THE Scottish Greens have criticised a former Scottish Tory MSP for a “bitter and personal attack” after he branded the party’s co-leader “insufferable, pompous and embarrassing”.
Adam Tomkins, professor of law at Glasgow University, also described the Greens as “full of hatred” and a “Bolshevik, communist party of the extreme hard left”.
The comments were made in the wake of Patrick Harvie’s speech in Holyrood after the accession of Charles to the throne, in which he sent a message to the new King that life was not “rooted in status or power”.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by Scottish Tory health spokesman Sandesh Gulhane, Tomkins admitted he hadn’t watched or listened to Harvie’s speech, but had only read about it.
READ MORE: Patrick Harvie: People stop me on the street and say well done for my speech to King Charles
He said: “One of the things that gives me greatest pleasure about no longer being an MSP is that I don’t have to listen to Patrick Harvie any more. I find him insufferable, pompous and all of the rest of it.
“And of course he is a man who is completely incapable of any sense of timing – the idea that even if it is appropriate ever to lecture the monarch, lecturing the monarch when he has only just ascended to the throne and is deeply in mourning for his late mother is surely the wrong time.”
In 2005 Tomkins co-authored a pamphlet with Alasdair Gray arguing that the nations of the United Kingdom can only become truly democratic by axing the Queen and restoring power to the people and he has also previously spoken at republican rallies.
He went onto launch a wider attack on the Greens saying: “The truth is both the late Duke of Edinburgh and the new King Charles III are much more committed environmentalists than Patrick Harvie and the modern Green party in the Scottish Parliament isn’t very green.
“It’s a Bolshevik party, it is a communist party of the extreme hard left that hates wealth, hates privilege – hates a lot of things, it is full of hatred.
READ MORE: Adam Tomkins in 'desperate' call for Unionist pact at Holyrood to defeat SNP
He added: “And it is much more interested in constitutional politics than it is in the politics of environmental change.
“I think it must surely be the case that Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP colleagues are deeply embarrassed about their decision to bring Harvie and his cronies into government.
“It was a terrible mistake on their part and it is embarrassing. He’s an embarrassment.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens said: "It would help if Professor Tomkins bothered to read the speech he is criticising. If he did then he would see that it promoted equality, transparency and the many things that he used to believe in when he was speaking at republican rallies.
"If he is missing his days in frontline politics then perhaps he would consider a return to the Tory fold under Douglas Ross. It seems they are struggling to fill a number of vacancies at the moment.
"Either way, his bitter comments and personal attacks are exactly what our politics needs to move on from. They only serve to make our point about the need for an open and respectful discussion about the future of the monarchy."
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