Author Archives: Stephen Glenn

Opinion: Persuading Northern Ireland to say Yes to Fairer Votes

By Stephen Glenn | Published 7th April 2011 - 9:25 am

Some of you may have wondered where the prolific blogging from me has gone. However, in the words of Mark Twain, “The reports of my (blogging) death have been greatly exaggerated.”

I’ve had an awful lot to say these last few months but I’ve  been saying it to a diverse political and non-political audience,  all to get as many of them as possible to say the same thing at the ballot boxes on 5th May. That one word is sometimes thought to be alien to many in Northern Ireland and that word is “Yes!”

Yes, that’s …

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Opinion: The day the Northern Irish came to Scottish Conference

By Stephen Glenn | Published 14th October 2010 - 4:25 pm

For many years now I have attended Scottish Liberal Democrat conference as a Northern Irish person. I’m not alone as there are many familiar accents scattered across the Scottish parties of other Northern Irish born members.

However, last weekend was the first time I attended as a Northern Irish local party member, but again I was not alone. I’d travelled over with the local party chair Michael Carchrie Campbell and one of our youth members Stephen McFarland had travelled down with the rest of the Aberdeen University crew.

It was a good conference for us all to get to, even though Michael …

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Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #7: The Megrahi Documents

By Stephen Glenn | Published 2nd September 2009 - 12:45 pm

The Megrahi case has ripped apart the peace of the Scottish Parliamentary recess, with even some former Lib Dem leaders taking a differing view to our leader in Holyrood. Today the UK Government and Scottish Parliament have released papers relating to the discussions that have gone one over the last two years. It ranges from correspondence between Westminster and Holyrood, to memos of meetings with Libyan officials, to the compassionate release request listing medical conditions.

These start chronologically with the first letter from then-Lord Chnacellor Lord (Charles) Falconer to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond outlining the Memorandum of Understanding that Westminster had set up with Libya regarding a number of judicial issues. The Memorandum was drawn up to look at increasing bilateral co-operation covering, amongst other things, commercial and criminal issues. The legal issues were not exclusively about Mr Al Megrahi, but looking at the bigger picture of co-operation between the two nations at large. However, Lord Falconer did say that nothing could be ruled in or out, but that co-operation and consultation between Westminster and Holyrood would be carried forward.

However, it the path of the UK’s justice secretary Jack Straw’s correspondence that sheds a lot of light on the situation, especially considering the Labour response in Holyrood.

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Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds, Scotland | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #5

By Stephen Glenn | Published 18th June 2009 - 9:30 am

My first sighting of Jim Devine – the latest Labour MP to be deselected by the party in the wake of the expenses scandal – was on the eve of poll for the 2001 General Election, shortly after I came across to Scotland to live.

As the agent he was standing alongside Robin Cook waving from an open top bus as they drove through Stoneyburn on a tour of the constituency; we were eating dinner. Victors in cup finals don’t do open bus tours until after the silverware is in their clutches – but such was the certainty …

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Posted in Op-eds, Scotland | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #2

By Stephen Glenn | Published 11th March 2009 - 10:50 am

This is the second in a regular, and now named, series of articles by Scottish-based bloggers giving their thoughts about developments in Scottish politics.

On Friday evening I’d just completed a long week at the office in one sense wishing I was in Harrogate with my fellow Lib Dems – but at the same time too exhausted for a full weekend of Conference, having squeezed one full extra day into the week that would go without payment as a result of a freeze on overtime. But as I walked to the bus through Edinburgh Park I saw that lights were …

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Posted in Conference, Op-eds, Scotland | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments