As the votes pile up for the SNP, so too does the responsibility

Hindsight, they say, is easy but even now, five long years on, it is hard to see how we all missed it, the elephant in the voting booth.

So many people had so many things to say during the independence referendum but so few suggested what might actually happen after 45% of Scots said Yes.

Not many among the serried ranks of experts and commentators thought to predict that when the dust settled, those Scots would continue to vote Yes – or, at least, SNP – for the foreseeable future and that, with 40% or so of the vote, the only question posed in future polls would be exactly how big the Nationalists might win.

In the same way the Irish Backstop was never mentioned during the EU referendum, SNP domination seems to have arrived unannounced in 2014 and, five years on, for those of us who like a little suspense on election night, it remains a bit of a buzz killer.

The rest of Britain is another story, and no one, absolutely no one, knows how this is going to go. There are so many moving parts, so much confusion, that only when Huw Edwards announces election seer Sir John Curtice’s exit poll at 10.01 on December 12, will we know what might be coming next. There is one certainty, however. For good or

‘ Good or bad, right or wrong, this is the SNP’S election and they will own it

ill, right or wrong, Nicola Sturgeon will own it. This is the SNP’S election. They may have wanted it to protect Scotland from the ravages of Brexit or because it suits their own party’s interests or a mixture of the two, but they wanted it. And we’ve got it.

A party still in furious denial, 40 years later, about bringing down a Labour government to usher Margaret Thatcher into Downing Street, may have just forced a poll ensuring Boris Johnson is returned to Number 10 with a more solid majority, more solidly behind his brand of do-or-die Brexiteering. It is quite a move for a party of Remain and their Lib Dem allies, who are, of course, also hoping for a windfall of seats.

It is still possible, of course, that Jeremy Corbyn is inside Number 10 come Christmas, possibly propped up by the SNP, probably because of his promise to sanction another independence referendum.

However, Ms Sturgeon knows as well as anyone that her party’s expected success does not necessarily mean most Scots want another poll. Indeed, many SNP voters may not particularly want one either.

Is it at all realistic to desire – never mind demand – another big vote next year when Britain’s future will still only be seen through a glass darkly, when we are likely to be mired in Brexit- related negotiations, when, even if Boris Johnson pushes through his Brexit agreement, the prospect of a no- deal may still be looming at the end of the year.

Publicly, the First Minister will, of course, present the SNP’S next big win as another mandate for another independence poll.

Privately, most Scots would like her to give other issues, health and education, just for example, similar priority as she gets ready to hit the hustings.