[5] Skene's teaching career later included stints in Israel and Kenya, work in the education department of Tayside Regional Council, and also service on the board of the Scottish Qualification Authority.
[7] He wrote a paper on rural land policy for the party,[8] and was the secretary of the northern "Yes for Scotland" campaign during the 1979 Scottish devolution referendum.
[10] Skene stood for the Liberals unsuccessfully in Tayside North at the 1983 general election, and lost his council seat the same year.
He stood down from this post to contest Orkney and Shetland for the Scottish National Party at the 2015 general election,[13] in which he took a close second place, with 37.8% of the vote.
He was also selected as the party's candidate for Shetland at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election,[14] coming second to the sitting Liberal Democrat MSP, Tavish Scott, with a share of 23.1% of the vote.