1 week Ago
UNLIKE most political parties, the Scottish Greens re-elect our co-leaders every two years, and earlier this month I announced my decision not to seek re-election for the role when our members vote this summer. I’m grateful to everyone who has been in touch and offered kind words in the days since. It’s been a genuine honour to be elected and re-elected to leadership roles within the party for such a long time.
But I think it’s high time that a new face joined the leadership team ahead of next year’s Holyrood election. Inevitably, I’ve been reflecting on the journey the Scottish Greens have been on as we’ve developed since the modern Scottish Parliament was first elected. We got our first ‘foot in the door’ back in 1999, and although there was a growing awareness of the wider green movement, few people took the party seriously, and our membership was still measured in the hundreds.
Even when we gained more MSPs in 2003, and I was first elected to represent Glasgow as the city’s Green MSP, the prospect of us having any real influence felt very far off. The chance of making a real difference in people’s lives, like getting the Government to invest in cutting energy bills, cheaper public transport or introducing fairer taxation and rent controls, all seemed very remote. The change over the years has been extraordinary.
It is thanks to the work of our thousands of members around the country that we have steadily built political credibility. That is how we have evolved to become the most significant, sustained new movement in Scottish politics for generations, working for people and planet. One of the lines of poetry engraved in the wall of the Scottish Parliament is “work as if you live in the early days of a better nation”, a line popularised by Alasdair Gray.
In some ways Scotland is a fairer, greener and more equal place than it was in those early days. In other ways, the promise is yet to be fulfilled. When I think of some of the big achievements of devolution, such as free tuition for students, the introduction of equal marriage, the Scottish Child Payment and free bus travel for young people, I know that we won’t be going back.
But at the same time, there are too many areas where progress has fallen short. The level of child poverty and deprivation is still a national scandal. Ambition in tackling the climate crisis has been thwarted by those who set targets but then sabotage the policies needed to meet them.
We’re now seeing the growth of far-right ideas, demonising people like asylum seekers, attacking LGBTQ+ human rights and promoting climate change denial. And instead of challenging and opposing this agenda, too much of the mainstream in politics is imitating or embracing it. Green politics could hardly be more of a contrast with the rise of dangerous forces in today’s political climate.
Green politics must be about finding hope in difficult times and making a difference in the real world. Not just during my time in a leadership role, but throughout the two and a half decades of the devolution era, what we’ve built is the capacity and the credibility to make change happen, so we can now point to a track record of doing it, not just talking about it. That’s true across Scotland, and it’s certainly true in Glasgow, where our campaigners and councillors have played a crucial role in ensuring that Greens are a permanent and growing feature of our city’s politics.
Stepping back from a leadership role will be a big change for me, and for my party. But the election of co-leaders this year will be a crucial moment, and I’m looking forward to a debate about how we can build on the most impactful period in our party’s history, and deliver the biggest possible group of Green MSPs in 2026. Whether by tackling inequality, boosting green energy and cutting bills, or helping Scotland gain its independence, Green voices will continue to be crucial.
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