Tim Farron has been in Scotland today. He started off this morning in East Dunbartonshire with Jo Swinson, went on to North East Fife with Willie Rennie and local candidate Elizabeth Riches and ended the day in Edinburgh West, at Davidson’s Mains Primary School in the Almond Ward with Alex Cole-Hamilton and Christine Jardine. As Alex pointed out in his speech, 13 months ago, that area had no Liberal Democrat representation. Thanks to the power of that #libdemfightback, we now have an MSP and Cllrs Kevin Lang and Louise Young elected with a massive majority.

I was there, for the first time in a long time doing duty as a Lib Dem diamond bearer behind the leader as he spoke to a crowd of around 100 activists.

The advance team spent a while getting us in the right position for the camera shots and got us to practice our cheering.

Then we saw The Bus reversing down the narrow school lane.

And then he was here.

Alex and Christine spoke first and then Tim delivered what in the West Wing would be called “modified stump” – our basic pitch with embellishments for topical events (immigration targets today) and venue). It’s absolutely bang on.

Our view of Alex speaking

Tim speaking. He commented that he had to get used to making speeches with his back to people

Afterwards Tim hung around for a bit to pose for photos with various candidates and to chat with members.

And North East Edinburgh and Leith member Caroline gave him a Lib Dem cupcake which he looked mighty pleased with:

A little observation. Back in 2014/15, I used to joke that Willie Rennie and Nick Clegg were in uniform as they always seemed to wear the same tie in the Scottish and UK versions of our party election broadcasts. Tim Farron is wearing a teal coloured tie here. The funny thing is that Willie Rennie was wearing a very similar tie on Saturday when he was filming our Party Election Broadcast. Why do they do this? Is it seriously co-ordinated?

.@willie_rennie brandishes a bundle of newspapers & says we need to work hard to win over the next few weeks pic.twitter.com/pOCj5di61n

— Caron Lindsay (@caronmlindsay) May 6, 2017

And on a similar theme, I don’t think I’ve ever coveted an item of clothing quite as much as CJ’s jacket:

And Christine Longworth from the Tour Team had gone the full yellow for her nails.

The bus is pretty impressive by the way:

I was surprised by how shiny its wheels were:

After 12 hours, 3 events and 3 visits, the day was finally over. Only a month to go…

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