I want to be Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats because I believe I have the ability to drive the Party forward by making Liberal Democrat values and policies relevant to the people of Scotland.
At present I believe our message has become blurred and lacks a distinctive Liberal Democrat edge. We lack a political narrative that brings clarity and cohesion to our political projection.
I want us to concentrate on three themes:-
We must become regarded as the Party that stands up for individual freedom – not only human rights and civil liberties but also freedom from poor education, poor health, poverty and deprivation.
We must be leaders in developing sustainable communities – promoting economic development to provide job opportunities whilst protecting the environment for the next generation
We must be champions of a fairer society – bearing down on intolerance, discrimination, health inequalities, deprivation, a fear of crime and manifest injustice.
I want new policies to be developed and existing policies to be refined to deliver on these themes and for each policy to be outcome based and required to meet a relevance test to the individual citizen
That is a brief summary of my Leadership campaign positioning.
* Ross Finnie is the Liberal Democrat MSP for the West of Scotland, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, and Vice-Convener of the Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee.
Editor’s note: Liberal Democrat Voice is, as with all internal party elections, remaining neutral in its editorial line, and seeking to ensure balanced coverage. All three candidates have been offered a slot to write about why they wish to lead the Scottish Lib Dems: Mike Rumbles’ article was published here in July. Supporters of the candidates are encouraged to submit their views to Lib Dem Voice either as an article – find out how here – or comments; but the editor will seek to ensure fair representation for all candidates.
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6 Comments
This doesn’t shed much light on the most prominent aspect of Ross Finnie’s campaign to date – his (attributed) view that we should ask Alex Salmond if we can go into coalition with him after all.
Given that Salmond has already said ‘no’ to this fairly bizarre proposal when it was originally floated by Mr Finnie last year, there would seem to be some danger of kicking off his leadership with a completely predictable and self-inflicted fiasco.
We need to be working with the SNP where we agree with them, of course, and opposing them strongly where they are failing badly (material is not in short supply). But our leader in Scotland needs to know that the idea of our returning to Government before the next Scottish elections is straightforwardly ridiculous.
They’ve got to renew our sense of purpose, but that goes hand in hand with building up the party again. It’s disappointing that isn’t a clearer priority here.
I’m new to LibDem Voice, and quite disappointed to see that the first comment I clicked on is from “Anonymous”, and talks about “attributed” views. I was hoping for better. As to the subject matter – alas the real problem seems to be that the SNP are managing their “minority” government rather well and no longer need the inconveience of political partners.
I would like to ask Anonymous were these attributed views came from as, I am a keen follower of Mr Finnie and never in all his campaign material has anything like this ever been said, I think his actual views involve a return fundamental Liberal Democrat Values.
The devil is in the detail. For example how do you intend to achieve economic development if the most obviously successful way of doing it – classic liberal policies of cutting business taxes & regulation as Ireland has done – is officially “too right wing” to even be thought about.
Does Mr Finnie still stand by his promise he made in debate with me at conference in 2001 over nuclear power – that it is safe to trust the politician & their windmills because he personally guaranteed they wouldn’t let any blackouts happen?
Apologies. I didn’t appreciate this was quite such a controversial point – some clarity might help matters a bit.
There was a story, I think in the Herald, right back in the aftermath of May 2007 saying that Ross Finnie was keeping the door open for a coalition once a referendum vote had been held in the Parliament (and presumably lost given the arithmatic, and our position). It seemed to me to be particularly counter-productive at the time, and Salmond made fun of it at one of the later question times. I’m afraid I can’t find it online – but I’m confident the story was there, and that the comments which formed the basis of it were direct from the man himself.
Here’s the link
http://www.theherald.co.uk/search/display.var.1411290.0.finnie_holds_door_open_for_talks_on_coalition.php
“Liberal Democrats should be open to coalition talks with the SNP once the independence issue has been sidelined, according to Ross Finnie.
The senior LibDem MSP and former Environment Minister has opened the door once more to the prospect of Alex Salmond being able to find the 65 seats he needs for a Holyrood majority, by working with 16 LibDems and two Greens.”