Scottish Liberal Democrats

Scottish Liberal Democrats Libearalaich Deamocratach na h-Alba
Leader	Willie Rennie MSP
Deputy Leader	Alistair Carmichael MP
Founded	3 March 1988
Headquarters	4 Clifton Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5DR
Youth wing	Liberal Youth Scotland
Membership (Dec 2013)	2,831
Ideology	Social liberalism, Social democracy
Political position	Centre
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
European Parliament group	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colours	Gold
Scottish seats in the House of Commons	11 / 59
Scottish Parliament	5 / 129
Local government in Scotland	71 / 1,222
European Parliament (Scottish seats)	0 / 6
Website
www.scotlibdems.org.uk
Politics of Scotland Political parties Elections

The Scottish Liberal Democrats (Scottish Gaelic: Libearal Deamocratach na h-Alba, Scots: Scots Leeberal Democrats) is a social-liberal political party in Scotland. The Scottish Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties within the federal Liberal Democrats, the others being the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Democrats in England.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats hold 5 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 11 of 59 Scottish seats in the UK Parliament.

Organisation

Leaders

• Malcolm Bruce (3 March 1988 – 18 April 1992)
• Jim Wallace (18 April 1992 – 23 June 2005)
• Nicol Stephen (27 June 2005 – 2 July 2008)
• Tavish Scott (26 August 2008 – 7 May 2011)
• Willie Rennie (17 May 2011 – present)

Deputy Leaders

• Michael Moore (2 November 2002 – 23 September 2010)
• Jo Swinson (23 September 2010 – 23 September 2012)
• Alistair Carmichael (23 September 2012 – present)

Structure

In keeping with its basis as a federation of organisations, the Scottish party also consists of a number of local parties (which mostly follow the boundaries of the 73 Scottish Parliament constituencies), which are each distinct accounting units under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Local parties are predominantly responsible for the party's political campaigning and for selecting candidates for parliamentary and local authority elections.

There are also eight regional parties (based on the boundaries of the eight Scottish Parliament electoral regions).

Administration

The conference is the highest decision-making body of the party on both policy and strategic issues. The day-to-day organisation of the party is the responsibility of the party's 34-member Executive Committee, chaired by Party Convener Craig Harrow, and the eight Office Bearers, including the leader Willie Rennie MSP, the deputy leader Alistair Carmichael MP and the party President Malcolm Bruce MP.

The development of party policy rests upon a distinct 14-member Policy Committee, chaired by John Edward. The Party Manager is Linda Wilson, and the party's headquarters are at 4 Clifton Terrace, Edinburgh.

Party Office Bearers

• Leader: Willie Rennie MSP
• Deputy Leader: Alistair Carmichael MP
• President: Malcolm Bruce MP
• Convener: Craig Harrow
• Treasurer: Caron Lindsay
• Policy Convener: John Edward
• Campaigns Convener: Katy Gordon
• Conference Convener: Sheila Thomson

Scottish Headquarters Staff

• Party Manager: Linda Wilson
• Campaigns Director: Adam Stachura
• Communications Director: Adam Clarke

Executive Committee

• Derek Barrie
• Fred Mackintosh
• Audrey Findlay
• Margaret Smith
• Judy Hayman
• Sophie Bridger
• Fraser Grieve
• Kevin Lang
• Caron Lindsay
• Kris Chapman
• Galen Milne
• Cathy McInnes

Policy Committee

• Euan Robson
• Hugh Andrew
• Alan Blair
• Ewan Hoyle
• Ruaraidh Dobson

Conference Committee

• Jenni Lang
• Mike Falchikov
• Sheila Thomson
• Jennifer Jamieson-Ball
• Callum Leslie
• Ross Stalker
• Paul McGarry
• Jo Swinson (MP)
• George Lyon (MEP)
• Craig Harrow (Scottish Convener)
• Isabel Nelson (SWLD)
• Kieran Leach (Policy Committee)
• Helen Watt (Executive Committee)
• Daniel O'Malley (LYS)

Conferences

The Scottish party holds two conferences per year; a three-day Spring Conference, last held in Dundee in March 2013, and a one-day Autumn Conference, last held in Glasgow in September 2013 on the first day of the federal party autumn conference, at the same venue (the SECC). The autumn federal and Scottish conferences will return to Glasgow in 2014, whilst Scottish spring conference 2014 will take place in Aberdeen.

Associated organisations

Associated organisations generally seek to influence the direction of the party on a specific issue or represent a section of the party membership. The party has five associated organisations:

• Association of Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners (ASLDC)
• Liberal Democrats for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality (DELGA) (Scottish Board)
• Liberal Youth Scotland (LYS)
• Scottish Green Liberal Democrats
• Scottish Women Liberal Democrats

Association of Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners

The Association of Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors (ASLDC) is a network of Liberal Democrat councillors and local campaigners across Scotland which works to support and develop Liberal Democrat involvement in Scottish Local Government.

Following the Local Council Election of May 2012, under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, 71 Liberal Democrats were elected, a drop of 95 on Local Council Election of May 2007.

A voluntary Executive Committee meets several times a year to run the organisation.

• Convenor: Cllr Willie Wilson
• Vice-Convenor: John Elder
• Secretary: Cllr Mags Kennedy
• Treasurer: Simon Hutton
• Members: Cllr Fraser Macpherson, Cllr Peter Barrett, Millie McLeod, Cllr Ian Yuill, Caron Lindsay

ASLDC works alongside Liberal Democrats in the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) where Neil Fletcher serves as Vice-President, Cllr Anne Robertson leads the Lib Dem Group (Aberdeenshire) and George Hayton is Group Secretary (Perth and Kinross).

History

See also: Devolution in the United Kingdom and History of Scottish devolution

The Scottish Liberal Democrat party is the successor to the Scottish Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party in Scotland, following the merger of these parties in 1988.

The party campaigned for the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament as part of its wider policy of a federal United Kingdom. In the late 1980s and 1990s it and its representatives participated in the Scottish Constitutional Convention with the Scottish Labour Party, Scottish Green Party, trades unions and churches, and also campaigned for a "Yes-Yes" vote in the 1997 devolution referendum.

1999–2007: Coalition government with Labour

In the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the party won 17 seats. Following this, the party formed a coalition government with the Scottish Labour Party in the Scottish Executive. The then party leader, Jim Wallace, became Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Minister for Justice. He also served as acting First Minister on three occasions, during the illness and then later death of the first First Minister Donald Dewar and following the resignation of his successor Henry McLeish. This partnership was renewed in 2003 and Wallace became Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. On 23 June 2005, Nicol Stephen MSP succeeded Wallace as party leader and took over his positions in the Executive until the 2007 elections.

Prior to the partnership government being formed in 1999, the UK had only limited experience of coalition government. The party's participation attracted criticism for involving compromises to its preferred policies, although several of its manifesto pledges were adopted as government policy or legislation. These included changes to the arrangements for student contributions to higher education costs (although whether that amounted to the claimed achievement of having abolished tuition fees was hotly contested), free personal care for the elderly and (during the second coalition government) changing the system of elections for Scottish local authorities to the single transferable vote, a long-standing Liberal Democrat policy.

2007–present

In the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, the party won one fewer seat than in the two previous Scottish elections: this was the first parliamentary election for 28 years in which the party's parliamentary strength in Scotland was reduced. This experience led to some criticism of the party's election strategy and its leader. Although it was arithmetically possible to form a majority coalition with the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Green Party, the party refused to participate in coalition negotiations because of a disagreement over the SNP's policy of a referendum on Scottish independence, and sat as an opposition party in the Parliament.

On 2 July 2008, Nicol Stephen resigned as the party leader. The former deputy leader Michael Moore MP served as acting leader of the party until Tavish Scott MSP was elected party leader on 26 August 2008, winning 59% of the votes cast in a contest with parliamentary colleagues Ross Finnie and Mike Rumbles. (See also Scottish Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2008.)

At the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections, the party lost all its mainland constituencies, retaining only the two constituencies of Orkney and Shetland. It also secured three List MSPs. This was by far the party's worst electoral performance since the re-establishment of a Scottish parliament in 1999.

Policy platform

The Scottish Party decides its policy on state matters independently from the federal party. State matters include not only currently devolved issues but also those reserved matters which the party considers should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, including broadcasting, energy, drugs and abortion. The party also believes that the Scottish Parliament should exercise greater responsibility on fiscal matters. A party commission chaired by former Liberal Party leader and Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer Sir David Steel set out the party's proposals on the constitutional issue.

According to its constitution, the party believes in a "fair, free and open society ... in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity". It has traditionally argued for both positive and negative liberties, tolerance of social diversity, decentralisation of political authority, including proportional representation for public elections, internationalism and greater involvement in the European Union. In the 2007 elections it campaigned for reforms to public services and local taxation, and for more powers for the Scottish Parliament within a federal Britain.

In December 2007, the party (along with Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives) supported the creation of a new Commission on Scottish Devolution, along similar lines to the earlier Scottish Constitutional Convention, to discuss further powers for the Scottish Parliament. The SNP Government had earlier in the same year launched a "National Conversation" which includes the option of independence for Scotland.

Elected representatives (current)

MSPs

Member of the Scottish Parliament	Constituency or Region	First elected	Spokespersons
Willie Rennie	Mid Scotland and Fife	2011	Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats
Liam McArthur	Orkney	2007	education and energy
Alison McInnes	North East Scotland	2007	health and justice
Jim Hume	South of Scotland	2007	rural, environment, housing and transport
Tavish Scott	Shetland	1999	business and the economy

MPs

Member of Parliament	Constituency	First elected	Notes
Danny Alexander	Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey	2005	Chief Secretary to the Treasury (HM Treasury)
Malcolm Bruce	Gordon	1983
Menzies Campbell	North East Fife	1987
Alistair Carmichael	Orkney and Shetland	2001	Secretary of State for Scotland (Scotland Office)
Michael Crockart	Edinburgh West	2010
Charles Kennedy	Ross, Skye and Lochaber	1983
Michael Moore	Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk	1997
Alan Reid	Argyll and Bute	2001
Robert Smith	West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine	1997
Jo Swinson	East Dunbartonshire	2005	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills)
John Thurso	Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross	2001

See also

• Northern Ireland Liberal Democrats

External links

• Official website
• Steel Commission, Moving to Federalism - A New Settlement for Scotland (published in March 2006)
• ASPECT: Access to Scottish Parliamentary Election Candidate Materials, University of Strathclyde