Election Special 2026

Tories to the west of me, Tories to the east, here I am, stuck in the middle with youse.

What the @%*& just happened? This election result is making me feel quite unsettled.

In D&G

• The Tory vote held up running contrary to most of the UK.
• Reform did poorly yet were rewarded with seats.
• SNP ended up with no seats in South Scotland, but had the 2nd largest number of votes.
• Greens got their first seat.

Before I go on to explain why I think the 2026 election was a good result for Scotland, let’s focus on the disaster in D&G.

What struck me the most was that we seem to live in a bubble. The Tories were decimated elsewhere, nobody anywhere in the UK sees the Tories as a credible party, yet we in D&G returned two.

It feels like we’re a fifth nation in the UK.

Why this is good for the management of Scotland.

58 SNP and 15 Greens means no delays in passing progressive legislation through parliament. It also means a majority vote on matters of independence.

If we cut Labour some slack and imagine they would vote on the issues rather than just opposing the SNP then the parliament is composed of 100 centre to left MSP and 29 dingbats of Tories and Reform.

The gap between SNP (58) and joint second place parties Labout and Reform (17 each) is still so wide it looks like SNP will win another term and another.

So we won’t devolve (excuse the pun) into complex battles and unholy deals to get business done. And the business will be progressive.

Why it’s bad for Scotland

Reform now have a foothold in the door will sit on, chair and depute a number of committees. They’ll trundled out the “well I don’t know much about this” line like they do in England. Let’s see how their maiden speeches go.