Robin Harper, Scottish Green Party

Robin Harper became in 1999 the first green parliamentarian to be elected in the UK, to the Scottish Parliament. Before that he had already long been a major figure in the Scottish Green Party in Edinburgh and Scotland. Yesterday evening, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival he was in conversation with Ruth Wishart.

Ruth Wishart steered the interview expertly, but made a major assumption that the audience was made up of 'political junkies'. However, I can't have been the only person in the audience who would have been interested to hear more about Robin's inspirations anod motivations and his visions for how to mainstream environmental issues into the political process. I feel that any MSP* could have given us similar insights into the advantages and disadvantages of the Scottish Parliament. The specific environmental issues covered in the interview were covered only briefly and there was no discussion of the need to green our whole political system or how we can start to do that. Robin was the longest serving Green Party MSP and could give us real insights into this issue.

Robin's book Dear Mr Harper: Britain's First Green Parliamentarian covers more of his personal take on green issues and politics and is available on Amazon here.

Disclaimer - I had a free press ticket for this event.

*MSP = Member of the Scottish Parliament