“If the normal rules of politics applied in Scotland, the SNP would be sure-fire losers at next year’s Holyrood election,” said Chris Musson in The Scottish Sun .

Public services “are on their knees” and polls suggest the majority of Scots “take a dim view” of how the ruling party is handling things. The recent Scottish Social Attitudes survey shows “plummeting trust” in Holyrood since devolution, with a “sharp decline” over the past decade. And the SNP has been in power since 2007, “in an age where patience wears thin with leaders after a couple of months”. Anywhere else, they’d be “odds on to be out on their ears” come the Holyrood election in May.

But instead they kicked off their party conference in Aberdeen around 14 points ahead of their nearest rivals – which could be Labour

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