Scottish Green Party

Scottish Green Party Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba Scots Grein Pairty
Co-Convenors	Martha Wardrop and Patrick Harvie
Representatives in the Scottish Parliament	Alison Johnstone and Patrick Harvie
Founded	1990
Headquarters	Bonnington Mill 72 Newhaven Road Edinburgh
Newspaper	Greenprint
Youth wing	Scottish Young Greens
Membership  (December 2010)	1,200
Ideology	Green politics, Pacifism, Social Liberalism Ecosocialism Scottish republicanism Scottish independence
Political position	Left-wing
International affiliation	Global Greens
European affiliation	European Green Party
European Parliament group	N/A
UK Parliament affiliation	None, Cooperates with the Green Party of England and Wales and Green Party of Northern Ireland
Colours	Green
Scottish Parliament	2 / 129
Local government in Scotland	14 / 1,223
Website
http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/
Politics of Scotland Political parties Elections

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The Scottish Green Party (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba; Scots: Scots Green Pairty) is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament: Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian; and Patrick Harvie, representing Glasgow. It is the only party other than the Scottish National Party to both support Scottish independence and have representation in Scottish Parliament.

Organisation

The Scottish Green Party is fully independent, but works closely with the other green parties of the United Kingdom and Ireland: the Green Party of England and Wales, the Green Party in Northern Ireland and the Green Party of Ireland. It is a full member of the European Green Party. The party currently has two MSPs and fourteen councillors.

At the 2005 Westminster election, the party contested 19 seats and gained 25,760 votes. Its top result was 7.7% of the vote in Glasgow North, a major breakthrough in the West of Scotland. In the European Parliament election of 2004, it missed out on a seat with 6.8% of the vote. However, the party lost five of their seven seats in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election.

According to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission for the year ending December 31, 2009, the party had an income of about £90,230 that year, an expenditure of £61,165 and a membership of 1,072.

History

The Scottish Green Party was a constituent part of the former UK Green Party until 1990, when the Scottish Green Party became a separate entity. The separation was entirely amicable, as part of the green commitment to decentralisation: the Scottish Green Party supports a referendum on Scottish independence.

The Scottish Green Party benefits from the fact that the British government created a Scottish Parliament, which is elected using the additional member system of proportional representation. In the first election to this Parliament, in 1999, the Scottish Green Party got one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) elected by proportional representation, Robin Harper, the UK's first Green Parliamentarian. On 1 May 2003 the Scottish Greens added six new MSPs to their previous total.

In the 2007 elections, the Party lost five seats in Holyrood. However in the council elections, taking place under the new Single Transferable Vote voting system, they gained three Councillors on the City of Edinburgh Council and five Councillors on Glasgow City Council.

On 11 May 2007, the Greens signed an agreement with the Scottish National Party, which meant that the Greens voted for Alex Salmond as First Minister and supported his initial Ministerial appointments. In return, the Nationalists backed a climate change bill as an early measure and promised to legislate against ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Firth of Forth. The SNP also agreed to nominate Patrick Harvie, one of the Green MSPs, to convene one of the Holyrood committees: Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change.

On 28 January 2009, the two Green MSPs were instrumental in the defeat of the Government's budget, though a slightly amended version was passed easily the following week.

On 31 May 2009, Cllr Martin Ford, formerly a Liberal Democrat, joined the Scottish Green Party in protest against the plans by Donald Trump to develop on an important environmental site at Menie. On 13 October 2009, he was joined by fellow former Liberal Democrat Cllr Debra Storr. Both Councillors continued to serve on Aberdeenshire Council as members of the Democratic Independent group. Councillor Debra Storr stood down at the 2012 Scottish local elections to concentrate on her professional career. Councillor Martin Ford was successfully re-elected, this time standing as a Scottish Green Party candidate.

After the Scottish Government announced the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence, a campaign group called Yes Scotland was established to promote a vote for independence. Leading members of the Scottish Green Party have actively supported and become involved with the campaign since its foundation, with Patrick Harvie among the members of Yes Scotland's Advisory Board.

Policy

According to the party's website, current policy is guided by the party's 2005 Westminster election, 2007 Holyrood election, and 2009 European election manifestos.

According to the same website, the party is committed to forming a sustainable society, and is guided by four interconnected principles:

• Ecology: Our environment is the basis upon which every society is formed. Whenever we damage our environment, we damage ourselves. Respect for our environment is therefore essential.
• Equality: A society that is not socially and economically just cannot be sustainable. Only when released from immediate poverty can individuals be expected to take responsibility for wider issues. Our society must be founded on cooperation and respect. We campaign hard against discrimination on grounds of gender, race, sexuality, disability, age or religion.
• Radical Democracy: Politics is too often conducted in a polarised, confrontational atmosphere and in a situation remote from those that it affects. We must develop decentralised, participative systems that encourage individuals to control the decisions that affect their own lives.
• Peace and Nonviolence: Violence at all levels of human interaction must be rejected and succeeded by relations characterised by flexibility, respect and fairness.

The party claims that, taken together, these principles give the party a holistic view that is in common with all Green parties around the world.

MSPs

All of the Scottish Green Party's Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) have been elected under the list or "top-up" system of representation in the Parliament.

Current MSPs

• Alison Johnstone is MSP for Lothian
• Patrick Harvie is MSP for Glasgow and was elected male Co-Convenor of the Party in November 2008.

Previous MSPs

• Shiona Baird for North East Scotland.
• Chris Ballance for the South of Scotland.
• Mark Ballard for the Lothians.
• Robin Harper for the Lothians. First UK Green Parliamentarian
• Mark Ruskell for Mid Scotland and Fife.
• Eleanor Scott for the Highlands and Islands. Elected Co-Convenor of the Party in November 2008.

Councillors

The party made its first major breakthroughs at council level in the 2007 local elections, electing 8 councillors. In the 2012 local elections this was increased to 14. To date, no Scottish Green Party councillor has lost their seat.

Aberdeenshire Council

• Martin Ford (East Garioch ward)

City of Edinburgh Council

• Steve Burgess (Southside/Newington ward)
• Maggie Chapman (Leith Walk ward)
• Melanie Main (Meadows/Morningside ward)
• Gavin Corbett (Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart ward)
• Chas Booth (Leith ward)
• Nigel Bagshaw (Inverleith ward)

Glasgow City Council

• Liam Hainey (Langside Ward)
• Nina Baker (Anderston/City ward)
• Martin Bartos (Partick West ward)
• Martha Wardrop (Hillhead ward)
• Kieran Wild (Canal ward)

Midlothian Council

• Ian Baxter (Bonnyrigg Ward)

Stirling Council

• Mark Ruskell (Dunblane & Bridge of Allan Ward)

Previous councillors

Prior to the 2007 elections, the Party had only ever elected one councillor at local level: in May 1990, Roger (aka Rory) Winter, representing the Highland Green Party (Uainich na Gàidhealtachd), was elected in Nairn as Scotland's first Green regional councillor to the then Highland Regional Council. Cllr Winter broke away from the Greens in 1991 and continued his four-year term as an Independent Green Highlander.

Electoral performance

Election	Percentage of Scottish vote	Seats won	Additional Information
1999 Scottish Parliament Election	3.6%	1 seat	Robin Harper became the first Green parliamentarian in Britain.
1999 European Parliament Election	5.8%	0 seats
2001 General Election	0.2%	0 seats
2003 Scottish Parliament Election	6.9%	7 seats
2004 European Parliament Election	6.8%	0 seats
2005 General Election	1.1%	0 seats
2007 Scottish Parliament Election	4.0%	2 seats
2009 European Parliament Election	7.3%	0 seats	The highest ever vote share the party has achieved.
2010 General Election	0.7%	0 seats
2011 Scottish Parliament Election	4.4%	2 seats

See also

• Green politics
• List of environmental organizations

External links

• Official site