With independence we can do so much more to build a fairer, greener Scotland
With the powers of independence we can do so much more to deliver the green, fairer society that Scotland needs, say the Scottish Greens.
Commenting ahead of today’s parliamentary debate on Scotland’s right to choose its own future, Green MSP Ross Greer said:
“The people best placed to make decisions about Scotland are the people who live here. Yet, time and again, we have been dictated to by cruel, incompetent and unaccountable Tory governments at Westminster which we did not vote for and have been unable to remove.
“With the Scottish Greens in government we have led the change across the UK. We have boosted investment in renewables, frozen rents and delivered free bus travel for young people.
“Our influence means that next year’s Scottish budget includes a record level of funding for tackling the climate emergency. We are removing peak time train fares, saving a huge amount of money for families during the cost of living crisis and helping Scotland to meet its climate ambitions. These are changes that will help people and planet.
“This is the progress we are making with the limited powers of devolution and under constant attack by successive Tory Prime Ministers who have crashed our economy, cut Universal Credit and inflicted a disastrous Brexit that Scotland voted against.
“With the powers of independence we can do so much more to build the fairer, greener country that is so badly needed. Scotland would finally only get the governments and policies which it actually votes for.
“Independence would allow us to remove the UK’s nuclear weapons from our shores, rejoin the European Union, raise the minimum wage to a level that people can actually live on and so, so much more.
“The reason that Rishi Sunak and his colleagues are so opposed to Scotland having a choice is because they know that the future of cuts and chaos which they are offering is the opposite of what most people here actually want.
"They are terrified of having the debate, because they have nothing positive to say about Scotland staying in an increasingly dysfunctional UK.”