Leader interview: Willie Rennie, Why do the Liberal Democrats matter in Glasgow?

Stewart Paterson: “Who are the Liberal Democrats? “

Willie Rennie: “We are moderate, centre, centre left, internationalist, we like to build bridges we are a party of partnership, bring people together. We are in favour of partnership with our neighbours, whether that’s the UK or Europe. We are committed to the skills and talents of individuals. We like people to reach their potential. That’s why we focus on education and mental health. We are a good centre progressive party that’s open and optimistic, which is where I think the majority of people in Scotland are. We just need to get them to vote for us.”

SP: With five parties represented at Holyrood and a few other fringe parties looking to get representation, it’s quite a crowded electoral field in Scotland.  Have you been squeezed in recent years?”

WR: “No. Because we are good campaigners. We get dug in, we engage with communities, and in places like East Dunbartonshire, Kelvinside, the south side in Glasgow, we’ve done quite a lot of campaigning and our dedicated local activists have made great connections.

“But we’ve also got an important role to play on the national stage because unlike say the Conservatives, who seem to be opposed to any kind of rational partnership, we are prepared to work with people who we disagree with. So, we worked with the SNP last year through the pandemic. We’re prepared to work with parties like Labour because they want to put recovery first this time round just like us.

“So, we find our unique blend of progressive partnership, internationalism has an important role in Scottish Politics. We have a big impact on the quality of debate, because we are prepared to reach out and build partnerships. We’ve not found it difficult in that respect. We’ve shown that we’ve grown in recent years. In 2016 we won constituencies we lost the previous year in the General election. We won four seats in Westminster election in2017 up from one and won the only seat form the SNP in 2019. We did well in European election and council by elections.”

SP: “You’ve not had any representation in Glasgow since 2071 when you lost your one Councillor. Robert Brown was the last, and only, MSP you had. I can’t remember a LibDem MP. The last would’ve been SDP, with Roy Jenkins in the 1980s.  Why don’t we have any LibDem representation in Glasgow anymore?”

WR: “We had Robert Brown, for quite some time. We’ve had good progress in the west of Scotland in places like Paisley and East Dunbartonshire, Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, East Kilbride. We’ve been doing well in those areas it’s a case of building up the candidate. We’ve got a great candidate in Carole Ford, top of the list. A former head teacher who would make a great quality representative for Glasgow. I’m optimistic we can get people back who have the quality of people like Robert Brown. On things like Mental health there are lots of people in Glasgow just like in other parts of the country that are waiting more than a year just to get mental health treatment and that’s not acceptable. And the current representation is not making that case in the way the Liberal Democrats are. So, let’s get parliamentarians in Glasgow that are going to stand up to the local NHS board on mental health services, who’s going to make sure the council provide bounce back support for pupils to make up for lost education in the last year. That’s going to argue that we put recovery first rather than independence. We need that kind of representation in Glasgow and you’ll only get that with the Liberal Democrats.”

SP: “What are your priorities going into this election? What is top of your agenda that people should vote for you on?”

WR: “First and foremost, mental health services. we’ve got 1500 young people 5000 adults waiting over a year to get mental health treatment. We’ve got a plan for mental health first aiders, fully using the under employed mental health counsellors but also recruiting more psychologists and psychiatrists. So, a comprehensive plan to cut those waits and implement preventative measures to stop that building up again. Secondly, on education we want to make sure that every minute counts in the classroom. Kids have lost out on a lot in the last year. That means recruit more teachers, ending the casualization of the workforce, there’s been a massive increase in that. One in ten teachers now is on a casual contract, that’s unacceptable and needs to stop. We need to make the Pupil Equity Fund, which was our ides, we put it in place and persuaded the government, it took six years to persuade them to do it, because it closes the attainment gap.

“Then the third issue is around the environment and green jobs. We want to create jobs for people desperate for work through the youth job guarantee that we launched. Also making sure on issues like the potential of the renewables of the coast of Scotland is fully exploited. So, companies like BiFab, that are going to contribute towards cutting climate emissions and create jobs because we need to do both.

“Those are the priorities but overlaying all of that we are saying people shouldn’t get distracted by another independence referendum which will take years and be exhausting and divisive when we should be focusing on these massive challenges. We can’t afford to take our eye off the ball like Nicola Sturgeon admitted on the drugs crisis.”

SP: “What would your solution to that be?”

WR: “This were I feel quite bitter. I stood on a platform in Glasgow in the 2015 election with Nicola Sturgeon up at the Queen Margaret Union. We were asked about drugs and Nicola was not in favour of reform and at that stage the figures were not as high as they are now.  We’re now the worst in Europe, in fact the developing world.

“She wouldn’t make any changes. You could tell she was reluctant to engage in the subject and I warned her the problem would build up unless we took action. I’d been to visit Turning Point in Glasgow and was impressed by the outreach work they were doing. I could see the benefits of changing to a Portuguese model, changing to a health issue rather than a criminal issue. Using commissions and compulsory treatment rather than sending people to jail. I could see the benefit of looking at personal support, providing housing, job support, health support all of that wrapped around the individual to make sure we can break them from this cycle.

“I met one lady, her sone was being looked after by her brother. She still had hope despite all that she had been through, addicted to drugs for years, all she wanted was to feed her son. Give him breakfast and take him to school, that was her ambition.

“I set out six years ago support that would have changed lives and saved live. The death toll today I feel very bitter about because we dd warn and hey didn’t do anything about it. Eventually the SNP are catching on to it. It’s not enough they need to move faster.”

SP: “It’s one of the most urgent things in Glasgow that we report on. Another thing we see is the rising child poverty rates. In Scotland it’s a third of children in poverty. In parts of this city its more than half. It can be 60% in some areas. What’s the solution to that?”

WR: “There’s two things, one is we need to increase the Child Payment, put it up to £20 and extend it beyond six years, but that’s not a long-term solution. If that’s all they’re going to get in life it’s not a great hope, is it?

“So, we need to give young people the tools to be able to build themselves out of these situations. You do that through investing in the skills and talents of these people, and that’s education. So, the Pupils Equity Fund we persuaded the government to bring in eventually helped to close that poverty related attainment gap. It’s as wide as ever.

“That targets money direct towards the most disadvantaged, gives them extra support in school. Then we also need expansion of childcare and early learning and the emphasis is on early learning. If you can catch a child at the age of two you can change their life forever. Currently we’ve now got some two year-olds, three and four year-olds, we want to make it all two year-olds so we can catch children in poverty or on the edge of poverty.

“Give them chances to succeed. If you can start breaking that cycle where people have got hope and opportunity you can stat building your way out of this

“But again, turning to mental health, because you find the relationship between poverty and mental health is really quite strong. You give the parents as well as the children that low level preventative support through mental health first aiders and counsellors then you can again give them hope they can get out of the health issue they’ve got.

“You’ve got to give people hope rather than always being dependent on the state. We don’t want that. That’s not my ambition. I want them to do much better than that, but that’s necessary to provide that safety net, but let’s dream a bit bigger than this.

“I went to college in Paisley and then went onto Glasgow and I stayed in the Red Road flats at the time. I remember walking back to that place and going through some of the estates and just the feeling that nothing was going to change. You got a sense they were not getting the support that they deserved to lift themselves and that’s what we need to do. that’s the role of Government to lift people up so they can improve themselves. It all ties in with jobs. You need to make sure you’re creating employment and we need to exploit all the potential, all the technologies coming out of the universities.

“All these things take a long time. Difficult to do in a five-year cycle. SNP had Harry Burns on board about early intervention. How do we get successive governments to fucus on this?

“I’m not interested in ditching something just because it wasn’t my idea. If there’s good things well keep them. The hard graft takes time It is potentially a 20, 30 year turnaround before you see benefits.

“We took too long to do the two year-olds childcare and too long to do the Pupil Equity Fund and this government is off on a distractive route through independence again.

“I was bereft about the European Union and leaving. I was determined to try and stop it. It’s almost as if with this government everything else stopped and there wasn’t the focus on the stuff that takes a long time. I’m not saying we’re perfect, we’re not, but sometimes government doesn’t have to be all about the exiting thing and it’s just about the hard graft of changing lives aver time.

“So, I’ll just have to be judged by what I do.”

SP: “You mention being judged on what you do. Do you think the LibDems have been forgiven for the coalition with eh Conservatives at a UK level and Nick Clegg’s promise on tuition fees? That had a massive impact on you here in Scotland. Have you got over that yet?”

WR: “I believe we’ve started to reconnect. And we’ve done it by sticking to what I say even though it might be unpopular. So, people will see that I’m principled and I keep my word, that’s important. That trust element has to be rebuilt. Believe me we know the mistakes we made, we’re our own worst critics. What I can prove over recent yeas is I have dedicated a lot of time to issues like mental health early learning, against the centralization of the police, Brexit, independence, creating jobs.

“I have been a champion for all these issues. So, people know when they look at me, they know what they are getting and that’s the way to rebuild that trust. What I see is people who were supporters are coming back and people are looking at us for the first time. I’m optimistic about growing in this election. I think we can win a seat in this election in Glasgow. I think Carole Ford can be an MSP.

“The Scottish Parliament needs people like her with expertise. So, I’m urging people to look at Carole, to look at our party afresh and come with us. We know what Robert Brown was like, he was very straight with us.”