Since I was elected in 2022, my constituents have told me clearly that they cannot continue to absorb ever-increasing fuel costs, rent rises and food bills.
This story is mirrored across the UK, where a sustained decline in living standards is collapsing the old political order. If the 2010s was the decade of austerity for public services, the 2020s is on the way to being defined as the decade of falling disposable incomes.
While poverty rises, the wealthiest individuals and the biggest businesses have filled their pockets like never before. Unwilling to tax wealth to arrest this decline, the UK and Scottish governments have haemorrhaged support and ceded ground to Reform, who shamelessly use migrants as human shields to protect their super-rich funders. Reform UK represent the interests of the wealthiest 10% who are hoarding almost 60% of the UK’s wealth and Farage wants them to have more.
Like most people in Sighthill/Gorgie, I do not own my home. We are among the 50% of the UK population who share less than 5% of the nation’s wealth. While our incomes are falling, our rents are rising.
In this context, I am in absolutely no doubt that it is the Scottish Greens who best represent me, my constituents and my class.
For private tenants, the rent controls initiated by Greens at Holyrood amount to the most significant economic intervention to improve living standards for working-class people since the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999.
In Edinburgh, it is Greens who are working to ensure that the rights of homeless people and the interests of Council tenants are at the heart of the Council’s response to the housing emergency.
As we prepare for budgets at Holyrood and at the City Chambers, only the Scottish Greens will call unequivocally for the abolition of the ridiculously unfair Council Tax and the introduction of a wealth tax.
Long ago, the old parties stopped representing the interests of the vast majority of people who vote for them. Only one party is serious about reversing declining living standards and working to create a fairer society. That’s why I’ve joined the Scottish Greens and why I look forward to working with my new colleagues to achieve the systemic change that so many of my constituents desperately need.
Cllr Ross McKenzie is the Green-Aligned Independent Councillor for Sighthill/Gorgie and a member of the Green Group on Edinburgh Council. To follow Ross and keep up to date with his work in the council and around the Sighthill/Gorgie ward, you can follow him on BlueSky and Facebook.
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