Scottish parliament

Can the Lib Dems emulate Reform’s Scottish surge?

19 min listen

Jamie Greene, an MSP for the West of Scotland region, defected earlier this year from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats. Most defections in Scotland – indeed across the UK – seem to be from the Tories to Reform, so what is behind Jamie’s motivations to go in a different direction? What are his reflections on the splintering of politics, particularly in Scotland, as we look ahead to next year’s Holyrood elections? And does he agree that this is shaping up to be the most consequential Scottish Parliament election of modern times? In Jamie’s view, Reform have shown to struggle with power in the areas they’ve been successful in, but

Boris vs the Scottish Tories

As the Foreign Secretary warns an invasion of Ukraine by Russia could be ‘imminent’, Boris Johnson has been spending the day on a ‘Levelling Up’ tour in a bid to get his premiership back on track. The stops include both the North of England and Scotland. For the latter part, the Prime Minister today visited Rosyth Dockyard where new Royal Navy warships are under construction.  Only Johnson cut a rather lonely figure — with no Scottish Conservatives coming out to meet him. While his long time ally Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, is simply away so unable to join, for others it appears to be more personal. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives Douglas Ross was absent today. He