Sturgeon wins a resounding victory — and a mandate for indyref2

The Scottish election is over but the battle for the winning narrative has only just begun. Clearly, in the eyes of most democrats, the SNP with 64 seats to the Conservatives’ 31 have won big time. But since the party was one tantalising seat short of clinching an overall majority (so much harder to achieve in proportional Holyrood than winner-takes-all, first-past-the-post Westminster), that is now being cast as a fail.

All day Saturday, BBC TV carried a rolling caption on its election special declaring that the SNP were ‘short of a majority’. It was the same story on Sky News whose Saturday night headlines proclaimed: ‘Nicola Sturgeon’s hopes of winning a majority uncertain; Labour maintain control of Senedd.’

Now, fair play. Welsh Labour won 30 of 60 Senedd seats, but technically that’s one short of an overall majority. But because the parliament’s presiding officer — supplied by an opposition party — doesn’t vote, Labour will probably not lose a budget or face a no-confidence vote.