Scottish Liberal Democrats

The Scottish Liberal Democrats are a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, a part of the UK Liberal Democrats. The party currently holds 5 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 4 of the 59 Scottish seats in the UK House of Commons.

Scottish Liberal Democrats
LeaderWillie Rennie MSP
Deputy LeaderAlistair Carmichael MP
PresidentCllr Willie Wilson
Founded8 March 1988 (1988-03-08)
Headquarters4 Clifton Terrace
Edinburgh
EH12 5DR[1]
Youth wingScottish Young Liberals
Membership (Dec. 2018) 4,085[2]
IdeologyLiberalism[3][4]
Social liberalism[4][5]
Classical liberalism[6]
British unionism[7]
Pro-Europeanism
British federalism[8][9]
Political positionCentre to centre-left
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliationLiberal International
Colours     Yellow[10]
Scottish seats in the House of Commons
4 / 59
Scottish Parliament
5 / 129
Local government in Scotland
67 / 1,227
Website
www.scotlibdems.org.uk

The Scottish Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties[11] within the federal[12] Liberal Democrats, the others being the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the English Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats do not contest elections in Northern Ireland.

Leaders

Deputy Leaders
  • Michael Moore (2 November 2002 – 20 September 2010)
  • Jo Swinson (20 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 Scottish Council Areas), 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 party's headquarters are located in Edinburgh.

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 Executive Committee, which is chaired by the Convener of the party and includes the Leader, the Depute Leader and the President of the party, as well as the party Treasurer and the three Vice-Conveners. See below for the current office-bearers and all other members of the Party's three management committees (Executive Committee, Policy Committee and Conference Committee). All party members vote every two years in internal elections to elect people to all the below positions, except Leader & Depute Leader.

Current party leadership, office bearers and committee members

Scottish headquarters staff

The party employs a small team of staff at their HQ in Edinburgh.

Conferences

Like the Federal party, the Scottish party holds two conferences per year; a Spring Conference, and an Autumn Conference.

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

The Association of Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors (ASLDC)[13] 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 2017, under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, 67 Liberal Democrats were elected, a drop of 3 on Local Council Election of May 2012.

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

ASLDC works alongside Liberal Democrats in the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) where Cllr Peter Barrett is leader of the Lib Dem Group.

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

The Scottish Liberal Democrat party was formed by the merger of the Scottish Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Scotland, as part of the merger of the Liberal Party and SPD on 3 March 1988.[14]

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, the death of the first First Minister Donald Dewar and the following 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: Opposition and electoral stagnation

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 2008 Scottish Liberal Democrats leadership election.)

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. At the 2014 European Parliament elections, the party lost its only MEP.

At the 2015 general election, the party lost 10 of its 11 MPs with only Alistair Carmichael narrowly retaining Orkney and Shetland with a 3.6% majority.

At the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections, the party again had 5 MSPs elected but was pushed into 5th place by the Scottish Greens. While it gained the 2 constituency seats of Edinburgh Western and North East Fife from the SNP, its vote share fell slightly overall.

At the 2017 general election, the party held its only constituency of Orkney and Shetland with an increased majority, as well as gaining back three seats lost to the SNP in 2015 – Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, East Dunbartonshire and Edinburgh West. The Scottish Liberal Democrats lost the North East Fife constituency to Stephen Gethins of the SNP by two votes. In the 2019 election, UK leader Jo Swinson lost her East Dunbartonshire seat to the SNP and was forced to stand down as leader, but the Liberal Democrats took North East Fife to retain four seats in Scotland.[15][16]

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.[17] 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.[18]

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.

Elected representatives (current)

Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish ParliamentConstituency or RegionFirst electedSpokespersons[19]
Willie RennieNorth East Fife2011Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats
Liam McArthurOrkney2007Justice and Energy
Beatrice WishartShetland2019Education
Alex Cole-HamiltonEdinburgh Western2016Health and housing
Mike RumblesNorth East Scotland2016Rural Affairs

House of Commons of the United Kingdom
Member of ParliamentConstituencyFirst electedNotes
Alistair CarmichaelOrkney and Shetland2001Only Lib Dem MP returned in the 2015 general election in Scotland.
Christine JardineEdinburgh West2017
Jamie StoneCaithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross2017Member of the Scottish Parliament for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross between 1999 and 2011.
Wendy ChamberlainNorth East Fife2019

Only gain made by the Liberal Democrats in Scotland at the 2019 general election. Was previously the most marginal seat in the entire United Kingdom in 2017.

Electoral performance

Scottish Parliament Elections
Election Constituency votes Regional votes Total seats Share of seats Position Outcome Notes
Share Seats Share Seats
1999 14% 12 12% 5
17 / 129
 13% 4th Coalition Government First election to the re-constituted Scottish Parliament. Formed a coalition with the Labour Party.
2003 15% 13 12% 4
17 / 129
 13% 4th Coalition Government Again formed a Coalition with Labour.
2007 16% 11 11% 5
16 / 129
 13% 4th Opposition
2011 7.9% 2 5.2% 3
5 / 129
 4% 4th Opposition
2016 7.8% 4 5.2% 1
5 / 129
 4% 5th Opposition

UK general elections

This chart shows the electoral results of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, from the first election the party contested in 1992. Total number of seats, and vote percentage, is for Scotland only. For results prior to 1992, see Scottish Liberal Party.

Election Vote % Seats Outcome of election
1992 13.1
9 / 72
 Conservative Overall Majority
1997 13.0
10 / 72
 Labour Overall Majority
2001 16.3
10 / 72
 Labour Overall Majority
2005 22.6
11 / 59
 Labour Overall Majority
2010 18.9
11 / 59
 Conservative & Liberal Democrat Coalition
2015 7.5
1 / 59
 Conservative Overall Majority
2017 6.8
4 / 59
 Hung Parliament
2019 9.0
4 / 59
 Conservative Majority

European Parliament
YearVotesShare of votesSeats wonAdditional Information
199996,9719.8%
1 / 8
2004154,178 13.1%
1 / 7
2009127,03811.5%
1 / 6
201495,3197.09%
0 / 6
2019 218,285 13.8%
1 / 6
 The highest vote share the party has achieved. Elected Sheila Ritchie MEP.

Liberal Democrat Scottish peers in the House of Lords
PeerEnnobledNotes
Patrick Boyle, 10th Earl of Glasgow1984Current chief of Clan Boyle
Elizabeth Barker, Baroness Barker1999
Malcolm Bruce, Baron Bruce of Bennachie2015
Menzies Campbell, Baron Campbell of Pittenweem2015
James Erskine, 14th Earl of Mar2000
Archy Kirkwood, Baron Kirkwood of Kirkhope2005MP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire from 1983 to 2005
Jeremy Purvis, Baron Purvis of Tweed2013MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale (2003 to 2011)
David Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood1997Leader of the Liberal Party & Leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats (1976 to 1988)
Nicol Stephen, Baron Stephen2011Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats (2005 to 2008)
Alison Suttie, Baroness Suttie2013Deputy chief of staff to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (2010 to 2011)
John Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso2016
Iain Vallance, Baron Vallance of Tummel2004
Jim Wallace, Baron Wallace of Tankerness2007Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats (1992 to 2005)

See also

References
  1. "Scottish Liberal Democrat HQ". Scottish Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  2. "21491". Electoral Commission.
  3. Eve Hepburn (2010). Using Europe: Territorial Party Strategies in a Multi-level System. Oxford University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-7190-8138-5.
  4. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2016). "Scotland/UK". Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  5. Helma Gerritje Engelien de Vries (2007). Insiders and Outsiders: Global Social Movements, Party Politics, and Democracy in Europe and North America. ProQuest. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-549-45223-2.
  6. "Search - Orange Bookers. Social Liberalism. What's it all about?". markpack.org.uk.
  7. Foster, Greg (8 March 2016). "Where do the Scottish Lib Dems stand on independence?". Scottish Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  8. http://www.libdems.org.uk/ (4 October 2013). "F41: Towards a Federal UK". libdems.org.uk.
  9. http://www.libdems.org.uk/ (6 March 2017). "Scot Lib Dems launch Federalism drive". scotlibdems.org.uk.
  10. "Style guide". Liberal Democrats. 23 March 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  11. "The party is led by Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen MSP and is a state party within the Liberal Democrats", scotlibdems.org.uk, accessed 23 September 2006 (Archived 2 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine)
  12. "Party Structure" Archived 2 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine, scotlibdems.org.uk
  13. "Scotland and ASLDC – Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors". aldc.org.
  14. "Liberal Democrat History Group". Liberalhistory.org.uk. Archived from the original on 29 August 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  15. "Results of the 2019 General Election in Scotland". BBC News.
  16. "Scottish Lib Dem MPs meet after leader loses seat". 14 December 2019.
  17. "Scottish policy responsibilities include all devolved matters plus matters that we believe should be the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament." Archived 2 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine, scotlibdems.org.uk
  18. "Microsoft Word - Steel Commission Report March 2006 formatted.doc" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  19. "Labour and Lib Dems reveal detail of reshuffles". scotsman.com.
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