BANFFSHIRE and BUCHAN COAST Liberal Democrats

Commenting on Boris Johnson's letter to the First Minister refusing another independence referendum, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"The 2012 Edinburgh Agreement ensured that there was a legal, fair and decisive vote on independence. The nationalists lost, but rather than spend the subsequent years fixing crises in health and education, they have ignored domestic policy and carried on obsessing over independence.

Responding to the news that performance against the A&E waiting time target has fallen to 81.8% of patients treated within 4 hours, compared to the 95% target, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP commented:

"A&E waiting times are suffering a serious and sustained slump. The Government has not reached its own target since July 2017.

Commenting on the latest turmoil in Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"Richard Leonard's authority was undermined in the election by Jeremy Corbyn. Now he has been undermined by his own Executive in Scotland. It begs the question: is anyone listening to the Leader of the Scottish Labour Party?

The Scottish Government has, today, backed down from its 2016 election promise to deliver superfast broadband to every home in Scotland by 2021, admitting that the commitment will not be delivered until well into the next Parliament.

The Scottish Government's connectivity minister told MSPs in the Scottish Parliament today that the Scottish Government's R100 programme will now not be completed until 2023 at the earliest. This marks the third delay to the project announced since 2016.

Commenting on today's debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill in the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"Scottish Liberal Democrats were clear that we would oppose Brexit in all its forms and that is what we will do. I still believe and will continue to make the case that we should make Brexit stop.

Responding to the news that 724 operations were cancelled during November due to capacity or non-clinical reasons, the highest figure for a year, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP commented:

"24 people per day are having their operations cancelled through no fault of their own, causing disruption and further pain. It's frustrating for staff too but there simply aren't enough of them to go around.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has today called for a parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of Our Power, after it emerged that the SNP Government is poised to lose millions of pounds it invested in the not-for-profit energy supplier and will only have weeks to learn lessons before its own identical company is to start serving customers.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have called for action to tackle the lack of gender balance in Scotland's justice system.

It follows a freedom of information request by the party and comes as Lady Hale is about to retire as Lord President of the Supreme Court next week.

The request shows that just 37% of those in the role of Justice of the Peace were women in 2019. This imbalance is replicated throughout the court system. Statistics from the Judiciary of Scotland show that only 25% of Scotland's judiciary are women, including 23% of Sheriffs and 26% of High Court judges.

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today declared that "it does not take a brain surgeon" to recognise that Scottish NHS staff are overworked and in need of a break, as he revealed new data showing that there have been over 45 million hours of staff absence since 2016, with staff mental health issues cited as the number one cause.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

"Around the globe, dark currents have buffeted liberal democracy. Boris Johnson's Brexit threatens to cut us off from our European neighbours, while Donald Trump's trade wars and Twitter tirades threaten to undo America's status as a global leader. Meanwhile from Hong Kong to Xinjiang, protestors and activists face brutal clampdowns. These are the challenges we must face up to over the next twelve months.