Patrick Harvie MSP

With the Scottish Parliament back from its summer recess, we have a chance to challenge the Scottish Government to use the powers of devolution to build a genuinely progressive Scotland.

One area that is ripe for some change, and where Greens have been offering positive ideas, is transport.

It is a subject where you can never please all the people all of the time. Infrastructure decisions mean favouring one project over another.

Debates over managing road space, or how to provide public transport always involve making choices that cannot meet the interests of everyone equally.

For as long as I can remember private road transport has been put first.

Billions are spent on new roads, while existing ones fall into potholed disrepair and getting the relatively tiny investment needed to make walking and cycling easier is like pulling teeth.

Aviation has grown relentlessly, apparently given a free pass to pollute while the rest of the economy is faced with the urgent need to cut emissions.

And public transport just keeps getting ever more expensive, stripped of the taxpayer support which is needed for a system that meets the actual needs of society.

The most recent hike in rail fares is only the latest example; it is the result of a conscious UK Government decision to shift more of the cost of rail fares onto passengers.

Similarly with buses, the privatised operators are given hidden subsidies while peddling the myth that it is just a free market system where everyone is spoiled for choice and competition keeps driving up standards.

Regulation, taxpayer investment, subsidy and public ownership; these are the things which many world class public transport systems share.

All are achievable within devolved powers, and within the current parliamentary session.

Instead, the Scottish Government is obsessed with an aviation tax cut that would increase carbon emissions, strip hundreds of millions of pounds from funding for public services, and give a vastly bigger tax saving to the wealthiest people in society than to the rest, giving nothing to almost half the population.

As for an economic case in favour, the lack of any meaningful attempt to build one has been astonishing.

It looks like nothing more than a giveaway, resulting from highpowered lobbying by an industry already enjoying many tax breaks, and based on nothing more than their own self-interest.

The consultation on this policy remains open for another week.

This is a clear opportunity for the Scottish Government to head in a new policy direction which benefits the majority of people and helps achieve a sustainable economy.

Dump the airline tax cuts and invest instead in a transport system that meets people’s everyday needs, fairly and sustainably.