Nicola Sturgeon’s warning last week that Scotland’s voice “would be heard at Westminster more loudly than it’s ever been heard before” has understandably sent shivers down English spines.
At her party’s manifesto launch in Edinburgh she threatened to push through a series of policies, far to the left of Labour, if the SNP found itself in a bargaining position after the general election.
Despite the fact that Ms Sturgeon herself is not standing and that the Nationalists who do get elected will represent only Scottish seats, the party means to interfere in the running of the rest of the UK’s health service, its education system, the economy, foreign affairs and defence, welfare and the constitution.
The reaction to this planned power grab has been predictably alarmist outside Scotland.
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, said a minority Labour government propped up by separatists would provoke the biggest crisis since the abdication of 1936.
Fears over the SNP who would have plunged Scotland into a £7.6 billion black hole if the country had voted Yes last September being given any say in the UK Treasury will probably encourage undecided voters to back the Tories.
Which is what Ms Sturgeon and her party want, of course.
They have ruled out doing a deal with David Cameron, so if he is returned as Prime Minister they can revert to what comes naturally, blaming all Scotland’s problems on the London elite.
However, just say that their tactics backfire and that parliament is hung after May 7 and they do find themselves, however informally, within the next British government. What is the first concession they will exact from Ed Miliband?
Many worry that they will neuter Britain’s defences by insisting on their no-nukes agenda. However, no sane Prime Minister, even one dependent on single issue parties, would give up Trident in the current geopolitical climate.
The SNP is far more likely to gain ground on its smaller grievances and in particular, ones that affect Scotland, not England, Wales and Northern Ireland broadcasting, for instance.
As a former BBC boss suggested to me recently, granting the Nats their wish over the Beeb would be a small price for Mr Miliband to pay in exchange for their support.
In its manifesto, the SNP says it wants control over broadcasting to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament and argues that the replacement for the licence fee should be based on the “ability to pay”, which would almost certainly push up the cost for most of us.
It said the Scottish government and Holyrood must have a “substantial role” at all stages in reviewing the BBC Charter and ensure that “any new governance arrangements for the BBC better reflect Scotland’s interests”.
That would be “Scotland’s interests” as defined by separatists, which might not mirror the interests of the broader television audience.
Alex Salmond said at the Edinburgh Television Festival in 2012 that Scottish output should be more Scottish and in its manifesto the SNP demands £100 million more of the licence fee to create greater Scottish content.
It is a move which might please vested media interests and those local programme makers who are struggling to make a national impact but not ordinary Scots, whose cultural differences with other Britons are a figment of Nationalist imagination.
Scots would sooner watch EastEnders than home-grown soaps and have a limited appetite for Scottish, rather than British, news bulletins Good Morning Scotland can’t compete with Radio 4’s nationwide Today show and the Scottish opt-out of Newsnight was eventually dropped as a ratings flop.
Given that the Nationalists’ goal is independence, their grip over the state broadcaster would inevitably serve that end. We could expect a diet of little Scotland parochialism in place of our favourite programmes and an end to the kind of journalism that puts politicians on the spot.
Remember how, during the referendum, Nationalist activists protested outside the BBC’s Glasgow headquarters, raging against Nick Robinson, the corporation’s political editor, for daring to ask Alex Salmond a question he didn’t like?
Mr Salmond went as far as blaming the BBC for his failed campaign then and his successor would no doubt revel in avenging that defeat now by cowing a British treasure.