The story of the Scottish Greens' campaign: Lorna Slater steals the show

This was the approach to the 2021 campaign by the Scottish Greens, after carrying out research in the run-up to the poll, which targeted voters who could be persuaded to vote Green, rather than those already committed to the party.

Party sources say the surveys found there was an appetite among younger people to back the Greens, but key to this would be getting messages which resonated among voters – and also making sure they turned out on polling day.

And while the climate emergency was a clear priority, the approach taken was to try to do this in a more “upbeat” way.

“Vote Like Our Future Depends On It” was the resulting catchy campaign slogan which appeared across leaflets and posters.

“There is no doubt we had to lead on climate,” a campaign insider said.

“But you have to do that in a positive way – there is a real risk that it becomes doom and gloom and too much the idea of “we are lost”.

“There is a kind of guilt trip inherent in a lot of the traditional messaging that goes out around climate change.

“But the fact is we need governments to lead, we need businesses to change and that personal behaviour thing is a real red herring.”

The Scottish Young Greens also went out in force to help the campaign on the ground to target younger voters.

Blair Anderson, co-convener of the Glasgow and West Young Greens, told the Sunday National: “Young people have been turning to the Green Party in this election more than ever because it is young people’s future that is at play in this election, not just in the climate crisis but also independence.

“There has been a generation – it has been seven years and there are people who are now 20 who have never had a say on independence.”

The voter research also uncovered another vital insight – no-one really knew what the Greens had achieved in the past five years.

The budget deals struck by the party with the Scottish Government on issues such as free bus travel for young people and free school meals for primary children were largely lost on the public, who believed they were SNP policies.

So another tactic in this campaign was to flag up these achievements at every opportunity – such as in the various leaders’ TV debates – to get across the idea that voting Green isn’t “a waste”.

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The Greens also benefited from some timing around the launch of their manifesto. Scottish Labour was due to go first – but their launch was delayed after the death of Prince Philip led to campaigning being suspended.

“Luckily we had decided we were really going to go for a proper detailed manifesto this time,” a party source said.

“We wanted people to take us seriously. We needed a manifesto that was detailed; it had to read like a programme for government, which traditionally the Greens have not done as they have accepted that maybe they are not going to be too influential.

“We had to show real purpose with our manifesto and have that credibility. So the fact we came first meant other parties were then compared to our manifesto, which I don’t think would have happened in any other year.”

A decision was also taken to stage daily photocalls – something which hadn’t been done by the party in previous elections.

“The BBC were clear we had a five-party parity at this election and therefore in our minds we were absolutely determined to make the most of that and not give them an excuse not to feature us,” the source added.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, though. Patrick Harvie was forced to front the manifesto launch solo after co-leader Lorna Slater received a Covid exposure notification from the Protect Scotland app. It was not the sure-footed start to the campaign which the party had hoped for.

But Slater, a renewable energy engineer who enjoys taking to the trapeze in her spare time, soon made an impact in the first televised leader’s debate of the Holyrood campaign, with her performance widely viewed as one of the strongest.

She raised her profile further with humorous retorts on social media after being referred to as “The Green” and the “Green Lady” and with an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

A subsequent deluge of requests from London-based media for Slater led to a tricky balancing act over trying to make sure the co-leaders had equal airtime.

“Usually London-based broadcast media completely ignore the Scottish Greens, but that has not happened at this election,” the source said.

“Lorna did pretty well on the Andrew Marr show and that made people go, oh wait, who is this?

“That has never been the case before and it does cement the idea of the Scottish Greens as part of that pro-independence majority.”

One major potential blip in the campaign was the arrival of the Alba Party on the scene – which some had predicted could dent the Greens’ list vote. However, it did not prompt much concern in the party, according to sources.

“Ultimately we had done enough work that we knew it wasn’t going to appeal to our voters anyway. It was Declaration of Arbroath type stuff.

“Greens want independence for a reason and that is what motivates our voters.

“It is this idea of a new Scotland forging a new future in Europe. That is the kind of stuff we want to talk about and we just weren’t worried about the Alba thing.”

Another question which featured heavily in the campaign has been the possibility of a Green coalition with the SNP.

The structure of the party means this would have to be approved by members.

“Of course Greens all round the world are in coalition with government and achieving real impact in terms of tackling the climate crisis, particularly in New Zealand,” the source added.

“It would be daft for us not to want to be part of government, but it’s not really up to Patrick and Lorna if that happens.”