JOHNSTONE: CYCLE PLAN NEEDS CASH TO SUCCEED

19 June 2013 

The Greens are calling for today's revised Cycle Action Plan for Scotland to be matched with new funding from across Scottish Government budgets to meet its ambitions.

The Greens led a Scottish Parliament debate on cycling last year, and started the Cross Party Group on Cycling.

Alison Johnstone, Green MSP and Co-convenor of the Cross Party Group on Cycling said:

"There is much to welcome in this revised plan but funding remains the biggest weakness and we can’t expect everyone to do more without new money. Investing in better infrastructure isn't cheap, but will save our health service a huge amount and we should draw far more on the large health budget and look at raising more income too. We need creative thinking from the Scottish Government to build a once-in-a-generation fund to bring our streets up to European standards.

“The Scottish Government and local authorities must now rise to meet the challenge of delivering this plan, drawing on the expertise of cycling organisations and from countries that are way ahead of us. An annual summit of local transport leaders should provide much needed political leadership, but there is still no clear path mapped out to show how we are going to get to 10% of journeys by bike.

"I'm particularly pleased to see that the Greens' call for all pupils to have access to on-road cycle training by 2015 has been included as an outcome, but to achieve this we are going to need more paid trainers in our schools.

"I'm disappointed that the Minister is dismissing the debate on strict liability before really listening to the arguments. We need to rebalance the relationship between motor vehicles and cyclists on our roads, and using the law to do this deserves serious discussion."

SCOTTISH GREENS LODGE OFFICIAL COMPLAINT WITH BBC QUESTION TIME

13 June 2013

Scottish Greens have lodged an official complaint with the BBC about the lack of balance on Question Time, and have asked for an urgent meeting with corporation managers so they can explain how they will remedy the problem.

Tonight's edition of the programme comes from Edinburgh, features an audience of 16 and 17 year olds and is billed on the BBC website as including discussion on independence.

The panel comprises a representative of the SNP, a non-party political journalist and four anti-independence politicians, two of whom do not represent Scottish constituencies nor do they have any party representation in Scotland. Yet there is no Scottish Green representation despite the party having 2 MSPs and 14 councillors. Scottish Greens have only appeared on Question Time once in the 14 years since the start of the Scottish Parliament – and that was over two years ago.

Scottish Greens Co-convener Patrick Harvie MSP said:

"Tonight's Question Time line up is particularly bizarre, and following a telephone discussion with the editor it is clear to me that this programme has been contrived to deliver sensationalist confrontation, rather than serious debate. The lack of balance is staggering and I know from comments we've received it's not just Green supporters who are alarmed.

"This situation is particularly unacceptable a week before the Scottish Parliamentary by-election in Aberdeen Donside, which should require particular attention to political balance. The BBC has shown serious misjudgement in allowing tonight's programme to go ahead and we look forward to meeting senior managers to discuss how they intend to rectify a situation that will have harmed the broadcaster's reputation for fairness."



The complaint from the Scottish Green Party to the BBC's Executive Editor Hayley valentine and Phil Abrams of the Editorial Policy Unit is as follows...

Dear Ms Valentine,

We wish to object in the strongest possible terms to the choice of panellists for BBC Question Time tonight (13 June). This follows our consistent raising of concern over a number of years about the Scottish Greens’ lack of representation on the programme; in 14 years of continuous Parliamentary representation, we have been invited to participate on 1 single occasion. That occasion was nearly two and a half years ago.

Tonight’s programme will be coming from Edinburgh, with an audience of 16 & 17 year olds, debating independence – this is specifically billed on the BBC website. The panel chosen is extremely skewed on the independence question; with only one panellist explicitly committed to independence as a preferred constitutional option, the programme is showing no balance whatsoever on this crucial question.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie is a member of the Yes Scotland advisory board and could have provided the required balance; he is also a member of Referendum Bill Committee in Parliament, which has been handling the legislation to reduce the voting age to 16. Given that this decision is being made by the Scottish Parliament, we can see no basis for the decision to include only one MSP on the panel, and specifically one who is opposed to the reduction in the voting age.

George Galloway is an MP for an English constituency representing a political party, Respect, which literally does not exist in Scotland, and contests no elections. On the one occasion when they did, Mr Galloway stood for election in Glasgow and even in a PR election was only able to secure 3.3% of the vote.

Nigel Farage has also been added to the panel at the last minute. UKIP has no elected representation in Scotland at any level, as against SGP’s 2 MSPs and 14 local councillors. In the last Scottish Parliament election they secured 0.91% of regional votes across Scotland.

This panel is taking place during the Aberdeen Donside by-election, and the BBC has a duty to demonstrate balance at such a time. Donside is part of the North East Scotland region, where UKIP achieved 0.9% of the vote in the 2011 election.

The rationale for this selection may include UKIP’s recent success in the English local elections. UKIP now have approximately the same number of local councillors as GPEW, despite blanket media coverage. But this is NOT an English local election, it’s a debate with a Scottish independence focus, taking place during a Scottish Parliamentary by-election.

This failure even to attempt balance in party political terms, or in terms of the referendum debate is surely a breach of the BBC’s duty to impartiality. Patrick Harvie discussed these various points with Nicolai Gentchev this morning, and our head of media Jason Rose raised them with Phil Abrams of the BBC policy unit. Mr Gentchev defended the decision to include Mr Farage on the programme citing his recent encounter with protesters in Edinburgh; we are deeply disturbed if the BBC’s flagship political debate programme gives greater attention to political stunts than to fair balance.

We seek an urgent meeting to discuss how you intend to redress this situation, not only in the short term but in the run-up to the referendum in 2014.

Yours sincerely,

Martha Wardrop and Patrick Harvie, Co-conveners of the Scottish Green Party

EMPLOYMENT: SMALL BUSINESS SUPPORT CRUCIAL SAYS JOHNSTONE

12 June 2013 

Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and a member of Holyrood's economy committee, is urging further investment in small businesses to help drive down youth unemployment.

The number of jobless in Scotland fell by 6,000 to 194,000 between February and April this year. Youth unemployment was 6.1 per cent lower than the same period last year.

The Scottish Government has today (12 June) announced measures to support youth employment, including a £37million SME Growth Programme.

Alison said:

"It's encouraging to see this drop. But we continue to see problems in our economy where people want to do more hours to cope with the rising cost of living but can't get the work. And we continue to see small and micro businesses squeezed out of being able to bid for public contracts.

"Investment by the Scottish Government in small and medium sized businesses to take on young people is very welcome. I'd like to see more of this kind of initiative rather than the false economy of tax cuts to lure big businesses with what are usually poorly paid, insecure jobs. By growing our local economies and our small businesses we have a better chance of success."

GOVERNMENT MISSES 2ND CO2 TARGET: GREENS DEMAND DEBATE

7 June 2013 

Scottish Greens are demaning an urgent debate in parliament following the failure to meet Scotland's legally-binding greenhouse gas reduction targets for the second year in a row.

Figures released today (7 June) show Scotland emitted almost a million tonnes of CO2 equivalent more than the target laid down in the Climate Change Act. This follows last year's figures which showed a similar failure.

The target for 2011 was 53.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. Emissions were 54.2 million.

Patrick Harvie, Green MSP for Glasgow and Co-convener of the Scottish Greens, said:

"This latest failure should be ringing alarm bells at the Scottish Government but instead ministers are showing breathtaking complacency. To claim we're on course to meet the target in 2020 is utter spin; the need to compensate for their failure will clearly make things harder.

"Last year the government buried the figures during the summer recess to avoid scrutiny. Their lucklustre report on proposals and policies to address emissions must be updated and brought before parliament before summer recess at the end of this month.

"This government has failed to invest in the transport, energy and housing policies that would make a real difference. Instead they're blowing billions on bigger roads and they're determed to prop up the fossil fuel industry. It's increasingly clear we won't deliver on our climate change commitments unless we put Green policies at the heart of Scotland's economic agenda."

Figures from Scotland’s Chief Statistician


Minister claims Scotland is "on course"

RESEARCH SHOWS LOGIC OF LEFT VOTING YES IN INDYREF

6 June 2013 

Responding to analysis by ScotCen Social Research, Green MSP Patrick Harvie says it is increasingly clear that left-leaning voters who care about social justice should vote Yes in next year's independence referendum.

ScotCen authors Rachel Ormston and John Curtice conclude those who are on the left are more likely to think that the Scottish Parliament should decide on taxes and are no less likely to feel that Holyrood should decide on benefits. They say this means arguments from left-leaning Unionist parties against devolving welfare do not appear to resonate with left-leaning voters.

Patrick Harvie, Green MSP for Glasgow and Co-convener of the Scottish Greens, said:

"This new analysis confirms that Labour politicians are out of step with many of their natural supporters. Voters won't be fooled by suggestions that a better society is only possible by keeping Scotland tied to Westminster.

"It's increasingly clear to those of us who value the welfare state, fair taxation and high quality public services that a Yes vote is the best chance of protecting those values. If we vote No, further devolution to Scotland will be off the UK parties’ agenda for a generation. By that time there could be nothing left of the welfare state to save, and inequality in our society would be dramatically worse. It’s vital that we don’t make that mistake."