Led by anti-nuclear activist Lorraine Mann, the Alliance was established to better represent marginalised communities in rural Scotland, who they felt had been ignored by government in favour of those in the more densely populated Central Belt.

[4][5] They believed that the Central Belt in the Scottish Lowlands, the most densely populated area in the country, had received a disproportionate amount of attention from the British Government in Westminster and that rural communities were being neglected as a consequence.

[6] Members instrumental in the Alliance's development included playwright Edwin 'Eddie' Stiven, Black Isle Councillor Bryan Beattie and the group's sole leader, anti-nuclear activist Lorraine Mann.

[6][8] Before its official registration, the party steadily built up a respectable profile; this included interviews with The Guardian on 22 and 26 January, in which they declared their intention to stand in the Scottish Parliament election, as well as criticised the disconnection between Highland parliamentarians and the constituencies they represented.

"[11] Although technically non-partisan, it received the formal endorsement of post-communist group Democratic Left Scotland, which "was committed to ... renew radical socialist politics"[15] through the fledgling Scottish Parliament's proportional representation (PR) electoral system.

[5] Described by political scientists David Butler and Martin Westlake as "localised",[16] the Alliance nonetheless developed a detailed regional policy platform "on the basis that the distinctive voice of [the Highlands and Islands] should be heard".

In it, Stiven recommends that fisheries in the west of Scotland should be free of all European Union (EU) influence and legal restrictions, advocating their complete return to community ownership; he further suggests management by sea trusts, similar to those established for crofts.

"[3] Domestically, the group pushed for the diversification of funding from central government to promote sustainable jobs, including the establishment of a separate, Scottish agricultural policy that prioritised land reform and redistribution initiatives.

[13] Lorraine Mann successfully took the case to an employment tribunal and the group fought the election on a job-sharing platform; that said, political scientist David Boothroyd speculates that the previously illegal status of their innovation lost them popularity.

[22] The case has since been referenced by the parliamentary research papers of both the Northern Ireland Assembly and the British House of Commons, where it informed debate surrounding the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002.