The result of the Scottish parliamentary elections is what I was afraid of. The SNP dependency on the Greens is, aside from Reform actually winning, the worst possible outcome — to say nothing good came from this in the pervious parliament is a huge understatement, and an exercise in restraint.

Actually, it was a fucking disaster that resulted in multiple failed legislative efforts, brought down the First Minister, and took us further away from independence than we have been in this generation (the good people of Edinburgh Central obviously have a memory shorter than a fruit fly, for Slater is surely a leading candidate for the most inept Scottish minister of all time).

As lot of Scotland, I expect, I was shocked to discover that folk on temporary, about to expire, visa can get elected to be an MSP; half-baked legislation is the norm in the UK, but still, this is something else, and I gather the concerns about possible abuse of the 2024 legislative change were raised while it was passing through the parliament and brushed aside.

If nothing else, the optics of it are terrible, and will feed the anti-immigration feeling that is already there in some quarters, but I actually personally find this situation pretty outrageous, to me it’s an outright abuse of a permissive system (and I say this as a new Scot myself).

This incident has clearly highlighted the basic flaw of the top-up list system: the top-up is opaque and there is no contract between the electorate and the individuals appointed to be MSPs (for they are not elected as individuals by any meaningful standard), and hence there is no accountability (I can’t help but wonder how many people of Edinburgh & Lothians East who gave the Greens the second vote are uncomfortable with the current situation).

This incident has also brought into forefront the fact that MSPs are grossly overpaid; their £77.7k salaries are just shy of double the median income of a full-time working Scot (£39.7k). I do think elected politicians’ wages should be capped at the median; this would give them both the incentive for living standards to improve, and the disincentive to rush in for the money.

The large number of seats gained by Reform is disappointing but not surprising. Swiney has got some flack for refusing to work with them, but he is right in that regard; you can’t constructively work on legislation with a party that doesn’t believe the Parliament is legitimate. Again, folk have very short memories, this is standard Farage politics that mirror his stint as an MEP. To me it is again an abuse of the system (the appropriate place for their politics is Westminster).

All in all, I don’t expect much of genuine significance and a benefit to the people of Scotland to come out of this parliament, we are in for some more of the same of the last five years.