EDDIE BARNES: Is it any wonder the former leader of the Scottish Greens tore ... trends now
Some months ago, I spent an afternoon in the kitchen of former Scottish Green party leader Robin Harper at his flat in Edinburgh.
While I was there, Robin – now a sprightly 83 years old – wanted to show me his latest gadget; a new air fryer he and his wife, Jenny, had bought. He was buzzing with pleasure.
With just the two of them in the flat, it was the perfect size to cook small meals.
And, he added, given they were no longer using their gas hob, it meant they were cutting back on their emissions to boot.
Everyday, practical steps to reduce the carbon we emit into the atmosphere – and save us all on our bills in the process – should be the calling card of today’s Green movement.
Former Scottish Greens leader Robin Harper looked on in despair at the way the party has been led by successors Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater
Challenges
It’s what still fires up Mr Harper, a life-long environmentalist who sends off daily emails and letters urging action on this greatest of human challenges.
It is, however, no longer what the Green movement in Scotland is about.
Culture wars – not common progress – have become its watchword.
Ideological purity tests are more important than environmental goals.
The Green agenda in Scotland has been hijacked since Mr Harper’s time in charge.
It is this little bit of the planet that’s suffering.
Mr Harper’s verdict on the Green movement will, I suspect, mirror that of many others.
A lifelong member of the Scottish Green party, he tore up his membership card last year in despair at the way it was being led by his successors Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater.
He, like many of us, has watched on in bemusement as a party and a movement designed to promote the cause of environmentalism has instead set out to split the country into heretics and believers – and often over issues that have no relevance to the planet whatsoever.
Firstly, it happened with independence when, according to Scottish Green dogma, the cause of the planet became contingent on the creation of a border between Gretna and Berwick-upon-Tweed.
More overtly in recent years, the Green cause diverted itself into the great national frenzy over gender ideology, again for no obvious environmental purpose.
The juxtaposition has now become a full-blown cognitive assault.
On the planet, Mr Harvie tells us we should stand by ‘the evidence’ and follow ‘the science’ on climate change.
And amen to that.
On gender and independence, however, we’re just supposed to believe.
Last week, Hilary Cass’s detailed review into gender services concluded there was ‘remarkably weak evidence’ behind treatments such as puberty blockers.
Yet Mr Harvie refuses to give the findings his support.
The man of science suddenly comes across like a Victorian bishop denying Darwinism.
There is logic, however, and it’s on the brute politics.
The Scottish Greens know their nationalist position will
