With two by-elections coming up at the end of the month, the Edinburgh Greens are working on continuing their period of success in the capital.
Around 100+ members convened at Bellfield in Portobello on Saturday for a campaigning session, joined by the party co-leaders, MSPs Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer.
Ms Mackay said that the party has just had its best Holyrood election ever, adding: “We could, at the local authority elections probably be in charge of a couple of councils – and this is certainly one of them. We should be out there, and we should be running Edinburgh Council at the next elections. What a statement of intent it would be to get these two brand new Green councillors.”
The Portobello/Craigmillar candidate, Lorenzo Martinico, also predicted in his speech that if the current surge in their popularity continues, The Scottish Greens could return the largest Edinburgh council group at the elections in May next year, and step into the administration role.
This would follow the party’s victory in having Lorna Slater elected as the party’s first constituency MSP in the city, taking Edinburgh Central from the incumbent SNP minister, Angus Robertson.
Mr Martinico said: “If Isabella and I are elected, it will show people that last May wasn’t a fluke. Greens can win when they go head to head with all the other parties. It will put us in an even better position for next year as we go into the local authority elections. Edinburgh could be the first city with the Greens at the helm.”
Before then, after the September by-elections, if the Greens win in both Wards, they would expand their current group of 10 councillors to 12. This would not be the largest council group, but it would mean they could expand their influence.
Portobello/Craigmillar already has one Green councillor, but the council vacancy arises from the resignation of former SNP councillor, Kate Campbell, who was elected to The Scottish Parliament in May.
“Parents of trans kids need Green representation”
Cllr Mumford introduced the session on Saturday morning (including a special mystery guest) by saying that people here “really need a second Green councillor”. She explained that: “Parents of trans kids tell us that their children are feeling too scared to go to school and they need people in the City Chambers representing them.”
She also said that electing another Green councillor would offer more support to the residents in the areas of Bingham and Magdalene – where more than half of the residents live in social housing. She said that these people need the Greens “to challenge a system where council rents are propping up a broken housing system”.
Cllr Mumford mentioned the “unjust care costs” which she claims mean that people end up in debt just for caring for their loved ones. She also said there is a rise in racist rhetoric “creating more families who are telling me that they feel scared that maybe they’re no longer welcome in the neighbourhoods that they’ve chosen to call home.”
The Green councillor said that in Portobello the effects of climate change are real where the “infrastructure is crumbling all along the seawall” and that Greens are the only party who take this seriously and “name the problem”.
Co-leader, Ross Greer MSP, encouraged the party members to do even better than their colleagues in Southside/Newington where they are “knocking on around 1,000 doors a week at the moment”. He said: “We get people elected to change the world. The end goal isn’t elected councillors or MSPs. It’s what we can do with the power of those elected offices.”
He cited the introduction of rent controls as one of the Green party’s achievements in the last parliament, but said these will be implemented by councillors, making this an important by-election.
Zack Polanski visit to Edinburgh
Greer introduced the mystery guest, Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green Party in England and Wales, who said he could feel the enthusiasm and energy in the room. He said: “So this is a local election, but the state of politics right now, both nationally and internationally, often doesn’t quite feel like it has that energy.” He acknowledged that a local election does not change all of that but people’s first experience of politics is often the local council, “the person who turns up on the doorstep who knows that they have a worry about something that’s happening in the local area and does something to make a change.”
The Greens leader told the Edinburgh members that it is “grotesque” that the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, will not countenance another independence referendum in Scotland.
Polanski said: “In terms of Scottish independence, we have yet another prime minister in Westminster who doesn’t seem to have an adult relationship with Scotland, but an adult-child relationship with Scotland – who says no, no matter what you want, no matter what you voted for, you will not get that second independence referendum. That’s grotesque. It is treating Scotland as just yet another region of England and Wales. It’s incoherent, and also it’s deeply damaging. I think, to trust in politics.”
He also said that it looks to him as though every other party are retreating from climate action, “despite the fact we’re about to have our fifth heatwave of the year alone”.
He continued: “This is the exact moment that we have a new prime minister in Westminster who says that he has to be pragmatic about oil and gas, whereas we’re very clear that we need to stop Rosebank, we need to stop Jackdaw, we need to e investing in renewable energy, investing in the jobs of the future and investing in the workers who will take those jobs of the future.”
Rosebank near Shetland and Jackdaw, just 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, are two oil fields which were granted licences for drilling but these were revoked after court action by environmentalists. New prime minister, Andy Burnham has said he cannot ignore the resource.
The party leader was also critical of Andy Burnham’s stance on Gaza. He said: “Internationally, we see the devastation and destruction that is happening around the world, including again a new prime minister who apologises for Labour’s record on Gaza, but still doesn’t seem to be doing the material differences to stop the genocide, which would be to stop selling arms licenses to Israel, to stop sharing intelligence, and to call on an end to the genocide.”
As one of the two pro-independence parties which make up a majority in The Scottish Parliament, the Greens campaigned in May on gaining independence which would help them to introduce taxes such as a Wealth Tax.
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I sincerely hope not as I worry if they are suitable for the role remembering the bottlebank idea of Lorna Slater that would actually cost money but the SNP needed them to get their policies through so she got to carry on promoting it but it never happened as there was already a glass collection in operation but it still wasted money then quietly forgotten. Then there is the MSP who is operating under a visa so have their proposed Councillors got visas or not. are they actually Edinburgh residents? The one saving grace would be that effectively the Council is ruled by Holyrood who keep them underfunded and the money they are given is targeted to specific projects. Edinburgh is a mess walk along the street and the paving slabs click under your feet and move a fire occurs in Princes Street and the transport is thrown haywire diversions everywhere a month on cant see the Greens improving on that but then they appeal to students and Edinburgh is full of them tourists do not yet get a vote but have to wonder when that would change.
Fantastic reporting!
So says the fraud Dave Paulden! Just look at them: a collection of Marxists, socialists, communists and rejects all seeking self validation. Most have never built a business, run one or held a proper job outside politics and the public sector. Instead, they suckle at the government teat while indulging in the middle-class student politics they never outgrew. It is white privilege in action: self-appointed elites claiming to represent the proletariat while seeking to govern and control it. Oh, the irony!
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