Dear Orkney News,

May I, on behalf of the Scottish Green Party (SGP), thank the Orkney electorate for the 1,104 votes that were cast for the Scottish Greens at last week’s election.

Your support enabled us to build a new team of 8 Green MSPs, with all four newcomers being women, including Ariane Burgess MSP, your new Green representative for the Highlands and Islands. Ariane will help enable a strong voice at Holyrood for a Green recovery from the pandemic, with climate emergency actions forefront in our priorities for the next Parliament.

The SGP’s Co-Leader, Lorna Slater MSP, also knows Orkney well from her career as a renewable engineer, and the development of the Orbital tidal device. I’m therefore certain that Orkney will feature prominently in these actions, and if anyone wishes to consider joining the SGP to help us build capacity in Orkney, please do get in touch.

I’d also like to offer our congratulations to those Orcadians elected last week – Liam McArthur MSP locally of course, but also Jamie Halcro-Johnston MSP on the Highlands and Islands regional list, and Neil Gray as MSP for Airdrie and Shotts.

Finally, none of this would have been possible without OIC’s election count team, who once again produced a seamless display despite the obvious difficulties caused by social distancing and the pandemic. Even the wandering cat was dealt with efficiently!

Our sincere thanks go to Interim CEO John Mundell and his team, who now have to repeat the exercise in less than a year for the Orkney Islands Council elections. We hope to have a strong Green presence in these local elections, and we’ll look forward to seeking your continued support.

My thanks once again to all.

Yours sincerely, Councillor Steve Sankey, Co-convenor, Orkney Greens