*Willem, the Scottish Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader steps up the stage in the center of Glasgow, in front of a lot of LibDem supporters*

“Welcome everybody at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. It’s an honour to be speaking to everyone of you in front of this important place in Glasgow, especially with the statue of Donald Dewar, the first First Minister of Scotland on this very square. He was supported by the Scottish Liberal Democrats back in 1999 and was the first in many First Ministers this great nation has seen.

But today we aren’t here to commemorate Mr Dewar, or his achievements. Today we’re here to kick-off the campaign of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in Glasgow. My Friend, u/NorthernWomble already kicked off the campaign on Orkney and it’s my turn to do so here in Glasgow.

This term saw us going into Government for the first time since we left Government in April 2018, under the then First Minister from the Scottish Greens and this time under a Conservative. This term we were able to accomplish a fair few things, like balancing a difficult budget. We aren’t here to pretend that the budget doesn’t hurt, cutting funding from programmes is never an easy job, but it has to be done in light of the new funding formula that the last Westminster Government set out. We had to make difficult decisions, but we’re very happy with the cuts we could prevent.

We also wrote a fair few bills that increased the healthcare and welfare of humans and animals in Scotland, we set up a commission that is going to create a wider strategy on cancer. We also made regulations on animal welfare, so the welfare of small animals is getting better, and we created regulations on the application of body piercings and other body adornments.

We raised awareness for the unequal treatment of transgender rugbyplayers and the problem that is e-waste in the Parliament, two very important issues for us. Everybody deserves to be able to play the sport they want to play and to ignore this right is something that we should not tolerate.

In a few weeks the next elections are happening, which means that we should also look forward instead of only backwards, which is why over the next few weeks we will be releasing the policies that we are going to fight on. For example, we want to tackle climate change more, we want to engage with the Westminster Government about the phasing out of fossil fuels and how Scotland can help this, by leading the way on the transition to greener energies.

We need your support and your enthusiasm, together we can do this, together we can move forward!