Dawn

All dawns are new, by definition.   But driving back from the Election Count at Lochgilphead it did seem, and hours later still does seem, that something extraordinary has happened that marks a boundary, a shift, a new start -  call it what you will.

It is such a dramatic result in Scotland that it will take time to absorb and understand.   How it plays out in political terms with such a gulf between Scotland's emphatic, historic choice and that of England remains to be seen.

On the micro, so to speak, it will be great to have a Westminster Parliamentary colleague in this constituency  of the same party and one with whom I am on such good terms.  I look forward to all my work  alongside Brendan O'Hara MP and to working with the new MP team some of whom I have known of a long time and some of whom I am still to meet. 

I also look forward to campaigning for next year's Holyrood elections with the fabulous team that took him to victory.  We  now have a strong electoral machine across Argyll & Bute and we know how to further strengthen it.

On the macro Scotland has gained a new and powerful  56 strong voice and the SNP MPs will be going to Westminster not to settle down, in Winnie's famous phrase, but to settle up.   

But to fully understand what is going to happen next we will have to live it and to work out how to do that we will need to step back a little and see the entire picture before beginning to focus on the detail. 

A bit like taking  a photograph of a  lovely land and loch scape  in the dawn light.  

This one is just by Inveraray.