It will come as no surprise to those who read this column regularly that I have a great deal of antipathy towards the Scottish Greens as a party, though not for the reasons you may think.

In a democracy, there should be space for all shades of opinion to have a platform and then, crucially, be judged at the ballot box by the electorate.

There is without a doubt, given the climate issues facing the planet, space for a party that is centred on putting solutions to that issue at the front and centre of their policy platform.

I am very comfortable with such a party being part of Scotland’s democratic process. Or I would be if that is what we had in Patrick Harvie’s Greens.

Unfortunately, Scotland has at the heart of both its national and local politics an ostensibly green party which would give Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party a photo finish result in the race to the extreme left.

Whether it’s through higher taxation for the so-called rich (that’s teachers, police and nurses to you and me – many of whom now pay 41% tax rates) or a misguided rent freeze which ends up with rents going higher than ever this year or attacks on businesses and wealth creators trying to provide employment through botched Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) or Low Emission Zones (LEZ).

All that before we get anywhere near the ill-thought attack on women’s rights is the gender reform legislation.

This is a party not fighting a war against emissions but a war against the economic system which pays for all the services and benefits that we hold dear.

At a recent full council meeting in the City Chambers, I asked the SNP convener about the impending prospect of almost 400 cabs disappearing from Glasgow’s streets next year and the impact that it could have on the city economy, not to mention Glasgow residents.

I received the usual complacent and “stop the scaremongering” response I have come to expect, but these are real statistics based on the efficacy of the taxi retrofit system supplied to me by the council itself.

At this same meeting, SNP council leader Susan Aitken was visibly squirming in her seat for having to “justify” to her bosses, the Greens, her decision to share a platform with representatives of BAE Systems at the recent City Economy Conference. Yes, that is correct, the leader of Glasgow City Council had to explain to the Greens why she chose to sit with one of the largest employers in the city.

I continue to observe many genuinely concerned SNP councillors shaking their heads in disbelief that the leadership of their party would rather be in thrall to the anti-business, anti-growth, virtue-signalling Greens than recognise the need for cooperation and consensus (of which the Scottish Greens know nothing).

While we disagree about Scotland’s constitutional future, we all, barring the Greens, agree about supporting Scotland’s economy and business community, and rightminded SNP elected representatives to see the damage wrought on their party and their country by the extremist and incompetent Greens.

And there you have the problem across Scotland; the SNP dog being wagged by its (anti-growth Green) tail.

Senior SNP figures such as Fergus Ewing and Ash Regan warned of the pitfalls of this coalition, but Nicola Sturgeon went ahead anyway to push her independence dream.

There should be a place in Scottish politics for a climate change-focused, green alternative, even one which leans to the left but unfortunately, we don’t have that in the Scottish Greens.

And it is Glasgow and Scotland that pay the price as a result.