When I stood down as political editor of The Scotsman five years ago, the country looked to be forever Labour – even if they called in Salmond for some Puck-style light relief. Not so now. The SNP seems to have pulled off a minor revolution. Scotland wakes to find Labour MSPs being toppled from former strongholds like Glasgow Shettleston – the city itself is now almost all SNP. The BBC say Alex Salmond is heading for a majority, and in a Holyrood which was designed to make it almost impossible for any party so to do. Salmond is already pledging that his next mission is an independence referendum.
The Lib Dems have taken what seems to be a punishment beating for coalition with the Tories in Westminster. They were Labour’s partners between 99-07 in Holyrood, and while they claim a federal structure and separate Scottish identity this seems not to have washed.
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