UK Conservatives need to deliver an "open" Brexit - Scotland leader

Clearly the result last night fell short of expectations. As the polls suggested a tightening race, pollsters spoke less often of a landslide and raised the possibility that May's majority would be eroded.

Liberal Democrats gained four seats to amass 12 MPs, but lost former leader and ex-deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

Theresa May chose to make this election one about personalities. When the moniker "Maybot" began to gain traction, Theresa May tried to appear more normal and less robotic. "We have to ask why there was so little detail". Scandalous. The election was the Conservatives' to lose, and with every gaffe, every U-turn, every robotic interview and cringe-worthy appearance from the Prime Minister - they managed to do just that.

The biggest Conservative victor from last night was undoubtedly Ruth Davidson.

In addition to Alistair Carmichael holding his Orkney and Shetland constituency, the Lib Dems took East Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh West and the Highlands seat of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross from the SNP. Labour too, did better than even they expected.

The separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) lost 21 seats of their 56 parliamentary seats on Thursday.

And the poll shows 18 seats divided between other parties, among them Sinn Fein and the Irish unionist party, the DUP, which is a natural partner for the Conservatives.

Here are a few questions over what it means and its implications for the country.

Young people have revealed the main reasons why they voted in the 2017 general election and their motives behind choosing a particular party.

Some are disheartened, even angry at the way the results turned out.

"The SNP tsunami of 2015, in which the party took 56 of Scotland's 59 constituencies, was followed yesterday by an natural disaster in which the SNP lost more than a third of their MPs", says Alex Massie in The Times.

Nevertheless, independence was not the only reason why the SNP suffered its first significant electoral setback in a decade.

This time around, however, it is harder to see the silver lining for Scottish nationalism.

But there is no rush. He's saved his own skin because most of his own lawmakers a year ago voted to depose him.

"Clearly in the last few days of this campaign we saw a surge towards Jeremy Corbyn, which we saw in parts of Scotland, as well as across the rest of the United Kingdom", she said.

What this country needs more than ever is certainty.

"After a year of upheaval, we owe it to people to get on with it".

Sir David Crausby, who won a sixth term of office as MP for Bolton North East, said the election had been a "watershed moment" for Labour and urged his party to unite.

A dramatic night in politics delivered a devastating blow to the Scottish National Party, threatening its plans to offer Scotland a second independence referendum. Because of Nicola Sturgeon, who believes that oil is going to go it $150-a-barrel'. In these uncertain times, it's hard to play the long game, as the political sands continue to shift underneath us.

The case for independence remains.

The popular view is that the SNP hit a near ideal storm as Brexit-supporting yes voters abandoned the party in the fishing and farming communities of Aberdeenshire, the two-party race developing across the rest of the United Kingdom encouraged a return to pre-2015 Westminster voting patterns, and the SNP was punished for demanding a second independence referendum (#scotref) while health and education outcomes have faltered.

But logistically and politically, a period of reflection and conversation is what we all need.