Edinburgh Central candidate, Lorna Slater, cycled around the boundaries of the constituency on Wednesday to see the extent of the area for herself.
She said: “I’m really excited to be cycling the boundaries of Edinburgh Central today. It’s just something I haven’t done before to actually get in my mind exactly where the boundaries are.
“It’s such a lovely weather for it. It is such a good day to see the different parts of Edinburgh that are covered from the big houses down in the Grange tenements all over here we are near Gorgie, lots of lovely tenements and some of the more deprived areas in the city centre as well. We’ve got a real spread here.”
But from the people she has talked to she believes it is everyday issues which are on voters’ minds.
She said: “It would be really exciting for the Scottish Greens to win their first constituency seat for the Holyrood parliament in Edinburgh Central.
“The number one issue for everybody is the cost of living. And with the oil shock expected because of Trump’s war in Iran, everybody’s worried about how they’re going to heat their homes next winter. People who are thinking, how am I going to heat my house? How am I going to feed my kids? That’s what’s on everyone’s minds. So dealing with that cost of living crisis, bringing forward policies to put money back into people’s pockets. That’s what’s at the top of everyone’s list.”
Coalition
Lorna Slater was a government minister in the last term when the party formed a coalition with the SNP. The arrangement famously fell apart when Humza Yousaf was First Minister. But in the last week, SNP Leader, John Swinney’s, stance appeared to soften towards new exploration licences. Mr Swinney said that when considering new license agreements the UK government must factor in energy security. This latest comment came as energy prices soared due to the war in Iran. The Greens had criticised Swinney and the SNP saying they were not tackling the energy crisis.
So some of that stance on fossil fuels might have to change if there was any chance of a new deal between the Greens and the SNP.
Ms Slater said: “It would be, of course, for the largest party in Holyrood to approach us if they wished us to join them in government.
“There has been a real drift in the SNP since the Bute house agreement fell apart, back towards policies that the Greens don’t support – for example, more drilling in the North Sea.
“They’ve backed away from many of their climate targets, reduction of car kilometres. For example they pulled Patrick Harvie’s Heat in Buildings bill, which would have insulated homes around Scotland, and started decarbonising our housing infrastructure.
“I think it will be a real stretch if the two parties were to work again, because we’d need to see the SNP back on board with tackling the climate crisis, and back on board with building a more progressive Scotland. So we would have to see what, what position the First Minister was going to take after the election.”
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