Lib Dem MSP for Orkney Liam McArthur has been elected as one of two Deputy Presiding Officers of the Scottish Parliament for new session.
While the new Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone is required to relinquiish her membership of the Greens group and be completely impartial, Liam and his fellow DPO, SNP MSP Annabelle Ewing, continue to be members of their groups. Unless they are actually chairing a debate, they can take part in business as normal and vote.
I’ve certainly had worse days at the office. Humbled to have been elected as Deputy Presiding Officer and really looking forward to working with @AlisonJohnstone and @aewing4Cbeath as part of the new PO team https://t.co/TVz3SToyw2
— Liam McArthur MSP (@Liam4Orkney) May 14, 2021
I think that this is a strong team. I know Alison from the Women 50/50 Steering Group and I know that she will do all she can to be inclusive and to make the Parliament more diverse.
Liam is one of the calmest and wisest people I know and he will be an excellent chair of debates and representative of the Parliament at home and abroad.
2 Comments
Nice to see that a quarter of the Scottish Liberal Democrats will have some impact on the next session of the Scottish Parliament.
Have the Scottish Liberal Democrat Executive (and Mark Pack for that matter) taken a trappist vow of silence over the Airdrie & Shotts Westminster by-election result where the party polled just 220 votes……. a Guinness Book of Records entry as the lowest ever vote polled by the Liberal Democrats (or its Liberal Party predecessor) in a Westminster election since the introduction of universal suffrage ?
How can they do this to the poor old candidate who will forever have to live with this ? It makes Berwick Rangers look like Real Madrid.
I gather a closed private group is to review things by October…….. far too little…. far too late.