The positive energy exuded from the SNP Spring Conference was infectious! The conference held over March 28^th-29^th at the SECC in Glasgow was the first I have ever attended and I am really looking forward to the next. From the variety of politicians, people from across Scotland and friends from my own branch who I met on the weekend was simply amazing. Being able to meet with such a wide range of people from across Scotland, all with the same political ideology was an experience I have only felt from attending the Scottish Youth Parliament sittings in my time as a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament.

Moving on from youth politics and towards mainstream politics I was extremely hesitant in choosing a party, many times finding myself agreeing with several and no parties on a wide array of issues from trident and nuclear power to tax rises and tuition fees.

But in the end, as I expected from the start, I chose to enter the Scottish National Party. A party whose policy seem to reflect, for the most part, the views of the members it has been repeatedly been elected to represent as opposed to, what I find time and time again, parties that choose to put up a brave face in times of desperation (which since before the referendum has been quite often) promise the world and deliver on exactly the opposite. Some parties have had its leaders apologise to the UK population for their hypocrisy whereas others have chosen to stick to their guns and have stuck with the mentality that if you repeat a lie often enough, continually promise a “long-term economic plan” which essentially translates to “we’ll fix it in the future” and scaremonger as always, the electorate will some way down the line start to believe in the empty promises your party continues to propagate. But no longer shall this continue.

At the end of the conference present on the stage with Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Stewart Hosie MP and Ian Hudghton MEP were over fifty of the candidates standing in the 2015 Westminster election. The league of candidates on the stage represented, for the over 3000 members of the SNP present, something more than just people standing to represent their constituents. They represented hope. Hope for a brighter future and an alternative to the plans proposed by the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats. A future not rife with austerity, cuts to the welfare state and NHS, continued attacks on the poor and a long black tunnel with no apparent light at the end.

The SNP, for the people of Scotland, is the light at the end of the tunnel.

The message portrayed throughout the conference was clear for me. Regardless if you voted yes or no, for an end to austerity and a group of MPs who truly care for the needs of Scotland – Vote SNP.