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 [as the SNP would]. 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:

Oh, she is incredibly timid,” he whistles. “Not to change any income tax rates at all? That’s timid. Really timid. Depressingly timid. And all the lectures we’ve had about austerity!

He says it’s an insight into the SNP’s ultra-cautious approach to securing independence.

I think she’s been trapped, because she’s got the powers, she could invest in education, but she’s choosing not to. So her timidity, which has always been there, is now exposed.

It reveals her inner belief – do nothing until you get independence. I think the SNP’s rhetoric and their action hasn’t matched for some time and people are now beginning to see it.

Tom Gordon is not a fan of the Lib Dems. You can tell that from his rather casual, unjustified comment:

He’s off on a bit of a riff now, casting the LibDems, despite their notorious political promiscuity, as bastions of principle

If you think about it, a lot of the things that we are putting forward in this election, from investing in education, to support for carers to looking after the environment to giving power away from Holyrood, all of these things have been constant themes throughout my almost three and a half decades in politics. The SNP has lurched between being insurgent lefties to final conservatives with a cast iron grip on the establishment in power. Labour has lost its way quite a bit, although they are now led by Kezia Dugdale, who puts across the case for social justice with great understanding, sincerity and heart. The Tories still occasionally talk about compassionate Conservative but the reality, especially now they are on their own, is much more brutal.

“I stick by people if I believe they are fundamentally good people”

Willie reveals during the interview that he donated £750 to Alistair Carmichael’s legal costs. Gordon covers that conversation in a separate article. For me, it shows off Willie’s instinctive generosity of spirit:

I contributed towards Alistair’s legal costs. It’s not a huge sum of money, but I wanted to make a token contribution… £750, I paid. I’m not a rich man but I felt it was important. He never asked. I gave it to him. I gave it to him in the last few weeks.

It was tough for Alistair. Alistair is fundamentally a decent person who’s got 14 years and a track record in the Northern Isles doing an exceptionally good job.

“He made a mistake. He’s been to court. It went much further than we ever thought it would go, much further… brutal. And it’s been very costly.

“But I stick by people if I believe they’re fundamentally good people. We all make mistakes in our life. I’m not going to dispense with somebody for short term aims.

Willie was disarmingly honest about the controversy over fracking.  In February, Scottish Conference  passed a motion ending the moratorium on fracking in Scotland on safety grounds. Willie asked the Policy Committee to back his opposition to fracking on climate change grounds.

He admits he blundered by not anticipating how the conference vote would go – he even nipped out for a photo-op while it took place – and realised instantly he had to overrule it.

“I wanted a clear, distinctive position on the environment. We’re not going to open up a new front in carbon-based fuels. So I changed the party policy, to some discomfort in the party.”

Did you get a lot of grief? “Och aye. But you’re leader, eh? You need to do it sometimes.”

The reality is, which probably explains why the party was so shocked by Willie’s actions, is that he’s always worked with the party. He prefers to do things that way. This particular set of circumstances led him to do things differently, but it’s a one-off. Sometimes a leader just has to lead, as he says.    I once said he not only had his finger on the pulse of the party, but he synchronised his own heartbeat to the party’s (when Nick had put out an email glossing over some election disaster, and Willie had got the tone absolutely right). This is in sharp contrast to some leaders who, to be honest, gave the impression that they didn’t like the party that much or were at best indifferent to its needs. Willie has been the most encouraging, inspiring, supportive leader we could have wished for during a difficult five years. He has led 5 MSPs who have managed to force a majority SNP government to change policy on landmark civil liberties issues like routine use of armed police and excessive use of stop and search. He has successfully argued for more childcare, free school meals and the SNP’s cuts to colleges would have been even greater if he had not secured more money for further education during budget negotiations.

And what does Willie think will happen in the election:

You think you’ll advance? “Yes. Yes, I do. I believe we’ll grow”.

Willie has had a good week and he’s on the form of his life at the moment. His strong performance in Tuesday’s debate, where 3 papers judged him to be the winner (the Courier giving him 8/10), was just one of the highlights.

The verdict on #ScotDebates is in. @willie_rennie had so much fun he wants another debate https://t.co/9mHboQ1gVW pic.twitter.com/gks5rfJn3o

— Scot Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) March 30, 2016

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings