We’re in John Swinney’s hands for another five years.
That’s Scotland’s verdict after a “meh” election that left the nation cold.
The message from polling booths across the country was this: we don’t want more of the same.
Like a league table at the end of the football season, an election result is never wrong. Scots made it clear they want the SNP as the largest party, with trusted gaffer John Swinney in the dugout.
His party has earned the right to be top of the tree – it has been better than the alternatives.
But Scots didn’t give him the majority he wanted. Scots didn’t vote for the referendum he promised.
They did vote for Swinney to put Scotland right. To sort our hospitals, our schools, the cost of living.
If the SNP treats this result as permission to spend another five years picking fights about independence, it will eventually be punished.
Punished, perhaps, like the former party of government Scottish Labour, now in Scottish politics’ relegation zone, dragged down by the deadweight of Keir Starmer’s London Labour.
Anas Sarwar did what he could but a campaign that never caught its stride was tripped up by scandal down south.
In the end, Scottish voters rejected Labour’s red rosette in favour of their own red card.
That is the lesson Sir Keir Starmer must take from this election. He’s dragging his party down.
Meanwhile, the populists of Reform and the Greens scooped up plenty of votes from scunnered Scots.
Politicians should instead ask themselves why Reform and the Greens picked up so much support.
We exposed some of Reform’s candidates as racists and cranks. But those who voted for Nigel Farage’s party are neither of those things. They’ve just had enough of platitudes on immigration. Maybe they like Reform’s pledges to fix the NHS and cut energy bills, too.
People who back the Greens don’t want to crash the economy, either. But they do like the party’s compassion for the poor and the young, their promises on public transport and their plans to tax the rich.
These parties now form a new-look parliament – the Holyrood Scotland has chosen. A government that won cleanly – but without a majority. A government that needs partners. An opposition that must be rebuilt.
Today’s Holyrood must do better than yesterday’s.
NHS waiting lists have not shrunk overnight. Schools are still slipping down the league tables. Drug deaths still shame us. The ferries are still failing islanders.
The attainment gap Nicola Sturgeon staked her reputation on closing is as wide as the day she made the promise.
None of it disappeared while votes were totted up.
So, to every MSP:
● Fix the NHS. Get the waiting lists down. Stop blaming Westminster for choices made here.
● Fix the schools. Close the gap between Scotland’s richest and poorest children.
● Fix the drug deaths. Stop treating them as someone else’s problem.
● Fix the ferries. Just. Fix. The. Ferries.
And do it without spending five years arguing about a referendum the country has not asked for.
To Anas Sarwar, our respect. The road back will be long. You have the character for it.
To John Swinney, congratulations – and a warning. The country has given you the benefit of the doubt, again. You’ve been a lucky leader. Now be a great one.
To every Scot who voted on Thursday: you did your duty. Now we look to our politicians to do theirs. A new Holyrood’s work starts now. Let’s demand a world-class performance.
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