‘Endgame’ for focus on nationalism in Scotland
THE leader of the Scottish LibDems has said Scotland is in the “endgame of the clash of nationalisms” as he launched his party’s campaign for the 2027 council elections.
In his first conference speech as leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton made overt entreaties to Scottish Green voters, launched a commission on male violence – to be chaired by deputy leader and former police officer Wendy Chamberlain – and announced plans to return 150 councillors in the next local government elections in just under five years’ time.
Striking an optimistic tone after the party increased its seat tally in May’s council poll a year after dropping to four MSPs at Holyrood, Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “We will lift our vote across the country and in each of the coming parliamentary elections by starting our campaign for the 2027 council elections right here, right now.”
He added: “We will grow from the 87 councillors we won in May and return 150 or more in just four years’ time. We’ve identified the wards, we just need people to fill them.”
He also predicted a shift away from the focus on the constitution that has ruled Scottish politics since before the 2014 referendum.
“I believe that we are at last in the endgame of the clash of nationalisms that has held this country back for so long,” Mr Cole-Hamilton told the assembled delegates in Hamilton on Saturday, alluding to both the SNP and the Tories.
“We may finally be nearing a time where the constitution no longer suffocates our politics.”
But with the Scottish Government pursuing a case at the UK Supreme Court which could see Holyrood found to have the powers to hold a referendum and Nicola Sturgeon’s commitment to run the next general election as a de facto referendum if the parliament cannot call another vote, independence looks set to continue to be a leading issue in Scotland’s political life in the coming years. Despite his party’s opposition to independence, that does not mean they are comfortable with the status quo, the leader said laying out the party’s long standing support for a federal UK.