AS might be expected, the international press and media were mostly looking at the overall UK picture rather than the Scottish Parliamentary elections on their own.

America’s Fox News website, owned by Rupert Murdoch, summed it up in gleeful tones: “Disastrous Night for Labour in UK as Party Is Pushed Into Third Place in Scotland and MPs Say Jeremy Corbyn Must Take Responsibility.”

The collapse of Labour and the problems that poses for Jeremy Corbyn were reported by several international correspondents who have grasped that without Scotland voting for the party, Labour will really struggle to win anywhere in future.

The Paris-based global news agency Agence France Presse reported: “Scottish nationalists won a third term in power but lost their outright majority on Friday in one of a series of local and regional elections seen as a key test for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.”

Though failing to point out just how steeply Labour has fallen here, they quoted Labour deputy leader Tom Watson saying: “We certainly have to make progress in Scotland before the next General Election.”

A genius for understatement on Watson’s part – but German broadcaster Deutsche Welle got it right: “The main loser in the Holyrood Parliament in Edinburgh was the Labour Party, which was relegated to third place by the Scottish Conservatives. While Labour – who dominated Scottish politics for decades – only managed to clinch 24 seats, the Tories gained 31.”

You can bristle at the word “regional” but Radio New Zealand’s website was plain: “Brits dump Labour in regional elections.”

The relatively new Sputnik news agency in Moscow reported “Victory!” for the SNP but pointed out the loss of the overall majority, before saying: “The Conservative Party had its best election since the Scottish Parliament first convened in 1999, taking 31 seats, including seven constituency seats and 24 regional seats provided for by Scotland’s additional member voting system. The Labour Party was the main loser of Thursday’s election, its number of seats shrinking from 37 to 24. The Greens finished up with six seats while the Liberal Democrats remained unchanged on five.”

Good factual stuff from them, and from SBS TV in Australia which recorded the “startling reversal” of the Conservative Party scoring more seats in the Scottish Parliament than the Labour Party, “highlighting Labour’s hard times”.

Also in Australia, the Business Insider said: “A number of things must fall into place for Labour to win the 2020 General Election. One of these is a strong backing from voters north of the Border.

“One of the reasons the party slumped to an unexpectedly bad defeat under Ed Miliband last year was because its Scottish voter base was effectively wiped out by the rise of the SNP.

“Labour went into that election with 41 Scottish MPs, and came out of it with just one.

“One of the biggest challenges facing Corbyn is rebuilding the party’s credibility in Scotland. That project was supposed to begin on May 5 with the Scottish Parliamentary election. A third-placed finish will be the stuff of nightmares for Labour’s leadership.”

Close to home, the website PoliticoEU highlighted the criticism of Corbyn but stated first of all: “Scotland has once again emerged as the big story of British politics after a night of crushing Labour losses and previously unthinkable gains for the Conservatives.

“While England offered an apathetic shrug of the shoulders in the first major elections of Jeremy Corbyn’s reign – with most local councils remaining unchanged – voters north of the Border determinedly refused to follow the script. As expected, Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party maintained its historic dominance in Holyrood, crushing a bewildered Labour Party in seat after seat, but a new opposition has emerged in the shape of Ruth Davidson’s Scottish Tories.”

It did make one interesting geographical point: “Cock-a-hoop unionists gleefully pointed out that any Scot wanting to travel to England would now have to pass through a Conservative constituency” – nice to know that the Unionists now think in terms of Holyrood constituencies rather than Westminster’s.

The New Europe publication was one of the few to point out that the result which means that the independence-supporting parties – the SNP and Greens – together have a clear majority at Holyrood.

It said: “The win of the SNP means that a second referendum for independence might take place in Scotland, in case Britain as a whole elects to leave the EU but Scotland votes to stay in after June’s referendum on Britain’s EU membership.”

If people furth these isles are already looking at a post-Brexit situation, it is clear that Scotland’s position will move to the centre of the In-Out debate in coming weeks.