A “SLIMMED-DOWN” Government programme and “managerialism” from the SNP risk hindering the case for independence and helping Reform UK, Patrick Harvie has said.
Speaking to the Sunday National, the Scottish Green co-leader argued that a radical proposition was needed that addressed the “broken system” which has created an ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the UK.
Harvie said that all political parties needed to be alive to the “profound threat of the far-right emerging into the Scottish political landscape”.
He said that independence supporters needed to present a “vision of change” to voters.
“I understand on a pragmatic level why John Swinney would quite like to slim down the government programme and do a bit less and not be seen to take on the controversial, stretching things at the moment, but the problem with that approach is that it becomes managerialism,” the Green MSP said.
“It leads to an expectation that the purpose of this place [Holyrood, from where he was speaking], the purpose of having a parliament and having a Scottish Government, is simply to keep things ticking over on devolved matters.
“I don't think that's enough. I think if we – in particular, if pro-independence forces – behave in that way, then we'll be telling our supporters that that's the best they can expect, and I don't think it is.”
Harvie suggested that Labour in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood were both engaging in a kind of politics that risked simply managing decline, rather than tackling its root causes.
“Managerialism, just keeping things ticking over in a broken system, in an unequal economy that has allowed the cost-of-living crisis to happen; it doesn't work for people,” he said.
“The phrase that Keir Starmer used, the tepid bath of decline – he was talking about government at that point, but I think that that phrase should be used to describe all of this bland centrist politics, and the kind of centre-right economic model that he represents just as much as the Tories represent.
“It is fundamentally broken. It doesn't meet people's needs, and it doesn't keep people safe.
“The only thing that can protect us against a far-right movement that feeds off the very legitimate justified anger about a broken system, the only thing that can protect the country from that is a set of answers to those forces that have created that broken system.”
“Managerialism, that sort of tepid, centrist, let's-not-rock-the-boat approach to politics is a recipe for disaster,” Harvie said.
A new independence poll commissioned by The National and published on Sunday has found a four-point lead for Yes – which would surge to a 20-point lead should Nigel Farage take power at Westminster.
“When we think about the Holyrood election that's less than a year and a half away now, that is clearly going to be a moment when the anti-independence forces want to gain a majority in the Scottish Parliament for the first time in many, many years.
“I think it's going to be really important that we maintain a pro-independence majority, but in order to do that, I think we have to capture not just people's theoretical support for independence, we need to capture and inspire them to say, 'now is the time, this is why this is urgent'.”
Harvie said that the sense of imminency – which had inspired people across the country to engage with important political questions in 2014 – was missing from the Scottish independence movement today.
The Green co-leader said that issues such as “the rise of the far-right in UK politics” could help the Yes side to create a renewed sense of urgency in the independence movement.
“I don't want Scotland's future determined by the kind of people who are clearly going to be wielding power at UK level, if the UK's politics is sucked into that Trumpian direction,” he added, saying that Reform UK represented a credible threat to devolution and the Scottish Parliament.
“It's partly the use of money, representing the billionaire class. It's partly the way that – as we saw with the Brexit referendum in fact – very clearly ethically and legally dodgy practices are used by some of these people to achieve their objectives.
“They don't really believe in democracy any more than Donald Trump does.
“He told the whole world he would never accept a result where he lost. That's the set of values that people like Farage represent in this country. They make no bones about it, they don't try to hide it.
“If they manage to find a way to effectively turn UK politics into the toxic, conspiracy-laden cesspit that American politics has been, they will prove every bit as much of a genuine threat in this country as Trump has in the US.”
While Humza Yousaf was in power, the Scottish Government was planning to publish at least two further papers in the Building A New Scotland series, which was launched under Nicola Sturgeon with the goal of providing a blueprint for how an independent Scotland could function politically.
However, in December, Swinney’s government confirmed there would be just one final “overview” document published before the series ended.
Harvie said that, with the turn of the year and with independence showing leads in the polls, it was time to “think ‘how do we get this agenda on to the front foot a bit more’.”
Asked about the Greens’ ultimatum that they would not support a Budget without any spending on independence, he said: “We probably do need to get some clarity from Government on those kind of issues.
“I don't necessarily think it needs a big budget headed ‘independence’. It’s not like a public service delivery agency, but it is an agenda that the Scottish Government has a responsibility to represent on the political stage.
“It would be bizarre if the Scottish Government and the SNP just stopped talking about [independence] and stopped making the case.
“At the same time, I think it's probably reasonable to say that the succession of white papers hasn't exactly been the talk of the steamie.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are determined to deliver progress for Scotland, and have set out an ambitious programme in our 2025-2026 Budget which will improve patients’ experience in the NHS with record funding, deliver universal winter heating support for pensioners in Scotland and invest in the systems needed to mitigate the UK Government’s two-child cap.
“These are investments that will deliver progress for Scotland now, and provide hope for a better future, which is why ministers have called for Parliament to unite behind the Government’s Budget.”
