Interview: Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP
Podlitical
BBC
4.6 • 157 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2024
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton speaks to Podlitical post-conference. Cole-Hamilton explains how he was "always liberal", tracing his politics back to his parents and joining the Quakers, and explains the platform of change he wants the Scottish Liberal Democrats to run on in the next election, that the party have shown they "don't need to be in power to wield power" . Cole-Hamilton discusses toxicity in politics, including how abuse on the "abyss" of social media hurt his mental health, and how in Holyrood, the Liberal Democrats want to "behave like grownups" and meet the Scottish Government "on our own terms".
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.4 | You're listening to BBC Scotland |
| 0:10.1 | Hi, you're listening to Podlitical BBC Scotland's podcast that brings you an inside look |
| 0:17.6 | at the big stories coming out of Hollywood and Westminster. |
| 0:21.6 | I'm David Wallace Lockhart, a political correspondent, and it's 1108 on Wednesday the 22nd of May and we've got |
| 0:28.1 | another interview episode for you. Off the back of the Scottish Lib Dem conference, joining me |
| 0:33.4 | today is the leader of the Scottish Lib Dem's Alex Coe Hamilton, Alex, thanks for joining us on Podlisical. |
| 0:38.8 | Great to be with you, David. |
| 0:40.1 | So we'll get on to your conference. |
| 0:42.6 | We'll get on to the state of the Scottish Lib Dems in a second. |
| 0:47.0 | But for those who have only seen you in Hollywood, |
| 0:49.9 | have only seen you on the political stage, |
| 0:52.0 | tell us a bit about how you got there. |
| 0:53.6 | What's your background? How did you get into politics? So my background is principally in youth work. I, for 20 years, |
| 1:00.1 | was a youth worker both as a volunteer, but also working in the youth work sector. I was also, for a time, |
| 1:05.5 | the convener of the Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights. And actually, I got into politics |
| 1:09.2 | because I think I had a fire list |
| 1:12.0 | under me about the bad decisions that were being made by both parliaments that were impacting on the |
| 1:17.4 | very hard-to-reach young people that I was trying to help. And, you know, I'm in politics because |
| 1:23.5 | so many of the young people I've worked with are in the care of this state, |
| 1:28.0 | yet have the worst life outcomes, or likely to have the worst life outcomes statistically, |
| 1:34.1 | of any other young people in our society. |
... |
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