Focus: The Scottish Government is still in buoyant mood 12 months on from being elected, writes Douglas Fraser

The SNP's spring conference in Edinburgh this weekend will be more a celebration of a year in office than a decision-making forum.

These are early days for the SNP to prepare its policies for a second term after 2011, or at least for declaring its hand. But it is not too soon for the party to be campaigning. One of the main explanations for its success in sustaining momentum and building support in opinion polls is that it has entered office as if constantly in campaigning mode.

Labour did likewise when elected in 1997. But at Holyrood over the past year, the lead opposition party has struggled to find the right tone, let alone transform itself into a campaigning force to challenge the SNP. Nationalists may claim they have put themselves in the driving seat of Scottish politics, but Labour and the LibDems have played a significant part in ceding that role to them.

Alex Salmond is at his political best when he has a clear enemy in his sights, and Labour at Westminster can expect much of his attention when he speaks on Sunday afternoon. When not taking on the abolition of the 10p tax rate, he can tackle foreign policy. One of the more significant motions being put to conference is about Afghanistan, with a call for the UK presence to be scaled down to peace-keeping.

Other motions hint at ministers leaning on activists to tone down the party's big-spending instincts. The biggest ticket item could be a call for all those Scottish Government documents that get translated into Gaelic to have a Scots language treatment as well.

It could also call on the government to hold a Scottish referendum on the European reform treaty. That has not been ruled out by SNP ministers, as it could be a way of highlighting the embarrassment of the Labour UK Government for dodging its promise of a European referendum at the last election.

Perhaps the most ambitious call comes from student nationalists, who want all private cars to be run on biofuels by 2040. That may have been fed into the policy machine before the backlash began against biofuels for their impact on the environment and food prices.

Scottish Greens yesterday called for a halt on UK plans to expand their use, and the issue highlights the SNP's long-standing problem with resolving its petrol-head and its green wing.

There is, of course, a simple way of resolving all such tensions within a party that covers the various political spectrums from right to left, socially conservative to liberal, and green to enviro-sceptic. That is its independence cause.

For a governing party with only 47 out of 129 votes at Holyrood, and 78 votes united in opposition to the SNP's independence plans, it is striking how much progress Alex Salmond has made.

His party enjoys unity on the issue that contrasts with the three-party, two-parliament, one government attempt to forge a consensus on enhanced devolution. The announcement three weeks ago of Sir Kenneth Calman as chairman of that Constitutional Commission has been followed by silence on the committee's other members, and he has his work cut out if he is to report by November. Seeking to portray the commission as "one compartment on the national conversation train" is intended to signal that train's destination is agreed, even when it is anything but.

"The National Conversation on Scotland's constitutional future" launch last August by-passed Parliament and gave the party's online raw meat-eaters something to chew on. Phase two began last month and was intended to boost momentum further, engage with civic Scotland, and put pressure on the Calman commission and its backers to sign up for a referendum in 2010.

Promoting his cause in the US, Salmond sought to link the cause to America's revolutionary past. The First Minister takes the message to Brussels next week, with a speech intended to set his conversation in the context of Europe.

Another strand of the constitutional agenda was to provoke Whitehall into rows over Holyrood's powers. Labour has not disappointed him, with the constitutional war now featuring skirmishes over the Lockerbie bomber, compensation for farmers, taxation powers, council tax benefits, a share of extra prisons spending in England and of the vast London Olympics bill.

Then there is Gordon Brown's non-communication. A source close to the First Minister says he has been surprised by Downing Street's "ineptitude".

This weekend's conference at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University will be buoyed by two polls over the past week that show support for independence at 41%.

While the political positioning is strong, the emerging challenges for the SNP are about government. The consequences of its spending decisions in a tight Budget are now beginning to bite.

Its plans for replacing private finance of school building with a Scottish Futures Trust have becalmed council investment, and its local income tax plans have given its enemies plenty to attack.

It will be a partying weekend at the SNP's first conference in Edinburgh for 30 years, but at Holyrood, government is getting tougher.

Alex Salmond
First Minister:

The SNP's big beast and master tactician has shown he is pretty good at strategy as well, particularly on the constitution and in leadership symbolism. Keeping that big picture in mind has exposed weakness when his opponents at Holyrood force him to answer questions on detail. He reaches for his public favourability ratings as an answer to anything awkward, such as his involvement in high-profile planning decisions. Among those who answer directly to him, Parliament Minister Bruce Crawford deserves special credit for working with shifting coalitions of opposition parties to ensure the government has won crucial votes.

Nicola Sturgeon
Deputy First Minister and Health and Wellbeing Secretary:

Her quick grasp of the health brief has won widespread admiration. Within government, she moved swiftly to ensure that her department's flagship policies - saving casualty wards in Ayr and Monklands and reducing prescription charges - were not the ones to be ditched. However, the settlement for health boards is much tougher than that faced by the NHS in England, and the efficiency drive could make her life uncomfortable. A loyal deputy, she has put herself in a strong position for the succession when it comes.

John Swinney
Finance and Sustainable Development Secretary:

After his bruising experience as party leader, he has taken impressively to government and a colossal departmental responsibility. He negotiated the Budget through parliament - probably the most significant single achievement in government. His personal skills have also been crucial to winning friends across parties for a major shift in central-local government relations, while locking in the landmark council tax freeze. His energetic deputies, Stewart Stevenson and Jim Mather, have been important in reaching out to the business community.

Kenny McAskill
Justice Secretary:

The only member of the cabinet who has not grown up in Salmond's shadow, he boldly goes where others might fear to tread. His assault on the booze culture has been far from populist, and in trying to tackle prison overcrowding, he has taken on the tough task of explaining why fewer people should be sent to prisons. He was exposed on the initial failure to deliver on the policing pledge. Inviting former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish to help him on prisons and sentencing shows he is a less tribal Nationalist than others.

Fiona Hyslop
Education and Lifelong Learning Secretary:

She has had perhaps the toughest time in explaining the SNP's ditched and watered down policies: a poor spending settlement for universities, student debt remains unditched and smaller class sizes look very unlikely. She steered through abolition of the graduate endowment, and worked hard to rebuild relations with university principals. Not always guaranteed a place in Salmond's inner circle.

Richard Lochhead
Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary:

The Salmond acolyte lacks his boss's charisma, but works hard, claiming credit for shifting the Common Fisheries Policy, steering the government's most important relationship with Whitehall and Brussels, securing the key SNP farmer and fishermen support base, and pushing an innovative food policy. Deputy Michael Russell has been left to adjudicate between environment interests, drawing criticism, for instance, on allowing the continued use of snares.