Tag Archives: Scotland

Scottish Lib Dems select Andrew Baxter for top Highland target

Andrew Baxter has been selected as the party’s candidate for its key target of Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch at next year’s Scottish Parliament election.

The seat significantly overlaps with the UK Parliament constituency of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire which was won by Liberal Democrat Angus MacDonald at the recent election.

Andrew Baxter is a well-known and hard-working community campaigner in South Lochaber, campaigning tirelessly on issues such campaigning tirelessly for rural communities to get a better deal from Highland Council and the Scottish Government and fighting for long-overdue investment in the Corran Ferry service. He has previously worked as a tour guide and ran his village post office in Kinlochleven for 17 years.

He now works in Fort William as Chief of Staff for Angus MacDonald MP.

At the recent Fort William and Ardnamurchan by-election in November 2024, Andrew was successfully elected with 58.9% of first-preference votes to the SNP’s 25.5%.

The current MSP for the seat is Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.

Andrew said:

So many people feel like nothing works anymore and that politicians aren’t on their side.

I am committed to listening to the people and communities that make up Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch and giving my all to make sure they have the representation they deserve.

Under the SNP, our NHS has deteriorated, local schools are left in disrepair, and the cost of living has risen, making day-to-day life harder for everyone.

It’s time for change. I want to build on the success of Angus MacDonald in the recent UK parliament election and work to make life easier, fairer and more affordable for everyone who lives here.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

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The SNP’s Defence delusions: A fantasy that puts Scotland at risk

The Scottish National Party has long promoted an unrealistic vision of Scotland’s defence in the event of independence. Their incoherent and reckless approach, outlined in the deeply flawed 2014 White Paper, demonstrates an alarming lack of seriousness in dealing with modern security threats. With a resurgent Russia invading Ukraine and probing NATO’s defences, the world becoming increasingly unstable and Donald Trump back in the White House openly questioning America’s commitment to NATO, the SNP’s defence policies are not just inadequate, they are dangerous.

The 2014 White Paper proposed a budget of just £2.5 billion for Scotland’s armed forces barely enough to maintain a credible defence structure. It assumed Scotland would inherit assets from the UK Armed Forces, despite no legal mechanism ensuring this. It envisioned a ‘Scottish Defence Force’ with a handful of frigates, a small army, and a limited air force, all while rejecting the very defence arrangements that currently protect Scotland. The reality of setting up a military from scratch was entirely ignored. Where would personnel be trained? How would equipment be procured? What alliances would Scotland rely on, given that SNP membership remains broadly opposed to NATO? These are fundamental questions that remain unanswered.

The SNP has no serious plan for dealing with the threats Scotland faces. Russian military aircraft routinely test the UK’s air defences, often requiring RAF jets to intercept them as they approach Scottish-UK airspace. Currently these intrusions are swiftly dealt with by highly trained personnel operating from Lossiemouth. An independent Scotland, with a small air force and no serious defence infrastructure, would struggle to respond adequately. If the SNP still intends to pursue another independence referendum in the next Scottish Parliament, they must be forced to explain how they would protect Scotland from these threats. The UK’s integrated defence network, intelligence-sharing agreements, and military alliances provide Scotland with essential security. An independent Scotland would be left exposed.

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Burns night: Celebrating Lib Dem Women

Earlier this week, we published Jenni Lang’s Reply to the Toast to the lassies given at the Edinburgh South Burns Supper.  We said we’d put up Andy Wiliamson’s original toast to which she was replying when we got it. So here it is. Enjoy.

“Thank you everyone for such a wonderful evening. Thank you to Rebecca for organising and for the team working for providing such wonderful service. 

So it has fallen to me to give the Toast to the Lassies this evening. 

I have to start with a confession. I am actually from England. 

That’s not the confession. The confession is that this is my first ever Burns’ night dinner. 

And I confess that I am not an expert in Burns’ poetry. When I first moved to Scotland, I thought ‘mice and men’ were the two main ingredients in haggis. 

I cannot, either, confess to being an expert on women. 

When Rebecca asked me to give this toast, she said they were looking for someone who knew as much about Burns as they did about women, so in that respect, she picked absolutely the right person. 

I would like it also stated on the record, that getting asked to give this toast is something of a poisoned chalice. 

For anyone desiring a political career, it’s quite a tightrope to be asked to walk. To stand in a room full of political women and make jokes about gender differences, armed only with a book of quotes from an eighteenth century farmer. 

So the bar to success in this speech is to make jokes, talk about poetry, and avoid being cancelled. 

Still, in reading Burns, it’s very clear that many of his ideas about women are universal, as are his ideas on politics. Reading some of his poems, it was striking how the world he was describing is not much different from the world of 2025. In the Rights of Women, for example, he says: 

“While Europe’s eye is fix’d on mighty things,

The fate of empires and the fall of kings;

While quacks of State must each produce his plan,

And even children lisp the Rights of Man;

Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,

The Rights of Woman merit some attention.” 

Burns understood – like the proto-Lib Dem that he was – that everything has to be in balance. However, he got a key detail wrong. The opposite of the Rights of Women isn’t the Rights of Man. 

I’m speaking from personal experience here as a married man with two small children. I can personally attest that on occasions I have tested the boundaries of what my wife will put up with. 

Whether it’s telling her that – after a long General election campaign, a Council by-election requires me almost immediately to be away from home in the evenings again. Or times when I’ve stayed in the pub a little later than I probably should have.   

In those instances, it’s very clear that the opposite of Women’s Rights is Men’s Wrongs. 

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Celebrating our Lib Dem men

One of the social highlights of Lib Demmery in Edinburgh is the Edinburgh South Burns Supper, an annual evening of mirth celebrating Scotland’s national Bard Robert Burns.

Previous highlights include, and I kid you not, Alex Cole-Hamilton, dressed as a mouse acting out the part as To a Mouse was read out.

The evening usually starts with the top table being piped in. Then we have the address to the Haggis. The “great chieftain of the pudding race” is piped in and, this year, Rebecca Wright gave a spirited rendition of Burns’ To a Huggis. I’m a bit of a heretic here because I much prefer white pudding to haggis, but never mind.

There are three main speeches in the traditional Burns Supper. The Immortal Memory is a personal tribute to Rabbie Burns, this year delivered by Susan Murray our new MP for Mid Dunbartonshire who had found out that she had a distant relationship to Burns.

The Toast to the Lassies at Burns Suppers used to basically be a riot of misogyny. In fact, at one time the only women allowed near a Burns Supper were the ones serving the food. In modern times, however, the Toast and its reply (now made by a woman) has become genuine comedy.

The Toast to the Lassies was made by Andy Williamson. He has said that he’ll send it over and when he does, I’ll put it up.

The reply was delivered by Scottish Party Convener Jenni Lang and it celebrated the men in our party who she had loosely divided into four general categories. She’d really like your help in identifying some more. Her speech is reproduced here with her permission.

I actually had to go before she started speaking or I’d have missed my train home so I read this for the first time on Monday and laughed so much I feared for my ribs. I found myself categorising my friends who were there. This includes Jenni’s husband Kevin, whom I am sure many of you will know.

Anyway, enjoy, and please feel free to add some more. But remember this is a celebration of our colleagues. Be as generous and funny as Jenni has been.

Good Evening, and firstly, thank you so much to Andy for his kind words, and thank you for inviting me to make the reply of behalf of the lassies tonight.

I have been giving a great deal of reflection over the past week to what I would say tonight in response to the laddies in the room. I realised that this year will be my 25th anniversary of becoming involved with the party. In that quarter of a century, I have been a member of staff, seen us be part of two different Government coalitions with varying success. I’ve sat on committees, chaired committees, and now I’m Convener of the party. 

And I started thinking about the types of Liberal Democrat men I have met over the years, and I realised, that there were some distinct groupings that many of these men fall into, tribes if you like. Or if I was channelling my inner Meghan Markle right now, archetypes….

So I thought tonight I would highlight a few of my favourite Lib Dem male archetypes. Now, this isn’t an exhaustive list because I only have a few minutes. But ladies, you can feel free to add more later.

First up…..

The Liberal Gentlemen

I have a very soft spot for this group of men. The elder statesmen of the party. The ones who originally joined the Liberal Party long before the merger and who, even now, only begrudgingly accept the fact we still have those pesky Social Democrats hanging around. Always polite, unfailingly charming, deeply liberal to their core.

These gentlemen can still remember bringing more chairs into the Liberal Assemblies of yore. They have an elephantine memory of the history of the party and will happily pass on this knowledge to all who will listen. 

The song ‘Lloyd George knew my father’ was not so much written for them….but more written for their children written for them, and one or two of them may have met Lloyd George themselves!

We often talk about national treasures, these gentlemen are our Party Treasures, often the Party Treasur-ers making them one of my favourite archetypes. 

Next up…..

The Policy Geek 

Yes, the policy geeks. They may have a niche issue they are keen to get through as party policy. Even better if it gets into the  manifesto. Maybe they have personal obsession with nuclear proliferation, or decriminalising drugs, or protecting bees, or the structural funding of local authorities to tackle potholes. 

These are the guys who will dedicated their time to causes which would likely result in a march and with with a mantra – “What do we want? An asymmetrical of federalism. When do we want it? – in due course!

They are the people who keep the party’s policy gears ticking over, and without some of their far out proposals, conference would just be a slew of top down edicts from the leadership. And as Liberals, none of us want that.

A sub grouping of the Policy Geek is the  Party Constitutional Wonk, which is even more niche. Vitally important to the correct functioning of the party, but can be irritating when they point out that whatever you are trying to get done is constitutionally unsound. 

They are the detail guys. The ones who can tell you exactly what is in Section K, paragraph 2….without even having the constitution in front of them. The ones who would put in an amendment at conference to say ‘On line 42 delete ‘ampersand’ and replace with the word ‘and’’.  And yes friends, that’s a true story….

The constitutional wonks, are the next level – they are the upper class who look down on the mere policy geeks. As someone who regularly chairs conference debates, there is occasionally a heart stopping moment when one of these guys rises in their seat saying ‘Point of order chair’ before invoking a niche part of the standing orders. Irritatingly they are often right.

What I would say is that these wonks can be particularly effective in council chambers in using the standing order process to derail mad motions. So I can highly recommend you putting one or two up as council candidates, and they can really scratch that itch in a way that is helpful.

Next, the one that no local party can do without….

The Local Hero

Now, every local party has, or should have a local hero. Someone who really – perhaps showing the ultimate wisdom – has no interest in ever getting elected, but who turns out to every action day, or on canvassing sessions. Maybe they get stuck into office clerical work, printing and distributing leaflets to deliverers. They are readily identifiable by constantly smelling of riso ink. They are the backbone of our party and we could not function without them. 

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Christine Jardine: Labour needs to deliver more for Scotland to beat SNP

In her Scotsman column this week, Christine Jardine has a stark message for Labour: get your backsides into gear and do more for Scotland or you are toast at the Holyrood elections in 2026. The last thing Scotland needs is another 5 years of the SNP, so we’d better hope they take heed.

Ahead of the General election last July, it looked like Labour were on course to form a Scottish Government too.

Unfortunately, with cuts to Winter Fuel Payment, the National Insurance rise and threatened benefit cuts, they have blown the goodwill that propelled them to 37 Scottish seats at …

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Alex Cole-Hamilton writes: Our decision on the Scottish Budget

Sometimes you have to sit down and talk if you want to get things done.

By any metric the SNP are failing the people of Scotland. An early election had already been ruled out (Labour are abstaining). It’s why all along we’ve been trying to shape the Scottish Budget to unpick some of the damage the SNP have done over the last 18 years.

The result? Our priorities will now be backed by hundreds of millions of pounds of government investment. Thanks to the Scottish Liberal Democrats, the Scottish Budget now includes:

  • Further investment in drugs and neonatal services totalling £2.6m, with a special focus on creating new services to help babies who are born addicted to drugs. As a youth worker, I saw first-hand how substance addiction blighted the lives of newborns and mothers, so I know just how transformational this investment will be.
  • £3.5m so that colleges can deliver the skills our economy and public services need, with new programmes focused on care and offshore wind to create a pipeline of skilled workers.
  • Allocating in the budget £700k worth of support for the young people with complex and additional needs attending Corseford College in Renfrewshire, and at least the same amount again the next year.
  • £5m for hospices.
  • Ahead of the Infrastructure Investment Plan, we’ve persuaded the Scottish Government to look much more closely at replacing the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick, Kilmaron Special School in Cupar and Newburgh Railway Station in Fife.
  • This is all on top of what Scottish Liberal Democrats secured in the first rounds of talks:

    • The reinstatement of a winter fuel payment for pensioners.>
    • Extra funding for social care.
    • Additional funding for local healthcare to make it easier to see a GP or NHS dentist.
    • Funding for new specialist support across the country for Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue and other similar conditions.
    • The right for family carers to earn more without having support withdrawn.
    • Progress on business rates relief for the hospitality sector.>
    • Funding to build more affordable homes.
    • Ringfenced agriculture funding.
    • More money for local council services.
    • Enhanced support for local authorities operating ferry services.
    • More money for additional support needs to help pupils and their teachers.
    • Replacements for the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion and the Belford Hospital in Fort William.

    It’s a long list that will improve the lot of our constituents, and of people right across Scotland, which is why we will be backing this year’s Scottish Budget.

    We cannot underestimate the importance of getting things done, especially in the current climate. Right now, public services are on their knees, the direct casualties of the SNP’s mismanagement. You can see it in the people ringing their GP surgeries hundreds of times a day to get an appointment, the care homes struggling to find staff and Scottish education slipping down the international rankings. Many businesses are struggling to make ends meet and affordable housebuilding has collapsed.

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    Lib Dem MSPs to vote for SNP Budget

    Alex Cole-Hamilton announced today that Lib Dem MSPs would support the SNP’s budget next week.  This does not in any way mean that we’ve suddenly become fans of the SNP Government but it does mean that we’ve managed to get some measures put in the budget to repair the damage they have done to Scottish public services rather than wait for their likely defeat in the elections in 2026.

    Since Labour announced in early January that they would abstain on the Budget, any chance of bringing the Government down and forcing an election disappeared. They got absolutely nothing for getting the SNP out of trouble. We, however, by that point had already got money for things like Winter Fuel Payments next year, Long Covid clinics, social care, replacements for the Belford Hospital in Fort William and the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion. In January, our negotiators did even better securing investment in colleges for training in skills to benefit the renewable energy sector, funding for hospices, and funding for specialist treatment for babies born addicted to drugs.

    Alex Cole-Hamilton explained:

    The final list of what we have achieved is pretty impressive and remarkably similar to the kind of things we’ve been banging on about for years.

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    WATCH: Alex Cole-Hamilton demands action to help babies born addicted to drugs

    At First Minister’s Questions today, Alex Cole-Hamilton implored John Swinney to do more to prevent babies being born addicted to drugs and to ensure that pregnant women had access to support to help them recover from addiction.

    He said:

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    Scottish exit poll comes with a large pinch of salt

    The Scottish constituency breakdown of the exit poll should be taken with a fairly large pinch of salt. In 2019, it predicted we would lose all of our seats north of the border and we won 4. The MRP models don’t generally do Scotland that well.

    This time, it predicts that we are on 5 our current 4 plus Mid Dumbartonshire. That would coincide with our own hopes and, I think, backs up what we have picked up on the ground during the campaign. So, fingers crossed  that is accurate.

    Labour are predicted to gain 29 seats, bringing them to 30, and the Tories are supposed to double their seats from 6 to 12. The SNP are predicted to do worse than even the most pessimistic predictions, with just 10 seats, down from 48.

    However, it seems unlikely that the Tories will double their seats, least of all themselves who are doing a bit of expectation management on this. Nobody really believes that their current Westminster leader Stephen Flynn will lose his Aberdeen South seat to them, a key target for Labour. Pete Wishart would also lose his Perth seat to the Conservatives.  However, there may be a return for Stephen Gethins, beaten by Wendy Chamberlain in North East Fife in 2019 and now standing in Arbroath.

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    A “herbivorous showpony” – behind the scenes of the Scottish Manifesto launch

    As we reported yesterday, the Scottish Lib Dems launched their manifesto at the beautiful Craigie’s Farm near South Queensferry. If you are in the area, do pop in for a visit, pick some fruit, enjoy the gorgeous views and buy some lovely food and drink from the shop and cafe. You can even order online.

    The event looked great. There were a couple of hiccups though.

    Frankly, Wendy Chamberlain should get danger money for appearing with leaders. In 2021, Willie Rennie accidentally hit her with a shinty ball during a photo opportunity for the Holyrrod Elections.

    Yesterday, they let Alex Cole-Hamilton loose with a tractor. When Ed Davey did similar for the local elections last year, he demolished a mock up of a blue wall. Alex nearly demolished his deputy leader, not once, but twice.

    The BBC have a video here.

    Thankfully Wendy survived and she was much more forgiving than we would have been. Later she and Alex recorded a video about the event:

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    Cole-Hamilton and Chamberlain launch Scottish Manifesto with focus on carers, warm homes and agriculture

     

    Alex Cole-Hamilton and Wendy Chamberlain have launched the Scottish version of our manifesto.  

    At a farm inAlex’s Edinburgh constituency (photo of Alex driving a tractor to follow), they set out plans to fix the broken care system, invest in Scottish agriculture and ensure everyone has a warm home.

    At the heart of the proposals is a £500 million rescue package for care, enabling people to be released from hospital, relieving pressure on the NHS and giving a fair deal to family carers. It will:

    • Create a new Carer’s Minimum Wage, boosting the minimum wage for care workers by £2 an hour;
    • Give unpaid carers a fair deal, lifting Carer’s Allowance/Carer Support Payment by £1,040 a year and removing the earnings cliff-edge.

    Other key proposals include:

    • Establish the world-class mental health services Scotland needs, meaning every school pupil has fast access to a mental health counsellor, new mental health staff working alongside GPs and A&Es, and extra help for businesses, backed by £150m from taxing social media companies;
    • Deliver £170m more for Scottish agriculture;
    • Generate an extra £1 billion in capital funding for Scotland which  could be used to build new local health facilities, tackle the housing emergency, end the scandal of crumbling concrete in public buildings, and stop sewage dumping.
    • Make homes warmer and cheaper to heat with a ten-year emergency upgrade programme, starting with free insulation and heat pumps for those on low incomes.

    At the launch, Alex said:

    Every vote for the Liberal Democrats at this election is a vote to elect a strong local champion focused on getting you fast access to GPs and dentists, and giving our nation’s carers a fair deal.

    We will stop sewage being dumped in our rivers, lift up Scottish education, and deliver warm homes that insulate you from the cost of living crisis.

    Our vision is of a better Britain where we work in partnership, restoring your faith in politics and fixing our broken relationship with Europe.

    Just like they Conservatives, the SNP have got to go. Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats can beat the nationalists in huge swathes of Scotland.

    Hope and change are just around the corner, you only need to vote for them. Back the Liberal Democrats for a fair deal for you, your family, and for Scotland.

    On the plans to fix care and the NHS, Alex added:

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    Alex Cole-Hamilton stands for First Minister

    Alex Cole-Hamilton’s bid to become Scotland’s First Minister was never going to end in success, unfortunately. It was important that he did it though. The MSPs in the Chamber were not his audience. That snippet on Reporting Scotland where he got the chance to be on the record, speaking to the people of Scotland, was an important part in Liberal Democrats setting out our stall.  Hope, he said, was at the heart of everything the Scottish Liberal Democrats stood for as he outlined our vision for better healthcare, education and giving power back to communities.

    Watch here:

    The text is below

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    Alex Cole-Hamilton calls for Scottish election

    Embed from Getty Images

    Responding to the resignation of Humza Yousaf as First Minister, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

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    Cole-Hamilton to Humza Yousaf: Your actions have eroded any trust you had

    Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has declined to help Scotland’s beleaguered First Minister Humza Yousaf.

    We need to remember that Yousaf’s predicament is entirely of his own making. He would not be facing a confidence vote this week had he not unceremoniously handed the Greens their jotters and booted them out of the Government on Thursday this morning, just two days after saying they were worth their weight in gold.

    Alex understandably responded to Yousaf’s invitation to talks by asking him how on earth he could expect anyone to trust a word he said, given the way he had acted.

    He also then outlined a few of the biggest failures of the Scottish Government before saying that the best solution would be for the First Minister to resign and for there to be a Scottish election. Here’s the text of his letter in full:

     

    Dear First Minister,

    Thank you for your letter. Scottish Liberal Democrats have always believed in working together in the national interest and building consensus across all political traditions. Our history speaks to that and we will continue to do so in the change that is coming for Scotland. However, I have decided to decline your offer of talks at Bute House.

    Successful minority administration must be rooted in compromise and a spirit of mutual trust with other parties. However, your actions this past week have eroded entirely any remaining trust that you enjoyed across the chamber. They suggest that rather than being motivated by the national interest, you are presently motivated only by your own self-interest and by political survival.

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    Drama in Scotland – could there be a Holyrood election?

    Who would have thought that Scottish voters could face two national elections this year – and the first one for the Scottish Parliament before the too-long awaited Westminster poll?

    If First Minister Humza Yousaf is forced to resign in the next few days, if the SNP can’t agree on a successor, if the Parliament can’t agree on a new First Minister within 28 days, then Scottish voters could be going to the polls on 4th July.

    The SNP has been sharing power with the Scottish Greens for the past two and a half years with Green Co-Conveners Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater holding ministerial office. This morning Humza Yousaf handed them their jotters in an early morning meeting before announcing to the world that he had decided that the SNP would be better off going it alone as a minority Government.

    You have to wonder whether he had thought through the implications for his own future. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that someone would put up a motion of no confidence and equally predictable that the party that he had just unceremoniously booted out of Government would not find it in their hearts to support him.

    As things stand, his best hope is a tied vote next week, relying on the casting vote of the Presiding Officer to save him. But even that can only be achieved by doing a deal with Ash Regan, his former leadership rival who went off and joined Alex Salmond’s socially conservative, populist Alba party. And even if he survives the vote, clinging to power by your fingernails is not the best way to lead your party into a UK General Election.

    You have to wonder why he let that happen.

    There are undoubtedly some in the SNP who have been wanting rid of Humza since he was elected.

    Last year’s SNP leadership election was so close with Humza only just beating Kate Forbes. Deep divisions were exposed within the party. Now the SNP can take a fair amount of division. They are a very broad church. But the only thing they really care about is independence and when they are divided on how to achieve that, and the prospect of it ever happening is moving further and further away, they are going to implode.  It’s hard to think of anyone in their ranks who could come close to bringing them together.

    Their Government is failing at pretty much everything, as Alex Cole-Hamilton said in no uncertain terms at First Minister’s Questions today.

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    Behind the lurid headlines: What the Scottish hate crime legislation actually says

    An author got herself a tonne of publicity earlier this week by posting some very unpleasant, disrespectful and insulting comments on social media. She basically dared the Police to arrest her under Scotland’s new hate crime legislation.

    There was never a chance of that happening. The threshold of what actually counts as a hate crime is pretty high and Police Scotland confirmed that no action would be taken against this person.

    Perhaps an unintended consequence of this fuss is that it drives a coach and horses through the claims of many on the right that this new law is going to end up with anyone who says anything that isn’t “woke” being put on a list and carted off to jail. This is, to be clear, complete and utter bollocks.

    Someone I know had been scared by her GB News addict dad that she could lose her job if she blurted out some of the stuff she comes out with after a few glasses of wine.  To be fair to her, it’s sometimes a bit gross but none of it constitutes either hate or a crime. She was worried nonetheless.

    Thankfully, the Equality Network has published a very helpful guide to the new legislation which reassured her. Essentially, to face consequences, you have to commit a crime that is motivated by prejudice:

    It is important though to know that many forms of prejudiced or offensive behaviour are NOT hate crimes. It is not a crime to be prejudiced, and the right to freedom of expression means that people may express their prejudice in offensive, shocking or disturbing ways, without crossing the line into criminal behaviour.

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    Alex Cole-Hamilton on Scottish Budget: SNP and Greens out of ideas

    It was a depressing day in Holyrood yesterday as the SNP/Green budget passed. An unfunded Council Tax freeze crippling Scottish Councils, affordable housing cut by a third in the middle of a massive housing emergency, mental health support cut, education cut.

    There was never a cat in hell’s chance that Lib Dems would vote for such an ill thought through budget. Alex Cole-Hamilton explained why:

    In this budget, the Scottish Government is reaching for more tax rises. It is punishing low and middle-income families through fiscal drag, it is taking a hammer to the green renewables piggy bank and it is cutting public services for young and old alike. Why? It is doing so because Scottish National Party and Green ministers are completely out of ideas about how to spark growth, drive innovation or enlarge the tax base sustainably. They have a habit of making costly blunders—for example, the two ferries that are rusting in dry dock, the botched deposit return scheme, the independence papers and the selling of Scotland’s prized sea bed on the cheap. Next in their sights is the clueless and bureaucratic billion-pound ministerial takeover of social care that we are set to debate this week. In every case, taxpayers and public services are expected to pay the price.

    The Government is out of touch and is taking people for granted. One thing that it must realise is that it needs the talents of everyone in order to grow the economy and make our country fairer. There is an intrinsic link between the health of our people and the health of our economy. People are waiting in pain for long-overdue operations. Their conditions are worsening by the day. It can take years for people to get the mental health treatment that they desperately need, which means that they cannot get on in life. There are now around 200,000 people in Scotland who are out of work because of mental ill health, long Covid and long-term conditions. According to the Our Scottish Future think tank, that costs our economy £870 million a year.

    The longer people are out of work, the worse their prospects become. The longer they wait to be treated, the greater the cost to the NHS. That is why making yet another cut to overwhelmed mental health services makes no sense whatsoever.

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    Jim Wallace remembers Donald Dewar

    This week, our Jim Wallace delivered the annual Donald Dewar Memorial Lecture in Glasgow. This lecture, held every year in memory of Scotland’s First First Minister, has previously been delivered by senior political figures such as Alistair Darling and Jack McConnell. Donald Dewar died suddenly in October 2000.

    Jim served as Deputy First Minister to him and was Acting First Minister when Donald Dewar had heart surgery and in the immediate aftermath of his death while Labour selected a new leader. The Labour/Lib Dem coalition, over 8 years, delivered things like freedom of information legislation, free eye and dental checks, STV for local government, free personal care and land reform.

    Jim’s lecture gave insights into the coalition negotiations back in 1999, Dewar’s style of Government and his hopes for the future.

    He said:

    The most liberating election campaign which I ever fought was the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999. To a greater or lesser extent, all the general elections in which I’d been a candidate, had been fought against a backdrop of an ongoing constitutional debate about Scotland’s future. By 1999, we had a Parliament, endorsed overwhelmingly in the 1997 referendum; so now we could debate what the Parliament was going to do.

    “With so many challenges today facing our NHS, our education system, our environment, transport links to islands and mainland destinations, in local government and not least in advancing Donald Dewar’s great passion for a more socially just Scotland, wouldn’t it be a refreshing change to think that these would be the issues which should again dominate the Parliament’s agenda.

    “In that speech on 1st July, almost a quarter of a century ago, Donald also said,

    “We are fallible. We will make mistakes. But we will never lose sight of what brought us here: the striving to do right by the people of Scotland; to respect their priorities; to better their lot; and to contribute to the commonweal.”

    “It takes a special politician with great character to admit to fallibility and the possibility of mistakes. But at least they would be our mistakes. I can’t imagine him having the knee-jerk response always to blame Westminster. But compared to many countries with devolved powers, the competences of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Ministers are extensive – more extensive today than they were in 1999. So, wouldn’t a fitting tribute to the legacy of Donald Dewar be for today’s Scottish Parliamentarians to resolve again to focus on using these powers – to better the lot of the people of Scotland, and to contribute to the common weal.

    The full text of Jim’s speech is below:

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    Lib Dems need to practise what we preach on Federalism

    Did you get excited when you got the Party’s email about our manifesto? How we are going to save the environment, based on our core values and vision? I did.

    Then I made the mistake of actually reading it and I discover that our environment stops at the Scottish Border. 

    I’m not naïve. This is a “sound bite” email. I don’t expect us to do into the nuances between the water company Scottish situation and that in England and Wales; that most of our sewage discharges don’t require to be recorded, as Neil Alexander has been highlighting in Moray; that  Scottish Water is publicly owned. After all, we still pay ludicrous bonuses to the top men (yes; they are men) and no-one seems to try to hold the Scottish Government to account for the failings of “the top water company in the UK”

    But then we get to the specifics…

    We will

    double the size of the Protected Area Network 

    The Protected Area Network is the creature of Natural England. There is no equivalent here.

     Strengthen the Office for Environmental Protection and increase funding for the Environment Agency and Natural England. 

    Not a dickie about Environment Standards Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency/Scottish Water or NatureScot.

    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments

    Why would you cut energy efficiency funding in a climate emergency – Alex Cole-Hamilton

    Yesterday’s Scottish Budget hit the headlines because of the introduction of a new top tax rate for higher earners, and a rise in tax for the richest. But there were some real devils in the detail.

    The BBC’s report states that:

    Plans to accelerate clean heating systems will receive £358m of funding.

    This might be fine, but the figure last year was £367.5 million.

    They have also cut the funding for fuel poverty and housing quality from £21.8 million to £1.7 million.

    And that is before you even start to mention the effective cut to Council budgets because of the Council Tax freeze. A report last week suggested that a quarter of Scottish Councils fear bankruptcy.

    Alex said in response to Finance Secretary Shona Robison’s statement:

    The SNP has spent years ignoring expert warnings about the lack of a long-term economic strategy and the impact of its failure to grow the economy. Scotland needs predictability and a long-term plan for tax and the wider economy, not erratic changes that will undermine confidence.

    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 10 Comments

    Cole-Hamilton: Reasonable minded people are re-thinking their support for the SNP

    In a way I feel a bit sorry for Humza Yousaf.  Not because he’s taken over a failing Government that he has been a part of, but because of the way his party is imploding around him in a way that he probably didn’t expect. He definitely knew that he was inheriting a deeply divided party, but maybe didn’t realise that the chalice was so full of poison.

    Since his election as First Minister 3 weeks ago, two senior figures in the SNP have been arrested and released without charge in an investigation in to the Party’s finances and he has discovered that the party’s auditors resigned six months ago. You can tell that my husband is getting way too interested in this story because he’s been getting adverts for camper vans on Facebook. Yesterday he faced the press in an encounter that will be shown at media training courses as an example as how not to do it for years to come:

    We’ve been very used to Nicola Sturgeon’s very controlled media appearances for the past 8 years, so this was a massive contrast. Journalist Rob Hutton’s critique was brutal:

    And let’s be clear, these surely are his thoughts, unmediated by anything as sophisticated as “spin” or “damage control”. The first minister seems to be gripped by a compulsion to speak whatever words have just popped into his brain, without the slightest consideration about what impact this might have on the situation. It’s compulsive viewing, the political equivalent of watching a toddler determinedly trying to work a fork into an electrical socket.

    Our Rural Affairs spokesperson Molly Nolan drew another comparison on Twitter:

    I know there’s many more pressing things going on at the moment but good grief. Mr Bean himself would surely have given a better interview than this

    It was not the best build up to Yousaf’s big moment when he unveiled his programme for Government at Holyrood yesterday. And to be honest it wasn’t so much a programme for Government as a series of screeching U-turns. The deeply flawed deposit return scheme paused till next year, their flagship National Care Service paused. Those are both welcome, but I mean, if the only headlines that come out of such a statement is what you are not doing, you are in trouble.

    Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said that our party will be part of the change that is coming:

    Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 20 Comments

    Polls put SNP majority in doubt

    Humza Yousaf has been Scotland’s First Minister for 5 days and it looks as though he’s not going to get a honeymoon. Two polls this week have shown the SNP vote falling and Labour surging while Lib Dems look as though we will gain and, in Alex Cole-Hamilton’s catchphrase of the moment, “be part of what’s next”

    A Savanta poll published on Friday put us on 7 seats, giving us and Labour 49 seats between us. Between 2007 and 2011, the SNP minority government had just  47 MSPs.

    This weekend, a Sunday Times/Pnaelbase poll showed a slightly different outcome, but still a significant drop for the SNP.

    Humza Yousaf’s win by the cursed ratio of 52% to 48% means that the divisions opened up by a febrile campaign will be more difficult to heal. The refusal of Kate Forbes to take the post of Rural Affairs Secretary, a role which would have put her on a collision course with the Greens over the introduction of controversial Highly Protected Marine Areas  leaves her as a powerful rallying point on the back benches.

    Unforced errors such as abolishing the job of Social Security Minister, sending its previous holder Ben Macpherson to the backbenches, have also raised concerns. It seems ridiculous to have a Minister for Independence and not one to be over the transfer of disability benefits to the new Scottish Social Security Agency.

    The commentary on Yousaf’s debut at First Minister’s Questions was not positive. In fact, the Herald’s Tom Gordon  was brutal:

    The banks of schoolkids flagged visibly, hating their teachers, hating democracy.

    It was like detention without end. Oh, think of the children!

    On and on Mr Yousaf went, clubbing his audience with the cliches of Nicola Sturgeon and the charm of Alex Salmond in a lift.

    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 17 Comments

    Humza Yousaf narrowly elected as Scotland’s First Minister

    When Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf entered the room at Murrayfield for the announcement of the SNP leadership election, Kate was smiling and looking like she had not a care in the world. Humza’s face was in his boots and he looked like he had the weight o the world on his shoulders.

    I thought that Kate had won, but when the result came through, and Humza was proclaimed leader, you can maybe understand why he looked so miserable.

    His margin of victory was that cursed ration of 52.1% to 47.9% over Kate Forbes, and we all know from Brexit how difficult it is to manage a situation where almost half of people are against you. On first preferences, he had 48% of the vote to Kate Forbes 40% and Ash Regan’s 11.1%, but Regan’s transfers broke overwhelmingly for Forbes.

    There will be some relief in Scotland’s LGBT community that Yousaf, out of the three, has won. During the campaign, Kate Forbes expressed her opposition to same sex marriage and both she and Regan made clear their opposition to  the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

    The leadership campaign was at times absolutely vicious. Kate Forbes demolition of his record in office may well come back to haunt the soon to be First Minister. In the first major debate, she basically told him he was being moved from his Health portfolio if she won, and said:

    “You were a transport minister and the trains were never on time, when you were justice secretary the police were stretched to breaking point, and now as health minister we’ve got record high waiting times – what makes you think you can do a better job as first minister?”

    The thing I found most weird, having spent my Summer three years ago, along with many others, phone canvassing in our leadership election, that the SNP didn’t allow their candidates to have membership data in order to canvass. Maybe that explains the low turnout of 70% in such a fiercely fought election for, effectively, the leader of the country.

    Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton congratulated Humza but did not hold back about the challenge ahead of him:

    I would like to congratulate Humza Yousaf on becoming the first minority ethnic leader of his party.

    “Scotland is crying out for a First Minister who will put the people’s priorities first and be a leader for the whole country.

    “There are huge challenges facing our country but sadly Humza Yousaf has not proven equal to those challenges in his previous roles. That’s not just my verdict but that of his colleague Kate Forbes.

    “On his watch, 1 in 7 Scots are on a waiting list and his NHS recovery plan has completely failed to tackle crises in A&E, cancer care, mental health and dentistry.

    “Reasonable, fair-minded people are turning away from the SNP and looking for someone who will fight their corner. This country is ready for change and Scottish Liberal Democrats will be part of what’s next.”

    Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments

    Willie Rennie gets commitment from Sturgeon on tackling violence in schools

    Following on from his article calling for action on violence in schools, Willie Rennie asked the First Minister for action this week. In her positive response, she paid tribute not once but twice to the work Willie has done on this issue and on mental health.

    The text is below:

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    Tom Arms’ World Review

    Northern Ireland

    It may be that the British lion may be learning how to wag its Irish tail instead of the reverse. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has negotiated a settlement of the Northern Ireland Protocol which has bedevilled UK-EU and UK-US relations and Britain’s standing in the world since the 2016 Brexit Referendum.

    The chief stumbling block has been Northern Ireland’s ultra-nationalist, ultra-conservative, ultra-protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). For them Brexit was an opportunity to reverse the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which they never liked even though it ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

    The DUP’s hopes were seemingly dashed by Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit it Done” settlement which moved the UK-EU border to the Irish Sea and left Northern Ireland in Europe’s Single Market and Customs Union. Then faith was restored by Johnson’s threat to withdraw from the agreement he made, damaging relations with the EU; undermining belief in British adherence to international law and, because the US is a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, making an eagerly-sought US-UK trade deal a distant prospect.

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has replaced ideologically-driven threats with pragmatic compromise and negotiations and come up with what is called the “Windsor Framework.” It is not perfect. It leaves the EU with a great deal of say in Northern Irish affairs, but is possibly the best deal that could be secured with a weak British hand.

    For a start, the Windsor Framework establishes “red and green lanes” for goods entering Northern Ireland from mainland Britain. The green lanes are for goods staying in the province and are customs free. The red lanes for goods transiting on to Eire and are subject to EU tariffs.

    Of perhaps greater importance is the sovereignty issue. Disputes will now be discussed by a joint EU-UK consultative body with final arbitration by an independent arbitrator working within the framework of international law. The Stormont Assembly will have a say through a mechanism called “The Stormont Brake”, but this cannot be used for “trivial reasons” and Westminster can veto Stormont.

    The “Stormont Brake” can be used if the Assembly is in session. At the moment it is not because the DUP refuses to attend as a protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

    The DUP has neither accepted nor rejected the “Windsor Framework.” It has said it wants time – lots of it – to consider its options. Sunak has said fair enough. Take all the time you want. But the framework will be approved with or without your support. This is no empty threat. The prime minister has support from the Opposition Labour Party and Liberal Democrats and can easily outvote the DUP and any rebel right-wing Tories.

    Covid-19

    Donald Trump’s number one conspiracy theory may be right. That is according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.  Covid-19 may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory specialising in coronavirus research. America’s Department of Energy agrees with Christopher Wray and even the World Health Organisation is making noises about reversing its previous position and saying that the claims are worth a fresh investigation.

    However, the CIA and other US intelligence agencies continue to report that the most likely scenario is that the virus jumped from animals to humans via the Wuhan food market. The vast majority of the world’s scientists agree with the spooks at Langley, Virginia and the White House says there is no firm proof either way.

    Unsurprisingly, the Chinese steadfastly maintain that the virus started in animals, not their lab. In fact, some officials have come up with a counter conspiracy claim that the virus was manufactured in a US research facility in Ft. Derick, Maryland and released in Wuhan by American agents.

    Beijing is determined to avoid any blame. Not only does it undermine their claims to scientific competency, it also lays them open to lawsuits. Notoriously litiginous Trump has demanded that the Chinese pay $10 trillion and thousands of Floridians have signed up for a class action suit with Miami-based law firm the Bernard Law Group. Of course, the chances of collecting any money is nil.

    Whether the virus started in a lab or a bat is important to know. The knowledge will help public health officials to prevent future pandemics. For that reason alone the lack of Chinese transparency is disturbing.

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    WATCH: Alex Cole-Hamilton defend Scotland’s place in the UK in Oxford Union debate

    Alex Cole-Hamilton recently took part in an Oxford Union debate on Scottish independence. His side, opposing the motion that “This House would support an independent Scotland” won comfortably.

    Watch his speech here:

    Posted in News | Also tagged and | 1 Comment

    Willie Rennie calls for action to end violence in schools

    Willie Rennie has called on the Scottish Government and Scotland’s education leaders to do more to tackle the increasing problem of violence in schools.

    He wrote in the Daily Record that images shown to him by a constituent of a young girl being kicked in the face by another will stay with him forever.

    He said that there was a “conspiracy of silence” as those responsible didn’t admit to the extent of the problem, which led to staff at sone school taking industrial action because they didn’t feel their pleas for intervention were being heard.

    He wants action to tackle a problem which has become much more severe since the pandemic closed schools for extended periods. Not only that, but there are fewer experienced staff around to help:

    There has been a fall in specialist teachers, long waits for mental health treatment, a reduction in classroom assistants, insufficient educational psychologists and not enough staffed spaces to provide appropriate support to pupils. The list goes on. That needs to change.

    But, he says, intervention has to be inclusive:

    I am a liberal and I believe in tackling the root causes of behaviour rather than simply punishing the symptoms, so I support inclusion and the restorative approach adopted in Scottish education.

    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 5 Comments

    Cole-Hamilton: People need change, not endless independence navel gazing

    On the weekend that various SNP leadership bids are launched, Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton set out this party’s priorities for Government.

    Two things have cheered him this week. First a poll suggesting that we would double our Holyrood group to 8 if there were a Scottish election today.

    The second was unexpectedly finding himself on a list of potential successors to Nicola Sturgeon:

    Seriously, I think we are much more lead than the SNP at the moment. I doubt he’ll be thinking the grass is greener.

    Anyway, Alex made his remarks about the priorities for the next First Minister at the start of an action day in the Corstorphine/Murrayfield by-election in the heart of his Edinburgh Western constituency. I’m more surprised, to be honest, that organiser Ed and campaign manager Kevin Lang allowed activists to stand still for long enough to listen to him on the weekend before postal votes land. This is what he said:

    Nicola Sturgeon’s launched ferries with painted on windows and failed to close the attainment gap in our schools. Drug deaths many times worse than anywhere else in Europe and a stagnant economy are the consequence of years of ministerial disinterest. The delivery rarely lived up to the hype.

    I’m challenging the leadership contenders to recognise where timeworn SNP policies have failed to deliver for the NHS, schools, the economy and the efforts to reduce Scotland’s emissions.

    I’ve set out positive policies for the would-be candidates today because being open to ideas from the opposition benches is a sign of good government. With three years until the next scheduled Holyrood election, people have the right to see change, not more of the same.

    We will work hard to move the debate on from the divisions of the past because people can’t wait for years behind yet more arguments and navel-gazing about independence. All of the good things we want to do can’t play second fiddle any longer. Scotland needs new hope, right now.

    When it comes to breaking up the UK, no price is too high and no amount of disruption too painful for the nationalists. Scottish Liberal Democrats will stand up for communities around the country being totally taken for granted by this SNP Government.

    He is asking the SNP leadership contenders to do five things:

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    Lib Dems react to Sturgeon resignation

    I might disagree with Nicola Sturgeon on many things, but I have long liked her personally.  She is one of the best political communicators we have had, someone who is very good at empathy and emotional connection. Her resignation speech today was dignified, sincere and candid about the pressures she has faced after eight years in the role.

    Sturgeon is standing down on her own terms at a time of her choosing. Her work ethic is pretty legendary and she feels that she doesn’t have within her the capacity to continue working at this pace after 8 years in the top job.

    Her leadership during the pandemic, described today by Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton as “a hell of a shift,” was not perfect but had a clarity and compassion that others lacked. Alex said in a BBC interview that today was not a day for throwing political brick bats and paid tribute to the First Minister personally:

    The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats says Scotland faces “many challenges” and he calls on the SNP to “get stability restored” after the first minister steps down.

    But today is “not a day for political attacks”, Alex Cole-Hamilton tells BBC News.

    Despite having a “combative” relationship with the outgoing first minister, Cole-Hamilton recalls a warm moment between the two when the FM offered him “words of comfort” after his young daughter choked on a coin and had to be resuscitated around five years ago.

    Watch here:

    Later he added:

    Nicola Sturgeon’s talent has undoubtedly shaped Scottish political life and she deserves to be thanked for her public service. Today is not a day for political attacks.  I wish her well for everything that comes next.

    It is to Nicola Sturgeon’s credit that she has been open about the pressures and stresses that leadership has involved.  Everyone will recognise how hard it will have been particularly to steer the country during the pandemic and the weight of those decisions.

    Scotland needs leadership that will focus on what really matters because every corner of our NHS is in crisis, the cost of living is punishing, islanders still need new ferries and education deserves to be a top priority.

    Scottish Liberal Democrats will work hard to move the debate on from the divisions of the past because people can’t wait for years behind yet more arguments about independence. Scotland needs new hope, right now.

    Alex is not the only person to have been impressed by her kindness. Back in 2011, she took time out of her day to send me, a random nobody activist in an opposition party, a lovely message of sympathy when our much loved campaigns director Andrew Reeves died.

    It is also worth saying while she has recently been attacked on women’s rights, mainly by people who have never done anything for women in their lives, she is a committed feminist who has done a great deal to improve all diversity strands in her own party.  She also – eventually – delivered 30 hours of term-time childcare for 3 and 4 year olds and introduced the Scottish Child Payment which gives £25 per week to families on the lowest incomes.

    Here’s what other Lib Dems have been saying about her resignation and we’ll update as more comments come in:

    Christine later wrote a very generous column in the Express.

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    LibLink: Christine Jardine – Sturgeon’s dead cat distracts from multiple failures

    In her Scotsman column this week, Christine Jardine highlights 3 major SNP Government failures and suggests Nicola Sturgeon’s publication of her tax returns is merely a dead cat to distract from them.

    The first failing is the lack of dualling the main route to the north of Scotland, the A9. It was supposed to be one by 2025 but that is not going to happen and fatalities on this road are going up.

    Failure to make the promised improvements will impact the economy as well as the health and well-being of isolated communities with poor access to vital services. But most of all it is a failure to make the main route north safe for all of us. Safety was a major factor in the decision to upgrade a road on which the number of deaths still managed to record a heart-breaking 20-year high in 2022.

    Thirteen people lost their lives on the stretch from Inverness to Perth of which approximately 77 miles remain to be dualled and the tender for the latest stretch – Tomatin to Moy – was announced this week to have been delayed. Promised improvements now will have to wait while thousands continue to face the real fear of driving on a road which switches intermittently from dual to single carriage and on which you can meet a tractor or road works at any moment.

    And then there is the unbelievable capacity to make a mess of a good idea that is the proposed Deposit Return Scheme. Anyone who wants to sell drinks in bottles, or cans, in Scotland after August is supposed to sign up for the new scheme by the end of this month, but businesses are saying they may not bother because of the additional costs they will incur. This weekend no Scottish Government Minister would appear on the main Sunday morning shows to defend the scheme which has even been criticised by SNP MPs.

    On a practical level, retailers are unhappy that the vending machines will cost around £20,000 to install and take up valuable retail space. Producers are also beginning to ask questions, and then there are the problems of different pricing for different parts of the UK. Which raises another not insignificant problem: the Internal Markets Bill.

    A leading lawyer this week claimed that Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme could create an unlawful trade barrier with the rest of the UK where a similar scheme will be introduced in 2025.

    Finally, the Government is yet again delaying the full implementation of welfare powers.

    Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , , , and | 5 Comments
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