THE Scottish Greens are to begin immediate campaigning for a Yes vote in a second independence referendum, after being urged not to let a “window of opportunity” close.
Delegates at the autumn conference in Perth yesterday backed a motion allowing the party to allocate funds to street campaigning, leaflets and policy work in light of the Brexit vote.
The conference also called on the UK government to grant Holyrood the necessary power to hold a legally sound referendum “given its mandate from the people of Scotland”.
Co-convener Patrick Harvie said the Union that Scots voted for in 2014 no longer existed.
He told around 150 delegates: “We find ourselves with the results of two referendums which can’t fit together. We have a two year old 55 per cent mandate, and this year’s 62 per cent mandate. Even if Better Together and the Leave campaign hadn’t lied, the UK which people voted for in 2014 no longer exists.
“We must prepare for the next independence campaign, not just to win a Yes vote, but to win a better Scotland. Greens will continue to strengthen the case on issues such as currency and industrial strategy.”
He said the Article 50 Brexit withdrawal process represented a two-year window for the pro-Independence cause, adding “we cannot allow that window of opportunity to close”.
He highlighted the need to make the case for independence “stronger” than in 2014 and more “practical” on issues such as currency, dismissing the prospect of a post-Brexit UK sharing the pound with an independent Scotland in the EU.
Mr Harvie also used his keynote speech to attack the “xenophobic” Tory government.
He said: “Today it celebrates, while the rest of us commiserate, its first 100 days in office.
"A new Prime Minister, who as home secretary was the person behind the notorious racist 'go home' vans. And she has filled her Cabinet with other racists, with incompetents - what some of our friends in the US might call 'the deplorables'."
West of Scotland MSP Ross Greer attacked the “devastating” hard Brexit agenda of the Tory government, saying it could cost 80,000 Scottish jobs and depress average wages by £2000.
He said: “We reject their Brexit disaster, their post-colonial identity crisis. Not just because that’s what we believe, but because that’s what Scotland voted for.”
However Glasgow councillor Martin Bartos urged caution, saying it was not clear independence would automatically secure Scotland’s place in Europe.
Earlier, Edinburgh Green councillor Melanie Main said the party should treble its numbers in the 2017 council elections - improving on the 14 seats won in five authorities in 2012 to more than 40 councillors across the majority of Scotland’s 32 councils next May.
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