Latest news with #RossGreer
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Politics
- Scotsman
Time to halt legal gravy train
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP John Lamont. John Lamont MP, my Westminster colleague, has come in for some predictable criticism because he signed an early day motion which called for the implementation of 'a comprehensive national strategy to identify, detain, and deport' all illegal immigrants. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Up popped the usual suspects, like Green MSP Ross Greer, parroting stuff about immigrants filling vacancies in the NHS or care sector, conveniently overlooking the fact there aren't enough homes for people living here now, that they can't get GP appointments or find an NHS dentist. Such vacancies contrast with the high number of inactive working age people, over a fifth of the labour force, and a rise of 500,000 on pre-pandemic levels. The UK is the only G7 country showing such an increase, and the leap in sickness benefit claims isn't all down to Long Covid. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad At the heart of the problem is an attitude that UK law doesn't matter, and human rights lawyers are only too keen to drain public resources by using the courts to block deportations on the spurious grounds that even sending back violent criminals is a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. By its nature illegal immigration is hard to measure, but it's thought there are around a million people here with no right of residence. Of the 166,000 people whose asylum applications were refused in 2010-23, 84,000 were still here this time last year, and now 24,000 Aghan refugees must be accommodated because of a staggering security blunder, it's time the legal gravy train slowing down deportations was halted. Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian
Glasgow Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Glasgow Times
Dalai Lama given Scottish classic as 90th birthday present
Daydreams Bookshop in Milngavie presented a copy of Nan Shepherd's classic, The Living Mountain, to the Dalai Lama ahead of his birthday, delivered personally by Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer during a visit to India. Ross Greer, Scottish Greens MSP for the West of Scotland, said: "It was the privilege of a lifetime to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama ahead of his 90th birthday and to share with him the best wishes of his many friends in Scotland. "I was delighted to present him with a copy of Nan Shepherd's Scottish literary classic, The Living Mountain, from our fantastic local independent bookshop, Daydreams Bookshop. "This book is rightly recognised as the finest ever written about nature here in Scotland. "I know it will resonate with him, given the similarly deep connections that the peoples of Scotland and Tibet have with our natural environments." Elaine Sinclair, owner of Daydreams Bookshop, said: "We were delighted to be able to provide this wonderful Scottish book which has gone on an incredible journey with Ross from our wee bookshop in Milngavie, all the way to the hands of the Dalai Lama in India. "Ross and his staff have welcomed us warmly to Milngavie (with his office just a few doors along from us) and we are very grateful for his ongoing support." Read more: 'We were so impressed': Glasgow communities achieve five-star environmental rating (Image: Supplied) Ross Greer met the Dalai Lama and members of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in his capacity as chair of the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Tibet. His visit to Dharamsala, home to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, included meetings with the President, Education Minister, and Speaker of the Parliament. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government have lived in exile in India since 1959, following China's occupation of Tibet. He used his 90th birthday to announce that the institution would continue after his death and that only his foundation would have the authority to appoint his successor. Read more: 'It's fantastic to see': Glasgow spaces recognised with Green Flag Awards 202 Ross Greer said: "During my trip, I met with figures including the Tibetan Government's Education Minister and with headteachers of their schools for refugee children. "I am now keen to establish partnerships between our fantastic local schools and their equivalents in the Tibetan exile community. "With America cutting the funding these schools depended on, many are now struggling, but I know that kind-hearted and internationalist people here in Scotland would be willing to offer support."
Scotsman
11-07-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Readers' letters: Taxing the super wealthy further will fuel exodus from Scotland
A reader suggests that Scottish Greens leadership candidate Ross Greer has never heard of the Laffer curve Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Ross Greer, in his bid for leadership of the Greens, launches a drive to tax the super wealthy (Scotsman, 11 July), as if taxing people has no impact on behaviour. We have already seen an exodus of millionaires from Britain following Rachel Reeves' taxation policies, and taxing people even more heavily in Scotland will simply drive these wealthy taxpayers elsewhere. The top one per cemt of taxpayers already pay 30 per cent of all income tax, so driving away these taxpayers means the rest of us have to shoulder more of the tax burden to plug the gap. Has Mr Greer never heard of the Laffer curve? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Why on earth can't politicians expend their energy on creative solutions that grow the economy which would increase the size of the tax cake rather than constantly fighting about how to share a tax cake that they make smaller by their own actions? Perhaps Mr Greer and other politicians need to look more closely at all the obstacles they place in the way of wealth creation and of building businesses. Businesses are the lifeblood of the country but every day they get more red tape, more restrictions, more interventions from government. If only each and every councillor and MP and MSP was forced to run a small business for a month or two, they might find just how difficult it is to keep businesses afloat. These businesses employ people known as taxpayers on whom Mr Greers' grandiose spending plans depend, but in his ivory parliamentary tower with guaranteed income and excessive taxpayer-funded pension contributions, he has way too much time on his hands dreaming of how to spend other people's money. Brian Barbour, Prestonpans, East Lothian Greer v Trump I listened to the Radio Scotland's Morning Call on Thursday about Donald Trump visiting his golf course in Aberdeen. Most of the first 20 minutes was devoted to Ross Greer's hysterical rants. If his Green party colleagues and supporters aren't ashamed of him they should be – and they should reflect on just how much freedom of speech there is in this country when a man beside whose name not one of Scotland's 4.3 million voters put a cross beside in the last Holyrood elections. and whose party got a grand total of 34,000 list votes, gets so much airtime. I hope when Trump comes to Scotland he points to the massive offshore wind farm a few miles out that, when I looked last night, was standing idle, and tell the world's media about the SNP, Greens and Labour's crazy wrecking of the oil and gas industry, and the sinister woke policies that the Greens promulgate. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And that he poses the rhetorical question of Mr Greer, whether he, as a hater of Isral and supporter of Palestine, would be as apoplectic if the UK Government hosted a visit by Ayatollah Khamenei. Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire Resignation Is Rachel Reeves genuinely 'disappointed' by the latest GDP figures? Considering everything that's happening these days, I think a weary sigh is the best we should expect. Steve Hayes, Leven, Fife Far-left fantasy Neil Anderson (Letters, 9 July) wonders about the chances of a far-left party in the Holyrood election. Here's his answer: a snowball's chance in hell. Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Alliance was the exception that tested the rule – led by a whip-smart, handsome natural orator and leader perfect for the modern era where the aesthetic matters more than the content. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But Scotland's Toytown Revolutionaries were an inverted British army of the Somme, a Lion leading Donkeys packed with has-beens and never-would-bes whose clown car antics and utterances damned them long before Sheridan's court case. Since its messy collapse, we've had all manner of 'cunning plans' such as RISE which despite, saturation plugging by the media, got fewer votes in the 2016 Holyrood elections than even the Scottish Christian Party, and promptly vanished. Little has changed in the alternative realities of Scotland's far-left – the so-called current 'electoral success' of Scotland's Greens came as being the SNP's sock puppets, for which in 2026 they will pay dearly. The brand is so self-tainted it has ceased for some time to be a viable option, and all the shouty machismo street posturing of its bully-boy adherents aren't going to change it. Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire Party time I understand that Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn are about to announce a new political party. Far be it from me to anticipate a sub-editor's job but I pass it on to The Scotsman anyway. It surely must be called the Fruit 'n' Nut Party? Paul F Galloway, Edinburgh Defence of realm How much grovelling did it take for this SNP government to win over the contract with BAE Systems to create three structural units at Ferguson Marine for the Royal Navy (Scotsman, 9 July). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad No doubt this will be an awe-inspiring lifeline contract, that will be monitored closely by Kate Forbes for any delays, given that the security of the realm depends on it. Archie Mackinnon, Glasgow Something fishy Steuart Campbell offers good possibilities for the attribution of sightings of Nessie (Letters, 8 July). Donald Campbell's Bluebird was badly affected by the waves he had created on his first pass along Coniston Water in 1967, resulting in his death. It seems perfectly credible that a wave could be mistaken for a solid shape in the water. Reports first became general after veterinary student, Arthur Grant claimed to have seen something on the road beside Loch Ness at night while riding there on his motorcycle in 1934. My father came into college one day, soon after. Grant was speaking to some qualified vets who were laughing at what he told them. He turned to my father to ask, 'You'll believe me, won't you?', saying that he had actually seen a large shape crossing the road ahead of him, lit by the motorcycle headlamp and slipping into the loch. When the qualified vets said that what he had seen was a cow, the latter replied that, if he couldn't identify a cow, then he had no business being a vet. However, I would add another possibility to the others I have read, including deer swimming across the loch. My own suggestion is that it is entirely possible that a catfish could have been released into the loch at some point. To those who might scoff, I would point out that such fish are spectacular and specimens of 9ft in length have been caught. Indeed, one measuring 7ft was caught in the Seine last month in Paris and an 8ft-long catfish was caught in England in 2024. Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh Blessed peace Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Pope Leo XIV has offered to help broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Despite Russia's recent advances, they have been at great human cost, with over a million soldiers' deaths since the outset of the war in February 2022. While Ukraine may not win the war, as William Loneskie, suggests (Letters, 11 July), neither, I suspect will Russia. One can't overestimate the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainians for taking what was intended to be a three-day 'military operation' into its fourth year. They have achieved a stalemate. The Pope's offer should be grabbed with both hands, if only to prevent Donald Trump receiving the much coveted Nobel Peace Prize. Through his office and personal qualities, Pope Leo is likely to win the respect of Vladimir Putin, something that Trump has patently failed to do. Putin is, allegedly, a church-goer, albeit infrequently. President Vlodomyr Zelensky is a practising Roman Catholic. Pope Leo XIV, with his worldwide power and perspective, is ideally suited for a role as peacemaker. After all he has a higher power on his side, who might just clinch the deal. Ian Petrie, Edinburgh The Enemy's NHS Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Now into my second week on holiday in deepest Englandshire, an example of the utter uselessness of devolution shows up. I realised that my inhaler was about to run out so I had to visit the local pharmacy in Chipping Norton – home of Lord Clarkson of Diddly Squat fame, to facilitate a replacement. This was a complete nightmare as our NHS doesn't talk to the Enemy – sorry English – NHS unless ridiculous numbers etc are known. Full name, date of birth or even a National Insurance number are look I got when I said we don't have an app was one of consternation. Thankfully the next day I was seen by another pharmacist and she just shook her head and said 'you need this don't you' and sold it to me – just to get it done. Why is it that the app in England isn't here in Scotland? Because of the SNP. This one example highlights the ridiculous them and us mentality of devolution and the SNP and their desperation to be different. David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders First past the post Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Until today, I assumed that when I posted a letter with a first-class stamp, that meant next-day delivery. Now, I understand that I'm wrong. My local Post Office tells me that first flass now means one to three-day delivery and second class is three-five days. So sorry to my friends and relations whose cards and parcels have arrived late. I'll bear this in mind at Christmas! Fiona Garwood, Edinburgh Write to The Scotsman
The National
10-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Remember Alex Salmond gained indyref on the basis of an SNP majority
This can be seen very clearly from the Hamilton by-election, where had Reform not taken part it is conceivable that the Conservatives would have won; similarly if the Greens hadn't been so scunnered a couple of years ago, the SNP could have. This is based on the figures alone, as obviously there would have been many other factors involved. READ MORE: Ross Greer launches leadership bid after fiery BBC Donald Trump clash This principle applies to the list votes, which Alba seem to be majoring on. The difficulty here is that, based on the voting system, any party that has no constituency MSPs has a significant chance of winning a seat if and only if it has a very substantial number of votes, enough that the phase divisors act in their favour. This concept itself produces a number of other issues. How will a shared mandate be agreed and seen by voters, and how will that translate into anything better than, yet again, another coalition majority? The underlying basis of the D'Hondt system as set out on the Scotland Act is that the party that has the most constituency seats is handicapped significantly and has purely been set to minimise the likelihood of anyone succeeding in gaining a majority. Like it or mostly not, the Westminster establishment, who have the final say on the Scotland Act and devolution itself, do not recognise a coalition as forming a public mandate. While there are demands for the SNP to bend over and accept unquestionably others' support, they are the largest party by far and with the most visible media presence, such as it is. So, it really needs the other parties to join in and accept and acknowledge the larger partner in that shared goal. In this it has to be remembered that Alex Salmond gained a referendum on the basis of a Holyrood majority, not for any other reason. Alba, for all their best stated intentions, are saddled with the Marmite presence and legacy of Alex Salmond, who had used his platform and visibility as a means of attacking Nicola Sturgeon and by inference the rest of the SNP. The wider public then saw factional infighting and lost their trust that Scotland could go it alone. The message of Independence became lost in the media mire, leaving Unionists laughing at us. READ MORE: Kelly Given: Launch of Corbyn-Sultana party has big implications for Scotland It is of course fair for the larger partner to be gracious and accept others' assistance and support, but that also requires the smaller to play its part by not undermining the other. In each of the elections since 2011, the SNP went from a list-vote high to fewer and fewer list seats. It is not possible to predict the outcome of the regional vote as it is down to the various proportions of votes cast. There are far too many ifs and buts for this to be reliable, other than to reiterate that any splitting of voting intentions can only harm prospects. Which again illustrates the difficulties of involving smaller or fringe parties. For Alba to have any significant bearing on the outcome they must be prepared to fully support the SNP, and acknowledge that another coalition may not actually help the ultimate goal. To gain public acceptance we need to demonstrate firstly that we can govern ourselves without factional fights, and secondly that we have a credible financial plan. The first means we need to show people how the country would work through a written draft constitution, and secondly how we can budget with all of our GDP and taxes. The public can then see tangibly what they are being asked to support. This needs to show how pensions would be managed, how and when we would introduce our own currency, what we would do about defence in tomorrow's uncertain world. These need to be in simple presentable and meaningful form, not embedded in multi-thousand-page white papers of options. All independence supporters need to get behind these common messages and all the internal bickering, argumentative navel-gazing, new or changed parties can wait until after independence. Ultimately, what is more important: being independent, or being the ones who gain the kudos of getting us there? Nick Cole Meigle, Perthshire
The National
10-07-2025
- Business
- The National
Indy Scotland must have its own currency and central bank on day one
That way, the UK banking system would quickly take over, and Scotland would find itself in debt and paying interest to banks, and would lose control of financial decision-making, and soon end up in the grip of interest-bearing debt, just as the UK is at present. From the start, Scotland should have its own central bank, and create its own currency – let's call it the Scottish Pound – but this currency would be for internal use only, to avoid money market distortion. The Scottish Pound would initially have the same value as Sterling. READ MORE: Ross Greer calls for Scotland to pivot towards wealth taxation The Scottish Pound would be issued by the Scottish Central Bank, for people and businesses to change their Sterling to the new currency. The Central Bank would then – over time – build a stock of other currencies for use abroad, these mainly gained from Scottish exports paid for in euros, dollars, or whatever. Obviously, the Central Bank would have some stock of Sterling immediately, from Sterling exchanged by those who wanted Scottish Pounds. As stated, the internal Scottish Pound would deliberately not be recognised outside Scotland, and could not be used outside Scotland, or traded on money markets, thus protecting its equity with Sterling. Scots would still have the use of Sterling, or indeed any other currency, and shops and businesses would accept both Sterling and Scottish Pounds. Remember, the Scottish Pound and Sterling would have the same value, and one could be exchanged for the other by the Central Bank. There would be no compulsion to switch to the Scottish Pound in entirety, or indeed at all. People would not be forced into a sudden currency switch. The Scottish Central Bank would issue money in Scottish Pounds to finance building and other capital projects, and there would be an increasing volume of Scottish money in circulation as wages are paid and purchases are made in Scottish money, and familiarity with Scottish money increases. READ MORE: Ross Greer launches leadership bid after fiery BBC Donald Trump clash There would be one vital difference, however: Scottish money, issued and used for public undertakings and capital projects, would be interest-free. The banking system would no longer be making huge interest profits as in England. This would reduce the cost of all public and other government undertakings. Development would thus increase in the absence of an interest burden. Inflation would be avoided by restricting the creation of Scottish money to the actual growth and value of assets in the new independent Scotland. Building a new bridge, or rail link, or airport for example. These could all be valued in economic terms. The Scottish Pound would still be a fiat currency. That is to say, a currency sustained by faith in its issuer – the Scottish Government – just as Sterling is sustained by faith in Westminster, but this time without interest charges and bank profits. It would be a currency for the benefit of Scotland, not for the benefit of banks. In the future, a decision could be taken to float the Scottish Pound, when its acceptance and use was familiar and trusted, or if Sterling was to weaken. Malcolm Parkin Kinross THE proscribing of the group Palestine Action last week may have made this letter illegal, depending on who interprets it and how. Most other countries and the UN interpret the use of the words 'terrorism' and 'terrorists' as those who engage in dangerous actions where life and limb are put at risk. A professional writer opined last weekend that to throw soup over a protected 'Old Master' is not terrorism, and neither is spraying paint on a plane. READ MORE: Bob Vylan singer warns 'you'll get me in trouble' after IDF chants Damaging, yes, in the case of the paint in the engine air intake, but I am very sure that life and limb would not be at risk, unless of course the RAF decided to take the Airbus Voyager plane up for a spin. Why didn't the RAF police stop the attack? It could have been the Russians. Is supporting the people of Palestine by donating to charities like Medical Action for Palestine, against the brutality and inhumanity of this far-right Zionist Israeli government, also illegal? I think not, and rightly so. Alistair Ballantyne Angus I AGREE with Jim Taylor (Letters, Jul 9). I too am Palestine Action. At my age I doubt if there would be much in the way of action, but the agreement is solid. Grace Chilles via email I'M with Assa Samake-Roman on the nauseating spectacle of Macron's state visit (State violence is no answer to migration issues, Jul 9). Unfortunately, her take on the right of migrants to turn up illegally in anyone's country won't gain much traction with voters, even in Scotland. Right reason or wrong, the public perception that illegal immigration isn't good for our country will mean more votes for Reform. Jim Butchart via email
