• Cole-Hamilton: Only the Lib Dems can get Scotland back to its best
• Scot Lib Dems comment on SNP candidate list
• Legal Experts express support for Assisted dying bill
• Scot Lib Dems respond to Swinney independence comments
• Labour steal Deputy Mayor appointment as part of a “grubby deal” for control of Oldham Council

Cole-Hamilton: Only the Lib Dems can get Scotland back to its best

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that only his party can deliver a fairer vision for Scotland and get our communities back on track, as he marked one year to go until the Scottish Parliament election.

Mr Cole-Hamilton is visiting a local business in Edinburgh Northern today with Sanne Dijkstra-Downie, the party’s candidate for the constituency. Edinburgh Northern is a key target seat for the party at next year’s election. At the 2022 local elections, Scottish Liberal Democrats won the area covered by the new seat by 29.3% to the SNP’s 25.0%.

The party is highlighting their priorities for the next election. This includes faster access to local healthcare like GPs and dentists, recruiting more teachers to put Scotland at the forefront of key industries like renewables and precision medicine and speeding up the delivery of important infrastructure, particularly the dualling of the A9 and A96.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

The SNP have been in charge for eighteen years and our health service, economy and education are all on their knees. They have let Scotland down.

When people look around at some of the alternatives, they feel frustrated. Labour were elected promising change, but they have clobbered small businesses and care providers with a cruel jobs tax. The Conservatives are lurching to extremes and abandoning the centre ground.

Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats have a vision for getting Scotland back to its best.

We want a Scotland where people get the local healthcare they need, when they need it. We want to give our children a world-class education and a thriving economy where the government looks after your money and works with its neighbours. We want a Scotland where our rural communities are listened to, not talked down to.

If Scots back us, we can defeat the SNP’s Kate Forbes in the highlands, win constituency seats in areas like Edinburgh and East Dunbartonshire and elect more Liberal Democrat candidates on the regional lists in every corner of Scotland who will be strong local champions delivering on the issues that matter most.

Scot Lib Dems comment on SNP candidate list

Commenting on the SNP releasing their candidate list, Christine Jardine MP said:

If only the SNP government were always as good at recycling as they are with their candidate list. We’d have no difficulty hitting our climate change targets.

Stephen Flynn has obviously decided that he’s bored of staring at the back of Ed Davey’s head each week and decided to try his hand in the Scottish Parliament. Given some of the language his supporters have been throwing around, I’m not sure that is a prospect his female colleagues will relish.

Legal Experts express support for Assisted dying bill

Today, Wednesday 7th May, a group of esteemed legal experts have shared their views on Liam McArthur MSP’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill with MSPs.

The experts will address a specially convened meeting in the Scottish Parliament to discuss the bill as currently drafted, their reflections on the broader legal implications of assisted dying under Scots Law, and their insights into some of the specific issues in their respective areas of expertise.

Professor James Chalmers and Dr Sarah Sivers said:

The introduction of this Bill is a welcome and long-overdue step toward reforming an area of law that has remained unaddressed for far too long.

We wish to highlight the urgent need for clarity in the law surrounding assisted dying. Currently, under Scots law, there is no dedicated statute, minimal and often confusing case law, and no prosecutorial guidelines from the Lord Advocate. This lack of legal clarity places healthcare professionals and family members at risk of prosecution for homicide for assisting a terminally ill person to die—an act that is lawful and regulated in several other jurisdictions.

The Scottish Parliament must take this issue seriously and give it the detailed consideration it deserves. Clear regulation and oversight are desperately needed, and we urge Parliament to give this Bill the detailed and thoughtful scrutiny it deserves.

Liam McArthur MSP said:

I warmly welcome this intervention from such senior legal experts. They present a strong legal argument for why the law on assisted dying has to change. Their input will be invaluable in informing the Stage 1 debate, and in helping MSPs to make a decision grounded in evidence, compassion, and a deep understanding of the law.

Taken alongside the evidence from other countries showing that laws like the one I propose work well, the wishes of dying people and the testimonies of those who have watched a loved one experience a harrowing death, the case for passing the principles of this Bill next week, and indeed the law on assisted dying, is clear and compelling.

MSPs will hear from:

• Professor James Chalmers, Regius Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow, where he researches and teaches criminal law, evidence, and procedure.

• Dr Sarah Sivers, a legal academic with expertise in healthcare law and ethics spanning the last 15 years. Her areas of specialism are in end-of-life issues, exploring both the legal and ethical dimensions of healthcare in areas such as assisted dying, future care planning and capacity. She is the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Law and Social Sciences at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

• Dr Andrew Tickell, Senior Lecturer in Law, Glasgow Caledonian University. He was appointed Head of Department for Economics and Law in October 2024. His teaching and research interests now include criminal law and evidence, devolution and public law, and more recently, miscarriages of justice. Andrew has a particular interest in the intersection between law, politics and policy and has given evidence to the Scottish Parliament on fourteen occasions during the last decade on diverse issues including hate crime, human rights, defamation, devolution, and domestic abuse.

• Mr Adrian Ward, a recognised national and international expert in adult incapacity law. As consultant to the Council of Europe, he has recently completed a review of implementation throughout Europe of Council of Europe Recommendation (2009)11 on principles concerning powers of attorney and advance directives for incapacity. He is an expert adviser to the Centre for Mental Health and Capacity Law, Edinburgh Napier University.

Scot Lib Dems respond to Swinney independence comments

Responding to John Swinney’s comments indicating that he intends to use a majority of pro-indy MSPs to push for another independence referendum, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie said:

Here it is straight from the horse’s mouth. John Swinney puts independence above action now on your job, your GP appointment or your children’s education. Any vote for him will be taken as a vote to waste more time arguing over independence.

Scottish Liberal Democrats are clear that the purpose of the Scottish Parliament should be to deliver swift local access to healthcare, provide more support for teachers and pupils in classrooms and get the economy growing again. More of the same old arguments won’t move this country forward.

Labour steal Deputy Mayor appointment as part of a “grubby deal” for control of Oldham Council

Oldham Liberal Democrats have blasted the ruling Labour Group of Oldham Council and their so-called Independent councillor supporters ahead of the forthcoming appointment of a new Deputy Mayor of Oldham.

Liberal Democrat Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said,

In Oldham Borough the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are politically neutral figures. Their job is to be an ambassador for the Borough and champion our communities.

We have a long-established tradition going back to 1974 of appointing the Deputy Mayor using a points-based system that gives a proportional result so all parties and none get a fair share to nominate a candidate to serve. After a year as Deputy, that person then becomes the Mayor of the Borough the following year.

The nomination always goes to the party with the most points in a given year.

Last year the Liberal Democrats agreed to wave their nomination for twelve months so the current Mayor could do another twelve months following the tragic death of his wife while he was in office.

Points are based on the number of elected councillors a group has. But this year Sykes and the Liberal Democrats are hitting out because the Labour ruling group are using the Deputy Mayor nomination to “keep their grubby power-sharing deal on the road.”

Labour lost their majority on Oldham Council in May 2024 and since then, they have been supported to continue in office by a mixture of Independents from Shaw & Crompton Independents and the Failsworth Independents.

This year, it is expected that one of these Independents will get the nod as the next Deputy Mayor, breaking with a nearly 50-year tradition of non-political appointments.

Councillor Sykes said,

It is absolutely disgraceful that the Labour Party and the so-called Independents are dragging the Office of the Mayor into their grubby power-sharing deal. This just goes to show that Labour will do absolutely anything to keep in power despite not having a majority.

Based on Oldham’s points-based system for Deputy Mayoral nominations, the next nomination should go to a member of the Liberal Democrat Group.

Councillor Sykes continued,

If the nomination ends up going to one of these so-called Independents, it will have been because of a political stitch-up which will damage the reputation of our Mayoralty and is bad news for Oldham Borough.

The Independents from these two groups have done more to bring party politics into things than the other groups on the Council put together. To be fair some of Oldham’s Independent councillors are sincere and well intentioned they must be embarrassed to be tarred with the same brush.