Annie Wells
GREENS MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR TERRIBLE RECORD IN HOLYROOD
ANYONE looking in on the Green Party’s annual conference over the weekend may have concluded the event looked timid and flat.
On first appearance, it resembled a low- key convention of activists, akin to something like a model railway club meet- up.
The one- day seminar in Edinburgh came and went without anyone outside Holyrood’s bubble taking any notice.
And it is this almost amateurish approach that lulls the population of Scotland into thinking the Greens are still what they once were – an honourable group of campaigners who simply want what is best for the environment, willing to politely state their case in the hope of quietly influencing the powers that be.
Unfortunately, the truth about today’s Green Party is the opposite, and it’s time they were held accountable for what they are, and their central role in Scotland’s corridors of power.
Far from being parliamentary wallflowers, the party’s MSP group now forms part of Scotland’s
Government, with two of them granted ministerial status.
Their influence has resulted in a number of highly contentious policies which have either already had a negative impact on the economy, like the shambolic failed deposit return scheme, or will do soon enough, such as rules to outlaw gas boilers for expensive and ineffective replacement technology.
Some of their MSPs have been responsible for the most tasteless contributions in recent years, while they continue to rabblerouse on a number of sensitive issues like gender and the IsraelGaza conflict.
Their support for independence never has and never will have anything to do with the founding environmental principles of the party.
And even here in Glasgow, the best contributions their councillors can come up with is to remove the Union Flag from the City Chambers, pictured, and instead wave Palestinian and Pride flags; a shameless move that won’t improve a single life in the city.
They have proved at national
and local level they are not serious governors, and have botched almost everything they have touched either through incompetence or negligence.
I still recall the night I was elected in 2016, and Patrick Harvie – the party’s co- leader – being the only other politician who couldn’t bear to look me in the eye.
It’s also a source of misfortune that Alison Johnstone, the party’s best MSP who is respected across the chamber and a genuine pleasure to be in the company of, is precluded from party politics this term due to her impartial role as presiding officer.
Opposition MSPs like me spend much of our time scrutinising and subsequently criticising the SNP for their role in government, and rightly so given they have had 17 years during which almost every devolved area has got worse.
But the scale of that failure often allows us to forget they have co- conspirators, and have done since the Bute House Agreement to permit the Greens into government was signed in 2021.
They are now as much to blame for the state of Scotland and Glasgow as anyone.
It’s no wonder the original Green titans like Robin Harper or great minds like ousted MSP Andy Wightman don’t want anything to do with the current regime.
Let’s not let the weekend’s damp squib of a conference fool us - the Greens wield great power, but are doing so with little accountability and no responsibility.