THERE was a time when Greens in the Scottish Parliament would have said, rightly in my opinion, that in the face of all available evidence, offering to pay care workers a minimum of £12 an hour was just not good enough.

But what a difference a few ministerial posts make – never mind that the much-vaunted “green policy initiatives” have largely crashed and burned.

I support independence. Indeed, I was the person who successfully proposed it as Green Party policy back in 1986. But the Greens seem to increasingly have lost their moral and ecological compass.

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If we, “the Greens”, are to continue in what is effectively a coalition with a few “get-out” clauses so Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater can sit more easily in their ministerial cars, then we need to be much more vocal in standing up to a party which for years has talked “left” but acted “right”.

I suspect many SNP members and supporters would thank us for it. Maybe it’s time the Greens recycled their co-leaders?

Michael Collie
Dunfermline