Tag Archives: 2024 scottish spring conference

WATCH: Alex Cole-Hamilton’s speech to Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 22nd May 2024 - 10:26 am

Susan Murray will, we all hope, be the MP for Mid Dunbartonshire in a few months’ time. So she was the right person to introduce Alex Cole-Hamilton ahead of his leader’s speech to Scottish Conference on Sunday.

Alex talked about our future relationship with the SNP Government – working with them in a grown up fashion where we could make a difference for our constituents, but looking forward to being able to get rid of them in an election.

He looked forward to replacing them as the third party in the House of Commons too and set out our plans to improve mental health, give people access to GP appointments and deal with sewage. He also spoke about his support for Liam McArthur’s bill which would allow assisted dying in limited circumstances. The next great social reform, he called it, while also acknowledging that not everyone in the party felt like that and that no Lib Dem would be compelled to vote for it.

Watch the speech in full here.

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WATCH: Ed Davey’s speech to Scottish Conference – Bring on the General Election

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 20th May 2024 - 4:45 pm

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All the fun of Scottish Conference!

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 20th May 2024 - 3:05 pm

Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference in Hamilton was upbeat this weekend. The party sees progress in its sights at the next Westminster, Holyrood and local authority elections.

From the moment the event was opened by West Lothian’s Cllr Sally Pattle, there were serious debates, keynote speeches, anniversaries celebrated and a lot of fun and laughter.

The most emotional moments of Conference came during the debate on Christine Jardine MP’s motion on supporting bereaved children and young people. The motion called on the Scottish Government to create a protocol for the “collation and dissemination of information to bereaved children about relevant support services” alongside a new duty to inform which would apply to people like health professionals and teachers. Mandatory training would also be given to all those who would have a duty to inform. Contributors shared sometimes shocking but always incredibly sad experiences of loss.

Amanda Clark, our PPC for Perth and Kinross, rightly won the award for the best speech of Conference for her summation, which was heartfelt, inclusive and showed everyone who spoke that they had been heard.

Conference also voted for a national strategy to improve literacy, to bin the National Care Service that the SNP Government is blowing a billion on and which has little prospect of actually improving care for vulnerable people, to increase access to sport, for a housing strategy that secures affordable housing for key workers and on support for Scotland’s flood-hit communities.

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Final agenda published for Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th May 2024 - 10:55 am

Scottish Liberal Democrats gather in Hamilton on 18 and 19 May for their Spring Conference. It may have seemed a risky decision to hold a Conference in what could have been the middle of a General Election campaign, but it’s great that we have the chance to set out our stall at a time of change.

The Final Agenda has now been published. In his introduction, Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

It’s great to be back. We meet at such an important time for the liberal revival both in Scotland and across the UK. Recent election successes show us poised to tear down the blue wall of the Conservatives in the South, but we have our grappling hooks in the acid yellow wall of the SNP as well. The General Election cannot come soon enough and from Cupar to Cape Wrath, from Milngavie to Mallaig, only the Scottish Liberal Democrats can take on the SNP in huge swathes of Scotland.

We will also mark an important anniversary, after 25 years of devolution, I’m delighted that our friend, former leader and former Deputy First Minister of Scotland Lord Wallace will offer us a key note speech on that important milestone.

Conference Convener Paul McGarry said:

There’s a real buzz in the air, not just across the UK, but especially here in Scotland. We’re right in the centre of shaping the future and this makes this conference more important than ever. It’s a fantastic opportunity for all of us to come together, share our ideas, and pave the way forward.

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