29/04/2026
Thy Word Is Truth.
Between Cllr Lewis Younie lying about my complaints at a hustings last week and then being laid up with a lurgy, I haven't had time to report back on my encounter with Alex Cole-Hamilton
On Monday 20th April, I went to South Queensferry hustings. The candidates were in another room when I arrived. Sure enough, when the panelists walked into the Kirk, Alex came out. He saw me, looked panicked, sat down and then looked at me again...and smiled.
I just stared at him and he looked away. He looked back at me almost immediately, and smiled again. I did the same thing, and so did he. And then he tried AGAIN. This time, when I didn't show any sign of budging, he almost looked sheepish. Unbelievable.
I definitely rattled him, and he immediately picked up his phone to text someone (just like Cllr Younie did three nights later when he clocked me). In fact Alex was on his phone all night, when the other candidates weren't (as you can see by these pics).
I'm not traditionally religious and I understand there are so many similarities between the systems I am speaking up about in politics and religion, but I do believe in sacred things. I think there's something distasteful about having a political hustings on an altar below a cross and a stained glass window with the words: "Thy word is truth". Moreso when Alex Cole-Hamilton is one of the candidates.
Things that stuck out:
- Alex kept referring to the fact that he was a "youth worker for 19 years before politics." But when I called him out for not helping me explore senior staffers concerns about potential paedophilia in the Liberal Democrats, he removed "children's rights" from his twitter bio. This has always and will always remain very very odd to me.
- Throughout the hustings, I keep an almost constant eye on him but occasionally I get hooked into what one of the candidates are saying and when I remember that I'm in a room with Alex Cole-Hamilton and look back over at him, I catch him looking at me and then he looks up at the ceiling like a naughty child.
- Alex said that he "meets people every single week in my casework surgery", but for some considerable time he hasn't held open surgeries where constituents can drop in. Neither has Christine Jardine MP. Is this because they're worried I'll show, or they'll be asked about ? Are their constituents missing out on access to their public representatives because they're scared of being held accountable?
- He reiterated the same tired line that I've heard so often. "Lib Dems believe in evidence." They rolled that line out at every conference like the cult that they are. They don't believe in my evidence, that's for sure.
When Cllr Lewis Younie lied, three nights later, telling people I harass Alex Cole-Hamilton is this what he meant? Sitting in a pew at the other side of a Kirk looking at a man who knows he's done wrong, while listening to candidates who are asking for my vote?
None of this is easy. It took me 15 minutes to realise that I'm not scared of him and I had as much right to be there as every other constituent. None of this is easy, but it's worth it.