There’s just the Highlands and Islands list left to count now but the Liberal Democrats will not win anything on that because we won 3 constituency seats.

So we end the day with 9 MSPs, more than double hte 4 elected in 2021.

Since 5:30, we have seen David Green take Caithness, Sutherland and Ross with a staggering 48% of the vote.

Then Andrew Baxter won Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch by just around 1000 votes.

There was heartbreak when Neil Alexander missed out on Inverness and Nairn by just over 400 votes. He had run a brilliant campaign to come from fourth to a very close second.

Yi-Pei Chou Turvey regained a list spot in the North East and Duncan Dunlop won on the South of Scotland list.

We missed out on a list seat in Mid Scotland and Fife despite a vibrant and energetic campaign that covered the whole region.

So we have our 9. At this point, we know that the SNP is the largest party but they  fall short of a t majority, which is kind of how it is meant to be.

At time of writing, we have no idea who the official opposition is going to be. Labour are down 3 on 17 and Reform are on 15.  Reform might take 3 seats on the regional list, taking them to 18. Labour’s chances of picking up any on the list have lessened after they won the Na h-eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) seat quite unexpectedly. There’s a non zero chance that both parties could end up with the same number of MSPs.

The Greens have done well, currently up 5 at 13 while the Conservatives have tanked, losing 16 seats.

I shall write some more on the implications of all of this in the morning but I can barely stay awake right now.

Even now, all the English Council results aren’t in. Our hopes in Islington were dashed by a Green surge. In Manchester, we survived and it just shows how much a one party state the council was that Labour could lose 24 seats to the Greens and Reform and still control the Council. We held the one seat we were defending.

More tomorrow but now I need to sleep.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social