The Lib Dem revival is coming to Holyrood - Alex Cole-Hamilton

So, it seems incongruous to have my crystal ball out as I write this from a conference centre, above the golden sands of Bournemouth drenched in the late summer sun.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton (right) and fellow MSPs with their new colleague Jamie Greene (left) outside the Scottish Parliament

You see I’ve been at the UK Liberal Democrat conference, an incredibly buoyant event and I used my keynote platform speech there to make two predictions for the Scottish Parliament elections. Well one prediction and an assertion.

The prediction is straightforward. For the first time in the history of devolution, the Scottish Liberal Democrats will overtake the Conservative party at next May’s Scottish Parliament elections.

That sounds bold, but the signs are already there. Despite currently enjoying the position as official opposition at Holyrood, the Conservatives are in a state of total collapse. Last year, in what was the best general election for the Lib Dems in a hundred years, the focus may have been on the collapse of the Blue Wall in the south of England but we actually overhauled the Tories in Scotland in terms of MPs returned to Westminster. I’m confident we’re about to do the same again at Holyrood.

When Jamie Greene MSP dramatically left the Scottish Conservatives and joined my party in April, he spoke for a much wider group of people who are looking at their options this time around. He had taken a chance on Ruth Davidson’s moderate and inclusive vision for the Tories, but could no longer tolerate the shrivelled husk that party has become.

He could no longer stomach the climate change denial, the punching down on vulnerable groups or the language of the hard right increasingly adopted by Russell ‘McFarage’ Findlay. Instead, Jamie and countless others are finding a new home with the Liberal Democrats. This is why I’m so confident we’ll overtake them.

So, onto the assertion I also made from the conference platform.

Given our proportional voting system in Scotland, it’s very hard for a single party to win an overall majority. As such, commentators are always interested in what deals might be done between parties after all the votes are counted. I’m asked this relentlessly, particularly with regard to the SNP.

I could not have been clearer. No Liberal Democrat MSP will serve in an SNP government. I will not countenance a coalition with the nationalists and I will not vote to put them back in power.

With the crisis in our health service, the soaring cost of living, the ferries fiasco and the problems in our classrooms, do the SNP really deserve to be rewarded with a third decade in power? I think not.

There is a democratic imperative to renew and refresh our politics and that means a period of quiet reflection on the opposition benches for the SNP.

Scotland deserves better than the Tories and the Nationalists. But it needs to be change that works for everyone, no matter who you are or where you come from.

The Lib Dems are poised to beat the SNP in constituencies across the country - here in Edinburgh I am optimistic that my party's Edinburgh Northern candidate Sanne Dijkstra Downie will soon be my constituency neighbour - but wherever you are, a vote for us on that second peach regional ballot paper is a vote for change with fairness at its heart.

As the sun sets on our Bournemouth conference, I'll be travelling home with an energy and an optimism for the year ahead.