Scottish Greens’ party election broadcast

Video – Newsnight Scotland interview

Here’s my interview from Monday’s Newsnight Scotland. Try as we might, the audio won’t stay in sync, so you’ll have to bear with it.

Oh, and don’t be worried by the logo in the background in the first few seconds – I haven’t jumped ship! This is a stange election, but not that strange!

Video – Green debate on the Living Wage

This morning we led two debates at Holyrood – this is the first, on the campaign for a Living Wage:

Video – Manifesto launch

On Tuesday this week we launched our manifesto for the 2010 UK election, which you can read on our lovely new website! Here’s the interview I gave to the BBC on the day:

NEWS RELEASE – Ministers fail crucial climate test

The Green MSPs slammed SNP Ministers for their plans, published today, to implement the Climate Change Act passed last year. (1) The Scottish Government have proposed annual targets of just 0.5% for the next two years, far below the 3-4.5% required by the science. The 2020 target of 42% reductions remains, but Ministers have decided not to act to achieve this legal target, instead making it the responsibility of the next Scottish Government.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

“Parliament unanimously passed tough climate change legislation just last year, but the SNP have wasted no time in trying to undermine it. SNP Ministers have today clearly failed this crucial climate test. The opposition parties must now come together again and reject these hopeless proposals.

“This administration talks a lot about tackling climate change, but their policies across the board could have been explicitly designed to make things worse. Their plans for new coal power were rejected by Parliament last month, and their motorway plans would put the Thatcher administration to shame. What they forget is that early action on climate change will also cut household bills, improve people’s journeys to work and boost jobs.

“Approving their proposals would allow this Scottish Government to make virtually no change whatsoever, with all the work postponed for the next administration. As things stand, anyone who wants real action on climate change must therefore also want a change of Government next year.”

Notes

1. For information about the Climate Change Act, see:
http://scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/climatechange/scotlands-action/climatechangeact

The Ents are with us!

And so we’re off. The UK general election, widely expected to be the closest in decades, is under way. May 6th, who’d have thought?

Several things mark this election out as different.

It’s close. So close that just a month before the big day, many people are still predicting no clear ‘winner takes all’ result. I hope they’re right. Westminster has yet to learn the lessons of proper multi-party democracy, and a period in which political parties have to work together for a change would be no bad thing.

It’s important. OK, I’m bound to say that every election matters, but with economic, environmental, social and democratic crises still ongoing this is one election where we can’t afford the old “they’re all as bad as each other” attitude.

It’s the first real chance of seeing Green MPs elected. In Brighton and Norwich our candidates are in with a real shot, and some of the polls are already predicting Green wins. A foot in the door at Westminster would make a huge difference to the Green movement here in Scotland too.

But most unusually, perhaps never before seen in a UK election, we saw today that the trees are joining the fight. In scenes which put me in mind of a low-budget version of Lords of the Rings, with the Ents marching on Isengard, the Scottish Tories today found the forces of nature ranged against them.

Greens have been compared to Tolkien’s characters before, most notably to the Elves. And my own hobbitish tendencies have long been remarked upon.

When I get home this evening I might just watch a little of the great work, to remind me of the difference a small force can make in the land. Two Green MSPs at Holyrood often have the chance to prove that, and with the support of the good people of Brighton and Norwich, two Greens at Westminster might use the same inspiration from May 7th onward.