Today the Scottish National Party (SNP) have been returned to the Scottish Parliament with a majority.
As I write there are still 2 regional lists to be declared but the SNP have already 65 seats.
That is an astonishing result. The electoral system in Scotland is a mixture of first past the post and a regional top up list which was designed to make it all but impossible for any party to win a majority.
The Liberal Democrat vote has disintegrated and almost all of it has gone to the SNP. The SNP have won seats in some of Labour’s heartland constituencies in Lanarkshire and Glasgow.
There will now at some point in the next 5 years be a referendum on independence. I wouldn’t be against it being in June 2014, the 700th anniversary of Bannockburn.