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Hi, you're listening to Podlitical BBC Scotland's podcast

that brings you the biggest stories coming out of Hollywood and Westminster.

It's 11.07 a.m. on Wednesday the 25th of

September. I'm David Wallace Lockhart, a journalist based in the Scottish Parliament. And as you

may well know, the Scottish Conservatives are holding their leadership contest at the moment. It comes

to a close at the end of this week. So to understand what vision the candidates have for the party and the whole of Scotland, we invited the three candidates to sit down with us. Two of them have taken us up on the offer. And joining me today is Megan Galliger. Megan, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. What a contest. We've had resignations. We've had criticisms. We've had attacks. We've had formal complaints. We've had lawyers' letters. Will you be glad when this is over? Well, I will be glad when this is over. But not for the reasons that you've outlined because our party needs to move on. We need to reset, rebuild and restore the party. That's the platform which my campaign

is based on resetting relationships, not just with our members, but also with people right

across Scotland, rebuilding the party from the grassroots right to the top, and restoring trust

in credibility. And that's what the next leader of the Scottish Conservatives needs to do.

We need to make sure that we are a fighting force so we can win again when it comes to the

Holyrood election in 2026 but also looking beyond that to our local government elections in 27.

I want to get on to all of that, both what the Scottish Conservatives need to do next and

what you, if you're successful,

in this competition would be doing. But I guess what this contest will in many ways be remembered

for is some of these controversies, is some of the ill-tempered nature of it. And I guess, how

did it end up like this? Because I'm not sure many people thought it was going to become quite as ill-tempered as it did become.

No, and I think you're right.

So, you know, when I put myself forward to be a candidate,

I wanted to base my campaign on a positive platform where I'm laying out my vision,

where I think I can bring real change, change that our members deserve in the party.

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