 Has alex Salmond been abducted by aliens? I only ask because the relaxed, expansive Salmond sitting in the aberdeenshire sunshine on Easter Monday is so unlike the pugilistic Salmond we''ve come to know that the possibility cannot be entirely dismissed.  For one thing, he's on a diet.  While his aides tuck into burgers, he is having the mackerel p?t?. He has the same honest, sonsie face, the same labrador eyes under beetling eyebrows and the same Thatcherite level of self-belief he has always had. But today there is a reflectiveness and magnanimity at odds with his reputation for braggadocio. We're into the final days of an election campaign which could give him a second term in office, bringing his life-long ambition of an independent Scotland within his grasp. a helicopter is on standby to whisk him in true presidential style to the remaining constituencies. He has a royal wedding to attend and there's been a muddle-up with Moira Salmond's hat which is exercising him more than the barbs directed at him by Labour's leader Iain Gray. But if the pressure is on, it doesn't show.  Four years ago, on the threshold of power, you could virtually feel the triumphalism, pride, fear and anticipation coursing through his veins. Today there is a quiet certitude.  Days before the election, a poll of polls translates to 60 seats for the SNP, 13 more than last time and 17 ahead of Labour on 43. Perhaps he thinks he has it in the bag.  "a week's a long time in politics," says Salmond. "If the election was today, we'd win but the election is not today. I'm not assuming victory, but if we were to get a big victory it would put me in an enormously strong position to look at issues such as giving the Scotland Bill some economic teeth." It's a remarkable turnaround given that as recently as the middle of March the polls put Labour ahead. But undecided voters, who still account for a sizable minority, could yet make life difficult for Salmond.  JaMES MITCHELL, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, says the SNP have run a slick, tight, highly disciplined campaign. By contrast, there is disorganisation and disintegration in the Labour campaign which relaunched last week. But Mitchell points out that in the last week of the last Scottish election, the SNP lead over Labour narrowed dramatically. The SNP may have ended Labour's hegemonic grip in 2007 but by one seat and only after a recount.  "It will be interesting to see what the SNP can pull out of the bag for the last few days," says Mitchell. "They need to maintain the momentum."  any sign that the SNP is coasting to victory could breed apathy among the party's core voters - and opponents detect signs that it is motivating their own supporters to turn out on Thursday - but a second SNP victory will see a quantum leap in the political profile of Scotland.  Labour's 50-year reign will be well and truly broken. No longer will it be able to portray itself as the natural party of government in Scotland, a fundamental shift akin to the decline of the Liberals at the turn of the 20th century or the demise of the Scottish Conservatives in the 1950s.  THE prospects faced by Scottish Labour on May 6 look stark. Defeat would not only be a humiliating blow to Ed Miliband, who has been counting on Scotland to lead the Labour fight-back, but could see this once all-powerful party enter its wilderness years with pressure on Gray to resign and no obvious successor.  But even if the SNP gets the strong showing of which Salmond dreams, he is extremely unlikely to win a majority. Minority government is his preferred option but he has not ruled out coalition with any party except the Conservatives, whom he says, are diametrically opposed to him on independence.  Ironically, it was the Tories who kept Salmond in power by allowing him to push through a number of his key policies. and this time round they will be looking for some payback for their support.  Some senior Tories, who expect their vote to hold up on Thursday, want a New Zealandstyle "confidence and supply" arrangement with an agreed programme for government. a Conservative cabinet minister or two would also go down well.  "It's nothing personal," says Salmond. "I like annabel Goldie. I think she is a good stick. But coalitions where two parties fundamentally disagree lead to grief and strife. We're seeing that with the coalition at Westminster."  a coalition with Labour is, he admits, at the "extreme end of likelihood". With the Lib Dem vote expected to collapse over their deal with the Conservatives, that only leaves the Greens. If he is insistent on minority government, he may find it considerably more difficult to get his policies enacted this time.  "If you have Labour, the Tories, the Greens and the Liberals and they are all much of a muchness, you only need one of them to back you on any issue," he says, a streak of the old smugness showing. "Come on; one out of four. I can manage that."  Both Labour and the SNP are keen to attract voters disillusioned by the Lib Dems. How can Salmond reassure those who are implacably opposed to independence? "You cannot judge a constitutional issue in an election campaign. Our commitment is to hold the referendum at some point in the next five years."  Christopher Harvie, a former SNP MSP, has questioned the commitment of the Salmond regime to independence, suggesting the policy was "kept around to pacify the party faithful". He has highlighted "internal division". Salmond's aides insist the party is united on the referendum strategy. However, a source said there will be no referendum until "well into the second half of the five-year term".  Salmond admits that if he loses the referendum, it will not be re-introduced for a generation.  Support for independence, running at around 33% , is lower than support for Salmond.  Defeat would blow an enormous hole in the party's policies. How will he cope? "He either fears his fate too much/Or his deserts are small/ That dares not put it to the touch/ To gain or lose it all," he says, quoting the Marquis of Montrose. "First we were told there would never be a Scottish parliament. Then we were told there would never be an SNP government. Now we are told there will never be independence.  Scotland has changed."  "alex probably needs a one to two-year period to build support before a referendum because at the moment I don't think people really understand what we mean by independence," says a senior member of the SNP's team.  Salmond insists his constitutional priority is not independence, however, but the Scotland Bill. He believes a beefed-up Scotland act could prove the catalyst for the economic growth necessary to bring the conditions in which to hold a referendum. Chief among his demands if he is reelected are faster access to enhanced borrowing powers, devolved corporation tax, the release of the fossil fuel levy - a ?200m fund held in London to promote the use of energy from renewable sources - and granting Holyrood control of revenue generated through Crown Estate land and property, currently paid to the Treasury. "David Cameron has to learn that if he promises something, he has to deliver. He said that he would deal with the fossil fuel thing and he hasn't. He's piling up a list. We'll be kicking down the door to ensure these things are delivered."  Salmond's critics point to a manifesto which is fiscally irresponsible.  In a time of unprecedented economic pressure, he has frozen the council tax, a policy he plans to continue for another five years, abolished prescription charges, extended free school meals, abolished tuition fees, pledged that there will be no compulsory redundancies in the public sector and continued Labour's policy of free personal care for the elderly.  While the Westminster Tories have been diminishing the reach of the welfare state, Salmond has proffered a largesse for which Scots have not had to pay an extra penny. No wonder he is in the lead in the polls. But it can't last for ever.  The Centre for Public Policy and the Regions has analysed all the main party manifestos and found them wanting. They have advised voters to be sceptical of extravagant promises. Salmond, in particular, has been accused of "Braveheart economics" - as in touch with reality as Mel Gibson's portrayal of William Wallace. "The debate is whether or not we can achieve 2% efficiency savings," says Salmond. "We have achieved more than that in the last four years. I agree it becomes more challenging but if you've done it for four years there is at least the possibility you can do it for another five."  How will he feel if, as ac 