Who benefits from the SNP-Green alliance?

On the SNP’s list of regrets, where does the Bute House Agreement with the Greens rank? Since the agreement, the Scottish government’s deposit return scheme has been delayed, Highly Protected Marine Areas halted and the gender reform bill blocked. This month marks the two-year anniversary of the SNP-Green coalition, but has the partnership – and the pro-independence majority that comes with it – been worth it for the nationalists? 

‘There’s a huge amount that’s been achieved,’ says Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens along with Lorna Slater. Certainly the deal resulted in Harvie and Slater becoming the first Green politicians in the UK to gain ministerial portfolios. But more than that – from free bus passes for the under-22s to investment in the environment to ‘decarbonising heat’ – the minister for net zero believes that good has come of the arrangement, despite his party’s negative press. 

As for any drawbacks the coalition has faced, the blame has been, surprise surprise, laid at Westminster’s door: Harvie accuses the UK government of being ‘mischievous’ and having ‘abused its power’ by blocking measures that have received support in the Scottish parliament.