Councillor group becomes Scotland’s smallest political party

The Orkney Manifesto Group (OMG) has been accepted for registration as a political party by the UK Electoral Commission.

The OMG came together as an informal grouping to contest the election to the Orkney Islands Council in May last year. The three current members are Councillors Alistair Gordon, John Richards and Bill Stout.

The new party has formally appointed Alistair Gordon as its leader.

He said: “A council of independents has a number of weaknesses which we would like to fix by introducing party politics. Ultimately the electorate will decide whether they want party representatives or not. However, we not only argue in favour of party politics but we have provided an opportunity for the electorate to see how it might work in practice. Maybe the idea of local parties will seem less scary than having national parties involved in local government in Orkney, especially once it has been seen in action!”