Patrick Harvie MSP

The Scottish Budget is under debate, and it has been a sorry state of affairs for most opposition parties.

However, for the Scottish Green Party MSPs it is an opportunity for us to influence the Scottish Government to give public sector workers a well needed pay rise and for investment in low carbon infrastructure.

We have set out our priorities for offering support such as proper funding for local government services, and we have made progress on fairer tax rates on high earners while protecting people on low and middle incomes.

Meanwhile the Conservatives demand more money for everything, while demanding tax cuts for the richest would cut that funding by half a billion pounds.

As for Scottish Labour, they “need more time” to produce a coherent proposal.

In a recent debate, called by Scottish Labour to discuss the budget, we saw them admit they had come to their own debate with uncosted proposals and with no tax policy at all.

It is a failure to take hold of the real opportunities that opposition parties have when there is a minority government - we should be working hard to force the government to do a better job.

Tribalism and refusal to negotiate is letting down their own voters, and the wider population.

They are letting down the ‘many’ that Labour claim to work for.

Our constructive dialogue with the Scottish Government has seen many Green manifesto pledges put into practice, and protected local services that every community in Scotland relies on.

Everyone who has the privilege of sitting in parliament has the chance to make a real difference in people’s lives, and the failure to help shape a progressive budget is pitiful.

The hard work of Scottish Green MSPs will benefit constituents of South Lanarkshire.

The new tax bands protect people on ordinary incomes, but ensure the wealthiest will help fund vital public services in the local area and, if the Scottish Government takes up our proposals, both people who use South Lanarkshire Council services and the people working to deliver them will see the benefit.

Local Scottish Green activists have also been working hard engaging with councillors to attempt to make Citizens Advice Bureau funding less precarious and be able to cope with rising demand due to the shambolic Universal Credit welfare reform.

These are the steps that will really help “the many not the few”, while tribal politics will achieve nothing.