In his last speech before stepping down as leader, Mr Alex Salmond yesterday told the Scottish Nationalist Party that Scotland would be independent "in this political generation".
The conference in Inverness has been dominated by the race to succeed him, with his deputy Mr John Swinney still thought to be the likely winner in the contest with the more radical Alex Neil. The election takes place today.
Mr Salmond, buoyed by an opinion poll in the Scotsman that puts the SNP seven points ahead of Labour, told delegates that the party's "political cup runneth over". According to the poll, the SNP is in the lead for voting intentions to the Scottish Parliament with 38 per cent to Labour's 31 per cent in first-past-the-post votes, and 36 per cent to Labour's 32 per cent in regional votes.
He said his achievements as leader were "built on our own party's traditions. I didn't need or wish to create a `new' SNP as Blair created New Labour. We have built on the rock of our own tradition, not New Labour's shifting sands.
"The founders of our party realised that independence was not an event but a process," he said. "We are now in that process - the process of independence."
Mr Salmond led the party to its present position as the official opposition in the newly devolved parliament, from which he believes the SNP can grow into the party of government in Scotland. He said: "The Scots parliament is our passport to independence."
He said that Labour's response to the recent fuel crisis demonstrated that "this government has forgotten how to represent. Arrogant, inflexible and dogmatic - the Thatcher legacy at the heart of New Labour."
Referring to the fact that most of Europe's oil reserves are in waters off Scotland, he said: "Scotland will no longer accept a position where the largest oil and gas producer in Europe pays the highest petrol prices in the world." He said the SNP's call for a penny increase in income tax at the last election was "vindicated", as the fuel protests were a revolt against Labour's "stealth taxes, back-door economics".
At the end of his speech, a banner was draped from a balcony saying, "Scotland thanks you, wee Eck."
He added: "We believe in lifting our sights as a nation in social conditions and in economic performance. A Scotland truly international in outlook."
A lengthy ovation was curtailed only by a bomb scare in the building, which proved to be a false alarm.