Why vote for Lib Dems? We get stuff done - Alex Cole-Hamilton
After I emerge from a party conference, I always want to know what people looking in from the outside made of it. In a hall full of liberal friends, liberal motions and even more liberal knitwear, you risk being lulled into a false sense of security.
But when the media coverage came, I quickly realised that a manifesto Q&A and some free bacon rolls were not the only reasons for good cheer.
For the first time in a long time, commentators are seeing what we could do. They are alive to our booming potential.
There’s talk of us returning “to the big time”, of “playing a bigger role in Scottish politics.”
May’s election could be just the start- “a launchpad”- that would let us “ride a UK-wide wave of new-found popularity.”
I was very entertained by one broadcast package which punned on this year’s conference venue, Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth, to express our electoral prospects.
With the camera focusing on a huge globe hanging from the ceiling, the reporter’s very apt sign-off was that Scottish Liberal Democrats “are ready to take on the world.”
I spent a good chunk of conference setting out our stall; basically, answering that fundamental question of what you get when you vote Lib Dem.
And to that question, there is a simple, singular answer: Scottish Liberal Democrats get stuff done. So, if you are someone who likes getting stuff done, it’s time to think about backing us in May’s election.
Just look at the £300 million that my party persuaded the Scottish Government to include in this year’s budget.
It’s money that will deliver serious support for pubs, restaurants, hotels, music venues - linchpins of the high street- struggling with business rates rises.
It’s millions for hospices, for speeding up autism and ADHD assessments, for keeping projects and activities open in disadvantaged communities.
It was on top of the hundreds of millions we secured in last year’s budget, which led to work restarting on Edinburgh’s Eye Hospital.
Getting stuff done runs through the veins of our policies.
Addressing conference, I spoke of the ferries bill we’ll deliver in the first year of a new parliament, guaranteeing vessels are replaced on time and in budget.
I spoke about improving connections and rejuvenating our economy. We want more train stations, more late-night services, alongside a bus network that finally works for you.
I also set out our plan to get Scottish education back to its best.
We will legislate to make classrooms mobile phone free. We will invest in pupil support assistants. We will open a new route for qualified primary school teachers stuck in precarious work to quickly gain the right to teach in secondary schools.
On this and so much more, we are all about improving lives. We know that a society that doesn’t work for everyone, doesn’t really work for anyone.
Scottish Liberal Democrats stand on the threshold of a huge revival. At our conference, two months out from May's election, we fired the starting gun.
In constituencies like Edinburgh Northern, we are on the cusp of beating the SNP and ending years of neglect.
But wherever you are in the city, for the first time in a long time, you can also vote for us with confidence on that second, peach-coloured, regional ballot paper, to get even more Lib Dems elected to the Scottish Parliament.