When I was a reporter in the Scottish Parliament seven years ago, I wrote a piece on the life of the poor Hansard reporters up there. The MSPs were not the most educated types and the Official Report staff had to un-garble their words every night. They claimed some was Scots. But one phrase made it through to the record: a Scottish Nationalist saying his rival was “elected by a ba hair of 38 votes”.
Today, the SNP won the Scottish Parliament by a ba’ hair of one seat: 47 seats to 46. Or, 32.2% to 32.9%. Savour this result: it is just enough to oust Labour, give them a spanking but not enough for the nationalists to claim any moral superiority. Factor in those 100,000 spoiled votes, and who knows what the real result was? I’d like to see the strength of the coalition this will lead to. Salmond will have to temper his pious speeches about a groundswell towards independence. I often mused that the only downside about Labour losing Scotland is that the SNP would have to win. Perhaps my dream scenario has happened. Dismay all around in Scottish politics tonight. Serves them all right.
The internet really comes into on election nights, as I saw in that BBC pub I was in last night. The Beeb had to wait for results to be announced, as it has for decades, but the ConservativeHome team sitting opposite me had a constant stream of emails from Tory central office and councillors up and down the country feeding the gossip. We were waiting on them to see what’s happening. It’s a great environment for the new media, and an ideal time for the Spectator Coffee House to launch.
Fraser Nelson
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