Constitutional crisis increases urgency of giving people of Scotland control of their own future
Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie MSP today (14 June) used First Minister's Questions to urge Nicola Sturgeon to take inspiration from progressive governments around the world to grow support for independence amid a constitutional crisis caused by Tory recklessness and Labour indifference.
Following this week's events at Westminster, in which Tory MPs demolished the devolution settlement and Labour MPs abstained, Patrick highlighted recent comments by New Zealand Green MP Gareth Hughes on the need for Scotland to look to his country's new direction. [1]
The SNP's Growth Commission recommended that Scotland emulate New Zealand’s economic reforms of the 1980s and 90s, overlooking the fact that an austerity agenda led to a rise in homelessness, precarious working conditions and child poverty.
However, since September last year a new Labour-Green government has embarked on a programme of wealth redistribution and a zero carbon emissions target of 2050.
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
"The current constitutional crisis, and the decision by the UK Government to unilaterally abolish the principle of devolved consent, greatly increases the urgency of giving the people of Scotland control of their own future, instead of dragging them into the chaos of Brexit Britain.
"But the SNP’s Growth Commission has taken too many lessons from a right of centre economic agenda, and cannot offer the transformative alternative that is needed if we’re to inspire the people of Scotland to choose a better future.
"New Zealand Green MP Gareth Hughes is right that Scotland should be looking to his country's forward-looking, progressive model, rather than the dead-end agenda which the Growth Commission has drawn from."