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This was Scotland’s most boring election, and its most important
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It was mostly dreich in Scotland yesterday, and everything felt familiar.

We've had 13 elections and referendums in the past decade, and the results have become as routine as the short walk to the polling station. There will be another SNP victory. Support for independence continues to rise. The Union is still in crisis.

Mid-afternoon, as polling stations got busier, the drizzle became hail and rattled roofs across Edinburgh. This wasn’t just another day in May. This time was different.

Yesterday saw the most boring election in the history of the Scottish parliament, and yet, at the same time, the most important.

There were some vivid moments. I’ll relish the memory of Green co-leader Patrick Harvie rounding on Tory Douglas Ross over his history of persecuting Scottish Travellers. It was extraordinary watching party leaders embrace radical ideas, like a basic income, as the pandemic stretched the bounds of reality. And it was satisfying seeing Nicola Sturgeon yesterday square up to Britain First.

But it was boring because no one really expects an upset. Sturgeon will still be first minister next week, and there will almost certainly still be a majority of MSPs from the pro-independence SNP and Greens. But when the expected does happen it will still be an extraordinary moment.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/this-was-scotlands-most-boring-election-and-its-most-important/