Party leaders to face professions ahead of Holyrood elections

Scotland's party leaders will each face a professional audience in a series of seminars ahead of next May’s Scottish Parliament elections.

“The Politicians and the Professionals”, a series of winter seminars which the David Hume Institute has staged in the last two years, will be repeated in 2016, in conjunction with the Young Academy of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, supported by several of Scotland's prefssional regulatory bodies.

Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, will be first to be cross-examined, on 11 January, followed by Patrick Harvie, co-convenor of the Scottish Green Party (26 January), Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party (2 February), and Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats (16 February). A date has still to be fixed for the final event, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for the SNP.

The events will be held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), George Street, Edinburgh, and are supported by RSE, ICAS, Faculty of Advocates, the Law Society of Scotland and the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries.

The David Hume Institute said: “The events provide a rare opportunity to get party leaders out of their comfort zones of sound bites and PR-managed appearances, and give them both the opportunity and the discipline of having to explain their policies in detail over a 45-minute speech. There will then be an opportunity for members and other participants to question them directly and judge how they respond.”

A separate event, on 13 January at the RSE, will feature Lord Turner, who became chairman of the Financial Services Authority just as the global financial crisis struck in 2008, discussing the lessons he learned.

Click here for full details, and to register.