All Shall Have Prizes

So after the dust of the local elections has settled it appears that the Scottish voters have decided that 'all shall have prizes' - with the exception of the Tories and Liberal Democrats.

The SNP can clearly to have won the national election - since they emerged yet again with the largest number of councillors (424) - which is the litmus test of any national contest.

The SNP may have improved their showing in Labour's heartlands since 2007 - but they failed to deliver a knockout blow - leaving Labour still in overall control of Glasgow and North Lanarkshire.

The Tories took comfort in the fact they they didn't do quite as bad as the Lib Dems - which is a sign of the times rather than a cause for celebration - if you ask me, anyway.

Meanwhile the Lib Dems in one Edinburgh constituency were out-polled by Professor Pongoo the Penguin - a man dressed up in a ridiculous bird suit - which only goes to show how far the Lib Dems have sunk.

As far as the politics of equal pay is concerned, probably the most interesting result is in South Lanarkshire - which like most councils in Scotland - is in the position of no single party enjoying overall control.

The same thing happened back in 2007 - but the Labour group did a deal with the Tories in South Lanarkshire - which handed the reins of political power to Labour for the next five years.

Whether the majority opposition councillors in South Lanarkshire allow the same thing to happen this time around remains to be seen.

'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me' - is both an old and wise saying.

But we shall probably know within the next few days.