Sturgeon woos voters across the UK

Launching the Scottish National party's manifesto, Nicola Sturgeon spent almost as much time reaching out to people who cannot actually vote for the SNP as she did appealing to those she hopes will back it next month.

The SNP leader's extension of a "hand of friendship" to voters all across the British Isles is a reflection of the unprecedented influence on UK political affairs that the SNP can expect to gain if - as polls suggest - it wins most of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats.

So while the core of the SNP's electoral offer is focused on potential voters' national interests - neatly seemed up by the slogan "Stronger for Scotland" emblazoned on a vast banner behind Ms Sturgeon - the party is taking pains to cast itself as a positive player for the whole UK.

"We will seek to make common cause and build alliances with others of like mind across the UK to deliver the progressive change that so many want to see," Ms Sturgeon told rapturous supporters in rural west Edinburgh.

The message of amicable co-operation should help counter wails of concern from south of the border about the damage a cohort of SNP MPs could inflict on the UK body politic, but it is also an important effort to maximise support in Scotland.

Polls suggest that in many seats, more people are ready to vote SNP on May 7 than voted for independence in last year's referendum. So Monday's manifesto mentions the sovereignty issue only to make clear that it is not on general election agenda.

"The SNP will always support independence - but that is not what this election is about," the manifesto says.

And in a further attempt to calm any constitutional concerns, the manifesto downplays the SNP's post-referendum flagship policy demand: "full fiscal autonomy", under which Scotland would raise all its own taxes while transferring some funds to the UK government to cover shared costs such as defence and debt service.

The Labour party has seized on fiscal autonomy as a vital weakness in the SNP case, since with oil prices low it would spell a huge budget crunch for Scotland. "With full fiscal autonomy, the SNP have signed up to bigger cuts than the Tories," said Jim Murphy, Scottish Labour leader, who dismissed the Nationalist document as a "say one, thing do another manifesto".

Labour campaigner Blair McDougall found irony in the SNP's embrace of Labour policies such as a 50p top income tax rate and bankers' levy. "The only progressive policies in their manifesto are ones we challenged them to back," Mr McDougall tweeted.

But there are few signs that the issue of full fiscal autonomy is gaining traction with voters and its chances of doing so are further dimmed by Ms Sturgeon's move to further muddy the waters by relabelling the policy "full financial responsibility", sticking it safely in the manifesto's final section - and assuring voters that even if agreed, it would take years to introduce.

Instead the SNP will prioritise the devolution of more modest powers over aspects of welfare and employment law, the manifesto says.

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The combined promise of more UK spending and a stronger voice for Scotland will hardly win over Ms Sturgeon's southern sceptics. Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders have expressed alarm at the prospect of SNP MPs taking over a swath of the House of Commons' green benches.

Yet the very howls of complaint are helpful for the SNP, which has in the past struggled to seem relevant in first-past-the-post UK-wide elections, which are seen by many voters as primarily a battle between the Tories and Labour.

These days, even if many south of the border and disinclined to grasp Ms Sturgeon's hand of friendship, they can hardly ignore it.

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