By Steve Bargeton, political editor

SNP LEADER Alex Salmond yesterday began his party’s campaign for the 2007 Holyrood elections by spelling out what he would do as First Minister in his first 100 days.

At the SNP spring conference in Dundee he laid out seven key pledges, including a bill to pave the way for a referendum on Scottish independence.

Mr Salmond said that within 100 days of forming a Government after the elections next May he would:

* Introduce legislation to abolish the council tax and replace it with a local income tax.

* Introduce a Patients’ Rights Act, with patients given a legally binding waiting time guarantee.

* Cut the rates burden for small and medium-sized businesses in Scotland—“as a signal of our determination to make the country competitive.”

* Set in train the process to replace the private finance initiative with a Scottish futures trust to mobilise public investment.

* Establish a council of economic advisers to chart a process of recovery for the Scottish economy.

* Publish the referendum Bill signalling “our intention to give the opportunity for our people to vote on independence in the course of the first term of office.”

* Establish St Andrew’s Day as a national holiday.

Mr Salmond reminded the party the SNP had to win 20 more first past the post seats to win.

“We are a year out from the election,” he said.

“We are already neck and neck with Labour and believe me their support is not going to go up any time soon.

“We need to win 20 new seats to win the election. In my estimation we are already half way to that objective.

“Twenty seats sounds a lot. In fact it represents only a switch of 26,000 votes across Scotland compared with the last election.

“Or to put it another way, if every member of this party influenced just three voters in these seats then we would win with something to spare.

“And make no mistake. We are the challengers,” he claimed.

“Labour hold 40 first past the post seats in Scotland. We are second in 36 of these seats.”

Mr Salmond attacked the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who he dubbed “the party which puts the moan into sanctimony.”

He went on, “Everything the Liberals touch turns to dust.

“They hold the transport portfolio but are making a total botch of the Aberdeen peripheral road and the tolls on the Tay and the Forth.

“We are meeting in Dundee. Is there a single person in this city who thinks it is fair to abolish the tolls on everywhere but the Tay and the Forth?

“And Jim Wallace, the man who calls for a public inquiry into rendition flights, but opposes it in the Shirley McKie scandal. Might that be something to do with the fact that he was the justice minister who failed in his duty to justice?”

The SNP also attacked Labour for “selling” honours, a practice Mr Salmond described as “criminality, pure and simple.”

“The selling of honours is not a joke or a giggle. Nor is it simply an act of dubious morality. It is criminality, pure and simple, and the fact that it is an open secret that the London parties have been doing it for generations doesn’t make it any less of a crime.

“Lloyd George sold 36 peerages. He was a mere amateur compared to this lot. Blair has appointed 292 members of the House of Lords.

“Before the loans scandal 80p out of every pound of individual donations to the Labour Party came from people who were subsequently honoured or knighted.

“The impact is not just to sully the reputation of politics. It is to financially gerrymander the democratic process.”