The game is up for the SNP after its election meltdown

Every election is historic in its own way, and of course the top line this 2024 general election is Labour’s humongous parliamentary majority. Though never can a landslide have been delivered with so little voter enthusiasm. But something equally significant happened in the wee small hours of the morning. For, an existential threat that has arguably hung over the United Kingdom for nigh on twenty years simply evaporated. The all-powerful Scottish National Party collapsed in ruins, losing all but nine of its forty-eight Scottish MPs. This is worse than even the most pessimistic poll forecasts.

Yet, less than a decade ago the Scottish National Party won all but three of Scotland’s then 59 Westminster seats in what was called the tsunami election of 2015. Scots continued to vote for the party of independence in record numbers. In 2019, Labour returned only one Scottish MP, the shadow Scottish secretary, Ian Murray, in Edinburgh South. Under