Tag Archives: Scotland

Caron Lindsay

Time to think about Spring Conferences

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 3rd January 2016 - 1:25 pm

In the next 8 weeks, Liberal Democrat Spring conferences will be held. First up is the Welsh Conference on the weekend of 5-7 February in Cardiff. I suspect the motions deadline has already passed, but we will keep you up to date when the agenda is published. Lynne Featherstone will be a keynote speaker and the event will be an opportunity to showcase Welsh Lib Dems’ achievements and plans ahead of the Assembly elections in May.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats meet in Edinburgh from 26-27 February, half a day shorter than usual. There is still plenty time to submit a motion. If you have an idea for a change in policy, here are the timescales:

Deadlines for motions to conference are as follows:

Policy motions – 15 January at midday
Amendments – 24 February at midday
Topical issues – 25 February at 17.00
Emergency motions – 25 February and 26 February at 17.00

You need to get 25 members to agree your motion, or you can ask a local party or organisation like EMLD, LGBT+ Lib Dems, Scottish Lib Dem Women or Liberal Youth Scotland to submit it for you.

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Caron Lindsay

Repost: Charles Kennedy’s New Year’s Day reflections from 2014

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 1st January 2016 - 2:55 pm

In 2014, we faced European elections and a Scottish referendum. In 2016, we face Scottish Elections and an EU Referendum. On New Year’s Day, Charles Kennedy sent us his reflections on the year ahead. There is much in here that is relevant today, particularly the bit about being “bold to the point of fearlessness” about portraying our unique political optimism. It brought a tear to my eye reading it. He is so missed.

Locally and nationally 2014 is going to be a decisive one – not just for us Liberal Democrats but for Scotland, the UK and the European Union

…

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The Voice

The Lib Dem week in Scotland

By The Voice | Thu 31st December 2015 - 2:41 pm

Welcome to our weekly roundup of what the Scottish Liberal Democrats, led by Willie Rennie, have been getting up to.

The plight of 50,000 children on housing waiting lists

Jim Hume highlights the tens of thousands of children on housing waiting lists in Scotland. This is an area entirely devolved to the SNP Government. Jim said:

It’s unbelievable that someone has been on a council house waiting list since the end of the Second World War. The lack of housing available for social rent in this country is a disgrace and Ministers should be ashamed of themselves. The SNP has muddied the waters on housing by backtracking on election promises and Scots and their children are paying the price.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats believe children need the best start in life. This cannot be achieved if there is uncertainty about whether they’ll even have a roof over their heads. Last week we discovered 30,000 children have been homeless on Christmas Day over the past three years. When you put that figure with the tens of thousands of children currently on housing waiting lists, it paints a very bleak picture for young people needing support as they’re grow up in Scotland.

Projects such as the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, which is funded by the Scottish Government, are bringing properties back into use but not at a rate that will actually make much of a difference.

These kind of schemes need more funding so that they can stop being a drop in the ocean and start having an impact. How many more thousands of children will be left languishing on waiting lists before the Scottish Government recognises there is a housing crisis in this country?”

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Willie Rennie

Willie Rennie’s New Year Message: Let’s unite Scotland with a positive liberal message

By Willie Rennie | Thu 31st December 2015 - 6:00 am

So what can we look forward in 2016? The Forth Road Bridge’s continued opening (we hope). Scots athletes excelling as part of Team GB at the Rio Olympics. Andy Murray mounting another challenge at Wimbledon.

And the small matter of a Scottish Parliament election that will set the direction of the country for five years.

As ever, at this election voters face a choice.

They can choose five more years of constitutional division and grievances with the SNP who have failed to protect crucial services.

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Caron Lindsay

Why classroom assistants matter and why the SNP’s pressure on local government harms kids’ education and attainment

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th December 2015 - 5:15 pm

US Navy 061026-N-5271J-014 Jennifer Tonder (right), a teacher's aide for a 3rd-4th grade multi-age class, discusses the various books available from the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) grant given to Sasebo Elementary School with
Scottish Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Liam McArthur has been doing some research into classroom assistant numbers in Scotland and has found some very worrying results. Like many other council services, education has been put under massive pressure after nine years of Council Tax freeze which predominantly benefits those in larger properties – e.g. the richest. The SNP are not so progressive when you put their record under scrutiny.

While some local authorities have increased the numbers of classroom assistants, others have seen huge drops. Aberdeen has lost 92 out of 299 in 2007 when the SNP came to power. In my own council area, West Lothian, 10% of classroom assistants have been gone despite a massive reduction in special needs provision.

I asked a teacher why classroom assistants matter and what impacts such reductions in their numbers have on children’s education. This is what they said.

In the modern classroom, classroom assistants, learning assistant, pupil support assistants, are key to facilitating learning. From working individually with children who, in the past, would have perhaps been taught in a school for children with special needs to supporting small groups within the classroom or being there to allow the teacher to work with small groups/individuals. Active learning is a key part of Curriculum for Excellence. This often involves spreading out of the classroom and using other spaces such as library, sensory room, outdoor classroom etc. This is all the more possible with  classroom assistants rather than having to move 33 kids en masse all of the time.

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Caron Lindsay

The strange priorities of Yes Shetland

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 17th December 2015 - 10:50 am

I had a wee meander round the Facebook page of Yes Shetland this morning. It was not an edifying experience.

This is a place where you can be banished from the page for using a non-profane insult to the Orkney 4, as the petitioners in the Alistair Carmichael case have become known, but it seems to be perfectly acceptable to suggest hiring a hit man for Alistair Carmichael. To be fair, I wouldn’t allow that sort of name-calling for the Orkney 4 (or anyone else) on here either, but if any of our lot suggested hiring a hit-man for anyone, I’d be on them like a tonne of bricks. No way is it ever acceptable.

The admins of the page, under the guise of Buster, the Cat Rampant (but with our menagerie of Newsanimals, we are not judging) writes:

We have removed somebody for calling the Orkney Four “clowns”, on the crowd funder link, a seemingly innocuous remark?
Had they disagreed with the crowd funder they could have said so, or deemed it a waste of money which could have been put to good use elsewhere – no problems.

People have already posted these views and they are still here.

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Caron Lindsay

Scottish Government is consulting on the future of civil partnerships – respond by Tuesday

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 12th December 2015 - 1:30 pm

What should happen to civil partnerships now that we have equal marriage? (Yes, I know it’s not properly equal in England because of the spousal veto.)

The Scottish Government simply wants to abolish them and is consulting on that proposal

I have responded to the consultation this morning saying that I think that they should be retained and opened up to all couples. For me, that’s the “liberal max” option. Marriage isn’t for everyone, so it shouldn’t be the only way possible for people to formalise their relationships and benefit from legal protections.

I do respect the view of those who …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Alison McInnes: The SNP’s record on human rights is atrocious

By NewsHound | Sat 12th December 2015 - 11:56 am

Writing on the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ website for Human Rights Day, Alison McInnes looked critically at the SNP’s records on human rights. For all their noise at Westminster, at Holyrood, they are most definitely found wanting.

But the Scottish Government also has a responsibility to act in accordance with international and domestic human rights legislation and the SNP’s record in government is dismal.

This week alone, the SNP rejected moves to increase the age of criminal responsibility to ensure that children are treated like children, not crooks. This was against the advice of the Scottish Human Rights Commission and other campaigners.

Scotland is the only part of the UK, and unique in Europe, in forcing eight-year-olds into the criminal justice system.

Elsewhere, the SNP eventually agreed to Liberal Democrat plans to end the industrial use of discredited, illegal so-called consensual police searches, but they had to be dragged kicking and screaming.

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NewsHound

Alison McInnes questions comments of rape trial judge

By NewsHound | Wed 2nd December 2015 - 11:51 am

Last week, I read a blog post by legal expert Andrew Tickell which horrified me. That post, and the judgment of the Appeal Court to which it refers had me feeling sick and shaking, so be aware that it contains some horrible details of rape of adults and children  and the sexual abuse of a child before you click on it. The judgment was for an appeal by the prosecution in a case of rape and sexual abuse which ultimately had the rapist’s prison sentence raised from five to eight years.

The judgment drew attention to remarks made by the trial judge which belittled the rape and suggesting that the victims had acquiesced to or condoned the rapes and that they were minor.

Scottish Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson Alison McInnes has taken this up with one of Scotland’s most senior judges as Scottish Legal News reports:

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Graeme Cowie

Against comfort blanket constitutionalism

By Graeme Cowie | Fri 30th October 2015 - 11:58 am

At Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference, I committed a cardinal liberal offence. I voted against a pro-federalism motion, moved by Robert Brown and Lord Purvis. I opposed in sorrow and anger at the Party’s stasis on the constitutional question. I was also annoyed that attempts some of us made to secure a more robust debate at Conference on federalism, were rebuffed by Conference Committee. We were made to feel that the party bureaucracy did not want a real clash of ideas for Conference to resolve democratically.

The motion didn’t take practical steps towards advancing federalism any further than the Party already had. Its tone, if anything, made federalism more difficult to advance. Siobhan Mathers was right when she said in the debate that Lib Dems are excessively high-minded, believing they had more influence than was the reality on further devolution. Though the Campbell Commission reported first, it was outflanked by the Tory proposals on critical areas like welfare. The Party seems reluctant just to admit that, whatever the proximate cause, we lost our radical edge. We did not adapt to the shifting constitutional landscape even before the independence referendum.

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The Voice

Willie Rennie to highlight gender balance in his Conference speech

By The Voice | Thu 22nd October 2015 - 11:58 am

We know that Willie Rennie is determined to improve the appalling gender balance record of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. He has to persuade a party which has historically rejected any proposals for positive action in candidate selection to adopt proposals to be drawn up by a working group made up of himself, Jo Swinson, Sophie Bridger, Sheila Ritchie and Fred Mackintosh. The ultimate aim is for half of Scotland’s Liberal Democrat parliamentarians to be women within 6 years.

The proposals will be debated at the Scottish Party’s Spring Conference just a few weeks before next year’s Holyrood elections. You can’t accuse Willie of not being willing to take a risk. He will be talking about it in Saturday’s speech to Autumn Conference too:

I want our party to change.

All our MPs in the United Kingdom are men. And four out of our five MSPs are men too.

I know many in the party instinctively do not favour positive action but I need to be frank with you.  Nothing else has worked.

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Caron Lindsay

No, the Liberal Democrats do not owe Police Scotland £800,000 (or any other sum for that matter)

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 19th October 2015 - 8:55 am

Get into an argument with any cybernat and, sooner or later, when you’ve won the argument, you’ll have it thrown at you, a bit like a modern Godwin’s Law, that the Liberal Democrats should pay their £800,000 bill to Police Scotland.

This is all to do with the security arrangements for our conference in Glasgow in 2013. South of the Border, the Home Office picks up these costs. As policing is devolved, the Scottish Government had responsibility and refused to do so. That meant that, apart from a small contribution to cover the costs of accreditation from the UK Government, Police Scotland had to pick up the tab themselves. Nothing to do with us.

Every time I get this, I refer the cybernat in question to this response to a freedom of information request which comprehensively debunks the idea that we owe any money to Police Scotland at all. Read my lips,

By way of explanation, it has been reported in the media that there is an outstanding invoice of £800,000 for this conference; however, this is factually incorrect. No invoice for the policing costs of the conference was ever generated and the Liberal Democrats did not enter into any arrangement with Police Scotland to provide policing.

In case it wasn’t clear the first time:

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Vote “Leave” get “Yes” free

By Michael Cooke | Wed 14th October 2015 - 2:33 pm

Generally, the status quo has the upper hand in referenda. However, in the wake of the global financial crisis and subsequent recession, the anti-incumbency trend might not just be contained to first-order elections, with voters punishing governing parties of all stripes for letting economic misery occur on their watches. It could be that this trend extends to the far more fixed and aggregate level. For example, in the Scottish Referendum, Better Together warned against Labour voters acting on this anti-incumbency impulse to end Tory rule permanently, as opposed to just temporarily at Westminster General Elections.

However, for a voter it is perfectly rational: if given the chance to either a) end something unpleasant for at least five years, with the possibility of it returning or b) end it permanently, any Rational-Choice model would dictate the latter. Many in the Scottish media laughed at a recent intervention by the UKIP Leader that he could persuade Scots to vote Leave. There have also been comparisons between the ‘Yes’ movement in Scotland in 2014 and UKIP and the wider Brexit campaign.

The English voter who was told to not vote for UKIP in May if they really wanted a referendum, and instead, vote Conservative, now has that chance to vote in that referendum.

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Robbie Simpson

Gordon Brown shows Lib Dems must go further on federalism

By Robbie Simpson | Sun 11th October 2015 - 8:55 am

I went to see a speech by Gordon Brown on the future of Scotland on Thursday evening. Given the current state of Scottish politics I might well have expected an impassioned attack on the SNP and a confident denunciation of independence.

Instead he was remarkably conciliatory on nationalism, given the past positions of the Labour party. He came out as a third-questioner – the never-offered option that has consistently found majority support. He called for a constitutional convention to address what he sees as the big issue in British politics – the ability of England to dominate politics due to its sheer size. He set out the case for special protections for the smaller nations, like in almost every other devolved country. He believed that Scots want something “as close as possible to federalism”.

He made no attacks on the SNP and even gave them some backhanded praise – surely their support for keeping the pound means they realise that the UK is a natural economic grouping? Instead he attacked the Tories – for cutting welfare and playing politics with EVEL – what other country gives special protection to the majority over the minority? The ìVowî was at risk of being broken he warned; Westminster may yet maintain a veto over key welfare powers.

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Caron Lindsay

Two things about the EU campaign that strike fear into my heart

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 10th October 2015 - 10:18 am

There are two things that scare the living daylights out of me about the two EU referendum campaign in general and the pro-EU campaign in particular.

The first is that I just wonder where on earth the women are. Jenny Jones and Kate Hoey are active on the Leave side but we hear more from the men and the campaign seems to be being run by men.

The pro-EU side will be led by Stuart Rose, Conservative peer and former head of Marks and Spencer. Will Straw and Ryan Coetzee are involved on a staff level. Laura Sandys from the European Movement will obviously be involved as well but the voices in favour are almost relentlessly male.

The problem is that that can lead to hideous mistakes being made. Like this horror from the Better Together campaign last year. I never thought I’d see the “Have you got the guts to vote SDP?” campaign beaten but this is truly one of the worst campaign adverts I have ever seen. It was Rosie Barnes and her rabbits without the political intelligence. Watch and cringe.

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dem Jim Hume’s Bill to stop smoking in cars with children present passes first Holyrood hurdle

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 9th October 2015 - 8:55 am

Jim HumeThis week it’s become illegal to smoke in a car where there are children present in England. The responsibility for this area of law for Scotland lies with the Scottish Governemnt. For some time, Jim Hume, Liberal Democrat MSP for the South of Scotland has been preparing to introduce legislation as a private member to do the same thing in Scotland. Today his bill passed its first Holyrood hurdle.

This is one of these controversial issues where you can come to agree with the proposal or disagree with it from liberal principles. We don’t like banning things unless there is a very good reason to do so and we also want to look at the enforceability of such a law. I take a very dim view of anyone who breathes poisonous fumes over children in a metal box, but I am worried about the slippery slope of such a measure. I’d have been happy with a massive public awareness campaign. However, JS Mill would, I feel, back the Bill. While people have the right to cause harm to themselves, do they have the right to inflict toxic by-products on to their children in a manner that it is proven causes much more damage than smoking at home or outside would do.

Jim’s speeches from the debate are reproduced in full below:

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Caron Lindsay

Jim Hume questions Scottish Government on gender identity clinic waiting times

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 7th October 2015 - 9:47 am

If you are a young transgender person still at school, struggling to come to terms with your gender identity, you need specialised help pretty quickly. You should not have to wait a minimum of 7 months to see a specialist. If you are older, you should not be told that the waiting list is a year.

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume has highlighted this as another area in which the Scottish Government is failing to meet its 18 week target for referrals. This one will take a lot of thinking about as there are so few specialists in the gender identity field. They will have to come up with some long term plans to recruit and train more.

Kaleidoscot reports on Jim’s call for the Scottish Health Secretary to review provision for transgender people:

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Caron Lindsay

A trio of embarrassments for the SNP

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 4th October 2015 - 9:15 pm

This week has not been a good one for Edinburgh West MP Michelle Thomson. For the third week running, the Sunday Times has reported on property transactions which are now being investigated by the Police. The solicitor who acted for Michelle Thomson’s company in many of these transactions was struck off last year. You can read the whole judgement in that matter here. It is also worth reading Labour blogger and solicitor Ian Smart’s commentary on the allegations contained within it.

Today’s paper highlights (£) a couple who had to sell their house after the husband was diagnosed with a bowel tumour which left him unable to work.

The inquiry is now likely to look into a transaction in 2009 that is unrelated to Hales. It involved a property firm linked to Michelle Thomson that arranged for her husband Peter to buy a flat in Edinburgh.

The sellers, Garry and Sandra Kelly, claim £32,000 was deducted from the purchase price of £105,000 to pay off a loan they say they never had. On Friday, this newspaper alerted Police Scotland’s financial crime unit to the transaction.

The transactions are now under police investigation and, earlier this week, Thomson stepped down from her role as the SNP’s business spokesperson and temporarily resigned from the whip. However, it appears that even if there were no illegality, the accounts from the people whose houses were bought by her company are damaging on their own. From today’s Sunday Mail:

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Caron Lindsay

Does Scotland need Home Rule, or just to use the powers it has?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 4th October 2015 - 11:28 am

Siobhan Mathers, Scottish Liberal Democrat activist, former (and, I hope, future) parliamentary candidate and policy convener argues in today’s Sunday Times (£) that it’s time that Scotland got a full home rule settlement. She sets out what she means by that:

I will use the fiscal definition that Scotland under home rule should raise what it spends — self-sufficiency — and the sovereignty-focused philosophical definition of Steel: “The principle of home rule is different from devolution. Under home rule, sovereignty lies with the Scottish people and we decide when it is sensible to give powers to the centre on issues like foreign affairs and defence.”

She says that there is no point waiting for the UK to sort out a federal structure for itself because it’s just not going to happen any time soon and that it’s in Scotland’s “enlightened self interest” to pursue full home rule to see off the demand for independence:

It strikes me as an act of misguided altruism to wait for the constitutional laggards, our bedfellows in the UK. Yes, it would be nice to help sort everyone else’s problems in how they relate to the constitutional parents in London, but it is not a priority for many.

During an air emergency, passengers are advised to put on their own oxygen masks before helping others. I would argue that Scotland’s relationship with Westminster is at such an emergency point and we need to pursue enlightened self-interest by focusing on our own problems first.

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Do not abandon us

By Michael Cooke | Sun 27th September 2015 - 3:32 pm

 

Of the three Unionist parties, it has fallen to the Liberal Democrats to save encircled Scots fending off the militant hard leftists of the SNP frontline infantry. The Conservative and Unionist Party is useless in Scotland, and the once-paternal Labour Party has gone from noble guardian angel to patronising champagne socialist to near-death this May. Unionists have a ramshackle current incarnation: one MP per Unionist Party. SNP high command could not have believed their luck in May by not getting the grand slam all Scottish seats landslide; with three MPs, one from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats, the “bad things come in sets of three” mantra writes itself. The plan now must be to prove that the Union cannot work. “Look, the only three Unionists cannot even work together, they’re so tribal,” the SNP will no doubt say in the coming months. Political POWs actually make for better propaganda than a full landslide massacre.

The Liberal Democrats are now destined for a faceoff with the SNP. The Tories had ruined themselves in Scotland years ago. Labour morphed into the “Red Tory” Party. Now, the Liberal Democrats are the only brand left.

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The Voice

In full: Willie’s story

By The Voice | Thu 24th September 2015 - 4:40 pm

We gave you the preview yesterday, now here’s the whole thing. The Scottish Liberal Democrats have finally found some production values in a very well produced Party Political Broadcast:

The transcript is below:

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Caron Lindsay

Preview: Scottish Liberal Democrats Broadcast: Willie Rennie’s story

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 23rd September 2015 - 7:27 am

Scottish Liberal Democrat party broadcasts have previously been in the, shall we say, Blake’s 7 school of production values. That’s not to say that there wasn’t great content, but it came across as homely.

Well, all that’s changed with the new broadcast being aired tonight.

Here’s a tiny snippet. You’ll be able to watch it on tv and on here later.

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NewsHound

Willie Rennie on “dark, secretive” Better Together and “despicable” Cameron

By NewsHound | Sun 13th September 2015 - 3:16 pm

Willie Rennie has gone to town on the Better Together pro-UK campaign in an interview for the Sunday Herald. He described it as “dark” and “secretive.”

Labour had a dark campaigning style. It was very secretive. Everything would be last minute. You would never be told much about what was going on until it happened. We all suffered. The Tories and ourselves suffered more, but some in Labour were out of the loop as well.”

You mean an inner circle ran everything? “Yes. It was Blair and Rob . People like that were making decisions and had this addiction to secrecy.

…

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Caron Lindsay

The Borders railway is a massive Liberal Democrat achievement – why are we not shouting it from the rooftops?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 6th September 2015 - 8:28 am

This weekend the first journeys take place on the new Borders railway. Originally shut in 1969 under the Beeching cuts, it was rebuilt thanks to the Scottish Liberal Democrats in Government. Trains will now run again on a 30 mile stretch from Edinburgh Waverley to Tweedbank.

It was Liberal Democrat transport ministers Tavish Scott and Nicol Stephen before him, who fought the battles within the Scottish Executive on this against Labour’s distinct lack of enthusiasm.  In fact, one of their MSPs tried to wreck the project by putting an amendment for it to only go as far as Midlothian but that was defeated. Special Adviser at the time Sam Ghibaldan has been talking on Facebook about the fight the Liberal Democrats had to get the project up and running:

I’m really delighted the Borders Railway is up and running. When the Lib Dems were in the Scottish government we had to battle to get the Borders Railway through against Labour and civil service opposition. One particular incident that sticks in my mind is being told by the then head of the transport division (shortly after the railway had been included in the 2003 coalition agreement), that that made no difference as the project was not one of the agreed transport priorities. Which it turned out had been set pre devolution….

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Caron Lindsay

Jim Hume MSP: SNP risks making GPs an exclusive service that many can’t access

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd September 2015 - 1:52 pm

I was interested to see this report in today’s Scotsman which featured Labour and the SNP slugging it out over cuts to GP training posts. People are finding it more and more difficult to get an early appointment with their GPs. You would think that the service that is the most common way for us to access the NHS would be better funded, but primary care now accounts for just 7.8% of healthcare funding, down from 9.8% in 2011.

It is causing a fairly massive amount of concern. You’d think that they’d want to discuss it in Parliament.

Oh wait – they did, but the Scotsman didn’t feel the need to talk about the debate initiated by Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume just yesterday afternoon.

Jim warned that the failure to recruit and train sufficient GPs risked the service becoming inaccessible to many people. He cited a survey carried out by the Scottish Liberal Democrats which showed that 4 in 10 respondents found their workload unmanageable and a third would choose a different career path.  An SNP MSP typically intervened to blame Westminster for increasing contributions to public sector pensions. In fact, it was day to day work concerns that upset GPs most:

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie: Lib Dems are for aspirational Scots with a social conscience

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 27th August 2015 - 10:08 am

In a speech to the Scottish Council for Development and Industry in Aberdeen yesterday, Willie Rennie claimed the radical centre ground for the Liberal Democrats, talking about Labour and the SNP fighting it out on the left, while the Conservatives move further to the right. He outlined a position that championed social justice while making sure that we lived within our means.

Willie now finds himself as the oldest political leader in Scotland at just 47 years old. Nicola Sturgeon is 46, Ruth Davidson 36, Patrick Harvie 42 and Kezia Dugdale 33. It’s certainly different from when I was growing up when most political leaders were in their 50s and 60s and the President of the USA was in his 70s.

The challenges for the Scottish Liberal Democrats are obvious. Standing firm in our own space and talking in a unique way about our issues is very important in post-coalition Scotland. I say standing firm, and not finding our own space as we have always been a radical centre ground party which champions individual freedom. Willie looks back to Gladstone, Asquith, Lloyd George, Russell Johnston, David Steel and Charles Kennedy as liberal inspiration.

There’s an interesting turn of phrase about our years in government:

There are some things I would soon forget about our time in government but our decision to put country before party for economic recovery is not one of them.

He then goes on to talk about the good things we did in Government and indeed the changes in SNP policy that his own parliamentary group of just 5 MSPs have driven.

Here is Willie’s speech in full:

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Caron Lindsay

Christine Jardine selected to fight Aberdeenshire East for Holyrood election

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 26th August 2015 - 3:15 pm

Christine jardineChristine Jardine put up one hell of a fight against Alex Salmond in the Gordon constituency this year. She got 1500 more votes than Malcolm Bruce had 5 years earlier and is in a very clear second place to challenge the SNP in the future.

She has now been selected to fight the Aberdeenshire East constituency in May next year for the Scottish Parliament.

The Ellon Times has the story:

A delighted Christine said: “Its very humbling to know that people are prepared to put their faith in you. I had a lot of support in the general election – 19,030 votes – and, while it’s clear we have a lot of work to do, I know those people, and the many others who have joined the party, are looking to us to repair the health service, improve education and protect jobs.

I am determined that the next Scottish Government will give us here in the North East a better deal on health, education, housing and more.

I’m a Liberal. I believe politics is not about nations or states it’s about people, about individuals and should always put them first.

Nobody should have to travel to another town to find a GP, or to the central belt for an operation or wonder if their child will have a teacher when the term resumes.

Those are the things I want to change. That I will work to change and I will ask the electorate to help by making me their next MSP.

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie backs all women shortlists

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 23rd August 2015 - 2:37 pm

Willie Rennie has announced that he supports the use of all women shortlists and quotas to improve the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ appalling record on gender balance. He is to lead a group which will draw up specific proposals for the 2019 European, 2020 Westminster and 2021 Holyrood elections.

The Scottish Party looked on in shock when members in the North East did not place highly effective Justice Spokesperson at the top of the list when it was selected at the end of last year. Since then, and particularly following the General Election, there have been strong calls for much stronger action on gender balance. Willie has consulted widely within the party and he announced his plans at the Scottish Party’s and Scottish Liberal Democrat Women’s Everyday Sexism Open Mic event in Edinburgh yesterday.

The Working Group to be led by Willie will consider all options including:

•         All women shortlists

•         Making gender a part of the party’s electoral strategy

•         Quota systems

Willie said:

I have lost patience with the current system and its inability to ensure proper representation of women.  It is now time to take the necessary action to deliver change.

A fresh start for the Liberal Democrats requires us to change.  We need to be more reflective of the people we seek to represent and to perform at our best we need to deploy our best people to make the case for our cause.

Despite an abundance of talented women the party has been unable to put enough in positions to get elected.   It is difficult to make the case for opportunity for everyone when only one of our parliamentarians is a woman.

Twenty years ago my party agreed in the Constitutional Convention to work towards a gender balance in our Scottish Parliamentary representation. Yet since the Scottish Parliament was created we have elected no more than two women at the four elections to Holyrood.   I determined to finally deliver the commitment made to the Constitutional Convention.

Encouragement and organisational support is simply insufficient to overcome the barriers to electing women.

That is why I will lead a working group to finalise proposals to put to the Spring Conference of the Scottish Liberal Democrats that will break down those barriers and increase the representation of women Liberal Democrats in Parliament.

It is my intention that the new arrangements will be in place for the European Election in 2019 and will also apply to the 2020 General Election and 2021 Scottish Parliamentary Election.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Jim Hume MSP: Out of sight, out of mind? Why the SNP need to get serious on mental health

By NewsHound | Wed 19th August 2015 - 4:40 pm

Liberal Democrat MSP Jim Hume has been writing on the Scottish Liberal Democrat website about the crisis in mental health care in Scotland, where they haven’t had a Norman Lamb in power transforming mental health provision.

In Scotland during the last 5 years, over 4000 people were treated outside their own health board. Jim says that’s not good enough:

Despite the number of patients being discharged from psychiatric hospitals in Scotland falling dramatically in the past decade, hundreds of patients are still facing being treated away from their families and communities.

There will always be some patients who need to be sent to specialist clinics outside of their health board for treatment. But it is clear that mental health units across the country are struggling to cope with demand on their services.

We know that sending patients out of area can isolate them from their support networks, including friends, families and their community care team.

The life-changing nature of such a move means it could also have implications for the civil liberties of an indidividual – which must be considered under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003.

It can be detrimental to a persons recovery.

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Joanne Ferguson

How to Beat the SNP

By Joanne Ferguson | Tue 18th August 2015 - 10:33 am

 

I don’t know when the SNP will be toppled, but I am confident it will happen eventually. I also seriously doubt people will flock en masse back to Labour, a party that took Scotland for granted for years and, in my opinion, doesn’t deserve the return of unwavering support. There will be a gap that we could perceivably fill, but we have to earn the right of that space, not make Labour’s mistake of taking it as a given.

Here are some things I have been trying to keep in mind over the past few months talking to SNP voters:

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