I’m not sure I can put into words quite how bad the results were for the Liberal Democrats. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy and they certainly aren’t that. It’s actually kind of pointless to attempt to work out what went so wrong.

Tavish Scott resigned shortly after the results, clearly shocked and upset by the results that left as one of only two constituency MSPs. The Liberal Democrats were wiped out from the mainland, reduced from 16 MSPs to just 5.

Whilst obviously, they got a kicking for the coalition, there campaign was kind of odd. Concentrating almost solely on the “Single Police Force” issue, before trying to convince Scotland that the SNP were going to force Independence on the country and it was sooooo scary, you needed to vote LibDem because …. err …. well, I’m not sure actually and that was the problem in the end. Unless you really liked your Regional police force, there wasn’t anything stopping you giving the Lib Dems a kicking.

One activist couldn’t believe they hadn’t picked up a Lothian list seat. I’m sorry to bang on about this, but the Lothian Region is larger than just Edinburgh. The Scottish Greens outpolled the Lib Dems in both Almond Vally and Linlithgow. In fact, in Almond Valley, the Lib Dems came just 216 votes ahead of the British National Party.

I’m not sure I can see the LibDems coming back from this, not in Scotland not for 20 years. Douglas McLellan stated “We are a Scottish Party and we need to show it” and I think the idea of a Federal system to replace the Westminster system is the only way forward. A regional system somewhere between the Union and Independence. But the Liberal Democrats never ever seem to mention it, and I’m not even sure I understand it.

I’d hate to think that liberalism in Scotland will die along with the Liberal Democrats.

I don’t think anyone will have quite come to terms with the election result from Thursday, not even the SNP. I’m going to finish the election coverage by reviewing the results of each party. After that I’ll be focusing on checking the SNP keep to their green promises, how issues such as land reform will progress, and seeing how the other parties react to there being a majority party in government. Oh and there might be some talk about that referedum.

Labour’s leader Iain Gray will be off in the autumn, and Tavish Scott has gone already, but I want to start the party that did not lose any seats, even if they were disappointed that they didn’t gain any, the Greens.

Positively speaking, they weren’t wiped away by the SNP surge, and they could have been said to actually gain two seats rather than hold onto them. Patrick Harvie’s seat is actually a notional gain because of boundary changes and there was very real talk of him losing his seat before the election started. In the end, he held it comfortably, taking 3rd place on the list and increasing his vote share by 0.8%

In the Lothians, there was some talk of there being a large personal vote for Robin Harper, so it was good to see Alison Johnstone as a new face for the Green Party, also with an increased vote share of 0.5%.

However, despite, co-conveyor Eleanor Scott coming 877 votes from winning a seat in the Highlands and Islands, they never got close elsewhere and the breakthrough to 5-8 MSPs that some polls were predicting.

The party will need to look at why there weren’t able to pick up LibDem voters and whether it was simply the #bothvotesnp tactic was so sucessful at picking up the regional votes. How does a smaller party counter the fact that the SNP (and surely Labour at the next election) now target list votes ?

Game over.  Please hold whilst we count the votes and then verify them. There will be quite a few people leaving the Holyrood house, but the winner of Big Holyrood Brother is …. well, let’s wait and see.

But how did the contestants do over last few weeks :-

SNP

Top marks for the SNP election team.  Overturned a Labour poll lead and at certain stages had incredible poll results.  If they get close to those results they will return and form an even strong minority government.  They clearly had money to spend, their manifesto was slick and stylish.  In the leaders debates Alex Salmond was clearly the best performer.  On the internet, the SNP won, owning Twitter.  It is a force to behold.  Will be immensely disappointed if they don’t improve on their 2007 position and they surely will.

Conservative

Conservative by name, and this election performance was conservative by nature.  Clearly, the gameplan was to play safe and appeal to the core vote only.  Annabel Goldie carried her role in parliament into the debates, promising to “keep an eye” on the bad boys.  Quite boring and will probably return roughly the same amount of MSPs as before.  A result considering the UK government, but is that enough?

Labour

This campaign went as wrong as it is possible to be.  Went the for wrong option at the start, making out it was them v the UK Tories. When they realised it was a mistake it was too late.  Even then the chose the wrong option of trying to make it about Independence; you can’t tell the electorate what they should think anymore.  The knife policy was a disaster from the start, and the numbers didn’t add up.  And then there was Iain Gray.  Where to begin?  Well it more or less ended with the Subway Runaway.  Now, it looks like it will be a good night for Iain if he manages to hold onto his seat.

Liberal Democrats

The LibDems tried to focus on one subject, the police force.  Understandable, considering the problems with perception they faced coming into the election.  However, the voters weren’t having it and neither were the media.  Tavish Scott had a savage interview with Gordon Brewer, and whilst he did well enough in the leader’s debate, the tone was set.  The LibDems were forced to face both ways with regard to the coalition and the polls showed the voters didn’t like it.  A late attempt to join Labour on trying to make the election about Independence was just embarrassing.  No heads should role over the election results, as it was external (to Scotland and Tavish Scott) forces that made this election so bad.

Scottish Green Party

The Greens were very successful in showing something different from the other parties.  Even when they were squeezed on “green” issues (the SNP promising 100% renewable electricity production, for example), they were the only party to give different options on tax and cuts.  They managed to get their points across despite being left out of the leader’s debates.  If I had a critisim, it would be that it appeared they were a one man band with Patrick Harvie seemingly everywhere at once ( a credit to the public transport system) The polls look like they will have a return to 2003 levels and help shape the next parliament in an even more green way.

How did I vote?

Taking into account my key ideals, it is probably no surprise to anyone that I voted “Scottish Green Party” on the Regional vote.

For the constituency vote, I considered a number of issues when deciding who to vote for, and drew up a spreadsheet (yes, I know).  I considered how good a candidate I thought they were, how they were one local issues, how they answered the questions I asked them, how their parties policies were close to mine and on how their and their parties Green credentials stood up. It was weighted and everything.

If it was an AV system, I would rank them as follows :-

1. Fiona Hyslop (31pts)
2. Jenni Lang (27)
3. Chris Donnelly (23)
4. Mary Mulligan (16)

If Fiona Hyslop hadn’t answered the questions then Jenni Lang would have won.  (A salient note to Mary Mulligan there; I would never vote Conservative, she is the sitting MSP yet she ranked bottom of the list)