This morning I woke up this morning with a heavy cold. I had to blow my nose several times… You get my drift… The thing is I only get one cold per year. It is always around December/January – never ever in May! A clue might lie in the fact that Sunday, 1st May was so warm and sunny that I actually thought of having a BBQ and inviting friends and family. This morning when I left home at 06.45 it was very bright and sunny was but very cold. Vehilces were covered in heavy frost and that is unusual for Edinburgh this late in the year. After all we are looking forward to the longest day of the year in a few weeks on 21st June. Yet that event is a long way away as most Scots are more interested in the results of what will happen tomorrow – the election of MSPs to the Scottish Parliament. The results should be clear by breakfast on Friday, 6th May. Will the Labour Party (Lab) sweep to victory? Will the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) repeat, or improve, on their performance of four years ago? Will the Liberal Democrats disappear as a political force because of their alliance with the ‘English’ Tory party? What about the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP)? Or the Green Party? Or the host of smaller parties such as the Christian Party? Then there are the host of independent candidates. All fascinating stuff.

I used to stay up and watch the results being declared on television. Now I go to bed as all the results will be laid out in great detail the following morning.

Whatever the outcome there are interesting times ahead especially because no one, no political party, has spelled out how the global financial crisis will impact on Scotland.