By Bill Heaney

Green party MSP Ross Greer, who is largely credited with the Loch  Lomond National Park Authority’s decision to refuse planning permission for Flamingo Land’s leisure project at Balloch, is emerging as the candidate to take on – and possibly oust – Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie from her seat on the Scottish Parliament.

It would be a huge shock if Greer were to be selected to stand in the Dumbarton seat which also covers Helensburgh and Lomond, but that is what is being talked about already, albeit sotto voce – in the Garden Lobby, public houses and gossip shops around the Holyrood parliament.

The Scottish Budget and indeed the Westminster Budget on October 30 are taking precedence over the Scottish Election at the moment, but The Democrat has been reliably informed that a ballot box battle between Greer and Baillie, who has held the Dumbarton seat since its inception 25 years ago, is very much on the cards.

There is no way other political parties and Independent candidates will not attempt to wrest the Dumbarton seat away from Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Baillie given the recent shenanigans in Church Street where the Labour administration resigned en masse and in a huff after they failed to get Councillor Michelle McGinty elected as Provost to replace Douglas McAllister who is now the Labour MP at Westminster.

Cllr Michelle McGinty, Douglas McAllister MP, Ross Greer MSP and Dame Jackie Baillie.

Although Dumbarton man Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater were co-opted on to the SNP cabinet before being summarily dropped, Greer, who is perceived as Christian Socialist, is tipped to lead the Green party on his own.

Greer has joined the joint leaders drafting the Green demands, which  include higher taxes and dropping vital road-building projects, for keeping John Swinney in Bute House.

The SNP leader is facing an anxious wait though to see if he can get his budget through Holyrood before the end of the year.

Failure to do so could trigger a snap Holyrood election, paving the way for the SNP to be booted from government, according to polling.

The Greens were relegated to the backbenches earlier this year when then First Minister Humza Yousaf scrapped the Bute House Agreement that handed ministerial roles to Harvie and Slater.

It has left the duo dismayed since then with key Green polices such as the scrapping of peak-time rail fares, being ditched.

The Greens will use a debate in Holyrood this week to push the Scottish Government ahead of the draft budget being published on December 4, as well as stress there is more the Scottish Parliament can do to tackle the dire situation in the public finances.

Countering the Scottish Government’s claim to have no choice but to reintroduce peak rail fares, do nothing to ameliorate Labour’s the scrapping of winter fuel payments and free school meals for older primary pupils, the Greens are pointing to “tax breaks for big businesses and wealthy landowners”, and “climate-wrecking road expansion project

Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Liz Smith MSP, pictured left,  said: “It is clear the Greens still think they can hold the SNP to ransom.  Given the Greens Budget demands focus on imposing higher taxes on hard-pressed Scots and scrapping much-needed road projects, SNP ministers must show some common sense and refuse to bow to them.

“The last place the SNP should be looking for advice from is the anti-growth Greens and these calls should fall on deaf ears.”

But Ross Greer told the SNP government it was not “powerless” despite claims Westminster is to blame for a massive financial black hole before saying it was “true” Westminster was responsible for the “current mess”.

He added: “Even with the limited powers of devolution we must do everything we can to protect people and planet. We are ready to co-operate again, if the SNP will join us in taking the bold decisions needed to tackle child poverty and the climate crisis.”