Not so liberal with cash

Published on Sunday 9 December 2007 01:05

SCOTLAND'S Liberal Democrats had a rather modest campaign, spending £300,000 on their attempt to boost their number of seats at Holyrood.

Their whole campaign cost less than the SNP spent on mailshots alone, and the Lib Dems found that they struggled, losing seats to both the Nationalists and the Tories.

The Lib Dems' spending included the sum of 472 for a media consultant to fly up from London for a day training candidates in how to face the press and broadcast media. The modest Lib Dem campaign flew him up and down by easyJet - at a cost of 74 return.

While all that training might not have transferred into extra seats, it did a lot for the hotel in Dunfermline where the training session took place. The Lib Dems paid 1,550 to the town's King Malcolm Hotel.

The choice of Dunfermline was significant: the town was part of a key Lib Dems target seat, and as soon as the training was over the candidates hit the doorsteps in an effort to boost their local campaign.

Computer manufacturers tend to do well out of elections. The Lib Dems shelled out 1,093 on a shiny new Dell computer, complete with a trendy flat screen. At the other end of the technology scale, the Lib Dem list of receipts even includes 4.49 for a bar of environmentally friendly Ecover soap for their headquarters.

The Scottish Lib Dems also spent 250 getting new professional pictures of leader Nicol Stephen taken, and they forked out 15,101 on a round-Scotland coach tour.