A changed political landscape

THERE is no getting away from the fact that the SNP achieved a stunning result on Friday, both nationally and here in the Highlands and Islands.

Apart from Orkney and Shetland, the political map of the region has turned from orange to yellow, with Dave Thompson and Rob Gibson adding conclusive victories on Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch and Caithness, Sutherland and Ross to Fergus Ewing’s more predictable triumph in Inverness and Nairn.

Clearly anger at the Lib Dems’ decision to join the Conservatives in coalition at Westminster played a major part, particularly the about turn that necessitated on student tuition fees. During the campaign John Farquhar Munro’s extraordinary declaration that Alex Salmond would make a better first minister than his own now departed leader Tavish Scott deepened the impression of a party in disarray north of the border. Scott himself veered between opposing the coalition in one speech and lauding the Lib Dems’ achievements in tempering Tory policies in the next.

The Lib Dems may also have suffered from simply being in a position of power for the first time in decades. Voters are cleverer than most politicians give them credit for and see that the SNP is focused on the needs of Scotland while Labour, the Conservatives, and now the Lib Dems, who were previously the party of protest, are beholden to their party’s big hitters in London. Labour fell into this trap early in the campaign when Ed Milliband declared at a rally in Glasgow that victory in Scotland would be a first step to winning back power at Westminster - suggesting that Holyrood is a mere regional staging post rather than an important institution in its own right.

In the coming months the three main parties will have to re-examine the relationship between their Scottish and Westminster operations, with greater separation seeming the only logical option. Somehow they must also find a way of stopping their biggest talents from disappearing south of the border.

Next up are the Highland Council elections in May 2012 and the SNP must fancy its chances of taking power here too. Currently the Independents hold 24 seats, the Lib-Dems 20, the SNP 17 and Labour seven. But it is not that clear cut. Personalities play a much bigger part when people come to cast their vote locally and the relationship between the council and the SNP government, which continues to demand a Council Tax freeze, has at times been difficult.

The general election, too, will be a different ball game, with many people who backed the SNP last week looking for a different home for their vote. Sitting Inverness and Nairn MP Danny Alexander is hoping that over the next four years the economy improves and the Lib-Dems are better able to sell their contribution to the coalition. But he has his work cut out.

For now the SNP is buoyant and carries a strong mandate back to Holyrood, where a number of testing financial challenges await. More fundamentally its victory has put independence - the "I" word barely mentioned during the election campaign - back on the agenda. That would impact on everyone and it is only a matter of time before the rest of the UK wakes up to the full enormity of what happened last Friday.