In the Perth by-election that followed the death of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn in 1995, I stood as a candidate for the Scottish Green Party. I’d done rather well in the European election of 1989, garnering almost ten per cent of the vote and narrowly missing a seat. Things didn’t go quite so well in Perth.
I got 223 votes and came behind Screaming Lord Sutch, who managed to get 586 crosses after his name. The SNP’s Roseanna Cunningham stormed in on a wave of support with nearly 17,000 votes. It was a convincing victory and the Greens were nowhere.
But, but, but…
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