Top and Timely
I was very sad to hear of the passing of John Palmer, one of our most beloved and active branch members. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend his funeral, which was packed with folk who loved him and was very moving. It was John who gave me my first leaflet run and who encouraged me to stand for a national committee. We will miss him greatly.
A special shout-out to those members who volunteered their time to deliver leaflets advertising and to help with the running of the community meeting that I hosted on Holyrood Park in December. Many sincere thanks for your help.
The Scottish Budget provides the primary path for the Scottish Green Group of MSPs to have a direct and immediate policy impact. Though our influence is considerably less since the Bute House Agreement ended, we have been able to secure:
- More action on climate: We’ve pushed up the £4.9bn positive spend on climate, and secured the highest ever single-year funding for nature restoration.
- Better public transport for Scotland: We’ve increased investment in public transport and cheaper fares – from a regional bus cap pilot, free bus travel for people seeking asylum, and protected funding to transform our bus services.
- More action to address child poverty: We’ve driven forward a further roll out of free school meals to children in Scotland, with the expansion of free school meals to those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in Secondary 1-3, the roll out starting with eight local authorities from August 2025.
- Work to accelerate progressive taxation to restore our public services: We’ve secured a commitment to take the Cruise Ship Levy to the next stage, and that work is ongoing to resolve the subsidy control issue within ADT.
- Empowerment for our local government: We’ve secured real term increases to revenue and capital funding for local councils, implementation of the the SLARC recommendations on councillor pay, and a commitment to consult on devolving parking fines to local authorities.
I was proud to open Scottish Green Group Debate Scottish Enterprise Funding for Arms to stop public money going to arms dealers who sell arms to Israel.
I am looking forward to debating and working on amendments to the upcoming Natural Environment Bill, and Community Wealth Building Bill.
Media and Chamber
I was able to represent the Green position on both Question Time and Debate Night.
With the UK Government passing their regulations for a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for England, DRS was back in the news, and I did a variety of media bids on the topic. Defending my record of working with business to get a scheme ready for launch that was shut down at the last minute on a whim by the UK Government using the Internal Market Act.
We are very glad to have Patrick Harvie back at work. While he has been away, I have been taking all FMQs and have asked about climate, Trump, rent controls and abortion clinic buffer zones after US Vice President JD Vance lied about Scotland’s law (brought in by Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay).
I spoke in the Scottish Government debate on migration, arguing the case for making Scotland a more welcoming place for migrants. I spoke about my direct experience of the dysfunction of the Union during the Scottish Government debate on the Internal Market Act and protecting devolved powers. I’ve also spoken about the engineering skills gap.
I used portfolio questions opportunities to ask questions in the chamber on Holyrood Park’s strategic plan and the Scottish Government’s Inclusive and Democratic Business Model (IDBM) report (which was a Bute House commitment).
Regional and Campaigns
After hosting a packed community meeting on Holyrood Park -many, many thanks to the members who helped to promote this meeting and to coordinate the input from attendees at the meeting itself – I hosted a members debate on the park in the chamber. I am now arranging meetings to follow up and to create a ‘Holyrood Park Forum’ organisation which can bring stakeholders and the community together regularly to work with Historic Environment Scotland and the council to implement the strategy for the park.
In January I visited Vattenfall Heat network at Shawfair, which is an exciting example of the heat infrastructure that will be needed to decarbonise heating in Scottish homes.
It was wonderful to visit Porty Community Energy and see all the wonderful ideas and projects they have for helping people to do more with less emissions.
Committee and Portfolio
I have been meeting with apprentices, trade unions, trade bodies and businesses to understand how and why apprenticeships aren’t working in Scotland with an eye to developing a ‘new deal for apprentices’ which may be something the party wishes to consider for the Holyrood 2026 Manifesto.
I have been hosting a series of meetings with companies in the Scottish sustainable textiles sector; micro-companies to massive ones, to support this sector to come together strategically, to lobby for legislative and Government support, and to address the skills crisis that they face.
The Economy and Fair Work Parliamentary Committee has been taking evidence on Grangemouth, the City Region Deals, and the New Deal for Business. This has given me opportunities to ask about Sheriffhall Roundabout and to ensure that Cooperatives, Social Enterprises and other alternative model business got ‘in the room’ and were heard as part of this discussion. They had positive things to say about the IDBM Report.
I have attended Cross Party Groups on Construction, Renewable Energy, Maritime and Marine and Circular Economy.
Other things
I joined the team to canvas for our Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election re run. Thank you to Daniel Milligan for standing (again) and for everyone who came out to canvass.
In my party co-leader capacity I attended regular Green Isles meetings which are attended by GPEW, NI Greens, Irish Greens, Welsh Greens and the Isle of Mann Greens. Also in this capacity I met the Irish Consul to discuss the political climate and common interests.
With ECC’s support I have been hosting Q&A Sessions to encourage members, especially from our representative groups. I’ve also been and meeting with various people one-to-one to support them to stand to be MSPs with an eye to both increasing our MSP group and increasing the diversity of our group. (Spoiler: we’ve got some excellent future MSP candidates coming forward!)
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