UNDERPINNING our whole way of life is the issue of what we have done to the environment and what action, however late in the day, we should be taking to mitigate the worst of the damage and to move forward to a sustainable future.

I have been amazed that this core issue has lately slipped well down in the political debate here in Scotland.

I believe we have long passed the point of setting carbon emission targets for the future, and then missing them, of talking about moving incrementally towards such things as green energy and recycling.

To avert a certain and well-substantiated pending environmental disaster across the planet, we need to act now.

We need to take responsibility for the consequences of the consumer frenzy here in the developed world, that is already wreaking havoc with the poorest and most vulnerable and causing war, climate devastation and mass displacement of people.

We need politicians who can lead assertively and imaginatively on this if we are to achieve the only barely survivable global-warming limit we have set ourselves.

We should be aware that the fight for climate justice is also the fight for social justice, involving a narrowing of the gap between the richest and poorest; it’s about improving conditions for women and for the vulnerable, here in Scotland and globally.

We are all interconnected after all and we can all understand that this crisis has now arrived.

I’m standing for the Liberal Democrat party because here in Scotland we have had a clear role in providing balance and conviction. Liberals have always fought for the rights of ordinary people, believing that localism and the notion of sharing power equally between government and local communities is fair.

As the current SNP administration, in its quest for power, is engaged in centralising many of our long-established community-based institutions and thus disempowering local democracy, there is clearly a need for balance now in Holyrood.

For democracy to work for the best, we need diverse voices in our government.

A conviction that we are all trustees of our world and our society, and that we must pass on a sustainable legacy which will benefit future generations, underpins the Lib Dem manifesto for this election.

If you would like politics based on principles and politics with a conscience, vote for me and I will apply these core values with energy.