The Highlands and Islands Alliance (also known by the Gaelic name Càirdeas, meaning friendship, goodwill or alliance) was formed to contest the first election to the Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

.

They contested only the Highlands and Islands electoral region

Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions

Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions were first used in 1999, in the first general election of the Scottish Parliament , created by the Scotland Act 1998....

 for the parliament, polling a fairly poor 2,607 votes (1.29% of the regional total). They stood on a platform of trying to ensure that what they described as the distinctive voice of Highlands and Islands experience was heard. That independent minded MSPs would be elected, with people with a track record of practical problem solving become MSPs. They also stated that they wanted to ensure that the relationship between communities and their MSPs was "dynamic and empowering". Although they claimed to represent the Highlands, some were quick to point out that they had little or no policies regarding the Scottish Gaelic language, other than some token recognition.

An interesting feature of their platform was that they intended any MSPs they managed to get elected to be on a job sharing

Job sharing

Job sharing is an employment arrangement where typically two people are retained on a part-time or reduced-time basis to perform a job normally fulfilled by one person working full-time. Compensation is apportioned between the workers, thus leading to a net reduction in per-employee income...

 basis, so that two people would take up and share equally the responsibilities of one representative. This was initially not allowed by the returning officer, but after HIA took the issue to a European Court (via QCs working pro bono), the law was changed and all HIA candidates stood on a job-share basis.

The Alliance did not contest either the 2001 general election

United Kingdom general election, 2001

The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

 or the 2003 Scottish Parliament election. They do not appear to be an active political movement any more.