Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton tells The Sunday Show on BBC One Scotland that voters on the doorsteps "don't care" about a second independence vote
He argues that issues like access to GP or dental appointments are more important to people, adding that another referendum "isn't salient" right now
Cole-Hamilton tells presenter Martin Geissler he is a passionate European but his party will not be advocating a re-join the EU policy
Elsewhere on Sunday, it is the formal SNP campaign launch with John Swinney urging the electorate to "vote SNP to put Scotland's interests first"
Ahead of a visit to Giffnock in East Renfrewshire, the Scottish Conservative's deputy leader Meghan Gallacher said her party would "fight to save Scotland's town centres"
During this second weekend of campaigning, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was due to be in Renfrew, Renfrewshire
Before polling day on 4 July, The Sunday Show on TV and radio will feature interviews from Scotland's party leaders, report on the campaigns and analyse policy pledges
That's all from The Sunday Show live page team for today.
Join us again next Sunday morning for the next in our series of leader interviews.
In the meantime, you can keep up to date with all the latest election news on the BBC Scotland website.
Your writers today were Craig Hutchison and Megan Bonar. The page was edited by Claire Diamond.
Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent
Alex Cole-Hamilton’s Lib Dems are in a curious position in this election.
Due to boundary changes, Scotland will have two fewer seats at this election.
It's complicated, but when you work out the final scores it's the Lib Dems who are down two seats.
Due to an influx of SNP voters into two of their heartlands - North East Fife and Caitherness, Sutherland and Easter Ross - for this election they are treated as SNP territory rather than Lib Dem seats.
This leaves the Lib Dems technically only defending two seats (Orkney and Shetland and Edinburgh West).
The silver lining though is that even if the party returns the same four MPs they had before, they will technically have gained two seats.
You can hear Alex-Cole Hamilton cheering about doubling their representation already.
The challenge for the party is that beyond the four seats they took in 2019, and the one Jo Swinson lost in East (now known as Mid) Dunbartonshire, they don’t really have many clear targets.
Their support has become very localised; results have been all-or-nothing for a while.
So this is almost a bit of a building-block election for Alex Cole-Hamilton, his first as party leader. He will be hoping the party can win the seats where it’s in serious contention, and to climb back into a more relevant position in others.
That would then give them more of a springboard for the 2026 Holyrood election – for all that talk of springboards right now only conjures images of Ed Davey in a wetsuit.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says he hasn't been talking about Scottish independence since the start of the general election campaign because people on the doorsteps "don't care".
In fact, Cole-Hamilton says the issue of a second referendum is so irrelevant at the moment that he hasn't even heard SNP leader John Swinney say much about it either.
The Sunday Show continues over on BBC Radio Scotland.
Prof Ailsa Henderson, of Edinburgh University, tells presenter Fiona Stalker that Scottish polls are “pretty consistent”, but Labour’s lead over the SNP appeared to have narrowed slightly since early May.
The polling expert said one poll suggests that 20% of 16-24 say they are unlikely to vote, and another shows that just 60% of 18 and 19-year-olds are registered to vote
“There is clearly an age dimension to levels of engagement,” she adds.
So we've heard an in-depth interview with Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton this morning on the Sunday Show.
But what are the other parties up to today?
The SNP leader John Swinney will formally launch his party’s general election campaign today in Glasgow.
He’ll seek to hammer home his party's core message a vote for the SNP is a vote to "put Scotland's interests first".
Campaigning in East Renfrewshire today, the Scottish Conservatives say the only way to really focus on people’s priorities is turn away from the SNP.
Scottish Labour will also be in Renfrewshire urging voters to deliver the change Scotland needs by choosing them.
The Scottish Greens meanwhile are today calling for a permanent and robust windfall tax on oil and gas profits.
Over on BBC Radio Scotland, a panel of pundits are dissecting Alex Cole-Hamilton’s interview.
Responding to the Scottish Lib Dem leader's quip that campaigns are like Christmas Day, Bernard Ponsonby, formerly of STV News, says when the results are declared on 5 July “we’ll find out just how many presents the Scottish electorate have given the Lib Dems”. He suggests the gift could be 4 or 5 seats.
The party currently holds four seats in Scotland, but we heard from a pollster that they could gain one more in this election.
The Herald’s politics writer Catriona Stewart says the politician has “all the enthusiasm of a puppy at tea time”, but adds she would like to see more details of the party's plans for housing.
Rachel Amery, the Scotsman’s political correspondent, adds the party seem to be running a "very targeted" almost "hyper-local" campaign and they seem to be happy with how it is going.
Here are the key points from the interview with Alex Cole-Hamilton:
Also on the programme - pollster Mark Diffley. He analyses polling trends from around the country.
He says polls suggest the Lib Dem vote remains "pretty stable" at about 8%.
What that means, he adds, is that they have 4 MPs in Scotland at the moment but they’ve got a "pretty good chance" of picking up one more in Mid Dunbartonshire.
He said gaining that seat would be the "height of the ambitions" in Scotland.
A reminder - the only poll that matters is the one on Thursday 4 July.
The polls are a survey of people's intended vote when the 4 July election rolls around.
So, when we say Labour is ahead by 21 points, we mean 21% more people say they intend to vote Labour over those who say they will vote Conservative.
Because polls don't survey everyone in the country, it would be wrong to say they indicate exactly how an election will play out.
But, it can be useful to give a sense of how public opinion is trending.
You can check the tracker here.
Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent
The campaigns for this long-anticipated election have got up to speed quickly.
Some of them are quite familiar. It feels like the SNP and Conservatives want to re-run the race of 2019, going head to head in a contest with constitutional overtones.
The SNP want to hold on to their position as the default anti-Tory vote north of the border - despite the fact they have no prospect of putting John Swinney in Downing Street instead - while the Scottish Tories are happier talking about their opposition to the SNP and independence than they are about Liz Truss and Brexit.
It’s a position which has worked for both parties over the last decade or so - because it has shut Labour out in third place.
Labour hope that this is the year where they start to regain ground in their former heartlands as the conversation changes, to boost their bid to change the government.
But they are coming from a long way back - they need big swings to return the kind of number of MPs Keir Starmer is hoping for to bolster his bid for Downing Street.
The Lib Dems meanwhile seem to be having great fun, as ever, on the campaign trail.
It certainly gets attention - but it’s worth pondering whether it chimes with the mood of a frankly scunnered electorate.
And then there are the others - lots of them. The Scottish Greens, Alba and Reform UK all plan to stand dozens of candidates. That makes a lot of constituency races quite unpredictable - with so many options, it’s hard to definitively predict how voters will divide.
After the Alex Cole-Hamilton interview, Martin turns to the panel to get their take.
Donald MacLeod, music promoter and hospitality guru, tells The Sunday Show people are "very tired" with politics.
Mr MacLeod says Cole-Hamilton gave "a word salad" on housing.
But he says the Lib Dems have been fantastic at making people laugh with moments like Ed Davey falling off a paddle board (although Alex Cole-Hamilton said this was to make a serious point about water pollution).
Model and actress Eunice Olumide MBE says there are some really serious issues at hand in this election cycle, but worries gimmicks are overshadowing campaigns.
“I would like to see a lot more done to discuss what I see coming up in the polls, as opposed to a lot of the gimmicks,” she says.
She adds it’s a bad idea for politicians to underestimate young voters in their campaigns as "naive" or "disengaged", adding they are worried about policies such as the Conservative’s national service plans.
Dr Elli Loose, a political scientist at Glasgow University says there was a "bit of detail missing" from Alex Cole-Hamilton's answers.
She calls for politicians to listen to what young people want.
Georgia Roberts
BBC Scotland political correspondent
"I’ve not mentioned independence once in this campaign”, Alex Cole Hamilton has said triumphantly.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats, like Scottish Labour, are not seeking to fight the general elections of the past, where independence was front and centre.
With the polls suggesting the SNP could be set to lose seats this election, he has grounds to be optimistic that for the first time in many years, this might be an election in Scotland where the constitutional question isn’t necessarily as dominant.
Certainly SNP MPs have told me they’re focusing far more on “bread and butter” issues this campaign.
But polls suggest roughly 50-50 are still supportive of independence.
Alex Cole-Hamilton may say he hasn’t heard much about it from John Swinney, the SNP leader, but we’re likely about to hear a lot more about it today at the SNP’s formal campaign launch.
Alex Cole-Hamilton wouldn’t be drawn on what a “democratic route” out of the union might be – but many indepenence-supporting voters may like to hear an offer from the party that speaks to their concerns.
When quizzed on the prospect of a second independence referendum, Alex Cole-Hamilton says: "I’ve not mentioned independence once in this campaign, it’s been beautiful."
He said people on the doorsteps "don't care" about a second referendum, and issues like being able to access a GP or dentist are more important to voters.
"We don’t believe there should be a second referendum, it's not salient to people right now," he adds.
Image source, PA MediaOn housing, the Liberal Democrat leader says his party recognises a need "to build wherever it's needed", with a focus on social housing and mid-market homes.
"The Liberal Democrats are not in any way ideologically opposed to housing developments," says Cole-Hamilton. "We are opposed to unintelligent housing,"
He says infrastructure such as GPs and schools needs to be considered before building new homes.
He suggests using existing housing stock, like 1,500 empty properties in Edinburgh, is an "easy win" to take a dent out of the number of people in emergency accommodation in the city.
Georgia Roberts
BBC Scotland political correspondent
Alex Cole-Hamilton has just demonstrated the balancing act all the parties are trying to perform when it comes to North Sea Oil.
The industry has expressed repeated concern about the impact of any potential ongoing windfall tax on oil and gas profits, which the Liberal Democrats support.
He seems unperturbed by the warnings of those such as Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber Of Commerce this week, who warned whoever wins the election has 100 days to save 100,000 jobs.
Like the Scottish Labour Party, he’s betting that the message that the “gargantuan super profits” he says these companies make mean they should “carry more of the burden” in helping pay for the transition to renewables.
It’s of course the case the industry will lobby for its own interests.
But those jobs the industry refers to are in the here and now, whilst the promised economic benefits of the renewables transition remains very much a goal for the future.
That big figure – 100,000 – is the kind that might make an electorate already struggling with the cost of living sufficiently nervous.
Alex Cole-Hamilton tells the programme "I'm a passionate European".
He says he would be back in the EU tomorrow if he could, "but that isn't where we are".
"We bet the farm on trying to stop Brexit, but we lost."
He wants to reduce the pressures and friction that now exist between the UK and Europe.
Image source, PA Media"Are you in favour of granting more licenses for exploration in the North Sea?" asks Martin.
Cole-Hamilton replies that a just transition must happen and workers in the oil and gas sector are keen to move into renewables.
He explains a worker that knows their stuff working at height on an oil rig should be able to do that on turbines.
"We want to protect the 100,000 jobs in the North Sea and we are very proud of the industry and expertise that we have."
He explains that wind turbines need to be built at the same time as the power grid is extended.
"We have huge potential for Scotland's renewables," he adds.
Alex Cole-Hamilton outlines Liberal Democrat policies to triple the digital services tax on social media giants and reverse tax breaks for banks.
He says social media is "responsible for a lot of the mental ill health in this country," and increasing the tax paid by social media companies could raise £150m for Scotland, which his party would earmark for mental health services, to reduce to pressure on GPs.
The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader added his party would also reverse £3bn in tax cuts for "big banks" in a "heartbeat".
"We don’t think that given the cost of living emergency that people are facing, the real degradation of our public services, that we should be handing out big tax breaks to big banks," he said.
The party hasn't published its full manifesto yet. It will be unveiled in a few weeks.
Image source, PA MediaMartin Geissler turns to the Post Office Inquiry and the fact that Ed Davey was the Post Office minister who ignored Alan Bates for six months.
A reminder - between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters and mistresses after faults with the Horizon accounting system made it look like money was missing.
Mr Bates is the former sub-postmaster who set up the campaign for wrongful convictions to be overturned.
He wanted to meet Ed Davey who was then postal affairs minister.
In that role, Sir Ed oversaw the Post Office, which is wholly owned by the government but maintains an arm's length relationship when it comes to day-to-day operations.
At the time, the Post Office maintained was not faulty.
Cole-Hamilton says Ed Davey was the first Post Office minister to meet with the campaigners.
"He was being fed lies by Post Office officials on an industrial scale," he says.
"They hoodwinked absolutely everyone."
He adds Davey is furious with himself that he didn't push back harder on those lies.
Image source, ReutersThe leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, paddle boarding at Lake Windermere in England
Martin asks if the Lib Dem's UK leader Ed Davey is demeaning himself whizzing around in swimming shorts and whooping on water slides during election photo calls.
Alex Cole-Hamilton replies he learnt at the knee of Willie Rennie (form Scottish Lib Dem leader famous for his photo opportunities during election campaigns).
He says there is a serious message attached to each of the photo stunts.
With reference to Ed Davey's watersports photocalls, Cole-Hamilton says it's part of the Lib Dem plan to highlight the need to clean up England's waterways.
Image source, Getty imaes