A complaint from US tycoon Donald Trump that the co-convener of the Scottish Greens must apologise for ”juvenile and offensive” behaviour during a Scottish Parliamentary hearing into wind turbines has been dismissed as ”irrelevant and inadmissible” by the public standards commissioner.
In April, Mr Trump’s legal counsel and vice-president of the Trump Organisation, George Sorial, revealed the Trump Organisation had made an official complaint to the public standards commissioner for Scotland about Patrick Harvie’s behaviour at Holyrood’s economy, energy and tourism committee, to whom Donald Trump gave evidence.
The US businessman had been cross-examined by the committee, which is investigating renewable energy targets.
Mr Trump, a prominent opponent of wind power, had crossed swords with First Minister Alex Salmond over a proposed offshore windfarm within sight of his golf course development on the Aberdeenshire coast.
At the end of the session, Mr Harvie was seen to make a two-fingered gesture to Mr Trump as he left the committee room.
Scottish anti-windfarm group Communities Against Turbines Scotland (CATS) have already made a complaint to the Scottish Government about this and Mr Harvie’s use of religious imagery on Twitter and Facebook to ”lampoon” Mr Trump.
The Scottish Greens have laughed off the matter as ”tongue in cheek.”
However, Mr Sorial said this was ”no laughing matter,” and revealed an official complaint had been made to the commissioner on their behalf.
But on Monday Mr Harvie, Green MSP for Glasgow, welcomed a decision by the commissioner to dismiss the complaint.
Mr Harvie said: ”Trump seems to make a living from insulting behaviour just look at the way he has bullied the people on the Menie estate, describing their homes as ‘slums’.
”He seems to have an ego of messianic proportions. With this ruling from the commissioner we can all see that, as Brian’s mum might have said, Trump is not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.
”Scotland is on an important journey to a low carbon future. We must not be put off by a millionaire with a megaphone.”