The Scottish Green Party was formed (as the Scottish
Ecology Party) in 1979. In these early years it was part of the UK wide Ecology
Party, which had been formed in 1974. In 1986 the Ecology Party became the Green
Party.
Throughout the 1980s the Scottish Party developed its own
campaigns and policy programme, culminating in "Towards a Green Scotland" in
1990. In the late 1980s the Scottish Green Party also began to have an impact in
elections. This reached an early peak in the 1989 European elections, where the
party achieved 7.5% over all of Scotland and over 10% in Lothian.
In 1990 the Scottish Green Party became a separate party
from the party in England and Wales (Northern Ireland also took this route
later). The separation was entirely amicable, as part of the green commitment to
decentralisation and the parties still share campaigns and ideas as part of the
Green islands network.
The Scottish Green Party benefits from the fact that the
British government created a Scottish Parliament, which includes an element of
proportional representation in addition to the seats elected by
first-past-the-post. In the first election to this Parliament, in 1999, the
Scottish Green Party got one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) elected by
proportional representation, Robin Harper, the UK's first Green Parliamentarian.
On May 1, 2003 the Scottish Greens added six new MSPs to their previous total,
making the Greens the second largest pro-independence party after the SNP.
The Scottish Parliament is elected using the Additional
Member System of proportional representation. Soon, local authorities in
Scotland are to be elected using the Single Transferable Vote system of
proportional representation which may well see further Green representation.
The Scottish Green Party supports independence and has
given its official support to Independence
First, the campaign for a referendum on Independence. It is also an active
participant in the Independence Convention.
They appear to have updated their website recently and it is now looking very
professional indeed.
The Scottish Greens seem to have fought a very useful
election campaign (their broadcast at the top of the page was impressive) and
they have been backed by a number of lobby groups with adverts and favourable
press stories. They look like being on course to gain even more MSP's than last
time (they had 7 at the last election) in which case they could prove to be an
extremely useful ally for Alex Salmond's SNP.
Green Party Speaker at Independence First's Democracy
Rally on 30th September 2006.
