Bucking the trend across much of Europe where political parties in power were defeated across the continent, the Scottish National Party as the ruling party in Government in Scotland won the Scottish European election. South of the border the ultra-British nationalist United Kingdom Independence Party achieved almost 28% of the vote this was NOT so in Scotland. Here they picked up 10% of the vote enough to be able to take one MEP. This was on the back of a collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote leaving them without any MEP’s (Members of the European Parliament) in Scotland. The large disparity in support for UKIP between north and south of the border emphasises the very different voting patterns between Scotland and the other parts of the United Kingdom.