Sorting out results problem was key rather than baying for a head to roll

IT’S been a depressing week for politics, but it also showed how change is possible. Following the SQA results scandal, which saw 25% of student marks downgraded, young people across Scotland were up in arms.

They wrote emails, sent tweets, and organised protests, with placards saying ‘judge me for my work, not my postcode’ – particularly salient, given the disproportionate effect on young people from poorer backgrounds.

Every elected representative in Scotland had to hear them, making the Scottish Government deeply uncomfortable. Labour and the Tories spent their time baying for a head to roll. Meanwhile, Scottish Greens actually worked on sorting out the problem. And got it done. Greens were clear that the Education Secretary must reverse the downgrading of the grades, and leave alone the few pupils whose grades were higher than estimates. We demanded an independent inquiry into why warnings about the impending fiasco were not heeded. And we demanded a bigger picture investigation into whether exams like this are the best way to measure young people’s progress. All four conditions were met by the Government, and therefore Greens did not back the vote of no confidence. It wasn’t a kneejerk reaction, like the Tories, clinging to the moral high ground while hoping we all ignore the omnishambles of their own party at Westminster. It wasn’t carping from the sidelines while failing to bring any serious suggestions to the table – Labour’s favourite role. Just calm, responsive, reasonable discussions which resulted in fair treatment and restoration of grades for 75,000 Scottish young people.

Politics is too full, and probably always will be, of people who just want to yell at each other rather than get anything useful done.

All normal rules of professional conduct are held not to matter in a political chamber, local or national, so you witness breathtaking moments of aggression, inappropriate behaviour, unfounded accusations for the purpose of smear. You see sleekit asides delivered with smirks, as if we should all just enjoy this wee game we’re playing, fiddling about with people’s lives and livelihoods like Monopoly pieces.

You get misogyny, over and over again, like the recent column from a male LibDem MSP who had the gall to put in print that the First Minister only spends time with children in order to soften her ‘frosty personality’, and making fun of the quest for care-experienced young people to feel loved.

Playing on the age-old trope that there must be something really wrong with childfree women, the column was disgusting – and yet women in politics just have to take this stuff on the chin.

Scottish Greens don’t think politics is a game. We’re working for a fairer, greener Scotland, where young people’s voices are taken seriously – seriously enough that the justice they are calling for is actually delivered.

None of the other parties heed young people’s concerns beyond lip service, whether on exam results, or on the climate emergency where it’s taken mass school walkouts to even get this on the agenda. Enough patronising – results, please.