The Lib Dems have a vacancy at the top as of today, and it’s easy enough to make a shortlist, given there are only four other Lib Dem MSPs to choose from.
Some say the loss of so many seats wasn’t Tavish’s fault, and I have some sympathy for that. You only have to imagine how red hot the phonelines to Nick Clegg’s office must have been – “I’ve got to face the bloody Scottish electorate in a year and you’re going to do what?” – to see that. If Tavish, despite the fact he’s hardly on the left of the LDs, argued for coalition last year I’d be mighty surprised.
But he ran an entire election campaign on two daft themes – who administers the polis from where (while pretending we didn’t agree with them), plus a magic Ponzi scheme to resell debt owed by one public body to another (a policy about which nothing was heard after it got laughed at at their manifesto launch).
If I’d been in his position I’d have suggested punting some liberal values, outflanking the socially conservatism shared by Labour and the SNP, and trying to claw back some votes from the Greens, but I agree it would always have been an uphill struggle (unlike their last photo-op at which they presciently all went downhill on mountain bikes – although, curiously, neither uphill nor downhill has positive connotations).
So the candidates…
Liam McArthur. For all my notorious Lib Dem-scepticism, I like Liam. He’s bright and strong in the Chamber. But one of the narratives of their collapse was the extent of their exile to the Northern Isles. With that in mind, can they really swap a Shetland-based leader for an Orcadian? I don’t see it.
Alison McInnis. Actually another Lib Dem I like in person. But she doesn’t have the zing, nor, I suspect, would she want it.
Willie Rennie. They can’t seriously pick him if they want to distance themselves from the Coalition. He was Michael Moore’s bag-carrier until this campaign, and he’s also brand new to Holyrood. He’ll need to find his way around the place first, surely.
Jim Hume. The archetypal all-things-to-all-people Lib Dem Focus leaflet made incarnate. In fact, as previously noted elsewhere, he was behind perhaps the most dishonest Lib Dem leaflet I’ve ever spotted. This side of their operation has damaged their reputation, and someone a little more high-minded would surely be desirable.
It’s an unenviable choice for an unenviable job, but the fundamental question isn’t about who fills the saddle. It’s all about the relationship with the London leadership. The Lib Dems’ structure is notionally more devolved than Labour’s or the Tories’, and whoever is selected will genuinely be the leader of the Scottish Lib Dems.
But more distance will be required – and ideally that surely means making a runner from London. Next year’s locals are looming, ah, just when the campaigners amongst us might have fancied a break, and a further catastrophic fall beckons if they keep trying to ride the same two horses – forgive the stretched metaphor.
But what about Michael Moore and Danny Alexander, George Osborne’s deputy axeman? Would they be part of a separate Scottish Lib Dem party if more distance could be achieved? No matter how different policy might become in Scotland, they’re bound by the terms of their Faustian pact.
Some of the brighter minds in Labour are talking about a more detached relationship with their overweening command structure in London, along the German CDU/CSU model. But that kind of disentangling is easier to do from opposition. Whoever gets to lead the Lib Dems, it’d only be fair to feel a bit sorry for them. Their problems are intractable as long as this Coalition persists.
