BBC poll shows support for investment in public services
For immediate release 11 April 2011
Greens welcomed today's BBC poll asking Scots what issues are most important to them in this election, and that the results show strong support for public services and free education, but noted that the poll did not ask how additional funding should be raised. (1) The Scottish Greens are the only Holyrood party campaigning to raise revenue from the better off and from big business. Neither Labour, the SNP nor the Lib Dems are prepared to identify plausible sources of revenue, a position when Greens argue undermines those parties' claims to be able to protect public services.
Patrick Harvie said:
"This poll tells us what we know already - that the Scottish public know the cuts are coming and that the services they rely on are under threat. We wholeheartedly share those concerns. However, Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems are trying to pretend that public services can be protected without raising more revenue. Each of them has a big bogus money pot, whether it's implausible efficiency savings, fictional savings on an unnecessary and unpopular bridge, or remortgaging the debt one public body owes to another.
"Only Greens are being honest with the public. Our tax plans will raise more than a billion pounds a year extra from the better off and from untaxed business assets, money which can be used to invest in housing, education and public transport. It really is the only alternative to handing on the Westminster government's cuts, and it's time Labour and the SNP admitted that."