By Steve Bargeton, political editor

SNP LEADER Alex Salmond yesterday launched his party’s manifesto for the Holyrood elections—a blueprint for a nationalist Scottish government.

With the party consistently ahead in the opinion polls, it was a bullish Mr Salmond who outlined a “programme of fresh thinking and new ideas”.

The road to the nationalists’ goal of Scottish independence was clearly defined: to run the Scottish Executive after May 3 and win a referendum for full independence in 2010.

Mr Salmond said he wanted to lead a coalition Executive as First Minister.

“My preference is for a coalition, my preference is to have an agreed programme and the knowledge you can take through that programme,” he said. “I have a strong preference for a coalition that will command a majority in the Parliament and give Scotland real leadership.”

The Scottish Liberal Democrats, the junior partners in the coalition with Labour for the last eight years, share many key policies with the SNP but will not do a deal unless the nationalists “park” their referendum plan. Asked if the SNP would delay a referendum until after the first full term of the new administration in order to do a deal, Mr Salmond said “no”.

“The SNP will take its orders from the people of Scotland,” he said. “If we are voted in as the largest party then we have to deliver. I have been quite explicit our target date for a referendum is 2010.”

Mr Salmond was at pains to address fears that an SNP administration meant trouble with Westminster, insisting England would be Scotland’s “biggest pal” if it became independent.

Part of the SNP manifesto is a section entitled “A new approach: Our first steps”, which details the immediate priorities for an SNP-led Executive.

Under the heading “fairer”, there is a commitment to introduce a Bridge Tolls (Abolition) Bill to completely remove tolls on the Forth and Tay Bridges—the goal of a 15-month campaign by The Courier.

The manifesto states, “It is unacceptable and unfair to leave the two road bridges into and out of Fife as the only remaining toll bridges in Scotland.”

And in the full 76-page booklet-style manifesto, a new Forth crossing is described as “the most important transport task facing Scotland today”.

The document underlines the sense of urgency with which an SNP Executive would tackle what will become Scotland’s biggest engineering project.

“As a bottom line, we must be in a position to give early go-ahead for a replacement crossing,” it says.

“We must do all we can to remove any risk of a period of closure, with the devastating effect that would have on the economy of Scotland and, in particular, on the economy of the east coast and north of our country.”

And the manifesto provides a strong signal that the SNP has a preference for a tunnel rather than another bridge.

“A new bridge remains an option; however, we have concerns about both the construction cost and the time it will take from decision to delivery,” states the manifesto.

“In government, we will do all we can to fast-track the planning and parliamentary process and we will give full consideration to all options for a new crossing, including a Forth tunnel.”

The centrepiece of the manifesto is a commitment to scrap the council tax and replace it with a 3p flat-rate local income tax.

The SNP claim only the top 10% of earners would pay more under its system.

Mr Salmond described the flagship policy as, “The biggest tax cut in Scotland for a generation.”

“The council tax is deeply oppressive, deeply unfair. We see that, virtually everyone in Scotland I meet knows that. The council tax is unfair, it’s wrong and we’re going to abolish it.”

He said a local income tax, based on earnings, would be “inherently a much, much fairer system than a charge based on property prices”.

Another key policy restated in the manifesto is a commitment to oppose any new nuclear power stations north of the Border. Scottish Executive departments would be cut from nine to six and there would be a reduction in the number of Scottish ministers.

Business rates for 120,000 Scottish small businesses would be scrapped and there would be reductions for a further 30,000.

An SNP Executive would bring carbon reduction incentives for community and household energy generation and develop local heat and power grids, plus new laws to reduce Scotland’s “carbon footprint”.

New, shorter, legally binding waiting times would be introduced and there would be a “presumption against” centralising core hospital services and the protection of access to local healthcare. Health boards would be directly elected and prescription charges phased out.

In schools, there would be more nurses, annual health checks, a school-based dental service, free school meals, two hours of physical education per week for every pupil and free access to council swimming pools.

In education, there is a pledge to increase free nursery education for three and four-year-olds, with a nursery teacher for every centre and smaller class sizes, starting with a cut in P1 to P3 class sizes to 18 or less.

Baccalaureates would be brought in for science and language and the student graduate endowment would be scrapped and replaced by the student loans system.