CONFERENCE

A MAN dashing to his seat sports a blue T-shirt with “Still Yes” emblazoned across the front.

Not that anyone really needs to ask.

This is the SNP conference and Nicola Sturgeon is here to deliver her keynote address.

But the fact that outside Glasgow’s SECC there is a protest calling on the Nationalists to push for independence – the SNP’s very raison d’etre – illustrates the bind the party leader finds herself in.

Regardless of the handful of dissenters outside, however, the First Minister arrived to rapturous applause as she showed the crowd a cheeky smile.

She’d probably just seen the headlines about the Scottish Government’s planned embassy in Berlin, no doubt infuriating PM Theresa May as she prepares for Brexit negotiations.

“We are in a completely new era,” said Sturgeon.

One in which she hoped a hard Brexit from Europe would mean a swift “Scexit” from the Union.

Instructing delegates to take away “inclusion” (rather than “independence”) as the party’s new buzzword, she announced an overhaul of childcare and more cash for GPs.

Throwing her arms wide, she also revealed she would meet 1000 young people who had been in care as part of a country-wide review of the care system.

This prompted an apparently spontaneous standing ovation from people in the front row who just happened to have red paper hearts to hold aloft.

The party faithful were also feeling the love, but the FM’s new policies got a somewhat lukewarm reception compared with their leader’s closing remarks on their “home rule journey”.

“The time is coming to put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands,” she said to a deafening roar.

In truth, this is what they really came to hear.