Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has announced his leadership team which contains the 5 MSPs and 7 women from outside Parliament. Some of them will be well known to LDV readers.
Willie said:
Scottish Liberal Democrats have punched above our weight over the last five years at the Scottish Parliament and the team announced today will help ensure that we continue to lead the agenda.
Our party is full of talented people and I am delighted that senior party figures outside of Holyrood will play a leading role in driving our policy agenda forwards for the next five years. They have contributed a huge amount to the communities they serve, from councillors to campaigners, and bring a wealth of experience to the team.
This gender balanced team will provide strong liberal voices inside and outside parliament. These appointments will put the Liberal Democrats in the strongest possible position to grow over the next five years.
The team includes:
Willie Rennie MSP, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Finance
Katy Gordon, Chair of the 2017 Local Election Campaign
Cllr Carolyn Caddick, Economy
Tavish Scott MSP, Education and sport
Sheila Thomson, Children
Cllr Eileen McCartin, Culture
Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, Health
Cllr Karen Clark, Social care
Caron Lindsay, Social security
Liam MacArthur MSP, Justice and energy
Christine Jardine, Environment
Mike Rumbles MSP, Rural Affairs and Business Manager
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12 Comments
I wish to commend Willie Rennie on the line up of his team, for the gender agenda is now far better represented than it has ever been, but I am concerned that other diversity interests appear to be missing?
As the Chair of the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats I am somewhat disappointed that Willie did not choose at least one BaME member. Pramod Subbaraman is someone that I personally would have expected to see amongst this list, not merely because he happens to be the Scottish EMLD Representative, but also because of the amazing campaigning that he has undertaken over the past few years in Edinburgh, and the reality that he is a very prominent and immensely positive BaME Liberal Democrat member within Scotland.
With the support of EMLD, Pramod is currently working on the development of a Scottish specific EMLD, and this work I fear will be set back by this apparent lack of interest in BaME matters, which is actually out of kilter with the rest of Scottish politics that increasingly is more inclusive and acknowledging the growing BaME communities.
As always I offer the assistance of EMLD to aid on this occasion the Scottish Party in becoming more reflective of 21st Century society. Please take EMLD up on its offer to aid the Party in making a very necessary and positive change to its policies, procedures and practices which currently thwart the recruitment, retention and progression of BaME members of society.
Namaste,
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera
Chair – Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats
Did I miss the transport spokesperson?
That comes under Mike Rumbles’ portfolio.
Well done Caron and others who made the team. It’s good to see one of this site’s own hardworking people get rewarded!
Most people should instinctively have sympathy for a strong social security safety net! The public lost confidence with our last one, but I don’t think the current one is fit for purpose either.
Where does housing sit?
Dear Colleagues,
Willie Rennie has responded to my concerns with “watch this space”.
The trouble is that BaME communities having been “watching this space” and others for decades and seen nothing of note. Now is the time for action.
EMLD exists to assist the LibDems become the enabling Party that it professes to be. As an organisation EMLD has knowledge, understanding, skills and ability to genuinely help the LibDems, but for some reason it is constantly ignored or sidelined.
Together with my sisters and brothers within EMLD, I am fully aware why it is important for BaME members to be active and influencing the Party, but possibly this belief is not shared by others who have greater influence?
Although my EMLD sisters and brothers are both liberal and democratic to the core, perhaps the Party influencers and ‘gatekeepers’ feel that we are not necessary? Whether this is the case or not, we are here to stay and our voices will be heard eventually, for the alternative is that the Party with its wonderful tenets will become an irrelevance.
So in conclusion, I am more interested in EMLD and BaME members being part of, and influencing “this space” than wasting our time “watching” it.
Please feel free to contact me so that we can start the process of change today, and not in an unnamed future time. The ‘truths’ that I have raised are equally relevant for the rest of the country (and especially London Region), it just happens that I have an extra special fondness for Scotland.
Namaste,
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera
Chair – Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats
Paul, that’s under Communities, Equalities and Social Security, too.
congratulations Caron, and others.
this innovation makes me wonder again whether kirsty williams should be the deputy leader of the national party (if she wants to)?
The comments by Ruwan prompted me to look at the statistics for the demographics of Scotland compared to the UK as a whole. All ethnic minorities together comprise 4% of the population of Scotland (source: Scottish Government, 2012) compared to 14% of the UK population as a whole (source: ONS, 2011).
The proportion of people in UK who identify themselves as having origin in the Indian subcontinent is 7.5%.
By the way, one member out of a team of twelve is 8%.
Congratulations, -so gender balance is possible, with a wider mixture of talents, which is good news for Scotland, rest of party take note and act, it’s really not that difficult, as demonstrated.
Dear Simon,
I am not quite sure of the point that you are making, but I will for the sake of a response assume that you are equating the low percentage of BaME representation to the apparent total absence of BaME interest within the clique?
Well I cannot argue with the statistics other than say that inclusivity surly means that and we as a Party claim to be forward thinking so I still expect explicit BaME representation (representation is someone with the required knowledge, understanding, skills and ability).
Incidentally I am aware that the percentage increase in BaME communities in Scotland is increasing and is not reflected by the ONS figures. In Ascoile, Gordonbush, Brora in the Highlands as an example the BaME population has gone through the ceiling since the Uduwerage’s moved there. Admittedly there is not another inhabited property for about a mile.
Seriously though, if we are equating percentages of BaME population to influence within a Party, I seriously think that you should be advising your London Region and other metropolitan area members of this.
The percentages would indicate that EMLD members should be running Leicester, and in London with a BaME population of over 40% according to the ONS, our views should have be somewhat more than merely acknowledged and ignored.
It’s not gender balanced, five men + seven women. I don’t know amny of the individuals involved but unlikely that the seven best qualified people outside Parliament are ALL women