Green chief Patrick Harvie backs local election bids at Grangemouth demo

Scottish Green Party co-leader Patrick Harvie today braved teeming rain to get on his bike for a trip to Grangemouth to support local election candidates.
Patrick Harvie  joined Scottish Green Party candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk Gillian Mackay and Falkirk candidate Tom McLaughlin for a demonstration outside 'Scotland’s biggest polluter'.Patrick Harvie  joined Scottish Green Party candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk Gillian Mackay and Falkirk candidate Tom McLaughlin for a demonstration outside 'Scotland’s biggest polluter'.
Patrick Harvie joined Scottish Green Party candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk Gillian Mackay and Falkirk candidate Tom McLaughlin for a demonstration outside 'Scotland’s biggest polluter'.

Gillian Mackay is contesting the Falkirk East-Linlithgow seat for the Greens in hopes of unseating Scottish National Party contender Martyn Day, who has made “stopping Boris” his main election pitch.

Party colleague Tom McLaughlin is contesting the Falkirk seat.

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Mr Harvie, candidates and other Green campaigners stood in front of the Grangemouth HQ of Ineos to demand an end to shale gas imports from the end imports of fracked gas from the USA to the Port.

Ms Mackay said: “I have grown up in the shadow of Scotland’s biggest polluter, and it’s inconceivable to me that instead of beginning to transition away from oil and gas, Ineos is expanding this site to increase capacity.

“Climate science gives us ten years to dramatically cut emissions, yet industry is in denial, enabled by governments at Westminster and Holyrood who continue to subsidise them.

“Only a vote for the Scottish Greens on Thursday will demand climate action.”

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Meanwhile SNP hopeful Martyn Day argues the election in Scotland is a straight fight between the SNP and the Tories, but that Scottish votes could also determine the outcome of the UK election as a whole.

Scottish Labour candidate Wendy Milne meanwhile claims poverty has soared “under the Tories and the SNP” - and recently highlighted the case of a boy who stole tomato sauce sachets in his quest to find food nourishment.

By contrast Scottish Conservative and Unionist Candidate Charles Kennedy led the West Lothian Better Together campaign in 2014, and will be backing Prime Minister Boris Johnston’s assertion that what’s claimed to be a looming Labour-SNP pact would undermine Brexit and damage the economy.

Veteran and People’s Party candidate Mark Tunnicliff opposes tactical voting, and is urging people to study what politicians are saying and vote for them entirely on that basis.

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The five key policy areas he is personally most concerned with are poverty, care, education, defence and justice.

He says he is the “underdog” in the struggle - but says his party, formed to combat disillusion with the established parties’ propaganda, has integrity at its core.

Scottish Liberal Democrats candidate Sally Pattle strongly supports her party’s bid to revoke Article 50 to stop Brexit, and says once achieved this will pave the way for efforts to build a fairer society.

However Brexit Party candidate Marc Bozza, a Grangemouth man, says he sees “a cornucopia of opportunities” which after withdrawal from Europe would “rejuvenate our towns an villages after decades of neglect”.

He says Scots are critical to the success of the UK - and insists the UK has to be “an independent, self-governing nation outwith the EU”.