There was no hiding the joy of Edinburgh’s Greens at last week’s election count at Ingliston and who could blame them. Returning two MSPs would have been considered a triumph, but four was beyond their wildest dreams.

Dreams are something of which the Greens have a-plenty: where criminals can roam the streets without fear of prison, and where economic growth, personal ambition and private enterprise are quaint relics of the past. And of course energy can only come from the wind and the sun.

Not that those dreams are likely to be shattered by anything resembling reality, and between now and the council elections next year support is, if anything, likely to harden if John Swinney looks to the other parties to help pass legislation on a case by case basis, rather than be in hock to an outfit which very nearly drove the SNP onto the rocks in the mad years of the Bute House Agreement.

Lorna Slater’s reward for being a hapless government minister with responsibility for the botched deposit return scheme is to unseat another, Angus Robertson, who dodged any accusation of incompetence by not leading on anything remotely significant or difficult. The result is the redrawn Edinburgh Central constituency now has its fifth MSP in 17 years, changing hands at each of the last four elections.

But change is in the air in Edinburgh − if the two traditional UK parties got a kicking last week, it might just be a softening up for next May, and with Labour’s leadership in both Scotland and London looking determined to press on, the........

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