For all that they are still a relatively small presence in the Scottish political firmament, the Greens do seem to aggravate others to a disproportionate degree.

By chance, I was participating in a wireless phone-in this week. One caller derided the Scottish Greens as “a lentil munching, sandal wearing bunch of hippies”.

Fergus Ewing, the former SNP Minister, previously dismissed them as “wine-bar revolutionaries”.

To each and every taunt, Green politicians tend to respond with a gentle, faintly supercilious smile.

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In truth, the most fervent advocates of Greenery can occasionally seem a mite smug. Like religious adherents, they can sometimes give the impression that their path is the way to truth, while others are self-deluded.

Only very occasionally, mind. And they mean well. They genuinely believe, as they set out in their 2024 election manifesto, that “we are hurtling towards climate hell.”

Such a conclusion tends to lessen the scope for nuanced politics.

But, alongside that, there is also an intriguing conundrum confronting the Scottish Greens right now as they elect their next leaders and contemplate the pending Holyrood elections.

Are they content to be, principally, a party of voluble protest? Or is there pragmatism too – an opportunity to cut deals with other parties, such as the SNP or Labour, in pursuit of interim Green objectives?

As The Herald has ably chronicled, there are those in the party who argue that the Greens must present a fully radical agenda, who distrust........

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