Eddie Barnes: Soundings from the election campaign trail reveal the SNP may be facing a leadership problem IT CAME, says the SNP activist, as something of a surprise. Pounding the streets over the last few weeks drumming up the Nationalist vote, he came up against something of a problem. "I've never known so much negativity towards Alex," he said. In elections before, the charisma and appeal of the First Minister could always be relied upon as an electoral asset to the party - not least in last year's Scottish election, when the SNP could do no wrong. "But people said they saw him as arrogant," said the activist. It may only be one anecdote from thousands of activists who were knocking doors ahead of last week's local government election (in which, of course, the SNP won the most seats), but the comment offers a cautionary tale for the party as it prepares to launch its independence referendum campaign later this month. The view from activists such as this one is that people now feel they want to knock the First Minister down a peg or two. The SNP, these activists note, built up massive popular support for the way it went about the business of minority government in its first four years in power. People liked this in stark contrast to the negativity coming from the other benches. However, they are not so sympathetic to the SNP Mark II, which has control over everything. Throw in a leader like Mr Salmond, who rarely resists the opportunity to rub his defeated enemies" noses in it and exert power as he wishes, and the fear in some SNP circles is that mood could change against them. The First Minister may feel justified in his ability to walk all over Scotland's opposition parties at present. The danger is if the public decides that, in that case they better oppose him instead. There are plenty of caveats to this, including surveys which show Mr Salmond still has positive approval ratings, in contrast to his counterparts in Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. Unlike those parties, of course, the First Minister has managed to keep his fingers off the unpopular austerity measures they have had to accept. Mr Salmond may be implementing some of them, but the point is the public believes he'd rather not. But given the First Minister's dominance of the Scottish political scene, it does not need to be said that any souring of the mood against him would damage the independence cause. The noises from Mr Salmond's camp after last week's election were that they intended to show this was a "broad" campaign which will aim to embrace political opinion from all parties and none. The point seems to be to show that the issue of independence is a separate question to the issue of the SNP as a governing party, and Mr Salmond as a First Minister. It is a logical point - and if the public's grumbles against Mr Salmond continue, it is also a point which may make political sense as well.