Viewpoint / Is voting SNP the best way to get Green things done?
In this ViewPoint contribution, author, former councillor and former parliamentary candidate, Dr Jonathan Wills takes on Green councillor Dr Alex Armitage whose decision to stand in next week’s Scottish election, he argues, undermines the SNP’s chance to win
THE GREEN Party’s campaign to win the Shetland seat in the Scottish Parliament is a curious business. Their candidate, the Green Party SIC councillor Alex Armitage, has already admitted the best he can hope for is second place. Even Brian Nugent of the Professional Outsider Party says, in public at least, that he’s “in it to win it”.
Dr Armitage describes himself as “scientifically literate”. Presumably he’s arithmetically literate as well, so he’ll have looked carefully at the results of recent parliamentary elections in Shetland. He’ll have extrapolated the numbers. These suggest that the more votes he gets, the more likely it is that the Liberal Democrats will win, despite their campaign, in which even a non-medical person can detect a pathological obsession with the SNP.
This collective Lib Dem nervous breakdown is now beyond effective treatment. It even seems to have stopped them laying out their detailed prospectus for government. That would be a waste of space anyway because, like Alex Armitage, the Lib Dems know they won’t be forming a government after 7th May, whoever wins in Shetland.
It’s interesting that Orkney’s Green councillor Kristopher Leask isn’t standing for the geographical constituency down there. But then he’s second on the Green Party’s list for the seven Highlands & Islands party list seats and so has a chance of being elected if SNP voters go Green on their list vote, as has often happened before in Orkney and Shetland.
Poor Alex is fifth on the Green Party’s list, which to the uncharitable may explain why he’s having a go at the Shetland geographical constituency seat, perhaps despite the advice of his party leadership. Fair enough, anyone can stand, after all. Hopeless as he admits his task is, he’s taking it seriously enough to present the electors with a detailed manifesto.
Forty-four shades of green
The Alex Armitage manifesto is rather long but after reading every line of it I don’t find a lot with which I can disagree. There are no fewer than 44 policy statements under nine subject headings, including some admirable goals such as these, which I’ve paraphrased because he does go on a bit:
- Reforming the examination system to give teachers flexibility to teach Shetland-based course materials;
- Insulating and modernising Shetland housing to reduce energy bills and carbon dioxide emissions;
- Replacing council tax with a fairer property tax that protects the hardest up people;
- Comfortable, affordable sleeping accommodation for all NorthLink passengers, with a women-only lounge;
- Giving community-owned energy projects guaranteed revenues and priority for connections to the National Grid;· Modernising and simplifying crofting law;
- ‘Grow Your Own’ investment to reduce Shetland’s dependence on imported food;
- A pause on new floating offshore wind farm developments around Shetland;
- Explore options for increased local control of Shetland’s fisheries;
- End the criminalisation of drugs possession, with better treatment and support.
Yes, I know, that’s lot of policies to take in at one sitting. There are another 34. However, I recommend you take the time to read all of these ‘44 Shades of Green’ because, if you do, you may notice that most of the Shetland Greens’ shopping list consists of things the SNP has already either promoted, accepted or is considering.
So I don’t understand why he’s opposing an SNP candidate whose party’s policies overlap so much with his own. It doesn’t make sense.
There will be some differences of opinion, no doubt, not least about our popular local charity Dogs Against Drugs, which Alex seems not to favour. Not everyone will agree we should decriminalise possession of hard drugs. Nor might we all support exempting NHS Shetland from ‘centrally prescribed programmes’ – some might ask if that would undermine national standards and make the medical postcode lottery worse. But these are points to discuss in detail, at that famous table where all eight candidates fancy a seat.
Alex doesn’t say a lot about how he’d pay for such desirable things as reducing class sizes to 20, free school meals for all pupils and free public transport for everyone within Shetland. Higher income tax? Higher council tax? If so, how much higher? Do tell!
Poll-vaulting ambition to be second
He has strong views about energy policy (which I share) but he’ll find it difficult to do much about that, even if he does succeed in his ‘poll-vaulting’ ambition to be the runner-up, up here. That’s because the Westminster Government, not Holyrood, controls such things as grid connections and electricity prices.
At the recent Climate Hustings (in an appropriately overheated room at Islesburgh Community Centre) the extent of agreement between Alex Armitage and the SNP’s Hannah Mary Goodlad on these controversial issues was very clear. If either of them smoked, there wouldn’t be the proverbial cigarette paper between them.
It was also clear at the hustings that Hannah Mary has the knowledge and experience to take on the energy corporations that Alex so rightly criticises, whereas he has more expertise in medical matters and the politics of the NHS.
Westminster also controls Scotland’s money, which is why SNP governments have found it so hard to implement all the good green things Alex and most of us want. His manifesto doesn’t say much about independence, which would give us full control of Scotland’s resources and allow increased spending. This reticence is odd. I assume he’s in full agreement with his party’s stance on Scottish self-government. Or is he a closet Liberal Unionist, as the potential effect of his candidacy might suggest?
But how to get Green things done?
The Green manifesto has some interesting ideas. All credit to Alex for laying them out so clearly, albeit at such length. Next comes the hard bit: how do we put these ideas into practice? What’s the most effective way to deliver civilised green policies, not only for the environment but for society as a whole?
Is it by electing a candidate with proven negotiating skills, who’ll support an experienced and reliable SNP administration committed to working with other parties at Holyrood? An SNP-led government that really can get green things done, perhaps in coalition with the Green Party if John Swinney doesn’t win a majority on 7thMay?
Or would we get quicker, better results by returning yet another Lib Dem backbencher, whose chances of electoral success, whether Alex admits it or not, are much increased by his own intervention in this contest?
Alex is an engaging character. His energetic and imaginative campaign has generated a lot of interest among some younger voters I know. Their commitment to a greener future gives renewed hope to old folk like me, because I’ve been involved in green-tinged political campaigning and environmental journalism since the Torrey Canyon oil spill back in 1967.
So I’m delighted that ideas regarded as outlandish 60 years ago, such as progressively and massively reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, are now ‘mainstream’ and, of course, SNP policy.
It will be a great pity if the Pied Piper of Scatness inadvertently leads his Green followers to a famous victory for a very tired old Liberal Democrat Party that, under one label and another, has represented Shetland for 177 of the 194 years since the Reform Act of 1832 and has nothing left to offer us except endlessly bleating “SNP baa-aaad!”
In elections for our local Shetland MSP since 2003 I’ve always voted SNP but have occasionally been tempted to vote Green on the list. Alex Armitage has removed that temptation. I’ve just voted by post, SNP 1 and 2. So it’s his fault if Orkney’s Green Councillor Kristopher Leask misses that list seat by just one vote.
There are eight candidates standing to become Shetland’s next constituency MSP. Details on each candidate can be found on our election pages below:
