland are just not so keen on voting for the SNP in local elections - as was the case for Westminster elections until the party's 2015 success.
But, equally, it could be a sign that the party has lost ground. After all, three years - and an independence referendum - elapsed between the 2012 local elections and the 2015 United Kingdom election.
Describing the results as a "clear and emphatic victory for the SNP", Ms Sturgeon said: "SNP councillors and SNP councils will put their communities and the people of Scotland first".
That would suggest that there was every good reason to think the SNP's share of the vote would also go up last Thursday.
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