SNP supporters could join Greens

Nov 2 2012

The Scottish Greens are expecting a membership boost from SNP supporters dissatisfied by the reversal of the party's anti-Nato policy.

The SNP adopted a new stance that an independent Scotland should become a member of the pro-nuclear weapons organisation, after a motion was put forward at its autumn conference. It was opposed by several members, including MSPs John Finnie and Jean Urquhart who have since resigned from the party.

The Greens are committed to unilateral nuclear disarmament and reject membership of Nato should Scotland become independent.

In an interview with the website Scotspolitics, Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said: "Not all of them (the disillusioned SNP members) will join the Greens. I know some of them will.

"I don't know whether our party office has received applications to join yet but I know there are people who have been on social networks talking about it and who feel that way and they will be very welcome."

Mr Harvie said he would be open to conversations with Mr Finnie and Ms Urquhart as to how independent MSPs and small parties can support each other at Holyrood.

The Green MSP also commented on the row about EU legal advice. The Scottish Government admitted last week that no specific legal advice was taken on entry to the EU in the event of a vote for independence.

Mr Harvie said: "It looks extremely bad. The SNP have been very effective at portraying themselves as a competent group of people you can trust and this seriously undermines it. It's not the first time it has been undermined, but it's bad.

"The EU would be unlikely to impose euro membership on a country in Scotland's position, not least because of the experience the eurozone is going through. I think it is much more likely that the EU will evolve into a multi-layered organisation, with a core of euro members at its heart and different levels of participation.

"My view is that whether we contemplate the euro in the future - and it's not my party's policy to do that - but whether in the future we would contemplate it, whether we would use the pound for a transitional period or whether we look at a separate currency, that might take a generation."