A SENIOR Scottish Greens activist has quit the party accusing them of standing by while the SNP “decimate the further education sector”.
Ryan Donachie, who had served on the party’s executive as an executive clerk alongside high-ranking members such as Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, described his decision to leave as “exceptionally difficult”.
But he said: “The lack of voice from the party while the [SNP] government decimate the further education sector in Scotland has been a very, very bitter pill to swallow.”
Donachie, who will from July serve as the student president for welfare at Glasgow Kelvin College Student Association, claimed the party had done “nothing” to show they could “rebuild the trust needed with the education sector”.
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Colleges are facing a 8.5% cut in funding from the Scottish Government which the National Union for Students Scotland warned would be “disastrous”.
Donachie said: “The fundamental mistreatment of ordinary volunteers like me, who have given hundreds of hours of our own time to ensuring that we are a strong voice for progressive Scots, is also intolerable.
“I hope that my resignation – as a senior member of the party – will act as a wake up call to our leaders and underline the crisis in confidence that many members have in the direction we are currently being taken in.”
The Greens have been facing increased levels of internal discontent in recent months.
A proposed membership vote – secured after grassroots pressure on the party leadership – precipitated the collapse of the SNP’s coalition deal with the Greens and Humza Yousaf’s resignation earlier this month.
The Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens declined to comment.
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