The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Generation Next rising stars aim for Holyrood
Half of the rising stars of Scottish politics who participated in our Generation Next project have been confirmed as Holyrood election candidates.
The celebrated series, published last October, featured in-depth interviews with 35 budding politicians, all aged 35 or under and from north of the central belt.
Each had been tipped by senior colleagues for a bright future in politics, and now 18 of them are candidates for the Scottish Parliament vote on May 6.
No fewer than 10 Generation Next participants are standing in the north-east region in either a constituency, on the regional list, or both.
That number includes three Liberal Democrats – John Waddell, who is second on his party’s list, Ben Lawrie, who is third on the list and also standing in the Angus South constituency, and Michael Crichton, who is eighth on the list and also the party’s candidate Dundee City East.
The SNP’S Fergus Mutch is third on the party’s list in the north-east and is expected to challenge the Tories for Alexander Burnett’s Aberdeenshire West seat.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, hope Braden Davey can oust the SNP’S Mairi Gougeon in Angus North and Mearns.
Other Generation Next participants standing in the north-east include Conservative Harriet Cross in Aberdeen Donside and on the list, and Labour’s Graeme Mckenzie and Barry Black in Angus South and Aberdeen Central respectively.
Mr Black is also standing on the regional list, as is his fellow Aberdeen Central candidate, Guy Ingerson, from the Scottish Greens, and Mr Ingerson’s party colleague Leodhas Massie.
Four of the interviewees are on the list in Mid Scotland and Fife, including Scott Rutherford for the Greens.
Mags
Hall, in another
Scottish Green candidate, is second on the regional list for her party, and is also standing in Cowdenbeath.
Labour’s Craig Miller is on the list and the party’s candidate in the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane constituency, while Lib Dem Aude Boubaker-calder has been confirmed as a candidate on the list and in the Dunfermline constituency.
Just one Generation Next participant is standing in the Central Scotland
region, Gillian Mackay who tops the list for the Scottish Greens, and there are a further three on the list in the Highlands and Islands.
They are Lib Dem Molly Nolan and Tory Struan Mackie, who are both also standing for their parties in the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross constituency, and Labour’s John Erskine, who is second on his party’s list and battling in the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch seat too
Mr Erskine said the next parliament would have a
“once in a generation opportunity to do things differently”, as the nation recovers from the pandemic.
He added: “With around a fifth of MSPS from the last parliament standing down, including many of the original ’99ers, the next parliament is going to look very different.
“It was great that The Courier and The Press and Journal covered many of the new candidates who have a real prospect of being elected in their Generation Next series, and I was delighted to have been included.
“With the campaign really under way now, I’m sure many of the Generation Next candidates from all the parties will be out campaigning hard to ensure new voices are heard in the parliament chamber.”
Of the 17 remaining Generation Next participants who have not thrown their hat in the ring, 11 have been candidates in either local or national contests in the past, including four who are serving councillors.