The shifting sands of Scottish politics

Alex Cole-Hamilton recently topped the mid Scotland and Fife regional list for next year’s Scottish Parliament elections – giving him a very good chance of being a Lib Dem MSP from next May. For Lib Dem Voice he tells us how he reached the top of the list, and what the future looks like for the Liberal Democrats in Scotland.

It hasn’t really sunk in yet, but as top of the mid Scotland and Fife regional list I could well be the youngest of what is expected to be a significantly larger Liberal Democrat contingent elected to Holyrood next year. Indeed, polling carried out both by professional pollsters and other political parties show the Scottish Liberal Democrats well in contention to become the largest party in the Scottish Parliament next May, winning in seats and regions across Scotland and I could actually be part of that. For myself and many others like me, there has never been a better time to be a Scottish Liberal Democrat. There is a real belief that our star is rising.

“At 29 with only 3 previous parliamentary candidacies under my belt, I was regarded as something of a rookie…”

At the outset of my bid to top the list, I was regarded as something of a long shot. Like a number of my opponents I had sound regional credentials, having grown up in the region, attended local schools and been on the regional campaign and social circuit for a good few years. However, my youth and relative lack of front-line political experience were seen by many as obstacles to my credibility. At 29 with only 3 previous parliamentary candidacies under my belt, I was regarded as something of a rookie and with some 800 party members, spread as far north as Brechin and as far west as Loch Lomond to convince otherwise, it was clear that I had a mountain to climb.

Standing for selection can be a lonely business. In many ways, it’s like an election campaign: the hours are atrocious, your social life begins to implode and your calorie intake deteriorates to a diet of petrol station sandwiches and breath mints. But unlike election campaigning however, you don’t have that warm glow of camaraderie brought about by the knowledge that all of your colleagues are at it as well. You are competing for the votes of people you know and respect against friends and colleagues with whom you agree on almost every point of policy. It is an uncomfortable prospect to even the most seasoned candidate and so began the hardest 8 weeks of my life.

I would go into work early so that I could leave work at 4 – allowing me 5 hours of campaigning. Weekend days would begin at 9.30 in the morning and finish towards 10 in the evening. The endless driving and repeated self promotion can do things to the mind, everything became centered around how I perceived I was doing and the inside of my car was a wash with handwritten notes totting up the ‘definite’, ‘possible’ and ‘declared for other candidate’ columns of my crib sheets. Realising that there would be no other way to see me, my wife Gill kindly acted as my chauffeur on many occasions and made the rigor of these sorties all the more bearable and she also managed to keep me earthed to reality.

“By the end of the eighth week I was shabby, disheveled and utterly exhausted but alight with anticipation…”

The reception I received was universally warm, a refreshing change from ‘cold call’ canvassing of election campaigns. All seemed impressed that I had made the effort to visit personally and were full of informed questions and encouragement, all that is, except the Tory party member on whose door I knocked when I mistook her house number (she kept me talking for 40 minutes before revealing her true allegiance). By the end of the eighth week I was shabby, disheveled and utterly exhausted but alight with anticipation as my numbers were telling me that I might just have clinched it and when the votes were finally counted, this hunch was bourn out.

Someone said to me the day of the count that “now the real work begins”, and with my eyes on the prize of a Holyrood seat next may I am throwing myself into that work in earnest. As Lib Dems we approach 2007 with no limits to our ambitions and with an impressive record behind us: The Partnership Agreement – negotiated in 2003 – was widely seen as a Liberal Democrat document, allowing us to implement a raft of Lib Dem and ideas and agendas that have hugely benifitted the people of Scotland. Who knows if we will get to negotiate a blueprint for governing Scotland again next May but whatever happens we can expect to be in a stronger position – I hope to be there to do my bit.

Alex’s web site is at http://www.alexcolehamilton.org.uk/

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23 Comments

  • Almost puts me off PR.

  • Rob Fenwick 11th Sep '06 - 3:56pm

    What does?

  • The amount of effort and damage to a candidate’s social life that occurs as a result of having to campaign across a wider constituency.

  • Stephen Glenn 11th Sep '06 - 4:11pm

    Yeah same here. It was an internal election for a party nomination. The only differnece is that is ranking for the

    I admit the region that Alex had to contend is larger than the one I live in but then so is anywhere outside the population areas I my region contains Scotland’s second largest city and I commute from the edge of the region to the centre every day for work.

    So how on earth this is putting anyone off PR is beyond me. Wait and see what happens next May it is definitely getting exciting on the ground up here.

  • Stephen Glenn 12th Sep '06 - 9:49am

    I hate to disagree there Bernie. That would just mean that someone losing out in a tight marginal FPTP seat who may have been ousted by their constituency for a reason would get back in.

    For example in Lothian both Labours Iain Gray in Edinburgh Pentlands and Angus MacKay in Edinburgh South would have stayed at Holyrood after 2003.

  • Going for the top of the Soth of Scotland list and being a non driver has it’s disadvantages! I don’t think any of the other candidates went door to door either. I know that at least two of the others have also been canvassing by phone, which, quite frankly I detest. Anyway it’s all over bar the counting, which takes place tomorrow afternoon but the result won’t be made public for a while. Then off to Brighton knowing where I am on the list.
    The South of Scotland region is huge too. It stretches from Irvine on the West coast across country to Haddington on the East coast and takes everything beneath to the border. I’m convinced that this Region is going to see a LibDem gain as well as the two 1st past the posts borders seats being held. Does anyone wish to speculate where our other gains are going to come from? After all Professor Bill Millar recently predicted that we would have 30 MSPs and Professor John Curtice suggested 27.

  • Apologies, Did not mean to post the above anonymously.

  • Stephen Glenn 14th Sep '06 - 4:47pm

    I hope you come out top Iain. That would really allow some very nice and mischievious blog headlines which are bound to attract the attention of a certain high media profile blogger of another hue.

  • Just curious, but Alex CH refers to polling that shows that the LibDems will be the largest party in the Scottish Parliament. Anyone care to point it out? As a Scottish political anorak I`d be curious to see the polling as even the best polling for the Lib Dems puts them in 3rd place over the Tories, an improvment on 2003 it should be stressed. But there is no evidence for them coming 1st. Anyone able to enlighten me?

  • Proffessor Bill Miller recently predicted the following numbers of MSPs: Labour 33, LibDem 30, gnats 29, and Tories 20. This is based on actual by-elections (Parliamentary & Local Council), all polls this year to the date of his prediction and his own psephology. That’s 13 LibDem gains!

    Professor John Curtice, a notorious under-estimator of LibDems, has predicted that we’ll get 27 MSPs, which is a gain of 10. This from the man who suggested that it would be a gnats, labour, LibDem finish in the Dunfermline & West Fife by-election.

  • As far as I can remember it was about 5 months ago. I’ll try and sift through my emails to see if I can come up with an exact reference for you, but please don’t hold your breath as there’s lots of ’em!

    I can assure you that John Curtice is not a member of the Liberal Democrats, unless he’s joined in the last month or so, which I doubt. I think that most fellow activists in the party would agree that we don’t often get any favours from him.

    Finally, the by-elections used, I understand, were all based on Scottish elections – the data would be useless otherwise!
    Cheers,

  • Iain,

    I’ve never seen those figures from Bill Miller before and they don’t make any sense. If such a swing to the Liberal Democrats were taking place from Labour then the SNP would pick up more seats simply by standing still. But they’re not.

    Besides the Politics Now research from Bill Miller is far more recent.

    Never the less the possibility of Labour being ousted is a strong one and begs the question of what the Liberal Democrats will do.

    They share many more policies with the SNP than Labour – nuclear, post offices, LIT, lower business rates, Iraq. So why keep Labour in power any longer? Why not deliver a fatal blow to their chances next May by leaving them all on their own in the Exec?

    It will be a further huge signal to the voters that Labour is on the way down and out and it would win plaudits for the Liberal Democrats.

    I would hate to think that we face a post-May future with Labour yet again ruling the roost in Scotland as the Liberal Democrats prop them up. Let the Tories don that.

    It would be a historic turning point in Scottish politics if they lost power and open up new possibilities. Many Liberal Democrat policies would be enacted rather than having to be abandoned for the sake of a dystopic coalition.

    However I fear too many of the leadership have become comfortable with power and plodding along with Labour.

  • Gordon Kirk 21st Oct '06 - 7:12pm

    Come on guys and guyesses, its time to lift the curse of Labour from Lib Dem shoulders.

    The big issues in Scotland are the illegal invasion of Iraq and Council Tax. And are Labour going to split with Tony (don’t forget re-arranging the letters of Tony Blair MP gets you “I’m Tory Plan B”) and my namesake Gordon? Are they b…..y!

    And the cash for honours issue will keep running, so a good time to distance Lib Dems from the scene of the crime.

    Who does that leave then? The Tories? Ha ha!

    The (various) trotskists? Really?

    Well it could only be the .. SNP.

  • What I don’t get is why the party are saying they are challenging Labour to win but still remain in coalition with them.

    Surely this is going to look silly for them if they still remain in coalition with them right up to the election. 2003 was a bit of a flatline result in retrospect and comparison to others.

    Members should be asking the Scottish leadership when they are going to dump Labour and start voting against them in the Scottish Parliament.

    I’d say three months before is best. It inflicts damage, gives the party kudos and will have Labour looking like damaged goods as they lose vote after vote in the run up to the elections.

    Wouldn’t that be the best way to challenge Labour?

  • Matt Rodger 10th Dec '06 - 8:15pm

    What is your reaction / thoughts to the suggestion made to me by several people over the last year, that our Western Nations concept of Democracy, must ultimately lead to some form of Total Anarchy?

    Do you agree with me that such a point of view is worthy of serious debate?

    I look forward to your reply.

    Matt. Rodger.

  • Bernard Salmon 11th Dec '06 - 9:10am

    “Do you agree with me that such a point of view is worthy of serious debate?”

    No.

  • Matt Rodger 24th Feb '07 - 6:37pm

    When considering the combined relevance of nationality, culture and language would you and your fellow Liberals agree with me that the revival of our nigh on defunct Scots Langage must be a top priority in the emerging New Scotland?

  • Matt Rodger 28th Feb '07 - 6:19pm

    Please explain why your answer to my comments at No. 22 above will not be published. Really this sounds quite mysterious to me.

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