LD 63 25 years on...

I couldn't resist this as today is exactly 25 years since the Perth and Kinross by-election , won by my friend Roseanna Cunnigham.

I was the Campaign Director in my role as SNP Chief Executive and it was not only one of the last old style Westminster by-elections in Scotland (which were intense affairs) but it was also a key staging post on the growth of the SNP into the new Parliament just four years later and then into Government another 8 years further on.   

The Party has  been in Government for more than half of the 25 years but has not yet been able to move on to independence, though we came close in 2014.   That remains the key  unfinished business and I know both Roseanna and I very much want to see it finished.

But tonight , in the oddest of circumstances which we could not have predicted in our wildest imaginings, Cathleen and I were able  to spend a little Zoom time talking with Roseanna about that day and that campaign and raising a glass to all those, some still with us and some not, who worked to so hard to secure the win. 

The blip is a picture taken just after the count as we walked down to the Salutation Hotel for the victory party alongside the three of us tonight, on Zoom.