What next for Danny Alexander?
Deposed MP Danny Alexander looked a little worn out next to Drew Hendry who was wandering around the count with a very broad grin after the results had been announced.
Mr Alexander spent an hour or more giving press interviews after learning that he would not longer be the area's representative in Westminster.
New MP Drew Hendy was able to leave the Dingwall venue earlier. The declaration was given at around 6am.
Mr Alexander told the press he would have to find another job, and added: “There are many worse things can happen to people and I’m sure that I will find something useful to occupy my time in the weeks to come.”
When asked what he believed to be the reason for the SNP’s success, teh Lib Dem man said people would have to reflect on that for themselves and he wasn’t to going to offer any “instant answers”.
The former Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the previous Government added: “In this constituency, I got more or less a very similar number of votes than that which I received in 2010.”
He suspected the SNP would try and use their success to push for another independence referendum.
And he accused Conservative Party leader David Cameron of “trying to stoke up the fear of the SNP in England” saying that had helped the SNP to stoke up fear in Scotland.
“It has been a campaign where the two parties have fed off one another,” he said. “I think that’s been very divisive in the UK.”
When asked if he felt some voters had turned to the SNP to punish him for his party’s involvement with the Conservatives in the last government, Mr Alexander said: “I think up here it’s been much more about the success of the SNP across Scotland.
"Our number of votes here was quite similar to that last time around and I think that we’ve shown that we have delivered effectively for here and for the Highlands.”
