Trans Green Party candidate with no British visa elected to Holyrood

[IwantToRetire]

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.

Full article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/05/09/trans-green-party-candidate-migrant-elected-holyrood/
And at https://archive.is/LhZYy

Reform couldn't have dreamed for a better headline!

Greens and Reform either have no vetting process or their vetting process is “are you breathing and will you be loyal to the party.” It’s going to be wall to wall articles about Green and Reform (maybe Plaid Cymru too?) councillors and MSPs being total fucking clowns (racist, sexist, rude) who should have been vetted out. If your party has existed but been running paper candidates for over a decade (Greens), your vetting process is probably fucked.

That’s. A good article by Stu and I’m glad he credited Tina from for women Scotland. She’s the person I’d trust on this, and she’s not even a civil servant. They appear to be useless

Honesty? It's just another example of the shit show that is the Green party. Today it seems that Polanski didn't pay the council tax for his canal boat. I mean, how much more is there?

Big Malky’s going for a bill? I hope he’s not joking, it needs looked at!

Exactly.
News today:

• Newly elected Reform candidate called Muslims “rats”
• Zack Polanski couldn’t even pay his fucking council tax correctly (and they think he can run a national party! No wonder none of their ideas are costed 😂)

And that was before noon!

And we’re only on the Tuesday after the election!

I vote the group of news articles (there will be many) that are coming out about how unfit all the newly elected officials are, be referred to as what it ACTUALLY is - Reform and the Greens outsourced their vetting to the media. And that’s a fucking expensive way to do it (new elections, byelections, candidates having to be replaced by the national party before they’ve even officially sat; just an obscene waste of money).

The Scottish Green Party are a completely seperate party to the UK Green Party.

Have you ever heard the saying “it is better to stay silent and be thought a fool, than open your mouth and confirm it”

Murdo Fraser has never been elected in a constituency. He's been a list MSP since 2001. 25 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murdo_Fraser

@OpheliaWitchoftheWoods and @DrBlackbird agree wholeheartedly

Yes if you read my post immediately before the one you quoted you’ll see that bit of the article is wrong.

And their messaging and vetting problems are going to be even bigger as a result.

I’m aware Scottish Greens are pro-Scottish-independence; I’m not aware of any other differences between Scottish Nationalist Greens and Unionist Greens - if there are 1000 questions to vet a Green candidate, then they should both be using 999 of the same, and the 1000th would be “do you support Scottish independence” because it’s the only 1 you want a different answer for. If they have larger differences, they’re haven’t put across enough messaging to show them. And yes, until it’s time for another independence vote (not until SNP have EU membership on the table), that’s how little that difference matters.

(Has SNP made a formal offer of coalition and it’s been accepted by Scottish Greens? If so, I missed it, then yes, it might matter, because they’ll have the votes for another referendum. If not, they won’t work together for another independence vote, so it doesn’t matter).

I thought those on a student visa can only work full time in the holidays and not hold a full time permanent vacancy?

I’m sorry they’re not Nationalist Greens and Unionist Greens. They are two completely separate parties. UK (I think, could be just English) and Scottish Greens.

And no. I think John will continue as a minority government which negotiates with other parties. Mainly Lib Dems and the Greens.

Sigh. A PhD student who has submitted their thesis is also allowed to work full time. As I have said several times.

“John”

First name terms?

It's what we do here. Did you call Boris "Boris" or "Boris Johnston"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Greens

Mate, listen - all this page says is the Scottish Greens schismed from the original UK Green Party. No one cares; all it shows is that the Green Party are so politically incompetent that they couldn’t even agree enough to keep their Scottish arm. So… still a clusterfuck, no? Still shows less high-level organization and vetting than other parties, no? (You can say no, but I’d like to know why).

Are there separate Welsh Greens? NI Greens? Either the whole party should have stayed together or devolved, but you can’t refer to anything as a UK-wide party when it’s not. They schismed ONLY with Scotland, and now their differences are what? I assumed Scottish nationalist views vs unionist views; was I wrong to say that? Is there more, or not?

I’m not going to call a party that isn’t UK-wide “the UK Greens.” If their messaging has managed to get you to say that, good on them, but not me. That’s ridiculous media framing.

I don't know if there are seperate Greens in other countries.

I don't know what their differences are as I have no interest in parties outwith Scotland tbh. Except Plaid Cumrie and Sinn Féin .

I'm only calling them the UK Greens as you think they are a party with the SGP, which they aren't. I don't have a clue if they represent Wales and NI. To me, they are the English Greens. Which is probably right considering they don't stand in Scotland!

Just to add. I'm an SNP member. Are you a member of a political party? Plus, although we have 60k members, we're a small country and I have met all three FMs. Nicola, Humza and John. Didn't meet Alex as he had left when I joined. It's just a thing. It's not that we're besties. We're just a small party who get together to campaign when there's an election.

Plaid Cymru (translation: Party(plaid) of Wales(Cymru, pronounced roughly as yes, cumrie)). And yes, I fairly see your point that all this is extra shite 😂

But I suppose that is the point? That nationalist parties are now in charge in every country except England (Plaid Cymru in Wales, probable SNP/SG coalition in Scotland, Senn Fein in NI).

Yes! Thank you for seeing my point that it's all extra shite 😂

Jo Bartosch doesn't hold back on her opinion of the man

"In short, Manivannan displays his politics like a designer handbag; his opinions are simply an extension of his ego, a way to show the world that he is a good person. He is the perfect symbol of Green narcissism."

"...he believes in the full decriminalisation of pimping and brothel-keeping and was a fierce opponent of former MSP Ash Regan’s attempts to protect women and girls through the Unbuyable Bill. He also supports the administration of experimental drugs to children who believe they’re ‘trans’ and predictably thinks that Palestine should be ‘free’."

Q Manivannan: this Green MSP is luxury beliefs made flesh - spiked

It’s the Green Party of England and Wales, Scotland is completely separate. No idea if NI has any Greens.

his opinions are simply an extension of his ego

So apt.