What's the Point of Lorna Slater?

Lorna Slater was appointed to the non-job of Minister for the Circular Economy - a role which never existed under previous Scottish Governments and was specially created for her, for political reasons, by Nicola Sturgeon.

By any measure Slater has been a huge disappointment - primarily for making such a mess of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), but also because of her embarrassing performance inside and outside of the Scottish Parliament (see posts below).

The SNP's coalition agreement with the Greens is a shabby affair designed to protect under-performing ministers from being held to account by MSPs.

In a week when Westminster has worked on a cross party basis to hold a former Prime Minister to account it will be interesting to see if the Scottish Parliament rises to the occasion - or will the SNP act as a 'human shield' for the Greens.

Sack Slater! (June 08, 2023)

Lorna Slater is to good government what Basil Fawlty was to hotel management - her handling of the Deposit Return Scheme could be fairly compared to asking your local council for planning consent after you've already built a big extension on to your house. 

The Greens and Scotland's Two-Tier Health Service (May 29, 2023)

The wackadoodle Greens are a preachy lot and love telling everyone else how to behave, yet here's Lorna Slater using private healthcare to avoid lengthy waiting times for NHS treatment. 

Lorna, at least, has the money to get the treatment she needs, but what about all those waiting for years to have a cataract operation, a hip or knee replacement - see post below on Scotland's two-tier health service?

Scotland's Ruinous SNP/Green Alliance (May 29, 2023)

Lorna Slater is reportedly fuming at the collapse of her ruinous deposit return scheme, but this demonstrates the SNP's recklessness in creating non-jobs out of thin air for inexperienced Green politicians - driven by ideology rather than finding practical solutions.

Iain Macwhirter hits the nail on the head in his column for the Times.

"However, it is surely not sensible politics to try to blame Westminster for a mess that has been so obviously made in Scotland. Devolution was supposed to deliver Scottish solutions to Scottish problems, not create them."  

Encouraging Unlawful Discrimination (May 15, 2023)

Sound advice from Audrey Ludwig for Scottish Ministers such as Lorna Slater who foolishly encouraged this kind of discriminatory nonsense at The Stand. 

The Stand has since apologised for its unlawful behaviour, but as far as I know Lorna Slater has still to follow suit. 

 

Is It OK To Blacklist Slater? (May 15, 2023)

Anya Palmer asks a reasonable question of ScotGov Green minister Lorna Slater.

Are people (including civil servants and parliamentary staff) entitled not to work with Slater because they don't like Lorna or her politics?