Christine Jardine put up one hell of a fight against Alex Salmond in the Gordon constituency this year. She got 1500 more votes than Malcolm Bruce had 5 years earlier and is in a very clear second place to challenge the SNP in the future.
She has now been selected to fight the Aberdeenshire East constituency in May next year for the Scottish Parliament.
The Ellon Times has the story:
A delighted Christine said: “Its very humbling to know that people are prepared to put their faith in you. I had a lot of support in the general election – 19,030 votes – and, while it’s clear we have a lot of work to do, I know those people, and the many others who have joined the party, are looking to us to repair the health service, improve education and protect jobs.
I am determined that the next Scottish Government will give us here in the North East a better deal on health, education, housing and more.
I’m a Liberal. I believe politics is not about nations or states it’s about people, about individuals and should always put them first.
Those are the things I want to change. That I will work to change and I will ask the electorate to help by making me their next MSP.
Now that Salmond is back at Westminster, he will be standing down as MSP so the SNP lose the benefit of incumbency and have to stand on their own record in Government.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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11 Comments
Good to see that excellent women can get selected without needing women only short-lists
Vote % %change
SNP Alex Salmond 19,533 64.50 +19.83
Liberal Democrats Alison McInnes 4,238 13.99 -16.58
Conservative Geordie Burnett Stuart 4,211 13.90 -1.88
Labour Peter Smyth 2,304 7.61 -0.44 2,209 7.29
The result in 2011, think it would be a miracle if not impossible to get anywhere near the SNP
Very best of luck to her. It would have been easy to lose heart after May.
Chances are the Holyrood elections will see the Lib Dems slip from 4th to 5th place behind the Greens. Maybe even 6th behind a new party called CISTA (Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol), but 6th place is doubtful even still.
The Lib Dems still can’t tell me what they offer Scotland. They used to offer a real centre left / liberal and social democratic alternative to New Labour who believed in tax payer funded higher education. Since 2010? Nothing relevant here I’m afraid. They abandoned their voter base and their voter base left them in return.
I believe the Lib Dems will come 5th and no longer be relevant in Scottish politics. Once you come fifth in Scotland you’re talking about being on par with then pensioners party and all that sort of fringe stuff, nothing meaningful I’m afraid.
Anyway, this is just the reality of the situtation. Anyone doubt this? Christine cannot win this seat, so, by Lib Dem logic, a vote for Christine is a wasted vote.
David Wallace 26th Aug ’15 – 9:01pm What party do you support?
Er, nonsense, Mr Wallace! You are talking (deliberately?) as though Scotland were a single first-past the post constituency. In Aberdeenshire East, from the result in May, it is clear that it will be either Christine or the Nationalist who wins the constituency seat.
I wish Christine good luck because the polls indicate a total wipe-out of Lib Dems and another SNP tsunami probably doing a job on Scottish Labour as well even Kezia Dugdales seat looks dodgy .
@ Richard
I am an ex-lib dem member and now a CISTA supporter. If the lib Dems did their job properly CISTA wouldn’t even have to exist!
Christine might be a great candidate but her only chance of winning a FPTP seat anywhere in Aberdeenshire these days would be if she stood as an independent, nobody is going to be winning a seat in abderdeenshire under a lib dem banner after the coalition. The lib Dems in national government turned out to be a very different party to the one the Scottish voters thought they were, so I can’t see the lib Dems getting in again anytime soon. Why do I think I know this? Well I lived in Aberdeen when I was a lib dem activist.
David Wallace 27th Aug ’15 – 7:37am https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cista
In the October 2013 reshuffle, Baker was appointed to the Home Office as Minister of State, overseeing issues relating to national security, replacing fellow Liberal Democrat Jeremy Browne. In this role he repeatedly suggested changes to drug policy, saying that patients should have access to cannabis for cancer pain relief and multiple sclerosis and that in some cases legal highs might be better off regulated than prohibited. The Home Office repeatedly rejected progressive suggestions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Baker
Please bearin mind that the number of MPs we had in the Commons was not proportionate to the votes we received in 2010. Tories then argued proportionality according to the number of MPs elected. We will continue to push for a more accurate reflection of the preferences of voters.
@richard
Thanks for your response. The lib Dems have been remarkably inconsistent on cannabis, even for them. Conference voted for a royal commission on the subject around 15 years ago which was why I first joined the party. But that position of calling for a royal commission (which incidentally is also CISTA’s position) has been consistently undermined by the lib dem leadership and high profile lib dem MPs. There would be no serious drugs law reform under a lib dem government, which is why the country needs CISTA. If the lib Dems were serious about reforming the drugs laws the sensible thing would be for CISTA to refuse to stand candidates and urge atheist supporters to vote for the liberal democrats.
An excellent candidate who worked phenomenally hard along with the rest of the team in Gordon. The stand that Lib Dems like her take against the instinctive authoritarianism of the Scot Nats meant she could build on the fact that we were clearly the only party that could take on the SNP in the constituency. She will need and deserves that support again from all the Lib Dems there so we can have a successful campaign in Aberdeenshire East and maintain or preferably improve our second place and continue to be the clear choice as the local champions for the community.