The first batch of Council candidates for next year’s Council elections have been announced by Rutherglen Constituency Liberal Democrats.

Councillor David Baillie, Liberal Democrat Group Leader on South Lanarkshire Council, will defend his seat in Cambuslang West, while former Councillor and MSP Robert Brown will fight the Rutherglen South Ward in place of Councillor Eileen Baxendale who is retiring from the Council.

David Baillie was originally elected for the former Kirkhill/Whitlawburn seat and has represented the larger Cambuslang West since 2007.

The selection is also the return to front line politics for Robert Brown. Mr. Brown formerly represented the old Rutherglen South and later Fernhill Ward on Glasgow District Council. He served as MSP for Glasgow Region from 1999 until 2011.

David Baillie said: “It is a tremendous privilege to serve as a Councillor in your local area. I look forward to continuing to fight for local people on local issues.”

Robert Brown said:
“I am excited at the opportunity to represent my home area again in May. It is a hugely difficult time for Councils and I believe I can contribute something to the Council on behalf of local people in Rutherglen and Cambuslang.”

Liberal Democrat Constituency Chair, Robert Bell, said: “I am delighted we have two first class candidates to put forward for the Liberal Democrats in these two key seats next May. I would also like to pay tribute to Councillor Eileen Baxendale who is standing down for all her work for the area."

Robert Brown, former Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP, has been appointed by Party Leader Willie Rennie MSP to membership of the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ Home Rule and Community Rule Commission chaired by Sir Menzies Campbell MP. The Party’s Scottish Autumn conference in Dunfermline voted to establish the Commission to look at a settled distribution of powers between London, Edinburgh and local councils. 

Robert Brown also served on the Steel Commission on “Moving to Federalism" and was a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Scotland Bill Committee in the last Parliament.

The Commission has been asked to set out a long-term vision for a strong Scotland within the UK and powerful local communities in every part of Scotland. It will build on the work of the Steel Commission to develop a blueprint for Home Rule for Scotland within a federal United Kingdom.

The Commission is expected to report next later next year.

Robert Brown said:

“I am delighted to be asked to contribute to the Commission. Home Rule for Scotland with a reformed United Kingdom has been something I have backed for my whole political life. It provides a modern partnership for Scotland within the United Kingdom, based on increased responsibility for domestic affairs.

But it is also important to look at how local communities can be given substantial powers to shape their own areas. Rutherglen is the oldest Royal Burgh in Scotland and local people know the value of strong community links and identity. The Liberal Democrat Commission wants to see powers exercised as near to local communities as possible. We are strongly against the way in which the SNP Government are neutering local Councils, centralising the police and generally taking more power to Edinburgh.

It is time too to stress the value to Scotland of being in the United Kingdom. It is difficult to see how the Scottish banks could have been bailed out without the resources of the United Kingdom to do it.

Liberal Democrats are ambitious for Scotland's people and, with Home Rule within the United Kingdom, we can look to shape our own future whilst sharing risk, security and international relations in an uncertain world with the rest of Britain.”

The Parliamentary Boundary Commission proposal to create a new East Kilbride and Rutherglen seat for the Westminster Parliamentary elections is badly flawed. The new seat excludes the Cambuslang East Ward which is proposed to become part of the new Hamilton seat.

This was the view of former Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown in giving evidence on behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats to the Boundary Commission hearing under Sheriff Principal Brian Lockhart at New Lanark this week.

Robert Brown asked the Boundary Commission to look at the possibility of linking Rutherglen and Cambuslang to Bothwell and Uddingston which, he said, would make more sense. The Boundary Commission has in fact prepared a map showing how this could be done.

Robert Brown said:
“It is already clear that the proposals for South Lanarkshire are one of the most controversial. They result in the unnecessary splitting up of both Rutherglen/Cambuslang and East Kilbride. It is true that drawing Parliamentary boundaries is challenging and that, for example, Hamilton is split under the current boundaries, but this proposal could be better.

I have contested elections in Rutherglen constituency as a Councillor, MSP candidate and a candidate for Westminster. Over the years there have been various changes – for example Mount Vernon, Carmunnock, Castlemilk and Toryglen have at different times been added to the seat. But the core areas of Rutherglen and Cambuslang have always been at the heart of the seat. The idea of removing Cambuslang East is highly unsatisfactory. The proposed new seat is a curious banana shaped seat with no coherence.

The Boundary Commission must look again at this. It makes things unnecessarily difficult for local people and groups if the community is split.”kes things unnecessarily difficult for local people and groups if the community is split.”

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