Well, my last post last night has not aged well.
That first sentence:
There’s just the Highlands and Islands list left to count now but the Liberal Democrats will not win anything on that because we won 3 constituency seats.
was, not to be overly dramatic, bollocks.
And I have never been more delighted to have egg on my face.
In the middle of the night, when they finally finished counting in Inverness, our Morven-May MacCallum took the fifth of seven seats. She is currently the Councillor for my favourite place on earth, the Black Isle just north of Inverness.
Morven is an author who campaigns to raise awareness about Lyme Disease, which she suffers from. On the Council, she focuses on:
- Prioritising road safety and road repair (and so is presumably responsible for the improvement in the road between Rosemarkie and Tore which is not like Swiss cheese any more).
- Expanding the creation of more and better local jobs.
- Support for community programs, organisations education and well-being.
- A focus on local sustainability and green initiatives.
So we now have 10 MSPs, which is incredible. In half an hour some of them will be getting together with Ed Davey, Alex Cole-Hamilton and no doubt some diamonds and peaches at Newhaven lighthouse in Edinburgh.
I was right about one thing. Labour and Reform are now tied to be the official opposition. It’s going to be interesting to see how that resolves itself.
* 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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5 Comments
Morven-May was on my future leaders course – she will be a strong and determined advocate for the highlands and island region! Her track record of a writer and advocate on the subject of Lyme disease will make her an incredibly effective representative for anyone trying to navigate our health and care services with a chronic illness.
OUR favorite place on earth! It sounds like my grandmother, uncle and father’s home has decent representation at last.
Unfortunately the loss both Labour and the Tories were dealt doesn’t surprise me at all. I feel Anas Sarwar should have taken a lesson out of Jo’s book over running for a specific position; Starmer’s policies affect how Scottish Labour are seen. We have seen this before. His government’s attacks on the vulnerable, along with being seen as being too pro-US, plus dragging his heels on a better future with Europe really don’t help Scotland.
The number of Reform MSPs – some of who have a shocking reputation – IS a shock. Farage may well be gloating. It is a shocking indictment of our education system that we haven’t dealt with educating properly on equality, diversity, unconscious bias and how economies actually work.
However we are in a good place. We increased our vote share. We aren’t a flash and burn and we actually get the job done rather than spout off and blame others. It’s why we get reelected over and over again.
Onto the next mission for me: being part of turning North Edinburgh Gold… or is it Peach?!
I don’t think there is such a thing as an official opposition at Holyrood.
Labour and Reform will quite likely vie with each other to claim that status, but in reality there is no such thing. I believe all opposition parties have equal status, provided they have at least five seats. Their numbers of seats are taken into account of course when allocating such things as committee positions and parliamentary questions.
There is an official seat for the leader of the opposition and the person in that role gets a whole load of FMQs every week. Are they going to take turn about or what?
Really pleased with our results in Scotland. Well done Scottish Liberal Democrats. Especially the election of Duncan Dunlop (a friend of my Mum) as a South Scotland list MSP. He will be great!
In relation to Caron’s question about whether Labour or Reform will be the official opposition, it is good to look at the history of FarageParties and their inability to hold onto elected members. Reform and all other previous FarageParties have a long track record of losing elected members through resignations, sackings and defections.
Two of the five Reform UK MPs elected in 2024 are no longer Reform. Our very own Lord Mark Pack has kept a tally on Reform Councillors lost to the party since the May 2025 elections and it stood at 74 after 1 year, which is more than 10% of the total elected. I’d be amazed if there are still 17 Reform MSPs in 1 year’s time.