The future's bright, the future's..... Green

Are happy days here for the Green party? It has been suggested that the main parties moving on to environmental issues would be a big blow for the greens, raining on their parade El Nino style. However, this doesn't seem to the case.

The misleadingly titled "Others" within the Holyrood Circle are hitting poll figures of around 12-13%. Given the disintegration of the Socialist vote since last time, the standing down of Denis Canavan and the relative obscurity of the SCCUP, surely it is the Green vote that are making up a sizeable chunk of this Others slice of the voting pie.

An attractive manifesto released this week should help their cause.


Most interesting of all, a national share of the vote of below 6% was supposedly meant to spell disaster for the Greens, getting only 1 MSP, the colourful Robin Harper's whose scarves can only really be rivalled by that of Tom Baker. A mere 2% extra at 8% and the Greens can hope to get 9 MSPs.


The sun does seem to be shining on the Greens at Holyrood...




And yet, who are the losers. Well this makes the FPTP system all the more interesting. If SNP can win a majority of FPTP seats (which I think is unlikely by the way), then it's a double blow for Labour as they have one less seat in each region with which they can make up the loss. Of course, the same can be said of the SNP if they come up just a little bit short.


The Lib Dems may be the perennial kingmakers, but the Greens, and their potential 9 MSPs, will have a pretty strong impact on how the government will look and what colour it will be come May.