Guest Election Blog – Scottish Greens by Lucy Lapwing Hodson

Scottish Green Party Manifesto – by Lucy Lapwing

I am an environmental campaigner, writer, amateur-ish naturalist and enthusiastic toad-tickler. I worked in the conservation sector for eight years, and now work with Wild Justice on their campaigns. I also write about wildlife, organise other campaigns and events, and work a bit in wildlife telly.

I first voted in the 2010 general election, and awoke on May 7^th to a Conservative government just a month after my nineteenth birthday, which was excellent…

I joined the Labour Party aged 16, and have voted Labour in every general election since. I sat a term as a borough councillor in my early twenties, and voted in each Labour leadership race. I supported Jeremy Corbyn; I considered his vision of an equitable future for the most vulnerable folks in our society to be exciting and admirable. I left the Labour party in 2020, and have voted Green in local elections since then.

On July 4^th I’ll be voting in Scotland for the first time, in Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber.

This is my review of, and my thoughts about, the environmental implications of the Scottish Green’s election manifesto.

Things I like:

• Nature: They use the word ‘nature’ in their manifesto – and they actually mean nature – a total of 14 times. This might seem basic, but other parties haven’t used this word (or similar) once in their entire manifesto. Language is important; it shows consideration and at least a degree of commitment.
  
  
• Investment to restore peatlands and expand native forest; There is an implied commitment from the greens to restore ecologically functioning habitats, not simply to ram tens of thousands of trees (in plastic tubes) into the ground to reach climate targets. It’s good to have a party recognising that trees and woodlands aren’t the only one of nature’s answers to carbon capture; other habitats, particularly peatlands (who doesn’t love a sphagnum moss?!), are vital in both ecological and climate terms.
  
  
• Protect funding to support farmers developing regenerative agricultural practices; I might sound like a nerd, but I find regenerative agriculture very exciting. Fixing our relationship with land and food seems like one of the biggest ways to let nature flourish again in the UK. I’d like to see this commitment ramped up – more funding please Scottish Greens (and anyone else who’s listening). And whilst we’re at it – let’s have land equity so that more people have input into food growing!
  
  
• Using the law – The Scottish Greens are supporting the implementation of a Human Right to a Healthy Environment, as well as calling to recognise Ecocide as an International crime. To see each of these outcomes in legislation would be a big win. Laws are powerful (we hope you agree, if you’re reading this on Wild Justice’s blog), and if both of these come to exist, groups and individuals stand a better chance of using the system to defend both nature and the people being harmed by the nature crisis. It’s good to see the Scottish Greens supporting both of these initiatives.
  
  
• Sewage: I’m sick of having to check the Surfer’s Against Sewage app every time I get in the sea. And if I want to get in a river, I just have to cross my fingers and hope it’s not a sh*t-filled soup.The sewage crisis is appalling.Scottish Greens say they’ll call for ‘a major investment to upgrade the capacity of our sewage system’, including separating domestic sewage and rainwater systems. In a place of so much rain, like Scotland, this makes a ridiculous amount of sense. They also say they want ‘stronger powers for regulators to crack down on water companies, with unlimited fines and a ratcheting effect for repeat offenders.’ Wouldn’t it be great to get justice for this gross, smelly mess?!

• Revoke recently issued oil and gas licences, and prohibit and new ones. It’s surprising how other parties have avoided committing to this – what feels like a no-brainer in the climate emergency. They also discuss the legacy of this industry; decommissioning existing oil and gas fields. It’s good to see some long-term consideration of this issue.

• Climate policy: This is where the Scottish Greens feel particularly strong (which you might expect). I won’t cover everything, but it’s good to see a wide range of energy and transport issues covered, as well as advocation for a Green New Deal.

Things I don’t like:

• Light on detail: Some parts of the manifesto feel as though they’re written with confidence; their policies surrounding sewage, oil and gas licensing, and the law seem to be backed up with evidence.Others – like those discussing nature restoration and regenerative agriculture, contain no detailed statistics, figures or commitments.
  
• Who’s involved? Whilst it’s promising to read about the restoration of habitats (like woodlands and peatlands) there is relatively little detail explaining how this might happen. Any issue involving how land is used (and what it looks like) is inevitably sensitive; it’d be good to understand how communities and those local to areas of restoration will be involved and empowered.

Things that appear to be missing:

• Marine and Fishing issues; the manifesto lacks any policies or statements on issues affecting Scotland’s coasts. There’s scope here to discuss Marine Protected Areas, impacts of fishing (including Scallop Dredging and trawling) and the booming industry of commercial, industrial salmon farming.

Overall assessment:

Like every manifesto I’ve read – there’s lack of detail surrounding many of even the most promising policies and stances. That said, it seems as though they’ve given more than fair consideration to specifically nature-related issues (outside of climate change). It’s nice to see ecological subjects getting a good chunk of coverage.

I can’t say this is the ideal manifesto – no party can achieve that for everyone – but it overall feels positive, hope-filled and relatively ambitious. It also seems like the Scottish Greens would be willing to listen and engage on nature and wildlife issues, which is more than can be said for other parties.

Would I vote for these environmental policies? Yes. Sadly and frustratingly, I do not have a Scottish Green candidate in my seat, so I’ll have to look into Vote Swapping I reckon.

This is one of a series of opinion pieces on the political parties’ 2024 general election manifestos. They were commissioned by Wild Justice several months ago by approaching a wide variety of conservationists and environmentalists long before the date of the general election was known. Some people who originally agreed to write pieces found the date and short timescale impossible and had to back out. We did not know what they would write and their only brief was to pick one or two political parties’ election manifestos and tell us what they liked and didn’t like about their environmental policies. We didn’t tell people what to write and we haven’t edited what they wrote (except to squeeze things into a common format, to correct minor grammatical and spelling errors and typos). The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Wild Justice.

If you think you could produce a review of one of the 2024 general election manifestos then we would need to receive it as soon as possible, but in any case before 26 June, in a similar format to that above, as a word file and with a .jpg or .png image of yourself, the author. Send any potential texts to admin@wildjustice.org.uk and we will look at them. We’ll let you know if we want to publish your piece and we may be able to pay you a small amount for it.