Happy New Year!

I haven’t been about for a bit, suffering from prolonged election fatigue!

Well last year was simply a sensational year in Scottish politics.

The election itself was sensational. There was voter confusion, helicopters not getting off the ground, mad-man swinging a golf club, counting machines not working and counts postponed. All that before 11 o’clock at night!

When the result was announced , just before tea time the next evening, it couldn’t get more dramatic. It came down to the final declaration. And what a historic declaration. The Labour hegemony on political power in Scotland was finally broken. There was a new dawn. Alex Salmond was First Minister.

Salmond was quickly in action dealing with the first terrorist attack in Scotland of its kind. An apparent suicide bomber drove straight at Glasgow Airport intending to cause death and carnage.

After Jack McConnell vowed to continue as Labour leader, his position soon became untenable and Wendy Alexander got elected unopposed. She had hardly got her feet under the table when she was embroiled in trouble. An allegedly dodgy donation for her leadership election campaign has been acknowledged as illegal by her own party. What makes it even more unbelievable, was that she was elected unopposed. Will she be following Jack McConnell sooner rather than later?

Another thing that bit the dust in 2007 was the Best Small Country in the World slogan that Scotland used. Although papers released in 2008 show that Scotland would have been a whole lot bigger (economical) independent country if it wasn’t deceived by successive Westminster governments about the value of its oil revenues.

So 2008 has kicked off with a real political hot potato. Will the year continue in similar fashion?

Keep up to date with all the political debate at Our Scotland.