Scottish Greens being sexist again

[fromorbit]

With Sparkles no longer a member other male Scottish Greens have had to step up to continue their terrible reputation. They are doing their bit.

Scottish Greens council candidate claimed JK Rowling was a Holocaust denier and said trans rapist Isla Bryson was a woman
Exclusive: Eryn Browning has been chosen by the Scottish Greens to contest a by-election in Clydebank Waterfront but offensive historic posts have resurfaced.
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/scottish-greens-council-candidate-claimed-35039831?int_source=nba

There is hope the Scottish Greens might plunge into civil war after their conference. Patrick Harvie is standing down as leader but Slater is standing again and there is opposition over her elitist behaviour.
https://archive.is/ESYZg

Oh noes. New Trans MSP Q Maninavan not only doesn't have the right to work BC student visa but has been making the obligatory Problematic posts about the 7th October hostages

https://archive.ph/e9LHg (telegraph shortcut)

Q Manivannan, who identifies as non-binary, was elected as an MSP on the Edinburgh & Lothians East list for the pro-independence Scottish Greens.
It was reported earlier this week that the former PhD student has appealed to colleagues for £2,089 of funding for a temporary graduate visa.
This would give the anthropologist and poet a further three years to work and live in the UK, picking up the taxpayer-funded MSP salary of £77,711.
Manivannan is said to have told colleagues this would help buy time to save up the £5,047 cost of applying for a global talent visa, the UK immigration category for promising individuals in specific sectors.
The self-described “queer Tamil immigrant” was only able to stand in the election after SNP ministers loosened the rules over who could be a Holyrood candidate
.

The Telegraph has seen posts by Manivannan in which the student bragged about “unfollowing” Auschwitz on social media and supported the vandalism of posters of Israeli hostages taken by Oct 7.
Responding to a post in 2024 by the museum asking for more support on X, Manivannan said: “Just unfollowed you.”
In a separate post made in October 2023, Manivannan defended the defacement of posters showing pictures of Israeli hostages with the word “occupier”, describing the act as an example of “solidarity towards an occupied people”.
The comment was made in response to another social media user criticising the actions as immoral.
The Scottish Greens were contacted for comment.

That new MSP will do wonders for Reform.

That’s hilarious.

I'm with the Greens on banning wood-burning stoves. I don't know why people have to have the right to cause serious everyday pollution to their neighbours, simply to produce heat in their living room, when other options are available and already installed in their homes. Where I live there's often a thick smog of wood smoke. I imagine it's similar to living in the London smog of 75 years ago. Smoke gets into other people's houses even if they never open a window.

It used to be a key accoutrement for a certain type of environmentalist BC the wood was natural and it wasn't using fossil fuel

Monbiot has gone all struggle session

https://www.monbiot.com/2023/01/12/burning-shame/

That's a terrifying article:
"Even a modern, approved, “eco-friendly” wood burner produces 750 times as many fine particulates as a heavy goods vehicle. - These poisons can affect every organ in the body. Tiny particles pass straight through your lungs into the bloodstream. Wherever they lodge they cause harm. They’re associated with a wide range of cancers, heart and lung disease, strokes, dementia and the loss of intelligence. They age your skin and damage your liver. They harm foetuses in the womb and children’s development."

Things have moved on since he wrote that article. Wood-burning stoves are not now restricted to the upper middle classes. I live in a working-class area and I'd say that every second house has one of these stoves. Some people use them all day and half the night. And it's getting worse, quickly. No thought seems to be given to the fact that this affects not just the house owners but also the neighbours. Smoke gets in through any kind of crack in your house, the windows obviously, and if you step outside it's often like being next to a bonfire.

But I think it's become an obsession for a lot of people, so politicians won't act on it. Of course, the NHS won't be able to cope with the impact.

I have an open fire, love it. Oil is all well and good for the radiators but a real fire is cosy. Also handy when there is a power cut in winter and the boiler won't work

Also, if the price of oil doesn't come down again before winter, I won't be able to afford to fill my tank so the fire will be our only heat source

The wood burning stoves is another red herring in my view - like the uk gov wanting to stop trail hunting - just pure spite against '?toffs' - FGS fix the nhs, fix schools and the education standard, stop with the stupid sops to people - just to get stupid people clapping and a distracting headline - there is so much wrong in the uk and no money to fix it - what are the policies to fix that - oh, they have none or we'd hear about them........they're all uselss

Its bollocks, though.

A wood burning stove is a sensible heating method for many, and far more sustainable than fossil fuels.

The Scottish Greens recommendation for back up heating was gas fires. Over a wood stove. I'm not even kidding.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/fd5f742f-e4f6-40ce-9b60-7b4fc360246e

'Ian Blackford, the SNP’s former Westminster leader, said it “beggars belief” that the Greens had put forward a candidate for parliament who was in the UK on a student visa
.Speaking in a personal capacity, Blackford is a member of the recently formed ethics and integrity commission, which has a remit of protecting standards in public life across the UK.

He added: “Quite frankly this should be an automatic vetting fail as a candidate on a student visa does not satisfy the ability to enter into full-time work.
“Selecting such a candidate undermines trust in politics and how on earth some can expect to be sworn in as an MSP without establishing the right to work is beyond me.
“The Greens are treating the electorate with contempt and given that Q Manivannan cannot satisfy the right-to-work requirements he should not be permitted to take his seat. The Greens ought to propose their next-placed candidate in their place.”

Manivannan said:...
“I am a Commonwealth citizen and am currently on a student visa which will expire later this year. Having passed my grant-funded PhD and viva, I am able to work full time.
“I am in the process of transitioning to a graduate visa which will allow me to stay in the UK for a further three years.'

so, self ID appears to extend to nationality.

Just a thought - if Mannivan were withdrawn, who would take his place? Looks like Chas Booth is the next on the list. I know nothing about him. From his facebook page he is strongly pro-cycling and pro-environment, so maybe not a bad choice.

"pro-cycling and pro-environment"

In current day Greens? That will never do. 😉

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26093816.ex-scottish-greens-top-candidate-resigns-bad-outweighed-good/

Poor Guy.

From my knowledge of him, he consistently attended his regular surgeries in Leith and was fairly vocal in supporting local events. Has actual environmental experience.

On the other hand, he has pronouns in his Bluesky bio. And is part of the Scottish Greens which tells its own story.

Problems with pushing buttons

🔘

https://nitter.net/DownWithTheSNP/status/2056741278662922615#m

On this occasion, @ArabellaScott I have to disagree with you. I rarely do.

This BMJ paper points out that even ecodesign wood burning stoves emit over 465 times the 2.5mm particulates that a gas boiler would. They are over 60 times as polluting as oil-fired heating.

https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s360

I accept that wood-burning stoves are much loved by many and may be easier to use for many who don’t have access to gas. Nonetheless they are far more polluting.

Polluting of what?

And the CO2 emissions?

I would be cautious about all research that supports oil and gas over timber, tbh. Who funded the research and how rigorous is it? I dont have time to dig right now but some of the studies were very flawed, lumping in open fires with stoves, and using tiny samples. Stoves create interior air pollution when refuelling, but so does a toaster while in use.

We can power our homes using renewable electricity. As a back up source, timber is cheap, renewable and plentiful.

Energy needs should be plural to cover shortages or power cuts.

The Scotgov tried to suggest that a portable gas fire was a better option than a woodstove for back up heating.

Madness.

I think there's a case for banning wood burners in built up areas. In sparsely populated areas the particulate emissions disperse rapidly rather than build up to concerning levels.

There's already legislation for that I think. Certainly is on coal burning in urban areas

https://www.gov.uk/smoke-control-area-rules

Wood burners are harmful to the health of both owners and neighbours, in villages, towns and cities. Try driving through any Scottish village on a winter evening with your car window open and you'll be breathing in smoke. They cause a long list of very serious health problems. And if people have them as "back-ups" they will use them even when a back-up isn't needed. There's plenty of strong research on this, and it's recognised as a problem internationally. In the UK, wood burners cause more small particulate emissions than all of road transport. Those small emissions are the most dangerous kind.
Find someone who denies this and you've found yourself someone who has spent money on a wood burner, loves sitting in front of their wood burner and has maybe exposed their children to it - they're in denial.

Maybe the problem is the conflation of 'smoke' and 'pollution'.

Because of course fossil fuels pollute, just different types of particulates.

There is a very long list in that link above of what you can and can't burn in a smoke-free zone.

Woodburners are a total pain in the arse. Enormously time and labour intensive. For some people, they are necessary.

Given fuel uncertainty and geo politics as they are, plus climate change, moving away from a cheap and plentiful and renewable source of fuel in favour of fossil fuels is foolhardy.