The National:

ANDREW Neil wrote a column in the Daily Mail looking to stir up hatred against the SNP-Green co-operation deal with a lot of big and scary words.

On the day that both SNP and Scottish Green members overwhelmingly backed the co-operation deal between the two parties, Neil - who has not been quiet about his opposition to independence in the past - put out a column attacking what he described as "ECO-ZEALOT MARXISTS" in the Greens.

GB News host Neil opines in the second paragraph of his column that "these are not your average Greens," which is true as the current group of Scottish Greens returned a record eight MSPs to Holyrood in May's Scottish Parliament election.

Neil even railed against the Greens for not winning any constituency seats (despite them not standing candidates in many) at the election, something that would see Holyrood looking very different, as SNP MP for Aberdeen South Stephen Flynn points out ...

The Scottish Greens do indeed have a radical crop of manifesto commitments, which co-leader Lorna Slater said in a column for The National earlier this week is important to combat important issues like the climate crisis.

READ MORE: Lorna Slater: By doing things differently we can build indy support

The headline of Neil's piece "Anti-monarchy. Anti-Britain. Anti-wealth. What price will Scotland pay for giving power to ECO-ZEALOT MARXISTS?", was probably intended to get people going against the Greens, but it only solidified support amongst members.

The party are indeed against an unelected head of state, want independence and to challenge the rich, but catastrophising is unfortunately all too common amongst Unionists.

In the column, Neil goes through the SNP-Green deal and scoffs at the lot while putting his own spin on it and proclaiming that it is effectively the worst thing ever to happen to Scotland.

We'll leave you to read through the whole piece at your leisure, or you could just go to the Scottish Greens' manifesto on their website and get the unspun gist.

READ: The text of the SNP-Greens co-operation deal in full

Despite Neil retweeting someone saying that his article "certainly rattled the Scottish Nationalists", a quick scroll through Twitter will show quite the opposite.

Understanding that Neil is just trying to cause a stir, one branch of the Scottish Greens took it as a tool to grow their membership.

The North Lanarkshire Greens shared the image of the column, tweeting: "Are you an eco-zealot marxist? Join us!"

The tweet got a tongue-in-cheek reply from co-leader Lorna Slater, who said: "I think he should be more open about his feelings, he shouldn't bottle things up."

Patrick Harvie replied to the front page in a similar vein with neither of the Scottish Green co-leaders being drawn into a social media shouting match with Neil on a historic day for the party,

Harvie tweeted: "Come on Andrew, get off the fence and say what you really think."

Elsewhere, other social media users were not convinced by Neil's latest attempt to drum up anger against pro-independence parties in Holyrood.

LBC presenter Natasha Devon highlighted the ridiculousness of Neil taking aim at a party focused on making Scotland a much more eco-friendly country, tweeting: "Do you think Andrew Neil shouts ‘ECO ZEALOT MARXIST!!’ at family members as they attempt to take out the recycling?"

Pro-independence blogger and pollster James Kelly shone the cold light of day onto Neil's sensationalisations in his piece.

Kelly wrote: "Andrew Neil sneers at the Greens' stance on Palestine/Israel. You'd think that Neil, who famously saw his courageous whistleblower source Mordechai Vanunu kidnapped and jailed by the Israeli state for *eighteen years*, might have a rather more realistic attitude by now."

READ MORE: Scottish Greens set to enter government as SNP deal backed by both parties

And one Jack Elphinstone wrote: "When you have Andrew Neil & the Daily mail foaming at the mouth, that’s a decent indication that there is decency with your politics and you’re on the right side of history.

"Made me more determined to vote for the deal."

Twitter user @RSRHIGHLANDER2 said: "If Andrew Neil is saying this then it must be a good deal. It's annoying all the right people. Dunno what an Eco-Zealot is but it sounds good to me."

And another opened old would for Neil, writing: "He seems to still have rage in the aftermath of finding out that Welsh Paw Patrol is more popular than his show."

Others were convinced by Neil's ad for the Green party with many asking: "Where do I sign up?"

It doesn't seem like anyone other than Andrew Neil has been "rattled" by his piece in the Daily Mail.