Little thread #SP21result ...

I’m going to give all the smart people saying silly things a free pass for a few days. This is what happens at elections. People are tired. Emotional. Unsure of what the line is going to be. Fine.

But my friends in the unionist community are going to have to engage their brains very very soon. And I am of the view that Labour will get there first.

This election was framed by both the SNP and the Tories as being a referendum on a referendum. They both created the narrative that yesterday was people’s opportunity to express their democratic wish one way or another.

We now know that the SNP spread will be, I guess, 62-66, likely to be bang in the middle at 64. In other words, they have won and won by a massive margin. This is not first past the post. Winning is not defined by achieving a majority.

If they can form a government either on their own or with another party which supports an agreed set of policies, including having a referendum, then that is a mandate.

This is not about unionism or nationalism, it is about democracy. This is really quite obvious if you think about it unemotionally and objectively.

And I have two messages for those Tories who love nothing more than to call me a traitor and tell me that they’re terribly smart and I don’t know what I’m talking about....

(1) by denying a democratic request and compelling Scotland to stay in the Union rather than allowing us to choose to do so (which I would, just for the record), you are sleepwalking straight into independence. Just a matter of time. The middle 20% will turn against you.

(2) you can stop all this, by creating a party which is an alternative government rather than a permanent opposition, and winning an election. Maybe you should give it a try. They can’t have a referendum if they lose.

I’ll be on @ScotlandTonight @WeAreSTV from around 4.30pm onwards, and no doubt this will come up!

Oh, and (3), actually, if you spend a bit more time thinking by about how to win a referendum rather than about how to stop one, you might find it easier than you think, and you can put this issue to bed for good.