Spokes/CUK Election Hustings #Holyrood2026

Spokes and Cycling UK are holding a joint election hustings, on Monday 16 March, for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, to hear from Holyrood candidates on cycling and related policies.

Rather than the usual hustings approach, which can be rather boring, our meeting will comprise several sections, with speakers undertaking Initiation, Interrogation, Combination, Clarification and Education, as in the agenda below.

Speakers

All the main parties currently represented at Holyrood have been invited to send along a candidate for an Edinburgh, Lothians or Lothians List seat.  So far, we have…

• Conservative – awaited
• Green – Chas Booth [councillor, Lothians List candidate, councillor, Spokes member]
• Labour – Daniel Johnson [MSP, standing again in Edinburgh Southern]
• LibDem – awaited
• Reform – awaited
• SNP – Kate Campbell [councillor, Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh & Tranent candidate]

• Chair/Maestro – Brendan Paddy, Spokes member, Director of Ramblers Scotland

Provisional agenda

• Initiation – each candidate speaks for up to 3 mins on what they and their party would do for cycling and its wider policy context
• Interrogation – each candidate in turn is questioned by the audience & chair for 5 minutes, on what they have said
• Combination – two or three important questions are put to all candidates
• Clarification [if time] – audience follow-up reactions or questions to any candidate
• Education – each speaker has 2 minutes to say what they have learned and will take away with them

Arrangements

• Where Augustine United Church 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EL
• Date Monday 16 March
• Time  Starts 7.30, Ends 9.30.  Doors open 6.45 for coffee, stalls and chat, including a special stall to join Spokes or renew your membership
• Online We hope to live broadcast on our youtube channel – confirmation nearer the time – and make the recording available a few days later
• More info If you have any queries about the meeting, email spokes@spokes.org.uk or phone Emma, 07982 278936.

What you can do

• Submit a question If you have a question for all candidates (“Combination” section above) please email it in advance to spokes@ spokes.org.uk with the subject line hustings question. Note that questions to individual candidates (“Interrogation”) can only be asked in person at the meeting, after their Initiation speech.
• Check out the Holyrood 2026 manifesto issued by over 60 Scottish organisations, including Spokes. Commitments we’d like to see from parties include 10% of the transport budget going to active travel, and reorganised street space with well maintained, accessible networks of walking and cycling routes
• Speak to your own local candidates about the issues that concern you
• Help publicise our meeting by reposting our Bluesky post, liking our facebook post (due soon) and passing on the link for this article to friends and relations
• Check out other hustings (e.g. at local community centres) – we’ll list them below – please send us details of any you hear of
• If you post about the meeting on social media (before, during or after!) please use the hashtag #SpokesMtg.   The most popular general hashtag for the election is probably #Holyrood2026 and #SP21

More election info

• The Election is on Thursday 7 May 2026
• There are likely to be election FAQs on the Scottish Parliament website nearer the time
• Nearer the time, we’ll have an election info article with lots of links and background and we will fo course keep Spokes members in touch with our roughly-monthly member emails
• Although in this hustings all speakers are from our local area, Edinburgh and Lothian, Cycling UK will be holding hustings in other parts of Scotland – we will add links when known.

Other relevant hustings

• Feb 24, 6-8pm Scotland’s Big Climate and Nature Debate (hybrid)