Feature: Who is Tavish Scott?

Tavish Scott, new leader of the Scottish Lib Dems

Tuesday, 26, Aug 2008 05:26

Always the favourite, Tavish Scott won his campaign to become the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats with an announcement at 15:00 BST on Wednesday.

It's the latest stage of a career which began as a fierce campaigner for Shetland, an area Scott thanks for making him what he is.

"I was brought up here in Shetland," he said during the campaign. "I am what Shetland made me. And I've had the good fortune to represent this community in the Scottish Parliament for nearly ten years.

"This is where I've learned at first hand what community means. This is a strong community where people know each other, trust each other, and help each other."

Scott's passion for where he came from seems to go pretty deep. He lists Up Helly Aa as one of his interests, all the way up there with golf. Up Helly Aa, in case you didn’t know, is a Shetland fire festival held in the middle of winter to mark the end of yule season. It's sometimes called 'Transvestite Tuesday', due to the number of men dressed as women, but best not to draw too many conclusions about that.

He became the Shetland's first MSP in May 1999 after five years of acting as a councillor there. It's a historical note complimented by the fact he was the first parliamentarian for the Shetland Islands as a distinct entity. Up to then, it was melded together with Orkney.

Powering through his career at an average pace of one job per annum, Scott was transport, environment and Europe spokesman from 1999 to 2000, Lib Dem parliamentary business manager from 2000 to 2001, simultaneously enterprise spokesman and Highlands and Islands spokesman from 2001 to 2003, and deputy minister for finance and public services from 2003 to 2005.

He served as deputy minister of parliament in the Scottish executive from 2000 to 2001 but resigned after refusing to support the Executive in a vote on a tie-scheme for fishing. The highest post he held to date has been that of minister for transport, between June 2005 and May 2007.

A steady rise up the party ranks combined with his outspoken support for the Shetlands to give him an increased majority in 2007. At 50.1 per cent, he holds the largest margin of any MSP over their closest challenger.

However impressive his career may appear, however, Scott has a lot of work ahead of him. The Liberal Democrats are in real danger of falling into fourth place north of the border, as their unimpressive performance in Glasgow East proved.

The Scottish National party (SNP) are not just squeezing Labour – all centre-left parties are feeling the pain of a resurgent nationalist movement. With Tory support unimproved but still stable, the Liberal Democrats are starting to fall behind.

"Under my leadership the Liberal Democrats will be the party that tackles the issues, provides the solutions and is not afraid to tell the truth," he said during the campaign.

"We must connect our core values of freedom, fairness and community to the problems that are facing Scotland today."

Whether that will be enough to wrestle the debate away from the SNP and Labour is another matter.

Ian Dunt