There’s not really much to say about the Sun’s endorsement of the SNP other than ‘Blimey, that’s a welcome surprise. Can the Daily Record have some of what they’re having please?’. The red top that loves to rant and rave has seemingly come round to the SNP a full four years after famously, and quite disgracefully, putting a noose on its front page as a warning of what would happen if the Nats got in. 

The Scottish Sun has now reeled its neck in so far that it is in favour of a referendum, though not of independence itself. So, glossing over the tawdriness involved in courting a tabloid’s favour, it will be high fives in Bute House today, I mean SNP HQ of course, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. 

And yet, how can this not cement Alex Salmond’s position as First Minister for the next five years? The demographic of the readership of the Scottish Sun is where any last battle between SNP vs Labour could have taken place, the scaremongering and the Nat-bashing. It is too late for Labour to write a manifesto that outscores the SNP’s if they did wish to fight on higher ground. 

So, game over? I’d say so.   

This poses an interesting question as to who the slightly higher quality Scotsman and robust but still Glasgow-centric Herald will back (place your bets now please!). Reading between the lines of the past few weeks, I can’t see either paper endorsing the SNP and Labour must be the favourite, even if a rationale would be difficult to word. They may perhaps ‘do a Guardian’ and back a thrd party and that won’t be the Tories, can’t surely be the Lib Dems and so could only be the Greens. I can’t imagine Patrick is holding out too many hopes there. 

However, when the SNP is clearly the people’s choice to be the largest party, if that moment does come to pass prior to May 5th, then the focus of a still rather mundane campaign will become who might support it, either with the SNP forming a minority Government or through a more formal coalition.

People do seem to be forgetting that Salmond’s team winning the most seats is not a mandate for a full implementation of its manifesto. One of the ‘other parties’ will win something from its manifesto into law and that deserves more scrutiny.  
   
There is of course many other ways of looking at this endorsement and, much like Brian Soutar’s £500k donation, it probably splits the field. Another intriguing aspect for me is whether News International really does back the SNP for Scotland or whether they are taking a wider view. After all, placed in a UK context, what is the best result for the Tories?

With David Cameron’s media chums backing Salmond to, possibly, poke Ed Miliband in the eye, is this the ultimate indulgence of SNP Tactical Voting? And, crucially, does it matter?