Scottish election 2021: How do voters feel about the results?
- Published
Scotland's voters turned out in record numbers last week to decide on who should represent them in Holyrood.
After two long days of socially distanced ballot counting across the country, the results came back with a parliament looking very similar to the one of the previous five years.
With a majority of the MSPs sworn in on Thursday in favour of a second independence referendum, the debate about Scotland's place in the United Kingdom is set to continue.
BBC Scotland spoke to six people from our voter panel to find out what they thought about the result and how they feel about the nation's future.
Ishani, a young SNP voter from Aberdeen, said she was pleased with the overall Scottish parliamentary election results.
"I did vote SNP and I'm very happy that the first minister can continue," she said. "I found the ideas of the SNP quite interesting this year, specifically for young people."
The University of Glasgow politics student said she hoped to see another independence referendum in the future.
"If it's a union of democracy, then I believe that Scotland is well within their constitutional rights to hold another referendum for the people," she said.
The result of the EU membership referendum influenced her thoughts on independence.
"Last time it was promised that Scotland would still be an EU member, which it is very much not now," she said. "It would only be decent for Scotland to be given the choice again".
Ishani said she hoped the next parliament would improve the NHS, by reducing waiting list times, and further supporting for mental health services, which she has seen the impact of first-hand since she began studying at university.
"Another thing that is equally important, I think, is looking at period poverty," she added.
Despite a bill going through in the last parliament, Ishani said accessibility was still an issue, and this needed to become more transparent for those who need it to benefit from it.
After voting for his local Labour candidate, semi-retired landlord Selwyn, said he was "disappointed" by the Scottish election result.
Selwyn does not welcome the prospect of an independent Scotland, and so the question of a second referendum was at the front of his mind when deciding which party to support in this election.
He said: "I'm not against the SNP or looking after the Scottish people, but I am against independence because I'm proud to be British.
"Having a second referendum would be a poor leadership decision. In my opinion, we are three to five years from seeing the other side of this pandemic with regards to recovery, and I really think politics should come second to life."
Aside from his concerns over independence, Selwyn said he was passionate about the Scottish government prioritising healthcare support during the upcoming parliamentary session.
He expressed his "immense pride" for NHS staff, however after recently having to seek private medical treatment due to the length of waiting lists, Selwyn believes more needs to be done to elevate the pressure on Scotland's healthcare system.
"We need an NHS which is well-funded and well-managed, and from my perspective this is not currently the case," he said.
Michèle, who runs a language teaching company in Glasgow, said she was hopeful about the next parliament.
As a Green voter she made a pragmatic choice for the SNP in her constituency because there were no candidates standing for her party, and put Scottish Greens on the list ballot paper.
"It could have been worse," she said. "I'm hoping for the best."
She said she felt that had the SNP managed to get 65 seats in parliament it would have been the "icing on the cake that would have put everyone in a much stronger position".
"We can see already the rhetoric around it - 'no clear mandate'," she said.
She is desperately hoping for a second independence referendum.
"I really hope that the SNP and the Greens realise that it is now time to come together and show a strong coalition agreement and dissolve all these arguments," Michèle said.
"I'm suffocating politically. I really need that to happen now."
Michèle, whose parents were Scottish and German, said she was keen for an independent Scotland to discuss whether it should re-join the EU, but climate change was the issue she wanted to see prioritised, especially when she considered the future her two children face as the planet heats up.
"I would really like to be able to answer my children whether they can have children, and at the moment I am not sure what to say that because it's not looking that great," she admitted.
"Climate change will impact them maybe making choices for themselves that are more determined by the circumstances than by what they would want to do with their lives."
With the country having experienced a number of changes and challenges since the last Holyrood election in 2016, Conservative voter Jacqui hoped this vote would be an opportunity to "shake things up" within Scottish politics.
Originally from Glasgow, Jacqui recently moved to the Highlands to help care for her elderly father.
She said she was unhappy with the provision of healthcare compared with Scotland's major cities and as the mother of a high school student she had concerns for education.
However, coming out of this election Jacqui said she felt "nothing has changed" with regard to these issues.
She said: "We are back to talking about IndyRef 2. We were £15bn in debt and we've obviously upped that and we're reliant on England and she [Sturgeon] is wanting to get us back into Europe. Why would we want to ruled by Europe?"
Jacqui said she disagreed with Nicola Sturgeon's plans for a second referendum.
"The money going into her independence campaign could have been invested in education, or welfare support, or mental health, or the NHS to help us through the pandemic," she said.
This election should have been delayed until the effects of the pandemic had settled, she said, which would have been "far fairer than causing the country further upset".
"It's an utter joke," she added. "I'm dreading the next five years."
As a "both votes SNP" voter in the west of Scotland, Chris was delighted with the overall results.
"I was happy, I mean I was genuinely happy," he said. "For example, the SNP getting Ayr. I know they got Edinburgh, but getting Ayr was the big one for me because it seems to have been voting Tory for a long time."
With Ayr being close to Chris's hometown of Irvine, he saw this as a particular triumph.
"I actually want an independence referendum because I feel like the last time, Scotland was robbed," Chris, who is unemployed, said.
"And just with the whole EU situation and stuff like that, nothing's come through from what the Better Together campaign told us, everything was a pack of lies."
Over the next five years, he would like to see further steps be taken by the newly elected government on drug policy, such as the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and Westminster's refusal to allow safe consumption rooms in Glasgow.
Chris said he also believed the legalisation and taxation of cannabis would be beneficial to Scotland as an independent nation, in both creating jobs and contributing to the economy.
Before the election he had concerns about media coverage of Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond.
"I was worried that the SNP was going to take a massive hit in this election because of that," Chris said. "I'm proud of the Scottish people for voting for them, and that they still have faith in them."
As a Liberal Democrat voter in his constituency in the south of Scotland, Douglas was disappointed by the election result across the country, particularly "the overwhelming votes in favour of the SNP".
The retired dentist said: "We've had an SNP government that's been in place for 14 years and they really haven't faced up to the issues that they should have."
He said the important issues facing Scotland included the health service, education, and drug-related deaths.
While not considering himself to be a "Tory-orientated voter", he would have liked to have seen better performance from the Conservatives during this election, as a viable opposition to the SNP.
"I would like to vote for a government who are competent, and right now there is nothing that the SNP have done which has convinced me of their competence," Douglas said.
He said he was against a second referendum, but not the entire concept of independence.
"If I'm honest, I don't have a problem with independence, but only as a country which has shown that it's ready to be independent, and we're so far away from that right now," Douglas said.
"I'm really concerned that a lot of the people who are voting SNP right now, who believe that independence is the way forward, are doing so because of entirely the wrong reasons."
Over the next parliamentary session, he said would like to see more accountability.
"We need a better functioning parliament," he added.
