The Scottish National party (SNP) has failed to win an overall majority in the Scottish parliament. With an expected 63 MSPs, it has fallen just short of the 65 target which John Swinney said would have been a mandate for an independence referendum – not that Westminster would have authorised one any time soon.

However, this is still a very good result for Mr Swinney after a pretty lacklustre campaign in which many of his party’s policies – like a price cap on supermarket goods – did not land well. Many forecasters, including Ipsos in the Times, thought he would return fewer than sixty MSPs.

This means that, with the Scottish Green party result – which has been the other big story of the Holyrood elections – there will be the largest ever parliamentary majority for independence. The Scottish Greens are expected to return double figures of MSPs, including their first-ever constituency members. The Greens won Nicola Sturgeon’s old seat in Glasgow Southside, and they defeated the SNP cabinet minister Angus Robertson in Edinburgh Central.

John Swinney has to decide how to secure a stable administration in the Scottish........

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