A force awakens in Scotland: the Union strikes back

Nicola Sturgeon has her mandate but it is a smaller, feebler, mandate than almost everyone thought likely as recently as 18 hours ago. The SNP remains the natural party of government in Scotland – a position it is unlikely to relinquish for the foreseeable future – but it no longer enjoys an overall majority at Holyrood. The nationalist advance, seemingly all-powerful and unstoppable, has not been stopped but it has been checked.

Now you could hardly call winning almost half the seats in a system expressly designed to make a majority all but impossible except in the most freakish circumstances a disappointing result. And, indeed, the SNP share of the vote increased by a couple of points on 2011. And yet this remarkable result is nonetheless tinged with a mild degree of disappointment for the SNP. It was very, very good but it was not the greatness to which the party has been accustomed and which it – or at least its supporters – expected again last night.