I am a supporter of Scottish Independence but I also acknowledge that a significant amount of work needs to be done to ensure that when the next independence referendum happens, our case for independence and our vision for an independent Scotland need to be as bullet proof as possible (and trust me, there will be plenty of rogue bullets trying to hit their target!)

But why are the Scottish Greens critical to the Scottish Independence movement? Here are 3 key areas where the Scottish Greens add significant value to the Independence Movement:

The Global Green Movement:

One particular bullet that was shot at the independence movement was that it was just a bunch of Scottish nationalists with a blind love of their country and bigoted outward views towards the English. While this is certainly not true for the majority of Yes voters, small minorities gave the mainstream media and the No campaign all they needed to tar us all with the same brush.

However, what many people fail to realise is that the Green movement is a global movement. It is not an “organisation” with a specified leader but a cooperative of Green movements worldwide who share the same ideas and recognise that many of the world’s problems today cannot be resolved by inward focused Governments who set political agendas and policy with short term political gain in mind. It has a charter but does not enforce anything upon local Green movements in the same way the EU or UN or other organisations seek to do.

Unshackling the chains of Westminster would actually enable Scotland to have a much more outward looking, progressive role in the World and tackle issues that transcend any political borders that exist today and outside of the rigid international political organisations that already exist, e.g. the EU, UN, etc.

Financial System and National Currency:

Patrick Harvie was previously berated by certain people within the SNP for speaking out about the absurdity of having “Full Fiscal Autonomy” without having control of monetary policy (see previous article here http://bright-green.org/2015/07/05/an-snp-member-on-the-importance-of-the-scottish-greens/ ). It highlighted just how important the Greens are in the independence debate because the requirement to create our own central bank and currency in Scotland was a significant stick with which the No campaign beat us up.

Admittedly, the arguments the No campaign used showed little knowledge and much spin but the basic point was that it is critical that Scotland has control of its monetary policy; otherwise nothing much will change in an independent Scotland.

Energy Policy:

My brain has been slowly melting with barrage of “I told you so’s” when the oil price dropped after the referendum. You can try and explain that these things happen in cycles and illustrate that in graphical form if necessary but you will get absolutely nowhere.

The Scottish Greens have always said that there needs to be a transition to renewable energy and that energy supply should be controlled locally by socially owned renewable energy companies. Add to that the Scottish Greens absolute opposition to fracking and you have a vision of an independent Scotland that renders the price of a barrel of oil irrelevant.

This has to be at the forefront of any case for Scottish independence and is at the forefront of the Scottish Greens manifesto in the current parliament also.

The SNP bring a significant amount to the table in terms of getting to the end goal of Scottish Independence but a strong Green influence within the current Scottish parliament and in developing a strong vision for an independent Scotland is critical to success in any future referendum.

Now is the time for cross party collaboration among the pro-independence parties to ensure that a representative and bullet proof case for Scottish Independence is prepared and the vision for an independent Scotland is something to which the majority of people in Scotland can relate and appreciate!

Follow the author:

Twitter – @AlienInAttic

Facebook – www.facebook.com/AgitateAndChallengePolitics

Blog – http://www.agitateandchallenge.com/

Useful Links :

Global Greens Charter: https://www.globalgreens.org/globalcharter-english

Scottish Greens: https://greens.scot/

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