ROSS GREER has pitched an alternative Scottish independence strategy to rival First Minister John Swinney’s.
The Scottish Greens MSP said he intends to publish it in full if he becomes one of his party's new co-leaders later this month, telling The National that it involves using existing powers effectively, as well as pushing the limits of devolution and picking more fights with the UK Government.
The First Minister put forward his plans for Scottish independence last month, saying getting a second referendum could only be achieved if the SNP win a majority in Holyrood.
It has been met by much opposition from SNP members, with at least 43 SNP branches backing a rival proposal, and a separate rebel meeting to be held in September ahead of the party’s conference in Aberdeen in October.
“It's quite obviously a strategy to try and get the SNP re-elected without advancing the cause of independence,” Greer said of Swinney’s proposal.
“We all know that having a clear majority in the Scottish Parliament is an essential prerequisite. But, in and of itself, that's not enough."
He went on: “What is essential to us actually achieving independence is building and sustaining majority support for it. And on a wider level, making the people of this country actually feel optimistic about Scotland's future.”
The Scottish Greens MSP said that his strategy involves building support by “maximising the good that we can do with the powers of devo”.
“We make it really clear to people that when powers are held here in Scotland, they're used to materially improve their lives,” Greer added.
“If we don't use the powers that we've already got to their full potential, it is very hard to sell people on the idea that giving our parliament more powers will solve their problems.”
He then said that his strategy also involves going into the “grey areas between what's devolved and reserved” and “essentially dare the UK Government to stop us”.
“If they want to step in and stop the Scottish Government from doing something that is popular and beneficial to the people who live here, that's not going to hurt the independence cause,” Greer said.
He went on: “And where we hit those limits, and there's something else that we need – specific powers that are currently reserved – we should be challenging the UK Government to devolve those too. We should at the very least make them say why they don't believe the Scottish Parliament should be able to exercise that power.”
Asked for some examples of where he’d like to see the Scottish Government push the limits of devolution, Greer said there is “much more” that could be done in the space of drugs policy and workers rights.
“There's much more we could do to crack down on exploitative and unscrupulous employers. There are conditions that we can attach to procurement – so, whether or not you get a public sector contract or to the grants that hundreds of thousands of businesses across Scotland receive from the Scottish Government and its agencies.
“We can attach conditions to crack down on really poor employment practices like banning unpaid trial shifts.”
He added: “We can crack down on companies making workers here redundant and offshoring those jobs then receiving further public contracts.
“There are all sorts of ways in which we can really push the limits of devolution with employment law that will make a really tangible improvement in the lives of people in this country.”
The Scottish Greens – when the party was in government as part of the Bute House Agreement – spearheaded legislation to introduce Scotland’s own deposit return scheme.
Despite the UK Government initially allowing devolved nations to design their own scheme, it refused to provide the Scottish Government with an exemption from the Internal Market Act, particularly in relation to the inclusion of glass in the scheme.
This led to it being scrapped in 2023, with the Scottish Government now facing a £166m legal claim from Biffa Waste Services, which had been hired to collect recycled containers.
With that being an example of the Scottish Government pushing the limits of devolution and facing a brick wall, The National asked Greer how this strategy would navigate such challenges.
Greer responded by saying that the UK Government has been “much smarter” when it comes to picking fights over devolution.
“The three most obvious examples are the deposit return scheme, gender recognition reforms, and banning traps to improve animal welfare,” he said.
“The vast majority of people in Scotland support some kind of deposit return scheme. [But] it's an issue that very few people care so deeply about that it's going to change how they vote on the constitution.”
Greer added: “Gender recognition reform is an incredibly important issue. But it's also very divisive within both Yes and No, so it's not the kind of issue that moves people from one side to the other.
"And glue traps would also fit under the category of being something that the vast majority of people, if asked, would want to ban for the sake of animal welfare. But again, it's not going to shift how they vote.”
He added: “It was absolutely right to hold the line on gender recognition reform, both because that was a modest reform that would have improved the lives of trans people, and also because it was outrageous for the UK Government to step into what was unquestionably a devolved area like that.
“But if we can pick fights over areas that are unquestionably popular and where people could see the benefit of Holyrood winning the fight. That is either going to result in our success – we're then able to deliver that policy and improve people's lives – or the UK Government steps in and vetoes it, which makes it even clearer to people that these are the kind of powers they need to set here, not at Westminster.”
He gave the example of powers over introducing a wealth tax in Scotland, which is currently limited by devolved powers.
“We can tax wealth. That is effectively what the council tax is. It's a tax on the most common form of wealth, which is property. But it's not what people are really talking about most of the time when they refer to a wealth tax,” Greer said.
“If that power were to be a wider power over taxation, we would be able to address the scandal that the top 2% of people in this country have more wealth than the bottom 50%. We would be able to tackle that inequality, invest in our public services, materially improve the lives of people who live here right now, and build that sense of hope and optimism that this country is improving – that it's getting better, that it's moving forward."
He added: “We know that wealth taxation and fair taxes on the super rich are overwhelmingly popular.
“And again, if the UK Government really wants to step in to defend the interests of the super rich and deprive the Scottish NHS of more funding then they're welcome to do that, but at that point they are once again making the argument for independence for us.”
