Scottish Green Party General Election 2015 Manifesto

At last it's here. The Scottish Green Party today launched it's General Election 2015 manifesto. As was expected it is full of very good policy and worth a read to anyone thinking of voting for The Green Party in Scotland on May 7th. In fact I would go as far to say that it is worth a read for anybody voting for any party in the 2015 General Election.

It may just surprise you how many of the Scottish Green policies you actually agree with. Just click the image below and have a read.

What's Important?

EQUALITY NOT POVERTY – £10 minimum wage

PUBLIC SERVICES IN PUBLIC HANDS – nationalise the railways

POWER TO COMMUNITIES – more powers for Scotland and local communities 

Scottish Green Ballot Papers Out For South Scotland Region List

This is it folks. Ballot papers are finally here. I'm really looking forward to this election and hope that you can seriously consider me for your first preference vote.

If you need to speak to me you are more than welcome to. You can either comment on this blog or you can use either my Twitter account @greensoulscot or my Facebook Page at Stephen Dickson - Passionate, Committed, Green

As you can see in my bio and statement I do not have specific political experience, I am not a career politician, but my working life has given me more than a good grounding for a life in Holyrood. I have learned a lot in my time in the party especially as Vice Convenor of Ayrshire Greens and as a member of Standing Orders Committee.

If I could quote part of my 2 minute speech for the hustings:

Invite The Greens - Thunder Clap

Sign up to our Thunderclap, by clicking on the image below, calling on STV to invite the Greens onto their leaders' debate. Nicola Sturgeon, Jim Murphy and Ruth Davidson have all backed our inclusion, alongside 7,500 members of the public. We need to keep putting the pressure on STV to reconsider.

Dumfries & Galloway South Region Hustings

On Monday 9th March the first of the hustings for the selection of candidates for the Scottish Green Party South Scotland Region list took place in Dumfries & Galloway in the Community Centre in Castle Douglas.

As you can see in the photo above there were 12 candidates speaking and trying to convince the local members in the audience that it was worth voting for them.

All candidates spoke for 2 minutes and explained to the audience why they should vote for them. Here all the videos recorded by the branch.

I would just again like to thank Dumfries & Galloway Branch for their welcome and their cake. It was wonderful.

Ayrshire Greens Showing of "A Dangerous Game" by Anthony Baxter

Ayrshire Greens are showing "A Dangerous Game" by Anthony Baxter at 7pm, 24th March at Ayr Town Hall. All welcome.

From the official description:

"A Dangerous Game" is the jaw-dropping sequel to "You've Been Trumped" (winner of a dozen major awards). At stake is our ability to protect what's left of our vanishing and fragile natural world. Struck by the chord his first film made, director Anthony Baxter takes us on a journey to other global hot spots where rapacious developers – often in cahoots with local officials – are using golf as a smokescreen to build massive luxury resorts that end up costing the earth.

Entry is free but any donations would be gratefully received.

Reservations available at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/scottish-greens-ayrshire-branch-7982893814?s=34285476

Vote For Policies Update 4th March 2015

The Vote For Policies site has now been up and running in its "updated for General Election 2015" state since 19th February, that's just under 2 weeks, and an amazing number, over 76,200, have completed the survey in this time.

The national results so far are as follows:

Holyrood Region List Hustings

As if things weren't exciting enough with the campaigns to support our candidates for the upcoming General Elections in May in full swing, the Scottish Green Party are in the process of deciding who their candidates will be for the Regional lists for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2016.

Scotland is broken down into 8 list Regions:

• Central Scotland
• Glasgow
• Highlands and Islands
• Lothian
• Mid Scotland and Fife
• North East Scotland
• South Scotland
• West Scotland

As with the Westminster General Election, there are an unprecedented number of candidates putting themselves forward for nomination.

Scottish Green Party Confirm 32 Candidates For Westminster 2015

It is with great joy that the Scottish Green Party have announced their biggest ever number of candidates that are standing for a Westminster election. There are 32 Candidates, including our very own Veronika Tudhope, standing in Scottish constituencies hoping that they can be elected to represent the Green interests for Scotland in our United Kingdom parliament.

South Scotland Regional List For Holyrood

Well that's it finally done. I have submitted my nomination for the South Scotland List. I would ask that you consider me for this position and that you consider giving me your first preference vote,

I am not aware of who the other candidates are as of yet but I would very much like them to be part of this blog and I would be more than happy for them to submit a post to me and I will publish it in their name for them.

My exact submission states:
 

Veronika Tudhope - Scottish Greens Candidate for Central Ayrshire

A quick shout out to our wonderful candidate Veronika Tudhope who is standing as a candidate in the Central Ayrshire constituency in the General Election in 2015.

A short excerpt from her page:

I am hugely honoured to be standing as the Scottish Green Party candidate for Central Ayrshire in the upcoming election on 7th May 2015.

Scottish Greens Will Split The Yes Vote For Westminster

We are going through some amazing times right now with the advent of political more awareness and activism throughout Scotland after the referendum. An unfortunate part of this, as the Scottish Greens get more popular and more people become aware of their existence, is that they become more of a threat to the incumbent political machinery and those parties that are already a major part of it.

One of the major arguments that seems prevalent, especially on social media, is that the Scottish Greens will split the vote of the SNP. I read a great answer to that today from one of our candidates for the Westminster election, Zara Kitson. In fact since I couldn't say it better myself I'll just let you read it and make up your own mind.