Lorna Slater saga shows why politics fails on diversity

But Hollywood stars managed to attend COP26 in constellation without apparent bother - Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Watson, Idris Elba, Matt Damon, Lily Cole. Bit unfair on them to suggest having a successful acting career is a disincentive to hard graft.

And diva? Come on. Let's try not to make our slurs so blatantly sexist. It's dead simple. Before knocking out a critique of your political opponent, ask if you would say it about a man. If the answer is a no or a not sure, sack it for something else.

Scottish Greens co-convenor Lorna Slater has been accused of being little more than a layabout after boldly asking for two days off during the 14 day COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last November.

As further evidence of her devil-may-care attitude she further asked for: no more than two to three events in a day; not too early a start after a late night finish; and time to eat.

Ms Slater also asked that, should she be called to attend three events in a day, that they might not all need extensive preparation, which suggests, and this might be a useful tip for others, she likes to be well prepared.

"This astonishing email reads like the demands of a Hollywood diva," Tory environment spokesman Graham Simpson said, "Not a Scottish Government minister."

Mr Simpson further pointed out that the future of the planet was "on the line" and that's fair enough though, let me say again, the planet will go on without us. It's the future of human and animal-kind that's on the line. "Emissions don't take a day off," he added, insightfully.

Anyway, yes, of course, the UN global climate summit being held in Scotland really was, it goes without saying, a fairly big deal for the Scottish Green Party. You would expect them to be absolutely horsing it at COP26, squeezing every last valuable drop from the event while they had the chance.

It was only two weeks, after all. The dignitaries, the politicians, the celebrities, the workers, dare I say it, the assembled press pack, would all have been working long hours and hard days. How dare Lorna Slater.

Colin Smyth, Scottish Labour’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport spokesman, dipped an oar in to suggest that Ms Slater's cabinet role is "part-time". It's eyebrow-raising to see a Labour politician criticising a worker wanting to take adequate breaks and set work boundaries.

The fly in all this outrage ointment is that Ms Slater has been very open about having autism. Now, she hasn't said that she needed to limit her time at the summit as a result of this but it is depressing that her political colleagues were so quick to judge, rather than taking a more empathetic line.

We would and should expect reasonable adjustments to be made to allow people who have additional needs to participate in political life.

If this is the response to a politician with a disability asking for reasonable support then it's no wonder that representation is so skewed towards white, middle class, middle aged, non-disabled males.

There's a further issue here around the way invisible disability is overlooked and misunderstood. When the Israeli minister for energy and water, Karine Elharrar, was unable to access the first day of COP26 because the venue was not wheelchair accessible there was, rightly, outrage.

She was barred from entering the summit in her adapted vehicle and then had to return to her hotel in Edinburgh when an alternative shuttle transport arrangement fell through when the bus was not suitable for wheelchairs.

"I'm very, very sorry about that," Boris Johnson is reported to have said in a private meeting with Ms Elharrar, demonstrating an ability to apologise that he seems to have subsequently lost.

Work/life balance has been a hot topic throughout the pandemic, as has the issue of presenteeism and politicians' holidays yet this episode demonstrates none of the more nuanced conversations about reasonable expectations have made any meaningful headway.

There's an expectation that success, particularly in politics, requires a 24-hour lifestyle where rest is ridiculed. Maggie Thatcher and her four hours a night, say. At the other end of the spectrum I have Barack Obama's campaign video for Hilary Clinton permanently seared in my mind. In it, a staffer describes how the US president liked to start the day at 6am. No matter how early this chap arrived for that first meeting, Mr Obama was there first with the words "You fired up, ready to go?"

For some, a 60 or 70 hour work week is perfectly do-able. For others, it's simply not possible to maintain that sort of pace. Quantity doesn't mean quality though, does it?

Emissions certainly don't take days off, which is a shame because some of these political emissions could really do with giving it a rest.