Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has suddenly terminated the Bute House agreement, the pact between the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Greens, which ensured a majority for the Scottish…
The UK is now the only democracy where the children of formerly colonised people are running the country that colonised their parents’ and grandparents’ nations.
Here are five political leaders from around the world who are emerging as significant talents and possible contenders for influence in 2017 and beyond.
Campaign strategist Lynton Crosby has become something of a folk-devil for sections of the British and Australian media.
Reuters/Stefan Wermuth
Lynton Crosby is the manipulator with the Midas touch, who has a reputation for tapping into those ideas and prejudices that coarsen public life but are seemingly widely held and a ballot-box boon.
The success of Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party has profoundly disrupted the tedious pendulum movement between Left and Right.
EPA/Robert Perry
With a steady hollowing out of membership, the cosying up to vested interests with pockets deep enough to maintain party, today’s political parties barely “represent”.
Ed Miliband’s Labour Party gained a swing twice as big as the Conservatives did but lost seats, leading him to resign.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
Labour, UKIP and the Greens all gained much bigger swings than the Conservatives, but were election losers. The first-past-the-post system let the Tories pick up a swag of seats with a 0.8% swing.
UKIP won 12.6% of the vote share, but only one seat – not Nigel Farage’s.
Hannah McKay/EPA
The Conservative Party looks set to do even better than the surprising exit polls predicted, but the real glory in this election lies with the small parties. The SNP have virtually wiped the main parties…
Under Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish National Party has swept Scotland at Labour’s expense.
Scottish Sun
The Murdoch press strategy of supporting the Conservatives in England and the SNP in Scotland reflected a common interest in denying Labour government in the UK election.
Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party has rebounded from the referendum defeat to emerge as the likely third-biggest party and kingmaker in the UK parliament.
AAP/Newzulu/Brian Duffy
Last year’s independence referendum failed narrowly, but the Scottish electorate has emerged as a force that may well decide who forms the next British government.
The Tories are on course to lose their only Scottish seat, and they need to pick another up. They’ve found a target – and ended up in a three-way battle.
Centenary Research Professor, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra; Professor of Political Science, London School of Economics and Political Science