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Music Learn more at PMI.com slash progress. Hello and welcome to the special edition of Coffeehouse Shots.

I'm Lucy Dunn and this is another in a series of episodes where I'll be speaking to a variety of Scottish politicians in lead up to the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections after tumultuous five years in Scottish politics.

Today I'm joined by Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for the West of Scotland region, Jamie Green.

Jamie was formerly a member of the Scottish Conservative Party being an elected representative for the Tories for almost a decade and before earlier this year jumping ship to the Lib Dems and being made their economy and finance spokesperson. Before he defected, Jamie Ransy the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, during which time he called for a radical shake-up of the party's Hollywood strategy to ensure it is not in internal opposition, and taking aim at what he saw as pointless grievance-mongering. Jamie, thanks very much for joining us. Hi there. First of all, do you feel like a proper Liberal Democrat yet? I think it's been four months roughly since you've defected. Has it sunk in? I don't know how you define what a proper Liberal Democrat is. I mean, I've had plenty of people express their opinion and what it is, everything from, Do you eat avocados on toast now or why are you not wearing sandals to the office? I'll take that as quite tongue-in-cheek. I have to say, yeah, I mean, we're now a couple of months down the road. I first did a podcast about my defections in the days after it, and I think I was still a little bit traumatised by the whole experience. So I've had a few

months now to really bed in to my new party, my new colleagues, and meet a lot of the party members

and get out there and get stuck in with my new portfolio, which is quite a big one. And actually

already I'm involved in some of the policymaking ahead of our manifesto for next year's

Holyrood election. So I've really been chucked in at the deep end and it's been a big learning curve. I have to say, you know, a couple of months down the line, I'm in a lot happier place? The answer to that is absolutely yes, I am. How the party membership in Liberal Democrats reacted to your move over? Has there been any animosity or have people been on the most part quite welcoming? Yeah, I was a bit nervous about

that. I have to membership in Liberal Democrats reacted to your move over. Has there been any animosity or have people

been on the most part quite welcoming? Yeah, I was a bit nervous about that, I have to say. I mean,

having been in one political party for so long, I was a bit nervous about how day-to-day

rank and file members would receive me. But I think, really, when I first arrived up at their

party conference in April and was sort of announced to the

world, the reception there was outstanding, you know, it was, it was incredible, it was warm,

it was genuine and heartfelt. In the days and weeks thereafter, I made a lot of effort to get out

and start meeting some of the members across the country, turning up to, you know, local,

local party meetings and getting out in some of the campaign trails and starting to engage with some of the members around their policy ideas as well. And I think, you know, by doing that, I've really been trying to prove that I did this for all the right reasons and I'm very much part of the team. And people accept that you've come on a journey. They accept that you started in one place

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