Alex Cole-Hamilton running to be Scottish Lib Dem leader

As widely expected, Alex Cole-Hamilton has announced he is running to succeed Willie Rennie as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats:

Scotland is a beautiful, rich and dynamic country, but it is not an equal place to live. If you’re born into deprivation then the chances are that you’ll learn less, earn less and die sooner than someone living up the road in a well-off part of town.

It is the job of government to tackle inequality but, after 14 years in power, the SNP have failed to move the dial on child poverty, Scotland’s drug deaths are the worst in the developed world and the educational attainment gap between rich and poor remains devastating.

There are warning lights blinking across the dashboard of government, but the SNP are distracted by their own internal problems and their endless pursuit of independence. They are hopelessly unequal to the task of dealing with the challenges before us. [Edinburgh Evening News]

You can read his piece in full here.

UPDATE: He’s been elected.

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