Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
SNP Ends Coalition with Greens
TheScottish National Party has governed Scotland for a great many years. Most recently, it has done so with the support of the Green Party. However, the SNP has decided to fall back from its environmental promises for economic reasons, and the Greens were not happy. They had arranged for a vote next month by their membership to end the coalition. The SNP beat them to the punch by renouncing the coalition agreement. They are now ruling Scotland as a minority party. There is almost certain to be a move to hold a general election, and the UK is due to have one before January ends. Independence is moving farther and farther away. And no one is to blame but the SNP.
The death knell of the SNP is probably a long way off yet, if it ever comes. However, the shady finances that have brought the resignation of the First Minister and the charging of her husband with embezzlement have put the party in the doghouse with most Scottish voters, even those who want independence.
Dominic Penna, writing for the Telegraph Politics newsletter produced at the Telegraph, stated,
SNP is facing a reckoning
For more than a year now, the headlines about the SNP have been almost exclusively negative. Sturgeon was in many respects the glue holding a fragmented party together, and her downfall amid a transgender row triggered a foul-tempered leadership contest. . . .
A poll earlier this month showed Labour surging ahead of their nationalist opponents for the first time in decades, an extraordinary turnaround after 17 years in power. The general election is likely to come as a reckoning for the SNP and turn the Scottish political landscape on its head after more than a year of scandals, splits and sleaze claims.
When a coalition ends, a governing minority can continue if it has the benign neglect of its former partners. It is conceivable that the Greens could continue to support the SNP on a confidence and supply basis (ensuring the budget is passed and any matters that are issues of confidence in the government do not lead to the fall of the government). In this instance, though, one would be amazed if that were to happen.
David Bol of the I wrote, "Expect the Greens to ramp up their demands on climate and transgender rights. But don't expect them to be pleasant when the SNP rows back on its pledges. The era of the co-operative Greens is over, but it is likely the activist Greens as opponents of the SNP will return ever louder."
That is the trouble with Green Parties the world over. In the 1980s in Germany, the Greens divided between the realos (pragmatists willing to cut deals) and fundis (hardcore ideologues who did not want to make deals). If that dichotomy is moved to present day Scotland, the realos just got turfed out of government, and the fundis are there to pick up the pieces.
Co-Leader of the Greens, Patrick Harvie went so far as to say, "We now expect to see a raft of progressive policies watered down, delayed or ditched altogether from rent controls to nature restoration, to new, sustainable transport policies to Scotland’s leading approach to decarbonising homes."
When asked if the Greens would support the budget in December despite the falling out, Mr. Harvie replied, "You think the current Scottish Government will still be in place by the next budget?"
This journal foresees a Labour First Minister in a coalition. The Unionists will be running the show.
© Copyright 2024 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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