“It's OK. You'll enjoy it. You're among friends,” was the greeting handed out yesterday by a Nationalist MSP to a journalist noted for his unionist sympathies. To say that he was taken aback was putting it mildly, but sweetness and light was the order of the day at the SNP conference in Edinburgh, and that extended to foes as well as friends.

The Nationalists are enjoying what has, by any standard, been a hugely successful first year in minority government. It has culminated in recent opinion polls showing them to be even more popular than they were at last year's Holyrood election.

Of course to describe this weekend gathering at the Heriot Watt university campus as a conference was stretching the English language almost to breaking point. It was more of a mutual gloat of the type the Tories enjoyed so much in the 1980s, when Mrs Thatcher was in her pomp.

One look at the “agenda” told you that this conference had been organised for no other ostensible reason than to reassure activists that all was for the best in the best of all possible Nationalist worlds.

They listened politely to what was laughably called a “debate” on the first year in government where ministers recounted their successes. The most that delegates were expected to do was to applaud at the appropriate moment.

Such criticism, however, misses the point. Nicola Sturgeon, the party's deputy leader, got it absolutely right in her speech on Saturday when she said that, far from ushering in chaos and turmoil as Labour had predicted, the SNP had shown itself to be more than ready for government. It has enjoyed a prolonged honeymoon because SNP ministers have brought a focus, energy and commitment to government which the first eight years of devolution badly lacked.

Unlike the previous Labour-led executives, they have not been burdened by constantly looking over their shoulder at what London might think. The SNP in power has not, despite Labour's warnings, seen the four horsemen of the apocalypse stalking the land.

The SNP government has set out from day one to please, whether by reprieving closure-threatened A&E units, reducing prescription charges or freezing council tax. Although in minority power the SNP is reaping the reward from its activists and wider Scotland for doing what it said it would.

It has also benefited from a main Labour opposition that is only now adapting to being out of office. But while there is discontent in Labour ranks about Wendy Alexander's performance, Alex Salmond has been accorded the status of “local hero” by SNP activists.

The reception for his speech proved that Salmond's grip on his party is stronger than ever. Most accept that the core aim of independence, while never far away from Nationalist minds, must take second place for the moment to demonstrating the ability to govern.

Of course choppier waters lie ahead. Plans for a local income tax are crashing and burning around this administration's ears as people wake up to its inherent instabilities. As councils around Scotland begin to cut back on what were once regarded as necessary services for the vulnerable, will SNP ministers be able to avoid the blame?

As ever with government, crisis and crisis management lurk around the corner. The SNP has made government look easy so far. But

it cannot last. The true test is yet

to come.

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