The SNP is backing away from a green vision for Scotland - Lorna Slater

Scottish Green Party co-leader Lorna Slater

If you want to know the difference the Scottish Greens were making in government, just look at the policies the SNP have backed away from over the last few weeks.

They have raided £460 million from our Scotwind green energy fund, brought back the peak rail fares that the Scottish Greens scrapped, cut £23 million from the record walking, wheeling and cycling budget that we secured and took chunks from the nature restoration fund we introduced to support projects across our country.

How can Scotland be a climate leader if the government is cutting climate budgets?

The Berwick Bank wind farm will have up to 307 turbines standing around 355m tall at their highest point -- the height has been raised to give greater clearance between blade tips and sea level to help avoid collisions with seabirds as they hunt for food, while a ban on sandeel fishing is also being proposed as part of the development to boost food supplies for the likes of puffins and kittiwakes

It's not just our climate policies that have been dropped. It's also the work that was underway on equality.

Buried in last week's Programme for Government was a decision to drop plans for a Scottish ban on so-called conversion therapy - acts intended to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Instead the SNP wants to wait for legislation from Westminster. It’s sad and disappointing to see a pro-independence party choosing to remove Scotland’s voice.

Perhaps the most shocking announcement was the decision to halt the rollout of universal free school meals for primary school pupils, prolonging the painful stigma of means testing for children and their families and undermining our efforts to tackle child poverty.

It has been extremely frustrating and difficult to watch so much work being discarded. These were all policies that the Scottish Greens had co-designed. They had been previously announced and that a lot of people were pinning hopes on.

Every day I’m being asked if we can back a future SNP budget, but why would we back one without Green policies in it and when so many of the commitments we made together are being shredded?

I know that being in government is not easy. When I was a Minister there were trying times and difficult days. The SNP can’t undo 14 years of Tory cuts or make the Labour government follow a different economic policy.

But there are a lot of things they can do, such as cutting handouts to big business or using a fraction of the money earmarked for major road building projects to fund cheaper trains and invest in public transport.

We don’t have to settle for managed decline. We can be a cleaner and greener country where everyone can live with safety and security. The SNP is moving from that vision, but the Scottish Greens never will.