The annoying thing about election campaigns is that they clash with exam season. In Scotland, Higher English happened on polling day, which is just great if you have or are a stressed out teenager.

Just the other day, I was talking to someone who combined university finals with a general election campaign, often balancing his books on the riso as he wrote essays.

Being a campaign foot soldier is a hard enough job if you are in the middle of such exams, but what about if you’re a candidate.

Edinburgh Central candidate Hannah Bettsworth is in the middle of her finals. Despite that, she has been representing us at heaven knows how many hustings as well as helping out our winning campaign in Western. By 5pm on polling day, she’d already hit 30,000 steps.

The local student news site did an article on her

:

Spanish and Politics student Hannah has taken an ambitious step – standing in the Scottish Parliamentary elections as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the constituency of Edinburgh Central. After joining the party in 2011, Hannah held various positions within the party before becoming a constituency candidate.

We spoke to Hannah about what it’s like to be a student and a potential politician at the same time:

“it’s difficult to balance because I had a Spanish exam on the 3rd and I was reading about US foreign policy in the Lib Dem office the other day. But it’s good fun and we have a real chance of winning here – Scottish Lib Dems have great policies about improving student bursaries and fighting for better mental health treatment. Scotland needs change and we’re the ones who’ll make it happen”.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social