THE last sitting President of the United States to be beaten in an election and thus denied a second term in office was George H W Bush back in 1992.

I have no doubt that the defeat hurt; politicians, like athletes, don’t like losing. Bush Sr., however, could not have been more gracious. When Bill Clinton entered the Oval Office on January 20, 1993 following his inauguration he found a note waiting on his presidential desk. It was from George Bush: “You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success is now our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you. Good luck, George.”

Contrast that with the situation we have today. Donald J Trump hunkered in the White House tweeting in capital letters about fraud, illegal postal ballots and corrupt counting officials.

He clings, despite all evidence, to the idea that actually he had a “BIG WIN”. Elements of the Republican Party are busy amplifying his deceit and paranoia with no care as to the damage they are doing to the democratic process.

Losing is never nice but in democratic politics acceptance of defeat, and gracious acceptance at that, is central to its smooth functioning.

Here in the UK, Prime Ministers entering an election know that they may be moving out of No.10 within hours of the election result being declared. Winston Churchill was devastated that he lost in 1945, nevertheless he vacated Downing Street and made way for the first majority Labour government.

Back in 2014, we in Scotland experienced a hard fought and, let nobody deny it, occasionally bitterly unpleasant democratic vote. The independence referendum divided the nation and divided families in a way no election in living memory had done. By a margin significantly larger than Joe Biden’s victory in the States, the status quo won.

In the days after the referendum, the Scottish churches came together to organise a Service of Reconciliation at St Giles in Edinburgh.

The leaders of all political parties in Scotland were invited; singly neither Alex Salmond nor Nicola Sturgeon deigned to turn up. Their behaviour may be less infantile than Donald Trump but by every action and every deed since September 2014 they have shown that they cannot and will not accept the outcome.

Though the SNP leadership kept a safe distance from those who claimed the result was stolen, they did very little to discourage those of a more conspiratorial bent. Social media was awash with claims of fraud, illegal postal ballots and corrupt counting officials. Does that sound at all familiar?

The refusal of the SNP to accept the result in 2014 has meant that Scotland has not been able to move on. We have a government in Holyrood for whom there is a single overriding purpose and every other issue is entirely secondary.

We have an electorate that is still divided principally on the grounds of how they voted in 2014 or might vote in any future referendum. Sensible issue-based politics has gone out the window.

It’s about time that we got back to the real issues at hand. Here in Glasgow we need an administration that stands up for Glasgow first and foremost rather than nursing a constitutional grudge.