I think anyone thinking that the massive increase in SNP membership is of no consequence is on cloud cuckoo land. It has gone hand in hand with a massive change in the pattern of voting. As I said anyway there has been no improvement in Tory support and that is despite the other 2 unionist parties losing 29% of the overall share. If they couldn't pick up votes now when can they? Plus the genie is out of the bottle. The SNP have always struggled at UK level because people thought they couldn't win in many constituencies. They have now shown that they can win everywhere. Even in what was regarded as their two most unlikely places to win. In Orkney& Shetland the Lib Dem incumbent just hung on by the skin of his teeth. Here in the Borders the Tories basically had a disaster. They won 45% of the constituency vote in the last Scottish election; the SNP were second on 26.4%; the Lib Dem collapse had already happened as the former dominant party slipped to 17.3%. In the UK election history tells us that the SNP should have struggled but their share rose to 36.6%; the Lib Dems only imrproved slightly at 18.7%; and the Tories in what was their major target seat dropped to 36%. A whole 9% fall since the Scottish election, in a target seat, with the same popular candidate that won the Holyrood seat. Yet within Scotland they seem to think they did well. Seriously deluded!!

I am glad that the SNP candidate won here. He is a good lad. I wouldn't have been too broken hearted though had the Tories crept in either. John Lamont is a good guy and friend of my wife's. I'd much rather have seen him as Scotland's only Tory than David Mundell. Don't trust him to look after Scotland's interests.