SNP coalition with Scottish Greens leaves them 'in office but not in power' claims Fergus Ewing
| Published date | 14 May 2023 |
| Publication title | Daily Record, The / Sunday Mail: Web Edition Articles (Scotland) |
The the former governmentminister, 65, who has won six terms as a constituency MSP atsince 1999, has been angrily attacking his own party.
He has likened the Deposit Return Scheme to the Poll Tax, ripped up a Government consultation on fisheries policy and lamented the Greens as “wine bar revolutionaries”.
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The Former Rural Affairs secretary, who held ministerial posts for 14 consecutive years is calling for First MinisterHumza Yousafto change course or risk falling further out of touch on everything from gender policy to North sea oil.
He said: “We focused on the essentials between 2007 and 2014 and having a strong economy is the number one essential. We did a huge amount of work to built up confidence in business and people.
“We cared about people, we wanted them to succeed, we supported business. We supported every walk of life, whether it was industry, rural farming, fishermen, we valued what they did.
“We said ‘you are worth something, you’re worth something to Scotland’ and we seem to have stopped doing that now.
“I’m concerned about the consequences of this deal with the Greens. There is now a very prevalent view, especially in rural Scotland, that the Green tail is wagging the SNP dog.
“Putting it even more bluntly people feel that the SNP may be in office but that the Greens are in power - and that is not a winning formula in politics.”
Ewing said a catalogue of Scottish Government policies being driven by the Greens that he believes are causing the party to fall further out of step with most people.
He sad: “How can we conceivably succeed if we say to oil and gas workers they are not allowed to explore for oil anymore?
“We should be using our own oil and gas. We are going to need it for decades to come and it is less carbon intensive than frack gas from the USA which has been keeping the lights on in Scotland.
“The GRR Bill was passed by a substantial majority of MSPs, but what’s also true is that it was opposed by a substantial majority of the people.
“On the two main provisions - women’s privacy and removing checks and balances down to the age 16, two thirds of the population were opposed to this.
“So we are completely out of step with the people, the GRR was a gigantic mistake and...
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