Tag Archives: tavish scott

Alix Mortimer

Conference: Tavish Scott

By Alix Mortimer | Sun 14th September 2008 - 3:43 pm

Bernard Salmon was quick off the mark with the new Scottish leader’s speech this morning, and is rather better informed about Scottish politics than I, so I shall just make a couple of Anglocentric observations.

Scott’s speech (what a gift that man’s name will be come election time; if the Scottish publicists don’t come up with a killer line to rival “Labour isn’t working” they should be fired) was very much written in collaboration with Clegg’s speechwriter. The emphasis was on the economic downturn and, yes, those ordinary families (what about all the extraordinary families, that’s

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Posted in Conference | 4 Comments
The Voice

Tavish Scott’s new team

By The Voice | Sun 31st August 2008 - 11:55 pm

Fresh from his election as Scottish leader, Tavish Scott has unveiled his new team. Liberal England and Caron’s Musings have the details.

Posted in Scotland | Leave a comment
Alex Foster

+++ Tavish Scott wins Scottish Leadership contest

By Alex Foster | Tue 26th August 2008 - 3:08 pm

Jo Swinson twitters the results within seconds:

Tavish Scott won with 59% (Ross Finnie 23%, Mike Rumbles 17%)

Posted in News | Also tagged | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Scottish leadership candidates make their cases

By Mark Pack | Wed 13th August 2008 - 12:50 pm

The BBC has the story:

Former transport minister Tavish Scott, ex-environment minister Ross Finnie and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MSP Mike Rumbles are vying for the post.

Read the full post to see what each had to say when they appeared on BBC radio.

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Tavish Scott MSP

Tavish Scott: why I want to be Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats

By Tavish Scott MSP | Sat 2nd August 2008 - 5:21 pm

Scottish politics used to be predictable: Labour was the largest party, the SNP was bitter about it, the Tories were resented for existing and the Liberal Democrats were a voice of reason. But the results of the Holyrood election and last week’s Glasgow East by-election remind us that times have changed. Political parties are having to reposition themselves and adapt to the new dynamics. It’s a dangerous game, with the future of our country at stake.

For the SNP, the plan is clear. Pick fights with London, luxuriate in Labour’s decline, and hope for a Tory government at Westminster. Salmond’s …

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Posted in Leadership Election, Op-eds and Scotland | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Scottish Lib Dem leader nominations close

By Stephen Tall | Thu 24th July 2008 - 1:31 pm

The Press Association reports the (unsurprising) news:

The deadline for nominations in the race to lead the Scottish Liberal Democrats has closed with no late challengers in the three-way campaign.

Mike Rumbles and former ministers Tavish Scott and Ross Finnie will now concentrate on winning party support before the poll on August 26.

The candidates are hoping to succeed Aberdeen South MSP Nicol Stephen, who quit the top job earlier this month citing family reasons.

Posted in Leadership Election and Scotland | Also tagged | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

Ming: Lib Dem MSPs should oppose independence poll regardless of conference

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st July 2008 - 10:15 am

An interesting article in yesterday’s Times, with former national Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell wading into the current Scottish leadership debate, and in particular the controversy over whether Lib Dems should support a referendum on Scottish independence:

Sir Menzies Campbell has warned the next leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats to oppose an independence referendum, even if the party conference votes in favour. …

Two of the three candidates in the race to replace Nicol Stephen as leader of the Scottish Lib Dems have already said they are open-minded about a ballot on breaking up Britain. Mike Rumbles has proposed

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Posted in News and Scotland | Also tagged and | 19 Comments
The Voice

It’s a three-way contest for next Scottish Lib Dem leader

By The Voice | Tue 8th July 2008 - 12:05 pm

Following Nicol Stephen’s surprise resignation as leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, three MSPs have declared their intent to succeed him, according to today’s papers. Here’s The Times:

Tavish Scott, the former Transport Minister, who is widely tipped as the favourite to replace Nicol Stephen as leader, formally announced his bid only hours after the former Rural Affairs Minister, Ross Finnie, made it clear he too was running. … Mr Scott, who is close to Mr Stephen, has won the backing of six of the party’s MSPs and five MPs. He also enjoys the support of the former UK party

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Posted in Leadership Election | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Introducing local income tax in Scotland

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th March 2008 - 8:06 am

Latest news from Scotland on attempts to abolish council tax and replace it with a local income tax:

Talks between the SNP and the Scottish Liberal Democrats over plans to replace the council tax in Scotland have broken up without immediate agreement.

But the Finance Secretary John Swinney and his Lib Dem counterpart, Tavish Scott, agreed to hold further talks.

The government will set out its ideas on the issue in a consultation paper to be published on Tuesday afternoon.

It favours a 3p income tax rate for all councils, but the Lib Dems want the levy to be set locally.

Posted in News | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

High praise for Stephen from Scotsman

By Stephen Tall | Tue 12th February 2008 - 11:12 pm

No, not me – it’s the Lib Dems’ Scottish leader Nicol Stephen who has been earning plaudits from The Scotsman’s Hamish MacDonnell:

A couple of weeks ago, Wendy Alexander held a dinner for some members of the Holyrood political press corps. Her aim was to explain her thinking on the constitutional convention but, in the course of the evening, the Scottish Labour leader was told – quite bluntly – that she was pretty awful at First Minister’s Questions. She was informed that not only was she being beaten by Alex Salmond every week, but that Nicol Stephen was doing a much better job for the Liberal Democrats than she was for Labour.

That dinner happened just after one of Ms Alexander’s worst ever performances: she started by asking a question about SportScotland, went on to talk about the Budget and ended on police pensions, failing to score a point with any of her efforts. At the same session, Mr Stephen asked three pointed and direct questions about SportScotland and had the First Minister riled, angry and unable to answer clearly.

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Posted in Scotland | Also tagged | 6 Comments
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