SCOTLAND NEEDS CHAMPIONS MORE THAN EVER - SALMOND

SCOTLAND NEEDS CHAMPIONS MORE THAN EVER - SALMOND

"TOO LATE" TO SAVE LABOUR – POLL SURGE SHOWS ONLY SNP CAN PROTECT SCOTLAND
FROM LONDON PARTIES

SNP leader and First Minister Alex Salmond today (Wed) called on Scots
voters to elect local and national champions to help protect the country
from the cuts agenda of the London parties.

Mr Salmond was speaking as he visited SNP HQ in Edinburgh, as the party's
campaign team prepared to make 100,000 phone calls to supporters in key
constituencies and deliver the last of a quarter of a million letters to
target voters in these seats.

Mr Salmond said: "Scotland needs champions - now more than ever before.
And only the SNP can protect this country from the London parties, none of
whom put Scotland first.

"Labour are finished, while the Tories are arrogantly saying they can rule
with no Scots MPs and the Lib Dems are ready to do a deal with David
Cameron.

“It is too late to save Labour but on polling day we can vote to save
Scotland from the worst impact of a Tory or Tory-led government.

“The final poll of the campaign shows the SNP pulling clear in second
place in Scotland as the focus has shifted away from the air war and onto
the ground battle at which our activists excel.

“The last thing Scotland needs is to wake up on Friday morning without
protection from the London agenda of cuts. That would represent an
electoral hangover of historic proportions.

"That is because the one thing all the London parties have in common is
the decade of despair they propose with savage cuts to public services.
That makes this election the most important in a generation of Westminster
contests for Scotland. And a vote for the SNP can help create the balanced
parliament we need to protect Scotland's vital interests."

Mr Salmond, who will be campaigning later today in Falkirk and Dundee
West, added:

"A vote for the SNP is the only vote that will count in Scotland because
we are the only party offering Scots a real alternative to the dismal
vision of the London parties. We are the only party with a vision for a
fairer, wealthier independent Scotland.

"We say scrap the things that don't matter, like the £100 billion on
Trident nuclear missiles, and protect the things that do matter, like
schools and hospitals.

"Only a strong bloc of SNP local and national champions will stand up for
Scotland, putting the interests of their communities and this nation
first.

"Scotland can be the winner, with a strong vote for the SNP.”