SCOTLAND is hoaching with wellness. That is not quite the slogan chosen by VisitScotland in its new drive to market the country as the ideal place for a healthy holiday, but you get the idea.

As it extols the virtues of outdoor yoga and mindfulness as ways to soothe the modern soul, the tourist body is showing how to be fully “on trend” with the times. When it comes to Scotland today, it seems you can have any colour of policy you want, as long as it is green.

Things certainly move fast in the new, greener Scotland. A week and a half ago, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon used her speech at the SNP conference to declare a “climate emergency”. This followed meetings with young climate change campaigners who had gone on strike from school to get across the message that adults were ruining the planet. Scotland was already a world leader in tackling climate change, said the FM, and having announced an emergency she pledged that Scotland would live up to its responsibility to tackle it.

Act now or risk devastation

This week, in what was punted as a measure of her dedication, she dumped a manifesto commitment to cut air passenger duty. Straight into the grey bin it went, no plans to recycle. Farewell concerns about Scotland’s connectivity to the rest of the UK and the world. Ta-ta to boosting tourism and exports, and all those other benefits the party had argued would follow the tax cut.

As of yesterday morning, the SNP’s website continued to state that “UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) is one of the most expensive taxes of its kind in the world and hampers Scotland’s ability to secure new direct international routes and maintain existing ones. Indeed, the level of taxation on the tourism sector, taking account of both VAT and APD, is amongst the highest in the world. This relatively high burden of taxation restricts the potential of the sector to grow to attract many more visitors to Scotland.”

Greens: The positive way to fight climate change

But forget all that. As Derek Mackay, the Finance Secretary, told the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, cutting the tax “is no longer compatible with more ambitious climate targets”. So you’ll have had your cheaper holidays and the chance to turbo charge the economy.

Business is angry about the sudden U-turn on a policy that has been in place for eight years. Liz Cameron, director of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said the move would do nothing to reduce emissions. Others have asked why, if the government is so keen to tackle climate change, it is spending £40 million to keep Prestwick airport open. (Speaking of places to enjoy the peace and quiet of Scotland, you could do worse than spend a day on the wide open plains to be found in Glasgow Prestwick Airport.)

It is no use complaining, however. As Roseanna Cunningham, the Environment Secretary, pointed out, if everyone is in agreement that the planet is facing a climate emergency then politicians must act in the national and international interest, “and not just what suits party political purposes”.

How magnanimous. How fortunate, moreover, that this reinvigorated dedication to the cause comes in a parliament where support of the Greens is vital in passing the administration’s budget and other measures.

But again, who are we to quibble? It’s an emergency. We are at war with the clock in trying to make good the damage caused by centuries of pillaging the Earth’s resources. Someone has to pay, so it is us, in the here and now. Shut up and eat your green policies.

No one would deny that there is a need to change our ways, but you do wonder if we have thought through the costs and impact and whether they are being imposed fairly. We have moved from inaction to wholesale acceptance of green policies with barely a pause to query if the right choices are being made. If it is green, it must be good is the guide.

Fighting climate change at home

Yet one person’s hero stopping the traffic is another person’s pain in the neck if you need to get to work. A workplace parking levy might seem like a good way to persuade people out of their cars, but why should the chief executive pay the same as the cleaner? Is it fair to push more people on to public transport when the system is badly stretched and barely managing as it is? And who should be exempt from parking charges: NHS staff, teachers, civil servants?

All questions worth asking, yet to do so risks the wrath of the more militant wing of the green lobby, a group that, if it is not careful, will soon be alienating more people than it persuades. Look at what is already happening on the roads. Like a lot of other people, I would like to cycle rather than drive. Yet when you see the antagonism between cyclists and drivers it does not seem worth the risk.

From this week, in response to the number of cyclists injured, undercover police are to take to bikes to enforce the rules on overtaking. Those who drive too close and are caught face three penalty points on their licence. A reasonable enough response to such thoughtless actions.

But thoughtlessness is not the sole preserve of drivers. It is not unusual to see cyclists travelling in packs that are difficult to pass, causing frustration among motorists. On my way into work there is a stretch of road that includes dedicated cycle lanes. It cost a small fortune to create them, and the disruption caused lasted for months, yet a lot of cyclists will not use them. Then there are the bikes on pavements, the cyclists who jump traffic lights and the ones, albeit a minority, who seem to see it as their duty to be aggressive.

Clock is ticking now

Selfish and dangerous behaviour on the part of cyclists and drivers should not happen, and it wouldn’t if the system of give and take, of compromise, was working as it should. But one side feels penalised by the other. The more people feel green policies are an imposition on particular groups, rather than something that benefits us all, the more division will occur.

In such sensitive times it does not help for policymakers to so blatantly play politics with environmental matters, as has happened with the air tax cut U-turn. Looking after the planet is a permanent job, not something to dabble in when the mood strikes.