Lib Dem peer Jim Wallace (Lord Wallace of Tankerness – not to be confused with our regular contributor from the Lords, William Wallace) has been presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Holyrood Garden Party & Political Awards.

Jim served as the MP and also as the MSP for Orkney and Shetland. He was the Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 1992 – 2005 during which time he was also Deputy First Minister, and Acting First Minister for two periods. He was appointed to the House of Lords in 2007 and served for 4 years as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords.  On top of that, Jim recently spent a year as the Moderator of the Church of Scotland.

Huge congratulations for this well-deserved honour.

Congratulations are also due to Wendy Chamberlain who scooped the award for the Best Scot in Westminster! Wendy has been the MP for North East Fife since 2019, when she beat the incumbent SNP candidate by just over 1000 votes. In July she increased that majority to over 13,000.

In Westminster Wendy is the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip and spokesperson for Work and Pensions. In Scotland she is the Deputy Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Well done to both of you!

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.