Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Congratulations Tavish Scott

Slightly belated congratulations to Tavish Scott on a pretty convincing victory.

I see there's a bit of banter on several Scottish blogs about his unwillingness to do a deal with the SNP last May and how this could be a poor omen for the Libs - who are now to be consigned to political oblivion due to Scott being such a tribalist??

... well, for what its worth, I had to work very briefly with Tavish Scott when he was Minister for Transport, and I had the Transport Brief at the Council, and found him to be quite the opposite of tribal. It was never a difficulty to get an agreement (with him or his advisers/civil servants) on a way forward - despite political differences.


P.S. Actually, this reminds me that during my near 5-years with the Council Transport Brief (which felt more like 50!), I worked with all of the first two-terms of Devolution's Transport Ministers:
  1. Sarah Boyack
  2. Wendy Alexander
  3. Iain Gray
  4. Nicol Stephen
  5. Tavish Scott

- and no, no matter who requests it, I will not be undertaking a preferential voting exercise on who was the most effective Minister ;-))

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