LIBERAL Democrat MSP Alison McInnes deserves credit for her work in the last parliament.

Her work on Police Scotland and on stop and search in particular has been dogged, determined and principled. The look on Chief Constable Sir Stephen House’s face whenever McInnes gets to ask him a question at the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee will tell you exactly how good she is.

It is quite the blow, then, for her to be effectively removed from parliament by party members. To be replaced by a near-universally unliked, “anti-feminist” colleague like Mike Rumbles must only make it worse.

Her loss will be felt in the next Parliament. Because even the most ambitious of LibDems must realise that any candidate who is not number one on the list has no hope of getting into Holyrood next year.

The most recent poll suggested the party may only get three per cent of the constituency vote and two per cent of the regional list vote. This would mean only four MSPs. Even that is optimistic.

With only one regional list topped by a woman it looks increasingly likely that all of those MSPs will be men.

Despite valiant and extremely well-funded attempts to save Jo Swinson at May’s General Election, the party’s only MP is a man.

Alison McInnes is the party’s only female MSP.

There is a reason gender balance is important in politics. It is slightly depressing and staggering that we should have to make the argument in 2015.

The less balance we have in politics, the slower equality advances. As has been said many times before, women’s rights are human rights.

Scotland is changing. Slowly and perhaps not very radically. But one of the things that makes Scottish politics a little special of late has been seeing Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale leading their parties in Holyrood.

That the leaders of Scotland’s three largest parties were women was something to feel a little proud of.

Any “men’s right activists” worried about the dominance of women now have a party to vote for.

At the 2016 Scottish Parliamentary elections, the Scottish Liberal Democrats are standing as the party for middle-aged, middle-class white men. Targetting that vote can surely be the only reason they find themselves in such a position.

Labour: suitable now only for the Turner Prize

THE brutal kicking the Labour Party continues to give itself is great for those of us in the media looking for stories in a quiet summer.

It’s fun for supporters and members of other parties to watch this once-domineering foe taken down a peg or two.

But for Labour Party supporters the events of the last few weeks must be soul destroying.

These people joined up because they believe in social justice. Now they have to watch as one of their own squanders money on drugs and sex workers.

They get told that their vote for Jeremy Corbyn can’t be taken seriously.

The Labour Party should, as a Guardian arts critic suggested, be up for the Turner Prize.

It is reminiscent of Damien Hirst’s famous bisected cow.

Disturbing to look at, thought-provoking and dead.