I am not long back from the AV referendum count at DISC after three hours sleep last night and a 22.5 hour working day on polling day, so I'll try to keep this necessarily short ...
The election result has been exceptionally disappointing for the Liberal Democrats and in Dundee it was no different. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who voted Scottish Liberal Democrats in Dundee yesterday and also place on record my appreciation to Alison Burns in Dundee City West, Allan Petrie in Dundee City East and our team of party workers for all their hard-working efforts in such difficult circumstances.
The SNP has won a famous victory across Scotland and they deserve congratulation for their slick, professional campaign. They have promised the earth. Their majority government has no excuses for failure to deliver. So let's wait to see the effect of on council services of their unfunded 5 year Council Tax freeze, how long they put off an independence referendum, and if they deliver on the many other costly promises they have made.
I am by nature a party loyalist, and my natural instinct is always to be supportive to the party and the leadership. But I am gutted at what happened the Scottish Liberal Democrat vote in Scotland yesterday and the loss of so many good, hard-working MSPs. I am awfully relieved at the re-election of our North East regional MSP Alison McInnes and at the election of Willie Rennie to the parliament - the Scottish LibDem MSP to watch. But I cannot pretend it was anything remotely like a half decent night for the Scottish Liberal Democrats. But we'll bounce back. In the immortal words of Yazz, the only way is up.