Tag Archives: Scotland

Paul Walter

Book review: Charles Kennedy: A Tragic Flaw by Greg Hurst

By Paul Walter | Tue 5th April 2016 - 11:45 am

I had a chance to read this recently updated book while on holiday in West Africa. It is a remarkably fine volume. Painstakingly researched and impeccably sourced, it offers a skillfully balanced portrait of a remarkable and inspiring man. As the title suggests, the author does not hold back on the human frailties of its subject but these are, nevertheless, presented as part of a rounded, fair and endearing commentary. I feel this book helps us to inch forward a little further in understanding the rather enigmatic Charles Kennedy, while deconstructing a few myths along the way.

I’ll pick out a few parts of the book which particularly caught my attention:

Continue reading »
Posted in Books | Also tagged , , , , and | 8 Comments
Caron Lindsay

LGBTI Scottish hustings reveals consensus on gender recognition law change

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 3rd April 2016 - 3:15 pm

The five main Scottish Party leaders participated in a hustings organised by Stonewall Scotland, the Scottish Transgender Alliance, the Equality Network and LGBTI Youth Scotland. Those four organisations do ground-breaking work to support LGBTI people. Their role in providing positive and practical help can’t be under-estimated and they are helping to change the culture of the country.

If you are a young person struggling to come to terms with your sexuality or gender identity today, you can see that five party leaders, including the woman who runs the Scottish Government talk about how important it is that in school, at work, in society, you are free to live your life without discrimination. They agree that health services need to improve so that they meet your needs.  Compare and contrast to even 20 years ago, when Section 28 (or 2A as it was in Scotland) was in force. It’s such a powerful signal of acceptance for all leaders to participate in something like this. It will help those young people walk taller, with more confidence.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 17 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie: I want Scotland to be the best

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 3rd April 2016 - 8:36 am

In today’s Sunday Herald, Willie Rennie talks to political editor Tom Gordon about the Scottish Liberal Democrat campaign. He sets out the key Liberal Democrat themes:

I want to get Scotland back up there, with an ambitious programme for investing in education with a penny on income tax.

Protecting our civil liberties, getting our police force to be the best again so that it’s got the confidence of the public but also police officers themselves.

On the environment, making sure we have a very strong programme on fracking and not cutting Air Passenger Duty . And on the health service, making sure mental health services get the support they need and recruiting more GPs. You couldn’t be more positive than that.

As Holyrood gains new tax powers, Lib Dem plans to increase income tax by a penny to invest in education is the most radical in a set of fairly modest measures put forward by all the parties. The SNP have always talked a good fight, but when they are actually given significant power, it’s like they’ve been given a Ferrari that they won’t take out of second gear. Willie talked about the SNP’s timidity:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment
The Voice

Willie Rennie issues Living Wage challenge

By The Voice | Sat 2nd April 2016 - 11:30 am

Willie Rennie has challenged the other parties to commit to ending government bonuses for companies which fail to pay their employees the Scottish living wage.

He was speaking as the so-called living wage proposed by George Osborne came into force. The Tory living wage of £7.20 is £1.05 an hour less than the Scottish living wage of £8.25 an hour, which is calculated independently by the Living Wage Foundation. It’s also worth noting that the Scottish Liberal Democrats are the only party in Scotland to be accredited as Living Wage employers.

Last month, Willie called for the SNP to stop the payment of state aid to firms who fail to pay at least the national living wage.

Yesterday he broadened that challenge to all the other parties:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

Sal Brinton: Come and help Katy Gordon – people want to see the back of the SNP

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 31st March 2016 - 4:31 pm

Sal Brinton has travelled thousands of miles as our party President. She puts so much effort into supporting local party events and campaigns the length and breadth of the UK. At the moment, she’s spending a few days in Scotland, for which we are very grateful. I think I will just miss her. I head to the Highlands on Saturday for a week as she heads from there to Aberdeen.

This is far from Sal’s first visit to Scotland. She has been multiple times, including spending a few days campaigning for us during the referendum. She’s listened closely to the Scottish Party and has attended our Executive twice and our conference in the last year.

Yesterday she was out and about with the equally indefatigable Katy Gordon, our number one list candidate in the West of Scotland. After an afternoon’s campaigning, she recorded this video.

Party President Sal Brinton was out with the team in Giffnock today. Here’s what she had to say.Want to join the team? westscotlibdems.org.uk/volunteer

Posted by Katy Gordon on Wednesday, 30 March 2016

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
The Voice

Purvis slams Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson over disability benefit cuts

By The Voice | Thu 31st March 2016 - 2:55 pm

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson  had a really bad interview on Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland today. She struggled on her plans to re-introduce prescription charges, to abolish free university tuition (which was secured by the Scottish Liberal Democrats in coalition with Labour back in 2001) and over free schools. She didn’t get grilled enough for our liking on her plans to do all that while cutting taxes for the richest, but you can’t have everything.

At around 2 hours 18 minutes in, the subject turned to cuts to disability benefits. Ruth says she opposed them before Iain Duncan Smith resigned although there is no record of her having done so. In fact, she praised George Osborne’s budget the day it came out. When pressed on exactly how she had expressed her opposition, she laughed. It was a nervous. hollow laugh, but, just as when Willie Rennie pursued this same point with her during the tv debate on Tuesday, it was clear that she was struggling to answer.

Jeremy Purvis, the Scottish Lib Dems’ campaign chair, said of her interview:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 8 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Papers score Willie Rennie as debate winner

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th March 2016 - 2:30 pm

After the second televised Scotish Leaders’ debate of the election, three newspapers have judged Willie Rennie to be the winner. The Press and Journal, not known for its undying devotion to the Liberal Democrat cause, gave him and Labour’s Kezia Dugdale the winning 7/10 score, saying that he “spoke with a personal touch.”

The Scottish Daily Mail, similarly without a history of Lib Dem love, also gave him 7/10, but made him the outright winner.

The Courier gave him 8/10 and also called him the winner.

Here’s a summary of the media coverage:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
NewsHound

Katy Gordon compares Lib Dem & SNP tax plans: “SNP fiddle at margins, Lib Dems choose to make Scotland great again”

By NewsHound | Wed 23rd March 2016 - 2:58 pm

Katy GordonYesterday the SNP revealed their tax plans for Scotland. They were, to be honest, the plans of a Government that’s cosy with being the Establishment, not of an insurgent movement wanting to bring change.  You’d have thought, after all their moaning about the 50p rat being reduced to 45p, that they’d have put it straight back up but, no. Having said that you could argue that we could have done the same thing given that we were forced into it by the Tories in coalition in exchange for the raising of the tax threshold for the lowest paid. However, in our defence, our Scottish plans for a zero rate for the lowest paid will involve tax rises for the richest.

The SNP plans not to raise the higher rate tax threshold – but that’s it. Other than that they will keep tax rates where they are. They wanted powers but when they are given them, they choose to tinker around the edges rather than use them for good. The cuts they have lumped on local authorities make their assertion that they are anti austerity sound hollow.

Over at the Scottish Lib Dems’ website, Katy Gordon, our lead candidate for the West of Scotland,  has given her analysis of the SNP’s proposals compared to ours. 

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
The Voice

Willie Rennie: The way we tackle drug addiction is broken

By The Voice | Sun 20th March 2016 - 5:30 pm

drugsWillie Rennie has called for a sea-change in drugs policy after new analysis showed that 1,000 people in possession of drugs for personal use have been imprisoned in the last five years instead of being sent for treatment or education.

The figures, compiled by Scottish Government analysts at the request of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, revealed an average of 200 people in Scotland were incarcerated for drug offences between 2010 and 2015. In contrast, an average of just 55 Scots per year were handed drug treatment and testing orders.

Our  manifesto for the Holyrood election proposes to end the use of imprisonment for vulnerable people addicted to drugs, calling for it to be treated as a health issue instead. Drug dealers would still face tough criminal sanctions and people failing to abide by treatment or education plans would be subject to additional penalties.

Willie spoke to Liberal Democrat campaigners in Glasgow, where 189 people died as a result of drug misuse in 2014.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
The Voice

Fit for the future: The new Scottish Party Political Broadcast

By The Voice | Wed 24th February 2016 - 6:25 pm

The new Scottish Party Political Broadcast is going out right now. It’s focused on the idea of putting a penny on tax for education and features parents from across Scotland talking about their experience of parenting, the challenges they face and their hopes for their children’s futures. Enjoy!

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

In which I get a letter from the Scottish Tory leader that tells a blatant lie

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 23rd February 2016 - 2:25 pm

“Why are the Tories writing to us?” groaned my husband as he brought the post through this morning.  Getting to the doormat before the dog is a daily challenge in our house.

Remember how, before the General Election, the Tories carpet bombed their target constituencies with direct mail creating fear of a pact between Ed Miliband and the SNP?  You almost expected them to say that they had evidence that Ed and Eck had done a deal with the Loch Ness Monster to crash the stock exchange after relocating Trident to a lake in David Cameron’s constituency. It was all preposterous and neither Liberal Democrats nor Labour showed it up for the nonsense it so clearly was. There was never going to be a pact between the SNP and Labour. Why on earth would they want to show they could be part of a stable UK Government that worked?

Well, they are at it again in Scotland ahead of the Holyrood elections in just two and a half months’ time. That letter from the Tories was from Ruth Davidson herself. She’s standing as a list candidate in my region. It’s certainly the only time in the 16 years I’ve lived here that I can remember getting direct mail this far out from polling day from the Tories if at all. They are clearly well funded, but one of the things that they say in their letter is simply not true:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 11 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie announces Scottish zero rate tax plan

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 17th February 2016 - 12:03 pm

Last night in his annual speech to the David Hume Institute, Willie Rennie set out plans for a plan to help low and middle income Scottish earners by introducing a zero rate band of tax to go beyond the raising of the tax threshold. Because he’s also announced a plan to raise income tax by 1p to secure a £475 million investment in education, this new tax plan is going to be revenue neutral.

Both Liberal Democrats and Labour have announced plans for a 1p rise in income tax. However, Liberal Democrats are focusing on what you would get for it – more college places, reversing education cuts, a pupil premium and more nursery education. Labour’s is so complex that everyone is talking about the tax part of it. Fair play to both, though, for actually trying to use the powers we have.

Under Willie’s zero rate plan, Liberal Democrats would build on our record in government when we increased the personal allowance by over £4,000, helping to lift more people on lower incomes out of tax. Tax revenues gained by investing in education and boosting business by closing the skills gap would create a zero-rate tax band.

Willie  contrasted the progressive Liberal Democrat proposals with George Osborne’s commitment to increase the Higher Rate threshold from £43,000 to £50,000 by 2020, giving record-breaking tax cuts to the richest and costing Scotland £400m.

He said:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
NewsHound

Scottish Lib Dems to oppose jail terms of less than a year

By NewsHound | Sun 14th February 2016 - 1:00 pm

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have announced another major policy. A few weeks go, they announced their penny on income tax to raise £475 million for investment in education.

Today, Justice spokesperson Alison McInnes has announced that the party will oppose prison sentences of less than a year.

From the BBC:

As part of their 2016 election manifesto, the Scottish Liberal Democrats are to formally back doubling that, by extending the presumption to 12 months.

Justice spokeswoman Alison McInnes said prison sentences for more serious offenders should be complemented by “tough” community service programmes.
“One of the main priorities for Scottish Liberal Democrats is having a criminal justice system where if someone breaks the law, they are swiftly brought to justice,” she said. “But we also believe offenders deserve a chance to get back on track and community rehabilitation is a fundamental part of that.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
Caron Lindsay

LibLink: Willie Rennie: SNP obduracy on using tax powers shows party is no champion of progressive politics

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 11th February 2016 - 2:45 pm

Willie Rennie’s ambition for better education and health services in Scotland has been clear and so has his ambition to use the tax raising powers given to the Scottish Parliament. His plan for a penny on income tax for an almost half billion investment in education to introduce the Pupil Premium, extend nursery education and reverse cuts to college and schools funding.

The SNP, having squealed blue murder for years about not having enough powers to do anything, fails to use them when they are given them.

Willie often says these days that the SNP “talk left and walk right” and he has written a damning critique of the SNP’s approach in the Herald.

As it was a Liberal Democrat Secretary of State who delivered these new tax powers, it is perhaps not surprising that we were the first to propose using them to transform education in Scotland. By putting a penny for education onto income tax bands, we would raise £475 million a year.

Willie’s proposals have brought outrage from SNP and Tories alike. Finance Minister John Swinney said he would rather sacrifice public sector jobs (which in turn affects the most vulnerable) than raise tax rates. The Resolution Foundation says a tax rise is progressive. Willie challenges the SNP:

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , and | 17 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Rennie to SNP: Are you conservative or progressive?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 31st January 2016 - 10:25 am

Willie Rennie will challenge the SNP in a parliamentary debate on their budget this week to actually use the powers that are coming the Scottish Parliament’s way and raise the rate of income tax to pay for a £475m investment in education. The SNP, of course, are holding out for independence and have no intention of showing that the powers they have can make a huge difference. In their 9 years in office, they’ve not even used the tax-raising powers that came to Scotland with devolution in 1999.

Willie’s penny on tax for education is a bold move. Saying you’ll put up taxes is a risk for a party in our position, but this is no time to play it safe. Anyway, just from talking to people, I think that there is a sense that you get what you pay for and if you want world class public services, you need to put money into them.

Willie said:

Liberal Democrats will be using this debate to challenge the SNP to show whether they are conservative or progressive, whether they’ll keep talking left but walking right.

Liberal Democrats are the only ones calling for Parliament to actually use the new powers we’ll get in April. Why wait? There is no point in sitting around, twiddling our thumbs, when we could make a real difference to the life chances of Scots.

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Rennie: Only a strong team of Lib Dems can champion our civil liberties

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 30th January 2016 - 6:21 pm

Speaking at the party’s North East Scotland Regional Conference this morning Willie Rennie told members that over the last five years it has been the Liberal Democrats that have been the powerful guarantor of civil liberties in the face of the illiberal SNP, and that will continue in the next Parliament.

This is the latest in a series of strong messages that Willie has been laying out in the last couple of weeks. The party has put a massive emphasis on civil liberties and education (what a surprise for a liberal party) in this Parliament and has an admirable record of persuading the SNP to change policy whether it’s on stop and search, armed police, nursery education or college places. So, Willie is saying we’ll actually use the tax powers the Parliament has to put a penny on income tax to pay for education and that we’ll continue to defend our freedoms. I also liked the quick summary of our values that he did the other day:

I want liberal-minded Yes voters to know they can vote for the Liberal Democrats because Scotland needs strong liberal voices in parliament to stand up for investment in opportunity through education and good health, to guarantee our civil liberties and to protect our environment. We need a strong outward-looking, internationalist, altruistic, tolerant, reformist, pro civil liberties, pro-Europe, pro-environment, pro-business party in Scotland. You don’t get that with anyone else and Yes voters as well as No voters should back us if they want that platform.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

Another vindication for Alison McInnes on civil liberties as regulation of facial recognition technology recommended

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th January 2016 - 3:48 pm

There has been a pattern in this Holyrood Parliament of Scottish Liberal Democrat Justice Spokesperson Alison McInnes finding out the SNP on some major civil liberties fail (armed police, excessive use of stop and search, including of children), the SNP just not getting it and then Alison being absolutely vindicated.

Today, that happened again. Last year, Alison highlighted the dangers of unregulated use of facial recognition technology by the Police after discovering that over 335,000 people’s images were retained on a police database.

A report today makes a number of recommendations to regulate this practice. The SNP Justice Secretary had previously dismissed Alison’s concerns.

The report concluded that there is “a need for improved legislation and better independent oversight around the police use of biometrics in Scotland, an independent Scottish Commissioner to oversee biometric databases should be established, as was introduced in England and Wales in 2012 when the Liberal Democrats were in the coalition government and a statutory code of practice governing the use of biometric data should be developed.

Alison said:

This review vindicates the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ campaign highlighting the inadequate safeguards governing the use of our biometric data and in particular facial recognition technology.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
The Voice

Willie Rennie’s penny on tax for biggest investment in Scottish education since devolution

By The Voice | Wed 27th January 2016 - 11:51 am

Willie and ACH on nursery visit

Finally, someone is actually planning on using the new tax-varying powers given to Scotland. Willie Rennie has made a big announcement on education this morning. He intends cleaning up the mess the SNP have made in education with 4 radical measures, paid for by a modest rise in income tax which will not affect anyone who earns £19,000 a year or less.

That £475 million investment will include the Lib Dem Pupil Premium, already successful in England and, thanks to Kirsty Williams, in Wales. That’s all about giving extra money to disadvantaged kids in school. Then there’s investment in nurseries and colleges, as well as a reversal of the SNP’s education cuts.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie to make major announcement on education tomorrow

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 26th January 2016 - 6:30 pm

It’s 99 days to go till the Scottish election and Willie Rennie is making a major policy announcement tomorrow. He will be launching his “plan to save Scottish Education.”

He’ll be visiting an Edinburgh nursery tomorrow where he’ll be laying out what is being described as a “bold, costed plan.”

He is expected to say:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Willie Rennie: Scottish Tories are a referendum themed tribute act, draped in union flag, singing Rule Britannia

By NewsHound | Sat 23rd January 2016 - 11:15 am

Willie Rennie has written a scathing attack on the Scottish Conservatives for the Scotsman newspaper. He accused Ruth Davidson’s party of being nothing but a “referendum themed tribute act.”

In contrast, he set out a strong statement of the values the Liberal Democrats stood for:

I want liberal-minded Yes voters to know they can vote for the Liberal Democrats because Scotland needs strong liberal voices in parliament to stand up for investment in opportunity through education and good health, to guarantee our civil liberties and to protect our environment. We need a strong outward-looking, internationalist, altruistic, tolerant, reformist, pro civil liberties, pro-Europe, pro-environment, pro-business party in Scotland. You don’t get that with anyone else and Yes voters as well as No voters should back us if they want that platform.

The Tories are trying to portray themselves as the true guardians of the union, trying to characterise Labour and Liberal Democrats as flimsy at best because we won’t chuck independence supporters out of our parties.

Willie says that the Tories and the SNP are feeding off each other and trying to continue the independence debate when Scotland’s focus needs to be on its own public services:

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Rennie: Scotland’s children should benefit from the Pupil Premium

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 22nd January 2016 - 8:55 am

Willie Rennie is up in Aberdeen today, speaking to the local Chamber of Commerce. A major theme of his speech is the need to improve education. Schools budgets in Scotland are really struggling after 9 years of a Council Tax freeze.

Liberal Democrats have implemented the Pupil Premium in England and successfully made the case for it in Wales. Scotland is still lagging behind, despite a growing attainment gap.

Willie will say:

To get fit for the future our children and young people deserve the best education.

Just look at the reports from recent weeks: the OECD has warned that Scottish education is slipping from our world-beating position; the Scottish Government has missed its targets for early education for 2-year-olds by 75%; and more than 150,000 college places have been lost under the SNP.

And now the SNP have singled out local education authorities for a £500million cut to their budgets.

We can’t stand by and watch the destruction of education in Scotland.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Caron Lindsay

SNP “talk left but act right” says Willie Rennie in first leaders’ debate

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th January 2016 - 1:32 pm

The first leaders’ debate of the Scottish election campaign took place in Dundee this week. Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie faced SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Labour’s Kezia Dugdale, Conservative Alex Johnstone (standing in for leader Ruth Davidson) and Patrick Harvie.

He strongly attacked the SNP’s record, saying, according to the Evening Telegraph:

Nicola presents herself as an anti-austerity party but look at her record in comparison with George Osborne.

She wants to match him on the income tax, she wants to undercut him on air passenger duty and she is undercutting him on the council tax.

This is not an anti-austerity party, they talk left but act right. They need to match up their record with their rhetoric.

This is consistent with what he’s been saying for some time. In December, the SNP Government were forced into yet another humiliating freedom of information climbdown as they had to release a memo from Nicola Sturgeon’s poverty advisor which highlighted that the SNP’s universal benefits disproportionately helped the better off. At that time, Willie said:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 12 Comments
The Voice

Tweets from the campaign trail: Snow edition

By The Voice | Sat 16th January 2016 - 7:53 pm

All over the country, Liberal Democrats have been campaigning today, some of them in the snow. Here are some of the icy tweets. Thankfully, the reception on the doorsteps was much warmer.

Continue reading »
Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , , and | Leave a comment
Caron Lindsay

The Lib Dem week in Scotland

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th January 2016 - 10:27 am

st Andrews flag saltire scotland Some rights reserved by Fulla TWelcome to our weekly roundup of what the Scottish Liberal Democrats, led by Willie Rennie, have been getting up to. They’ve covered a pretty extensive array of issues from health to housing to police spying to local services to cuts to college places.

McInnes says there are still questions to answer on police spying

After a senior Police Officer gave evidence on the police spying scandal to a Holyrood Committee, Alison McInnes says that his answers were not satisfactory:

The guidance on accessing communications data is very straightforward. Police Scotland’s account of how this came about is nowhere near as clear. We were told this morning that senior officers had raised concerns over applications to access communications data but they seem to have gone through regardless.

These were serious breaches and we need understand what went wrong here. Months after the first reports that Police Scotland had hacked communications data unlawfully, we are still no closer to a full account of how we got here.

NHS in crisis

Jim Hume has been highlighting many issues where the NHS in Scotland is falling short. First, his research showed that Scotland was facing an acute GP shortage as GP training places were not being taken up:

The fear must be that the extra training places announced by the First Minister last year will not help encourage more students to enter primary care or relieve the huge pressure on local GP practices. With dozens of training posts left vacant this year, SNP ministers must explain how they will ensure uptake of these and the 100 extra places they have announced. Welcome though they are, more training places will do no good at all unless there are doctors to fill them.

The SNP Government have not published a key review of mental health services. Jim said:

First we were told that the report would be published in the summer. Then that it would be published before Christmas but still we have seen nothing. What on earth is going on?

Continue reading »
Posted in A weekly catchup, Op-eds and Scotland | 1 Comment
The Voice

The Lib Dem week in Scotland

By The Voice | Fri 8th January 2016 - 1:35 pm

st Andrews flag saltire scotland Some rights reserved by Fulla TWelcome to our weekly roundup of what the Scottish Liberal Democrats, led by Willie Rennie, have been getting up to. This week, our MSPs have had a lot to say about flooding, policing, A & E waiting times “Thatcherite” testing, housing and fostering. Oh, and Alex Cole-Hamilton and Edinburgh West are back, bigger than ever.

The week started with Willie Rennie’s Bright, green, liberal vision:

I will set out why four key liberal values should be at the heart of the next parliamentary session. They are that every individual should be free to achieve their potential, that we should stand with the weak against the strong, that power is safer when it is shared and that we are trustees of the world and must pass on a sustainable legacy.

Flooding: when will the SNP Government help?

Alison McInnes criticised the Scottish government’s lack of response to the flooding in the North East:

Continue reading »
Posted in A weekly catchup and Scotland | Also tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
The Voice

Edinburgh West Lib Dems re-open their office ahead of Alex Cole-Hamilton’s bid to gain Holyrood seat

By The Voice | Fri 8th January 2016 - 9:05 am

Edinburgh West office

This is the site greeting commuters and pedestrians in one of Edinburgh’s main roads.

In June, sadly, the office which had been rented by Mike Crockart and the local party closed down. This week, it’s re-opened, four months ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in May where Alex Cole-Hamilton hopes to regain the seat. He also heads the Lothian list.

Since May, newly elected MP Michelle Thomson, who is yet to open a constituency office, has had to resign the SNP whip after a police investigation started into her company’s property deals.

Edinburgh Western’s sitting SNP MSP was deselected in the Summer and replaced with a candidate endorsed by former First Minister Alex Salmond.

Alex Cole-Hamilton told us:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie on the four key Liberal Democrat values and the Lib Dem record of achievement

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 5th January 2016 - 9:45 pm

Willie Rennie put in a strong first day at work and set out the ideas on which the Scottish Liberal Democrats will fight the election in just 4 months’  time.

 

Willie Rennie values

He firstly intervened on the First Minister whose government promised to give 27% of 2 year olds nursery education. They’ve managed barely half that.

Before the First Minister moves on from education, new official Government figures show that only 7 per cent of two-year-olds are receiving nursery education. The First Minister’s promise was that 27 per cent would. How can she talk about a revolution in education and in childcare when she cannot even meet her timid plans?

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Caron Lindsay

65,000 job losses doesn’t constitute an employment crisis, according to SNP MSP

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 5th January 2016 - 6:23 pm

One of the weirdest things about Scotland at the moment is that there is no great sense of an asteroid, let alone a bullet, being dodged. The SNP’s predictions about oil prices, based on them being around $113 a barrel, have been shown to be well wide of the mark. They said we’d have this massive oil boom. That’s before some of their more excitable supporters started going on about secret oil fields whose existence was being kept from us by a malevolent Westminster establishment.

Nobody really appreciates how lucky we are. Scots could be facing independence, which the SNP had said would happen on 24th March this year, that’s in less than 10 weeks’ time,  with the price of oil barely above a third of their estimates. It wouldn’t be much freedom for people who desperately needed public services. There would have to be either massive cuts or massive tax rises to cope with that massive hole in the public finances.

The plummeting oil price had, according to Oil and Gas UK, cost 65,000 jobs as far back as last September. It’s had a devastating effect on the economy of North East Scotland. Aberdeenshire West MSP Dennis Robertson doesn’t seem to think so, though. He said that there was no jobs crisis in the North East.

From the Official Report:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
John Knox

What the Scottish Liberal Democrats should be saying in 2016

By John Knox | Mon 4th January 2016 - 2:41 pm

The Liberal Democrat manifesto for the Scottish elections this spring needs to be a cracker or we will not be noticed, even by the 5 per cent of voters who are thinking of supporting us.  So let me suggest a list of radical ideas.

First, we should be arguing for a 3p rise in income tax to raise around £1bn for public services.  Just about every day there is an example of our schools, colleges, health and care services, social work departments, police and fire brigades, libraries, sports fields etc. being short of money.  And George Osborne is only half way through his austerity programme.  This constant cutting has to end and we should be honest with people and say we all need to pay more in tax to halt this drastic decline in our public services. And while on the subject of income tax, we should say that from next year onwards (when Scotland gets its new powers) those earning over £60,000 a year should pay income tax at 50 per cent, so raising another £100m for public services.

Of course, extra funding should not be pumped into these public services without constant reform. The funding should be targeted….on struggling schools, poor communities, on preventive medicine not expensive treatments for the very old.     

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 19 Comments
The Voice

Willie Rennie sets out the case for a bright, green, liberal Scotland

By The Voice | Mon 4th January 2016 - 11:25 am

Willie Rennie factoryWillie Rennie kicks off election year in Scotland by setting out the case for a bright, green liberal Scotland. Speaking on a visit to a factory in his Fife constituency, he said:

The last five years in the Scottish Parliament have been dominated by independence. The next five years should be dominated by a bright, green and liberal programme for Scotland:

With Scotland returning to work today it should signal a change of focus for our parliament: it’s time to get on with the day job.

Children and young people deserve a good quality education with nursery education and a pupil premium to give every child a chance of a good job.  Yet under the SNP, Scotland’s once proud education system has slipped in the world standing.

People deserve a good quality health service with better mental health services and more GPs.  Yet under the SNP there’s long waits to see a GP or get mental health treatment they need.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Nigel Jones
    The New Deal graphic is very helpful but of course not perfect. As to preventing Reform from winning, we need to be an anti-establishment party as Chris Bowers ...
  • Nigel Jones
    It is certainly true that community politics is insufficient for long term gain. That was my experience in 13 yrs as a councillor and still active locally; at o...
  • Katharine Pindar
    Splendid stuff, well done Yorkists! 'The New Deal' seems a great idea in itself. Your graphic shows, however, how much work will need to be done to assert ourse...
  • Chris Bowers
    Just a quick response to Kira Collins' comment. An article on LDV is limited to around 750 words, so there's a lot more in the 20-page 'New Deal' paper. And tha...
  • Roland
    @kira Colin’s - “ So how do we go about attracting the votes of people inclined to vote for Reform?” An interesting question, as the answer is probably s...