Tommy Sheppard

I’M not sure which is the more depressing: that the UK has just reaffirmed the hereditary right of kings or that a majority of its citizens demonstrably agree with that situation. Despite this, as we begin the new Caroline era, a grown-up debate about the future of the monarchy is surely overdue.

The SNP won the election in Scotland and were it not for the tsunami of 2015 pundits would be hailing an historic landmark victory - 35 seats out of 59 ain’t bad, especially on 37% of the vote. But this result is a distortion of the first past the post system.