Last night the annual Scottish Politician of the Year Awards took place in the opulent surroundings of the Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh.

Predictably, and deservedly, Nicola Sturgeon won the top award, Politician of the Year. However, it was great to see Willie Rennie and Alison McInnes both won. That means 2 out of the 5 Liberal Democrat MSPs finally got the recognition they deserved after a gruelling 5 years holding the SNP to account and winning significant policy changers.

Alison McInnes has done more than anyone else to force the SNP to change their minds. On stop and search, on armed police, on highlighting the many problems with the centralisation of Scotland’s police, she has been a true liberal champion. She won the Committee politician of the year.

Committee MSP of the Year #politicianawards15 Alison McInnes MSP pic.twitter.com/FHFuMoBr93

— Peter MacMahon (@petermacmahon) November 19, 2015

Willie Rennie won the Donald Dewar award for Debater of the Year.

Thanks @heraldscotland #politicianawards15 pic.twitter.com/KfGQgi3nB6

— Willie Rennie (@willie_rennie) November 20, 2015

He has been relentless in highlighting the crisis in Scotland’s police force, particularly after control room failures meant that two people died after a call to Police about their car which had gone off the road was not responded to for three days.

He actually performed really well in the Scottish leaders’ election debates this year, despite actually being horribly unwell during two of them, something he kept very quiet about at the time.

Congratulations to both Willie and Alison.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social