Budget: Tepid vision for Scotland no antidote to Musk
The Scottish Greens will only vote for a budget which takes bold action to tackle the climate crisis and lift children out of poverty, says the party’s finance spokesperson, Ross Greer MSP, following an event in which the First Minister implied that any MSPs who vote against the budget would be fuelling Elon Musk.
Mr Greer said:
“This hugely overblown language from the First Minister is a frankly demeaning way for him to start the new year. Other parties in Parliament have a responsibility to carefully scrutinise the SNP’s draft budget and to push for inclusion of our own priorities. It is frankly daft and divisive for the Scottish Government to claim that such an important feature of our democracy is somehow fuelling dangerous political forces.
“John Swinney is right to say that the budget is an opportunity to bring people together, but not with the kind of threatening language he is now using. To defeat the dangerous, billionaire-led forces of the radical right, we need to build a fairer, greener Scotland for everyone and tackle the very real public frustrations which the far right feed on, not fall in line behind a tepid SNP status quo. If the First Minister is prepared to be bolder, then he will have the Scottish Greens’ support.”
“There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy to the SNP warning of the dangers of Trumpian politics when they’ve spent the last two months falling over themselves to build a relationship with Trump himself.
“The Scottish Greens have always been constructive and transparent about what we want from the budget, and, until now, the Scottish Government has done the same. We will continue to work with them to reach an agreement, but we will not be blackmailed into voting for a budget that fails people and planet."
Mr Greer added:
“We have already secured some key Green budget proposals, including a record £4.9 billion for climate and nature and more money for affordable housing, but we know more can be done. For example, we can go further on tackling child poverty by providing more free school meals and capping the cost of bus fares.
“It is crucial that the Scottish Government builds on the success of policies already delivered by Scottish Green MSPs, including free bus travel for young people and expanding universal free school meals to P4 and P5 pupils.”