{"id":760,"date":"2021-05-21T09:21:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T09:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jointpublicissues.org.uk\/?p=10230"},"modified":"2021-05-21T09:21:36","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T09:21:36","slug":"reflections-on-the-scottish-parliament-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/?p=760","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the Scottish Parliament elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Do you ever get that feeling as you approach 6 January? The one which is part relief that \u2018Christmas\u2019 (which started in October with the shops putting up decorations) is finally over? But which is also part sadness that, with the decorations being put away, the reality of normal life and routine is fast approaching?<\/p>\n

I am getting that same sense of climax\/anti-climax two weeks on from the Scottish Parliament election results. The long build-up to the campaign, the change of leaders of both the Conservatives and Labour a few months before the election, the short Covid campaign, the reappearance of Alex Salmond, the opinion polls, the protracted results weekend\u2026 and now we get back to business, with the election of a Presiding Officer last week, and this week the reappointment of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister and the putting together of a new Cabinet.  <\/p>\n

The headline figures in terms of numbers of seats compared to the 2016 results seem to show very little political change. So what can we expect to see?<\/p>\n

The first thing is that behind the almost static numbers of political representation, the Parliament looks pretty different. There are more than 40 new MSPs (out of a total of 129), and Holyrood now has women sitting in 45% of the seats. There are now six MSPs from ethnic minority backgrounds, up from two in the last Parliament. Both these statistics mean that, on these characteristics, Holyrood is getting closer to looking like the population of Scotland as a whole. There are new young faces, including 23 year old Emma Roddick who is the youngest MSP, representing the Highlands and Islands region.<\/p>\n

Emma has said that the lowering of the voting age to 16 in
\nScotland for all elections apart from UK General Elections has done \u201cwonders\u201d
\nfor youth engagement in politics. This 2021 election also saw any legal
\nresident of Scotland, including refugees, having the right to vote. Overall
\nturnout was up nearly 8 points from the previous election at 63.5% \u2013 the
\nhighest ever for a Scottish Parliament election.<\/p>\n

And so as we move from the campaign and election to the future, we already know what to expect. The SNP published a guide as to what they would do in the first 100 days<\/a>, including two issues I wanted to highlight: <\/p>\n