Nikki Thomson 1967 - 2012

My friend and Lib Dem colleague Nikki Thomson passed away last night. Because I had moved away from Edinburgh I do remember the last three times that I met Nikki while I was living and working in Edinburgh and the Lothians. I'm going to share the three of them as they pretty much sum Nikki up.

First of the three was at the Meadows Festival in 2010. She was in position in the control tent giving instructions and directions to all those who were around. She devoted a lot of time to the Meadows Festival making sure it was run smoothly and well. On that particular occasion we both agreed that neither of us were talking shop. She knew I could distract her for a few minutes from the busyness of what was going on around her, me taking a break before canvassing support of Edinburgh Central Lib Dems for the rest of the afternoon, when she saw me heading towards her she said don't try and canvass me now.

The second was my time to be grilled, and I mean grilled, by Nikki about why I should be her candidate for the 2011 Socttish Elections. She wasn't letting any of us get away with anything and merely knowing her for some time was not going to be enough for either me or Alex Cole-Hamilton that much was clear. She had been in the party like me a long time, back from the days when you either a Young Liberal Democrat or a Student Liberal Democrat, yes Liberal Youth reader pre-LDYS days, when she acted a conduit between the two. She had been involved in Kingston just after I had left, in Edinburgh South campaigns she was one of my many slave drivers, often running the office that I saw only long enough to refuel, use the toilet and stock up on leaflets mostly.

I have to admit that Nikki's grilling of me did come along with a nice glass or two of red at Bar Reverie on Nicholson Street. But you could tell that she knew exactly what she wanted from her questions. She'd already talked to the other three candidates but I must have done ok, because at the end she promised me her first preference.

The final time me and Nikki met that summer was to relax in a shared passion. It was a Neil Hannon concert in the Liquid Rooms on Victoria Street. We met for a meal at Pizza Express at the top of the hill where we could watch all the wet (well this was Edinburgh) tourists heading for the queue for the Tattoo. Pizza and pasta were washed down with more wine and by the time we were ready to head the short walk down the hill to see Neil it was dry. Of course for a Hannon gig in the liquid rooms there is only drink that can be drunk, so I imbibed on gin while we belted out lyrics, or brass sections or whatever, while Neil performed some of his back catalogue and new stuff from Bang Goes the Knighthood.

I think those three elements sum up Nikki. Her desire to serve other, her love and devotion to doing things right through the Liberal Democrats and her sense of relaxing and having a good time. Of course the Liberal Democrats are one big family of interconectiveness. When I came to Northern Ireland both Michael, then local party chair, and Pam, then Treasurer, also knew Nikki amongst other Lib Dem friends. Nikki, Pam and I all having bizarrely a connection to Kingston.

I know the sudden news of her illness and now passing has affected all of us and our thoughts and prayers are with her family and other friends who are also missing her vibrancy and her smile.

As for you Nikki, tonight you fly over the houses, the streets and the trees



See also Caron's post with her memories

Alex Cole-Hamilton on Tuition Fees

Edinburgh Central's Liberal Democrat candidate Alex Cole-Hamilton has produced this video to speak about students and tuition fees.



You can subscribe to his Alex4Central for more updates during his campaign for the election to Holyrood next May.

Alex Cole-Hamilton Selected for Edinburgh Central

Candidate selection is an odd campaign. For a start it is one of the most lonely because it is you who has to get around all the electorate as best you can and that can be every evening for four weeks and still not get everyone in, or even gain access to every stairwell.

When you add on the fact that you are doing it in Edinburgh with it hills, the gorgeous weather that we had in June and the fact that I do not own a car I can fully recommend it for a cardio workout. You do however, meet some amazing people who are members of the party who live in the area you represent who do not all get or want to get to party events. It also doesn't matter if some of them only know the candidates as the double-barrelled one, the ginger one, the Irish one or the woman, they'll be using their methods to identify which one you are or the others are when you meet them.

It was also a fun campaign between the four candidates. Text messages, Facebook status updates and Tweets going back and forth kept the campaign on a friendly footing. We then attended the hustings the only time all four of us were actually in the same place at the same time. I know that if I had entered that room undecided at the start I would have still be scratching my head at the end of it all.<

As I said it can be a lonely existence but I'd like to thank Caron who allowed me to come to hers to relax every once and while and Kieran for the odd post canvassing drink. Also the support of others from near and far. It may have been lonely however there was one glorious evening that I got a message from Alex Cole-Hamilton that said that he must have been following in my footsteps that evening, I know for a fact that at the end I was also following in his. I suspect that I stated at the southern end of Comely Bank and worked my way clockwise round to Stockbridge and he may have started in Stockbidge and worked he way around as well. Another time I was sat in a members kitchen when John Loughton rang them on the phone.

Anyway earlier today the Edinburgh Central selection was declared and Alex won a very amicable contest. Now all we have to do is go out then and win the seat next May, I'll be offering my support in whatever way I can as this is a key seat for the Lib Dems over the next 10 months.

The Race is On

As I said yesterday I've been neglecting this blog a little bit in recent days. The reason for that is that on Monday night I was attending a shortlisting interview for the Edinburgh Central seat at next May's elections.

Well things went well and I was named as one of the five who the Lib Dems living in Edinburgh Central will be voting on to be their candidate. So the next few weeks will be a busy time, as the last few months have also been.

Next years election is going to be an interesting one for Lib Dems standing in Scotland and especially in Edinburgh. We'll be defending a record of working with one party in Westminster and another in City Chambers. Across the city where we are challenging or defending our main challenge is coming from the other party. So we will have a challenge of defending a record in other places while challenging for Edinburgh Central.

There are five able candidates that the good Burghers who agree with Nick will have choose from, so I know that I have a lot of work to do to show people why I think I am best for the job. It is the reason that yesterday I made some subtle changes to the look of the blog which by the way you can also point your servers towards as http://stephenglenn.org.uk it was a domain I set up in advance of the Westminster Election but never got the time to develop as I intended then, but things may well change in the near future.

I do intend to keep blogging on the issues as I have always when the opportunity arises, but for the next couple of weeks in particular my time may be tight.

However, I do promise to tell you more later.