The Greens’ absence from most constituencies is a widely known feature of Scottish politics. The reasons why, however, are much less weel-kent, and the absence hasn’t been complete, allowing a reasonable guess at an alternative 2021 outcome.
Scottish Parliament 2021
SP21 – Reforming AMS
Sure, Holyrood is unlikely to vote for my hyper-proportional, FPTP-free preferred voting system. But there are some solid, yet mild, reforms to AMS that could vastly improve it.
SP21 – A Host of Hypotheticals
With analysis of the real election results out of the way, BBS now turns to one of my pet topics – hypothetical electoral reforms to improve proportionality!
SP21 – Mapping the Marginals
Scotland came into the election with 16 marginal seats, and has left with the same number – though only 12 are the same seats. Tactical voting was a story of the election, and seems to have benefitted Labour and Lib Dems more than Conservatives.
SP21 – Swings and Roundabouts
An election that saw very few seats change hands nonetheless exposed fascinating patterns of shifting party support across Scotland.
SP21 – Where The Votes Came From
The first in a series of deeper dives into the Holyrood results, this piece looks at how each party’s vote share was spread across the country.
SP21 – The Headline Results
With the Holyrood election finally done and dusted, the work begins on digging into the detail of what happened. In this first post-election piece, we start wih the headline figures for each party.
SP21 – Final Ballot Box Scotland Projection
Polling day is finally here! That means it’s time to take one final look at where polling ended up, and how seats could shake out. Warning: if you’re after absolute certainties, you won’t find them here.
SP21 – What Happened to the SNP’s Majority in 2016?
“Will the SNP win a majority?” is one of this election’s biggest questions – but what happened that meant they lost it in 2016? Spoiler: It wasn’t the Greens, but instead serious setbacks in the SNP’s historic heartlands.
SP21 – The Jaikets on Shoogly Pegs
It’s not an election without a few sitting representatives being sent packing by the electorate – or, sometimes, their own party! In this piece, we go through the unlucky 13 recent polling put in the toughest position.