For those of us pulling an eight-hour shift at the P&J conference arena at the Aberdeen election count the task of keeping ourselves occupied could have been challenging.

On Thursday night, however, we looked forward to the wise epithets of Nicola Sturgeon on ITV to keep us occupied. It turned out to be a false hope.

According to some of my broadcast colleagues, the former First Minister of Scotland was being paid £10,000 for her election night punditry. In the last 48 hours, several senior SNP people have spoken of the need to “reflect” on their electoral losses.

Perhaps ITV bosses will now be “reflecting” on their decision to hire Ms Sturgeon. Her only contributions of note grew more unhinged as the evening progressed. She began by being nasty about Peter Smith, one of the few Scottish broadcast journalists who ask the sitting government the questions that viewers are asking.

Mr Smith had rather expertly and eloquently nailed the lie that the SNP’s losses were mainly due to an overall desire to kick out the Tories.

Scottish voters aren’t stupid and don’t like being dismissed as the ignorant bigots that the Scottish Government and the Greens are so fond of portraying them as.

They turned on the SNP for no other reason than that they didn’t like what they were being told by the party and for their many manifest failures in office.

Ms Sturgeon also said that it was a mistake to chuck the Scottish Greens out of government.........

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