SNP must avoid complacency

He talked of the impact he made as leader of four MPs. What more might be done with five or even ten times that number?

He announced which unionist party he might support in a hung parliament and which he would definitely not. He didn't rule out serving in a coalition (eh, of UK unionist parties?) He outlined the terms he would require for SNP support.

He pointed out that he is the only UK politician with experience of leading a minority government. A possible future adviser to Prime Minister Miliband then?

Alex might need to be reminded he hasn't been elected as the SNP candidate yet let alone won the seat. No doubt he will win by a landslide (and I hope he does) but don't the good folk of Gordon, his would-be constituents, deserve a tad more respect?

The danger of Alex's hubris is that it's catching. Take the SNP numpties - councillors no less - who filmed themselves burning a copy of the Smith Commission Report.

Even the very sensible Nicola Sturgeon is caught up in it. "The Westminster establishment must be shaking in its boots," she says of Salmond's comeback as a - yet unelected - MP.

(The Westminster establishment is indeed shaking in its boots but the cause is UKIP, not the SNP.)

Salmond has lots to be proud about. There's no doubt his leadership has been the key factor in the remarkable success of the SNP. And you can understand the extra dosage of chutzpah currently flowing through his veins.

Polls showing over 50% of Scottish voters backing the SNP, almost thirty points ahead of Labour with the rest struggling to make double figures. Membership of the party up fivefold. The new leader filling rock concert venues. An independence-supporting daily newspaper on the streets.

Aye, but they'll suffer for it. It's not just puritan pessimism which suggests the SNP should keep its collective heid well screwed on.

Let's not forget the Yes side lost the referendum. Despite what the zealous think, another referendum any time soon would be lost as well. Let's not forget too the SNP's dismal performance in Westminster elections since the 1970s.

Longer term, the SNP government will have to decide how to cope with the poisoned chalice - toxic honey-trap of income tax powers and all - pushed its way by the Smith Commission

Moreover, Scottish Labour must be at its lowest point. It's only direction now is surely up. (Well, any further deterioration and it's curtains.) The pro-Union media have already mobilised behind Jim Murphy. Saturday? I thought he'd been elected leader weeks ago. Ditto Kezia Dugdale. Brown has gone. Enter Murphy-Dugdale - the dream team to save the Union.

Many things can be said of Murphy but 'stupid' and 'guileless' are not on the list. A right-wing Blairite, a Westminster establishment man, he has over the past few weeks re-discovered social democracy as well as Scottish politics. (I wonder if he too looks up the meaning of words he doesn't often use.)

He's declared UDI from London Labour. He's talking progressive taxation and devolution of power to local communities. Any day now he's going to utter the word long banned by the upper echelons of New Labour: s-o-c-i-a-l-i-s-m.

He's already started to nag away at the Scots' detestation of the Tories. Vote SNP, get Tory is the warning. What good would it do Scotland to have a huge contingent of SNP at Westminster only for Cameron and Osborne to be still at the helm?

It may be all talk. Murphy is a good talker - he has the egg stains to prove it - but he's assured of sympathetic coverage in most of the media. Many trade union leaders might not like him but they'll shuffle into place if the SNP is the only alternative.

Of course, the SNP now has the potential wherewithal to blow away Labour and all the rest - its tens of thousands of enthusiastic new members. I just hope local SNP branches have imaginative ways of keeping them energised. Stuffy meeting rooms and long lists of motions to be proposed and seconded can quickly dishearten even the most ardent. Maybe it's fortunate there's an election in six months to concentrate minds.

Those new minds are, however, an unknown quantity at the moment. It's good the Scottish Socialists and the Greens have experienced their own surges in membership. The SNP needs to remain a broad church. Independence-favouring tartan Tories are to be valued as well as Celtic social democrats. Let's hope all the newbies respect that balance.

As the sports commentators like to put it, the SNP's huge poll lead is now theirs to lose. The SNP has a difficult hand to play: great expectations and very limited powers at Holyrood. Its booming membership wants independence. The majority of the electorate wants to give devo-plus a chance.

In this context, Salmond's decision to step down as First Minister and SNP leader and head for Westminster is likely to prove inspired. Whatever else goes on in his gallus mind, he remains politically cool and calculating.

Sturgeon has made an assured start as the new leader. If anyone can brew up a health-giving antidote to the contents of the chalice, it's her.

In the meantime, Salmond - the Gordon electorate permitting - will be deploying his hubris to its best possible use at Westminster - a Palace dedicated to Anglo-centric arrogance, pride and presumption. Fighting fire with fire.

Who better than Alex Salmond himself to hold Westminster's feet to the flames?