Meeting of the Parliament 26 May 2026 [Draft]
Mr Hoy may have missed the fact that the Scottish Greens gave every voter in Scotland the opportunity to vote for us, and far more of them chose to do so than chose to vote for the Scottish Conservative Party.
As I said, I respect the arguments for the union and against independence, but I cannot respect the increasingly desperate means that are being used to justify denying the people of Scotland a choice over our future.
The Scottish Greens have always believed that independence is the best choice for Scotland, not as an end but as a means to a greater end. It is our route back into the European Union to undo the incredible damage that Brexit has done and to regain our European citizenships. It would give us the power to tackle poverty through things such as minimum wage laws. It would give us the full fiscal powers that we need to invest in the infrastructure for thriving communities and a successful economy. It would give us power over our energy systems, whereby we could make the switch from an energy regulation system that maximises the profits of a handful of companies to a system that provides affordable energy for everyone.
The independence movement of 2014 grew support for our cause by focusing on that vision and on what we can achieve with the powers of a normal nation. In the 12 years since then—I have to be honest—I think that far too much of our focus as a movement has been on process rather than on the cause and on that vision. We know that much of it is in Westminster’s hands. We believe that that is wrong, but it is the reality. We should focus on what we can change, which is public opinion. There is currently a marginal lead for independence in the polls, but we can concede that the issue is basically 50:50.