Election / Young people fuelling Greens surge locally, party’s co-leader says
Ross Greer says he is ‘proud’ of protests against Nigel Farage
THE CO-LEADER of the Scottish Greens believes the party will be the top choice for voters under the age of 30 on 7 May’s election day.
Ross Greer was the latest politician to arrive in the isles this week, knocking on doors with the Shetland Greens throughout Friday before a short media event in Lerwick’s Park Lane.
The 31-year-old has been a party member since the age of 15, and said that there was a growing groundswell of young volunteers – particularly in Shetland.
“I’m increasingly confident that the Greens are going to win outright, we are going to come first with voters under the age of 30 across the country,” he told Shetland News at a blustery Park Lane.
“And certainly from what I’ve experienced today, we’re going to do that in Shetland.”
Greer’s visit came at the end of a difficult week for the local Green branch, who have come under scrutiny for their protest during Nigel Farage’s short visit to Lerwick on Tuesday.
Party members have been challenged on doorsteps about the Farage protest this week.
But Greer strongly defended the local Greens, said he was “proud” to see what happened in the isles on Tuesday.
“I was certainly proud to see Shetland Green members and others let Nigel Farage know that they reject the kind of divisive politics that he stands for,” he said.
“He is a man of the super-rich, his party exists to further the interests of the super-rich. His big donors don’t even live in the UK.
“I’m proud that the Greens stand up to that kind of politics, and do so respectfully. It was a respectful protest.”
Greer, who has been the Scottish Green co-leader since August 2025, said even those who did not agree with his party’s policies “can respect that we are open, honest and straightforward about what we believe in”.
“We believe in the politics of unity, politics of hope,” he added.
“We will make sure that stand for hatred and division in our communities know that not everybody welcomes that.”
Greer arrived in the isles the day after the Scottish Greens manifesto was launched nationally.
In it, the party pledged to launch a pilot project in Shetland to address the shortage of dentists.
Asked to elaborate on this, Greer said that – if elected – they would look to engage with NHS Shetland and Shetland Islands Council first about how the project could work.
However he explained that they wanted to bring more dental care into the NHS, and to remove dental charges, to allow more people to access care.
“A lot of people in Scotland are in a lot of dental pain but not going to the dentist because they can’t afford to.
“There’s no one magic wand you can wave to solve the shortage of dentists in places like Shetland.
“For us, the key first step is to deliver more of it through the NHS rather than through private practice dentists. And we need to resolve the issues around housing on top of that.”
He stressed the pilot would need to work for the people of Shetland, adding: “The last thing you want is to impose a pilot from Edinburgh on the local community.”
Asked when it could be in place, Greer said he would like to see it set up within six to 12 months after the election result.
“The quicker we can bring something like that in, the better,” he added.
Tackling housing in island areas also forms a large part of the Greens manifesto, and Greer said that AirBnBs and empty homes – of which there are around 400 in Shetland – played a major role in this.
Park Lane was a fitting place for the conversation, with a number of empty homes flanking the community garden.
Greer said he wanted to see the public sector pension fund, which he called an “untapped area of investment”, used to tackle a lack of housing.
“They’re looking for stable long term investments with a guaranteed return,” he explained.
“That’s housing – there’s always going to be a need for housing and always going to be a return through rental income.”
Another suggestion was for councils to be given compulsory purchase and sale powers, to buy up empty homes and to sell them to prospective homeowners.
Having spent his morning knocking on doors, Greer said energy bills were a key issue for many Shetlanders.
The Green party would look to tackle this by providing people with “more grants, more loans” for better insulation in their homes.
But he said it was “incredibly frustrating” that the big powers over energy rested with the UK Government – something he said was “one of the reasons” why the Greens support Scottish independence.
Reflecting on the party’s popularity among young people, Greer said that when he joined the party there were “more students at my high school than there were members of the party”.
Now, however, there are more than 10,000 members across Scotland – many of them, “particularly here in Shetland” he said, are young people.
“I think a lot of young people just want a sense of hope about their future,” he said.
“We’re fighting relentlessly to actually fix the problems that they face.”
The candidates standing in May’s election are, in alphabetical order: Alex Armitage (Greens), Vic Currie (Reform), Douglas Barnett (Conservatives), John Erskine (Labour), Hannah Mary Goodlad (SNP), Emma Macdonald (Liberal Democrats), Brian Nugent (Alliance to Liberate Scotland) and Peter Tait (independent).
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