Compare the turbulence of the past five years to the Scottish election results. No change – or change so piddling as to make mentioning it seem pedantic. Holyrood’s elite was effectively reproduced intact.
Holyrood election 2021
“Independence supporters face the prospect of explaining and reaffirming the expanded mandate for they have won. Many will not look forward to beating their head against this particular brick wall once again, as the unionist counter-argument will only become more shrill, obstinate and unconcerned with democracy the more they are put on the defensive.”
Sean Bell: After the election, what comes next?
“Tomorrow’s Holyrood election – for which more than 4.2 million people have registered to vote, the highest number yet recorded – has arguably frustrated Scotland’s politicians at least as much as the public on whom their futures depend.”
Sean Bell: What kind of election campaign has it been?
This year, the 70th anniversary of the year of the UN Refugee Convention, refugees have been given the right to vote in the Scottish Parliamentary elections for the first time.
This Election Sees Refugees Given Right to Vote For the First Time
“As our national and international conversations turns increasingly towards post-Covid recovery, we will dwell less on what has traumatised us and more on what might heal us. Of course, this is where it gets tricky.”
Sean Bell: What does a post-Covid recovery for our mental health look like?
IPPR Scotland have produced a report calling on the Scottish government to reform council tax, re-evaluating house values and billing 0.75% of a home’s value.
Council Tax Reform: Who Should Pay for Covid Recovery?
“When a party offers voters nothing but its leader’s personality, and all the baggage that comes with it, then it is by that factor it will live or die.”
Sean Bell: No matter what Alex Salmond claims, Alba is a personality project
“It would be really, really nice is Hamilton’s verdict signalled a new stage of our political discourse – one which prioritised the issues facing Scotland, rather than its current and former first ministers, and where matters of sovereignty, social and economic justice, and protecting the vulnerable and the marginalised do not take a backseat to tortuous inquiries and the shenanigans they allow.”