Greens’ student politics have no place in Scotland’s real world - Susan Dalgety
With only four days to go to the Holyrood elections, I am enjoying a road trip round the Southern states of America.
While desperate politicians don wet suits and hard hats for last- minute photo ops designed to show they understand our concerns, I am stuffing my face with peanut butter and cinnamon roll M&Ms and dodging bears as they cross the road in front of us.
But occasionally – okay, every hour - I sneak a look at the election campaign on social media.
That is where I came across yet another example of the genius that is the Scottish Greens. Remember, they are the folk who want to ban prisons because they are “too violent” and ditch exams for secondary school students because they are “too stressful”. Well, their latest whacky idea is to ban rich folk.
During a TV debate a few days ago the leader of Reform, Malcolm Offord, who grew up in a tenement, told the audience that he went to London 40 years ago, £2000 in debt. “I worked hard and was successful,” he said.
“Today, I own six houses, five cars and six boats…I’ve employed hundreds of thousands of people and paid £45m in tax.”
He asked the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, Ross Greer, who grew up in Bearsden, one of the poshest suburbs in the country, if his party wanted more people like him, or fewer? Greer replied: “Fewer people like you.”
Now Ross Greer is still a young man, but most 31-year-olds I know understand how economies like ours work. Governments, national and local, levy taxes on all sorts of things from bottles of wine to company profits and, of course, on any income we earn, whether it is £20,000 a year or £2 million.
The money raised is then used to pay for everything from schools and the NHS to the road and sewage systems on which we depend.
The Scottish Greens’ manifesto is very clear. They want a "millionaires tax" on all wealth above a £1m threshold, which they will then use to fund their election promises such as free bus travel for all.
But if Ross Greer and his chums also want fewer millionaires like Malcolm Offord, how are they going to raise all the money they have promised to spend? By putting up taxes for people earning £20,000 a year? It just doesn’t make sense.
I am no fan of Offord and the Reform party, but there is nothing wrong with being rich – as long as you pay your fair share of tax.
What is wrong is a very privileged young man, who has earned three-quarters of a million pounds since he was first elected, pretending that he and his party can fix all the problems we face as a country with a green magic money tree.
The Scottish Greens are not a serious political party. Their economic policies are the stuff of school debating societies.
We need grown-ups in charge: people who can build real, affordable homes, fix our failing NHS and improve our schools so that all our children flourish.
And, whether Ross Greer likes it or not, we need millionaires to help foot the bill.