Meeting of the Parliament 26 May 2026 [Draft]
No.
The best way to grow support for Scottish self-government is to do self-government well—to maximise the use of the powers that we have. That is the focus of today’s Green amendment. The powers of this Parliament are limited, but we have not yet exhausted them.
In 2014, we grew support for independence by tying it to a sense of hope and optimism. I do not feel that there is a lot of hope and optimism in Scottish politics right now. There is a deep sense of frustration with our public services.
We have a lot to be proud of from the era of devolution. For example, Scotland is the only part of the United Kingdom in which child poverty is falling. However, too many reforms have been delayed and deferred—most obviously, council tax reform.
On housing, if we had the borrowing powers of a normal nation, we could build far more. However, what we can do right now is set standards to cut bills through energy efficiency—for new builds in particular. We can use the rent control powers that this Parliament passed just a few months ago to help people to save and keep a roof over their heads.
Our health service is crying out for reforms, some major and structural but others very simple. People just want the services on which they rely every day to work. They just want someone to pick up the phone at their GP surgery when they call.
When it comes to our environment, there is no need to wait for independence to clean up our rivers and our lochs.
We can do all those things to demonstrate that, when decisions are made here, they benefit people and the planet. We can grow support for full self-government through independence by maximising the use of the self-governing powers that we have right now, but we should also do it because it is the right thing to do, here and now, regardless of constitutional objectives.
I will close on that note. There is a majority for independence in this Parliament, but not a single-party majority. Every progressive party in the Parliament has the opportunity to work with others—to co-operate, collaborate and move Scotland forward on the areas on which we agree. The vast majority of members of the Parliament agree on the need to eradicate child poverty, and a vast majority agree on the need to take action to tackle the climate emergency.
As Gillian Mackay noted last week, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats—the two Opposition parties that co-operated with the Government to secure progress on the areas that we cared about—gained at the last election. There is something for every party to learn from that.
The Greens will be proud to support the motion, although we will also push for our amendment, because we believe in the cause of independence—putting Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands—and we also believe that the Parliament has a duty to act here and now to give our children the best possible future that they can have, to help people to save money on their bills, to lift families out of poverty and to tackle the climate emergency. The Parliament is more than capable of pursuing Scotland’s constitutional future and taking action on the issues that affect people in their lives here and now.
I move amendment S7M-00105.3, to insert at end:
“; believes that the most effective way in which to grow public support for Scottish independence and to meet the scale of the challenges currently facing Scotland is through more effective use of existing devolved powers; recognises that meeting the Scottish Government’s stated ambitions will require a significant escalation in action and ambition; notes that no one party holds a majority in the current parliamentary session, but that there is a clear majority for progressive values, and agrees that, if all progressive parties work constructively and collaboratively, Scotland can be a fairer, greener and kinder country where household costs are reduced, where wealth is distributed more equally and where climate and natural environment are protected.”
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