A former Highland Council leader has cast doubt on whether the Liberal Democrats will ever be a electoral force again.
Dr Michael Foxley, who led the party on the authority until 2012, said he found it “very hard to see” how the party could recover after it lost all but one of its 11 seats at the general election.
The former GP predicted that many people would vote for the SNP at the Holyrood election next year instead of the Lib Dems, which currently have five MSPs.
Dr Foxley, who lives on a croft in Lochaber and voted for Scottish independence, commented on the state of the party while reflecting on the “sad” death of Charles Kennedy.
He said he would be attending the former Lib Dem leader’s funeral at St John’s Church in Caol, near Fort William tomorrow. (fri)
Dr Foxley said Mr Kennedy, who died at the age of 55 of a condition linked to his alcoholism, was part of a radical, left of centre Highland tradition.
“In recent years the party has moved to the right which was a mistake as was not to go into coalition with the SNP in 2007,” he added.
“But the start of the problems was when they went into coalition with the Tories in 2010.”
Dr Foxley claimed the SNP was now practically occupying the political space left behind by the Lib Dems but had to stop their centralisation of power tendencies.
“If you want change and your politics are generally left of centre and community based, who will you be voting for in the Highlands and islands?” he asked.
“I think a lot of people will be voting SNP and they clearly did in the general election and I think they will do that in the Scottish Parliamentary election.”
Dr Foxley said it wasn’t long ago that the Lib Dems held most seats at Westminster and Holyrood in the north and were in a position to do something about almost every local issue that came up.
“But that has gone to a complete wipe-out and I personally find it very hard to see how that can be recovered,” he added.
A Scottish Lib Dem spokeswoman said the party was undertaking the biggest and most democratic listening exercise with policy workshops across Scotland.
“We hope Dr Foxley can take an active role in those discussions by attending one of these events,” he added.
“He will be in good company with the many hundreds of new members who have joined since the general election.”