Alex Cole-Hamilton's speech to Scottish Liberal Democrat autumn conference

Conference, we took a big leap forward at the council elections of 2022, but there were still hardworking local champions who narrowly missed out on victory. Louise Spence was one of them. It felt like unfinished business.

Conference, I’m delighted to tell you that yesterday morning we rectified that, when Louise was elected as the Liberal Democrat Councillor for Colinton/Fairmilehead on City of Edinburgh Council.

And my goodness, nobody saw us coming. From fourth place, in a 12-cornered fight, in a ward where we’ve never had an elected councillor before, we topped the poll by a country mile.

And Conference that speaks to the resurgence that is visible everywhere in our party, starting in those crucial local government elections, strengthened with our triumphs at the general election, and blazing ahead in council by-elections the length and breadth of the country.

Proof positive that our 150 Rising strategy is working. That winning ward-by-ward we can lift our vote in every corner of Scotland.

And Conference, thanks to our hardworking activists, to our candidates, to our Future Leaders, we are gaining ground everywhere.

And I can tell you, when it comes to vote share, that across the local council by-elections held in Scotland since July we have outperformed every other party.

Welcome to the Salutation Hotel. You know David Bowie once headlined this venue. A man with singular talent, style and flair. This afternoon Conference, you’ve got me.

Turn and face the change.

So it is wonderful to be with you all again and we have such cause to be in good spirits.

What a summer. During that campaign, I met and spoke to thousands of people across our country.

You know me, my heaven is a minivan code and doors to knock, but it was without question the most enjoyable election I’ve been part of in my 25 years in this party, because I could feel the shift out there in the country. 

People were turning to us again. Not only ready to put their trust in us, but happy to do so.

And in the final analysis on that bright July morning.

We trebled our seats in Scotland.

We overtook the Scottish Conservatives.

And just like I promised you, we returned more liberals than nationalists to the green benches of the House of Commons.

Conference, it was our best result in over a hundred years.

We now have 72 Liberal Democrat MPs.

Never before in the field of political campaigning has so much been owed, by so many, to one man and his paddleboard.

And in turn Conference, I want to thank you.

For every door knocked, for every leaflet delivered.

Thank you to everyone who worked their hearts out in the service of our party, to the candidates, local activists, staff, and in particular the loved ones who supported you.

Without you, we would not have:

• Alistair Carmichael and Christine Jardine, both winning over 50% in their seats.
• 5-figure majorities for Jamie Stone in the Far North and Wendy Chamberlain in Fife.
• And Liberal Democrats now, once again represent both ends of the iconic West Highland Way. From Fort William to Milngavie. From Susan Murray MP to Angus Macdonald MP.

And wasn’t it something Conference, to see the final act of that general election return Charles Kennedy’s seat to the Liberal Democrat fold.

Like you, I was heartily glad to see the back of the morally bankrupt Conservative Government. They caused chaos, divided our communities, and inflicted financial pain on millions of families across our country.

Their demise was long overdue.

Change was long overdue. But I’m sure I’m not alone Conference in the disappointment I feel at the early days and the early decisions of this incoming Labour government.

I had hoped for something far better.

When families needed a fair deal, Labour stood by the two-child benefit cap.

When business needed a fair deal, they hiked employers’ National Insurance contributions.

And when pensioners needed a fair deal, Labour removed the winter fuel allowance.

This doesn’t feel like the change we were promised.

And it didn’t need to be this way.

They could have adopted Lib Dem plans to reverse the Conservative tax cuts for the big banks.

Or made the social media and tech giants pay their fair share.

And the elephant in the room Conference. We need to fix our broken relationship with Europe.

People backed us at the general election, and in those council elections, because we offer a vision for our country that speaks to them.

A Scotland, confident in it’s place in a reformed United Kingdom, walking in ever closer step with our European neighbours.

That is what you get when you elect the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Communities represented by people who will fight for them.

People who will put in the hard yards of public service and deliver.

And you need look no further than the deadly A9 for concrete evidence of the SNP’s shortcomings.

It’s the backbone of the Perthshire and Highland economies. Communities up and down the country depend upon it.

But everyone knows it is not safe. And it will take the government 30 years to dual it between Perth and Inverness.

I’d call it an astronomical delay, but it only took NASA 11 years to put a man on the moon.

Conference, communities are fed up. Fed up of being left behind. Fed up of being taken for granted.

That’s why they’ve had enough. They want change, and they are voting for it.

One victory, not too far from where we are now, shows that to be true.

I’m talking about our newly elected councillor for Strathallan. I’m talking about Alan Watt.

On the very day Russell Findlay was elected leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Alan won his council seat in the Conservative heartland of Rural Perthshire.

Just like Louise Spence, it was a ward in which we came 4th last time. Nobody saw us coming.

Alan Watt’s victory parked our tanks firmly on the lawn of the Scottish Conservative party.

A movement once captained by Ruth Davidson, is now led in Scotland by someone who enthusiastically backed Liz Truss, who embraced her economic incompetence.

And in London by Kemi Badenoch who questions the right to maternity pay.

This isn’t a considered, pragmatic or inclusive party, and increasingly those who backed it in the past are astonished at the extremes to which it has lurched. They are looking for a new home. And they are finding it with us.

Alan’s result shows us the way.

There is more of this to come I promise you.

We overtook the Scottish Tories at the General Election.

Why stop there. Conference, let’s beat them at Holyrood too.

The election will be here before we know it.

The country is taking us seriously again.

On top of our huge leap forward to 72 MPs, every single poll has us surging forward.

Make no mistake, we are on the up and Scotland needs strong liberal voices more than ever.

I look around this room and I see the faces of people who got into politics to help their communities and those around them.

For so many life is getting harder. It feels like nothing works any more. And people have had enough.

The SNP have made brutal cuts to vital budgets because they have mismanaged our nation’s finances over the entirety of their time in government.

This year alone they have cut the housing budget in the middle of a housing emergency.

Cut the mental health budget during a mental health crisis.

And they have cut the drug and alcohol budget while Scotland’s drug mortality remains among the worst in the world.

These decisions are harming the people of Scotland and the SNP have only themselves to blame.

Conference, the coming Scottish Budget could make a difference to all of this.

In a Parliament of minorities, we will always act like grown-ups and seek consensus where we can. It’s why each year we engage in meaningful talks with the Government to try to find common ground and improve the lot of our communities in the pages of the budget.

I want to see a spending plan that actually works for the people we serve. But we are a long way from that and they will have to move mountains to persuade us.

Because we know how badly broken things are.

We know the scale of the reform that’s needed.

And in our heart of hearts Conference, we know the only thing that will truly bring about the change that Scotland needs is a change of government.

Because the SNP are tired, out of touch and have been in power too long.

The proof of that runs through their abject failures of government:

in the deposit return scheme,

in the ferries that have yet to carry a single passenger

and in the doomed National Care Service.

We are the only party who opposed this vast and unnecessary ministerial power grab from day one.

Trade Unions, frontline workers, councils and every other opposition party now oppose it too.

Four years and £30m have already been wasted – that’s the equivalent to the annual salary of 1200 care workers.

It’s money that should have been spent on care staff and service users.

It’s money that should have been spent fixing community care so that your Gran can leave hospital on time.

Because we can’t save the NHS unless we fix social care.

This is a dead parrot of a policy.

So I say to the SNP, stop throwing good money after bad, read the room, stop the wasted millions now.

As liberals, we believe the measure of a civilised society is not just how we care for the old and infirm, but also how we conduct ourselves on the world stage.

Conference, it saddens me to say that while we bask in the glory of one electoral victory, we do so against the backdrop of an electoral defeat far more significant for our world.

Our global outlook today is all the darker for the reality of a looming second Trump presidency.

As with the invasion of Iraq, when Liberals see something on the horizon that is bad for our world, we rise up against it.

And conference now is the time for us to rise.

I have been so depressed by the rush to congratulate Trump. As if the bond between America and Great Britain depended on that.

Conference, the special relationship that exists between our two countries is old enough and strong enough to withstand the measured criticism of our political leaders.

Trump’s second term is going to be devastating for us here in Scotland, with the reversal of progress on the climate agenda and the import tariffs that may be coming for our whisky, and our salmon. But that is as nothing compared to what his presidency will mean for many in America.

For the women denied their reproductive rights, for the LGBT+ community, for refugees.

Trump has openly fantasised about ruling as a dictator.

Conference, as Maya Angelou reminds us, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

Donald Trump is a self-serving demagogue. He is a threat to our entire world. We will not pretend otherwise.

This past week, as we always do, we commemorate those who have given their lives for the freedoms we all enjoy.

And every year, as they plough their fields, the farmers of Arras and Thiepval and Passchendaele unearth shrapnel, bullets and other material of war.

It is called the ‘Iron Harvest’ and still more than a century later it serves as an annual reminder of the supreme sacrifice made by so many.

Conference, as we gather here, that same material of war is being buried once again. This time in the fields of Ukraine where the fighting men and women of the armed forces of Ukraine are acting as a firebreak, between the expansionist tyranny of the Putin regime and the free democracies of the West.

A second Trump presidency will affect their efforts, perhaps most of all. With the stroke of a pen he could choke off the vital weaponry on which they depend to continue the war effort. The forced capitulation of which Trump speaks, may end the fighting temporarily, but it will embolden Russia. 

The reach of Putin’s ambition doesn’t stop at Crimea or Donbas, it doesn’t stop at Ukraine.

Mark my words, if appeasement is the answer then in a short time the Kremlin may fix its sights on the Baltic states, on NATO member states, countries that we are treaty bound to defend.

As such we must turn to our European allies.

We have to be ready, and it may well fall to us, Britain and the member states of the European Union to fill any gap America may leave.

That is why Liberal Democrats are calling on the UK government to convene an international summit for Ukrainian victory. Such a conference could adopt measures now that could change the course of the war.

We must also seek to turn over those frozen Russian assets to the Ukrainian armed forces, Conference that is a £40 billion rescue package right there.

Glory to Ukraine. Glory to the Heroes.

Conference in the shadow of Trump and of Putin, we see the measure of the challenge that falls to Liberals in our time. It is a challenge we must rise to meet.

Whether that is facing that looming international threat or fighting for a fair deal in the here and now for the communities we serve. Liberals will always be there for you.

For the family farmers worried about their future.

For the small businesses that have been hammered by rising costs.

For the carers struggling to make ends meet.

For everyone who can’t see their NHS dentist or local GP.

For those battling Long Covid.

For the health and social care staff running on empty

For everyone stuck on a waiting list.

For the pupils who need mental health support and extra help in class.

For the children in poverty being shuttled around temporary accommodation.

By our works in the communities and towns we represent, through our contributions to the council chambers and the parliaments in which we serve,

We can show the people of Scotland the meaning of public service once again.