Scottish Election 2016

So the SNP have won again but with a little bit less of the vote which mean they won't quite manage a majority in a Parliament where majorities were designed to be nearly impossible.

The surprise of the night (well is it a surprise anymore?) seems to be that Labour continue their descent into irrelevance as the Tories have taken second place. I have a few theories on this one but it's hard to know exactly what's going on there.

It could be that the Unionist vote has decided to vote Tory, it could be that those wanting to take a pop at the SNP government have decided that Labour isn't worth their vote and held their nose and voted Tory or it could be that they've genuinely done a good job of appealing to the people. I think their leader is actually relatively popular and talks a good game, which for a Tory in Scotland is something of a coup.

In any case, the SNP will form a government and Nicola Sturgeon will be First Minister. It's interesting that the three main party leaders in Scotland are all women but I imagine Labour might be looking for yet another new leader after this.