SCOTTISH Greens co-leader Lorna Slater has had a busy 24 hours on social media after a strong night at the first leaders' debate of the Holyrood campaign.
Slater's performance at the debate was widely seen to be one of the strongest of all the party leaders and she garnered praise on Twitter from politicians, political commentators and journalists.
However, one SNP MP's assessment of the night, written directly after the BBC broadcast finished at 9pm, gained a lot of attention for how he referred to Slater.
Pete Wishart, the MP for Perth and North Perthshire, wrote last night: "Well. Nicola was fantastic. Ross absolutely awful, angry, obsessed and simply embarrassing. I think the public will tire of the Sarwar mock sincerity stuff quickly. Quite liked the Green. Absolutely no opinion on Wullie."
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Slater, who said after the debate her "mentions are going a bit nuts", replied to Wishart's assessment this morning, saying: "I would henceforth like to be known as 'The Green'. Will look into deed poll etc. ASAP."
I would henceforth like to be known as 'The Green'. Will look into deed poll etc. ASAP. https://t.co/XwryGNHfxJ
— Lorna Slater (@lornagreens) March 31, 2021
Unfortunately, Wishart, who has been an SNP MP since 2005 and previously a keyboard player for the hugely successful Celtic rock band Runrig, came in for a bit of grief on Twitter.
Users scolded him for not using Slater's name in his summation of the debate, to which Wishart pointed out that he said nothing derogatory about the Greens co-leader and that the SNP and Greens are "allies in the storm" ahead of the campaign for Holyrood.
The Holyrood campaign, which will come to a head at the beginning of May when voters go to the polls on May 6, is likely to involve a great of continued debate on the "constitutional question" or where parties stand on a second independence referendum.
The SNP and Scottish Greens have worked together throughout the current parliamentary term with the Greens seeming to pioneer a concept in Holyrood of "constructive opposition" which has lead to key Green policies being passed into legislation.
Slater leads the Greens in Holyrood with co-leader Patrick Harvie, but she is also an engineer who works in the renewables industry, specifically on floating tidal stream turbines.
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The current SNP government has set some of the most ambitious targets for climate action in the world and the parties are allied on their backing of Scotland becoming an independent country.
In the replies to her original tweet though, Slater revealed herself to be something some may have already suspected - a Trekkie.
In a tongue-in-cheek reply to a tweet in solidarity with her name change, Slater said: "We are all The Green", along with a gif of a member of The Borg alien group from the science-fiction show Star Trek. The Borg are cybernetic organisms linked in a hive mind called "the Collective".
We are all The Green pic.twitter.com/iH0G7wUfN7
— Lorna Slater (@lornagreens) March 31, 2021
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