Alex Salmond and his ministers have returned from their Highland conference at the weekend believing that their rebranding exercise is complete.

Independence, the policy that once dared not speak its name at Nationalist gatherings, now flows from the lips of every conference speaker — such is the confidence the party now has in its ability to counter scare stories. Independence lite, a term now widely acknowledged by the media, if not the party, is Alex Salmond’s attempt to soften the message away from separatism. The Nationalists are moving towards a social union, in which Scots will exist in blissful harmony with the English, retaining the Queen as head of state, sharing embassies and accommodating English defence bases, if not Trident.

This softly-softly approach to independence has been embraced by the party, whose fundamentalist wing now appears to be extinct.

However, the SNP has failed to use the levers of power as a springboard to achieve its key aim. Mr Salmond and his Constitutional Minister, Michael Russell, may boast to their conference that they are nearly there, but opinion polls consistently show that the voters remain some way off.

While the party appears to be singing from the same hymn sheet, the intention to also “do what is good for Scotland” has meant that the SNP is sending conflicting signals.

The decision to scrap right-to-buy, one of the Conservatives’ most popular policies, signals a shift to the left of Labour, which belatedly embraced the sell-off of council stock as hundreds of thousands of aspirational Scots took advantage of discounted homes.

The Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, also pleased the socialist wing of the SNP with the move to end private sector involvement at Stracathro Hospital in Angus.

The key policy announcements at the conference would have delighted leftwingers at a Labour conference. Yet some of the policies that helped propel the SNP into government would not be countenanced by the Tory party on the grounds that they are too right-wing.

The decision to offer free prescriptions to millionaires and to freeze their council tax bills is at odds with the party’s attempt to outflank Labour on the Left.

John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, said: “The SNP is a curious mix. In Alex Salmond’s speech there was much talk of social democracy; if you listened to John Swinney there was a lot of talk of promoting business.”

For a party that prides itself on being in tune with public opinion, the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds risked turning what was meant to be a quasi-judicial decision into a cause for party political triumphalism.

Mr Salmond’s comparison of the Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to the spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was ill-judged and prompted the Conservative-supporting QC Paul McBride to claim: “I don’t think Gandhi would have glorified in the release of a mass murderer and sought triumphalism from what was meant to be a sombre event.”

That the SNP believes in independence and is united on the best way of achieving it is clear. Where the SNP stands ideologically remains even more shrouded in confusion than it was before its conference.

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