STEPHEN DAISLEY: Even the Greens looked glum at Hissyfit Harvie's Donald Trump tantrum

An upside of Donald Trump 's re-election is how sad and mad it has made some of the most insufferable people in public life.

Podcaster and alleged Tory Rory Stewart, who had confidently predicted victory for Kamala Harris , looked shellshocked as the results poured in.

A defiant Sadiq Khan declared that London 'is — and will always be — for everyone'.

I knew Trump had flipped Pennsylvania and Michigan but I didn't realise he'd picked up Paddington and Mayfair too.

Trump-hating Grammy winner Bette Midler deleted her Twitter account, the best thing she's done since 'Wind Beneath My Wings'.

Connoisseurs of these midwit meltdowns were in for a treat at First Minister's Questions, where Patrick Harvie's contribution took the form of a tantrum with a question mark.

Harvie, sporting a rainbow lanyard and white poppy, natch, demanded to know why John Swinney had congratulated 'the convicted felon Donald Trump'. Finally, a criminal the Greens don't want to rehabilitate.

Actually, he called Trump more than that. Allow me to consult my notes.

The President-elect was 'a misogynist, a climate denier, a fraudster, a conspiracy monger, a racist, a far-right politician who tried to overturn an election result both covertly and by inciting violence'.

'Words fail me,' Harvie fumed. If only.

He was incandescent. Glowing with rage. If they'd hooked him up to the national grid, he could have boiled every kettle in the land.

Behind him sat a downcast Ross Greer, looking like he'd just remembered it was double geography that afternoon.

I haven't seen so many despondent Greens since Lorna Slater's last speech.

Hissyfit Harvie demanded to know what Swinney had done 'to reach out to the marginalised and vulnerable people whose lives are most directly threatened by a second Trump term'.

I'm not sure what help Swinney can be to the primetime line-up on CNN, but fair enough.

The First Minister, to his credit, responded to Harvie as one should to any little'un kicking and screaming because they didn't get their own way.

He patiently explained to him how the world works. Scotland had economic and cultural ties to the United States.

These ties were valuable to Scotland. It was therefore in Scotland's best interests to be on good terms with the head of the American government.

Swinney can be infuriatingly reasonable at times. His opponents who write him off for 2026 are at risk of indulging in the same hubris and complacency that cost American Democrats so grievously on Tuesday night.

Responding to Russell Findlay on taxation and the economy, Swinney was even-tempered but firm, telling the Tory leader: 'I believe in investment to stimulate growth.'

Findlay continues to confirm that Scottish Conservatives picked the right man, with another assured performance at FMQs.

For much of the past 25 years, the Tories have been part of the centre-left consensus of Scottish politics, albeit more centre than left.

Findlay is leading from the right and drawing clear battle lines with the SNP and Labour. He told Swinney that 'high tax kills growth and costs jobs' and urged him to lower the fiscal burden on businesses to stimulate wealth creation.

Supply-side economics is hardly revolutionary these days but it has never made it past the front door of Holyrood, where most MSPs are not only drearily statist but barely aware of alternative approaches.

They think the Austrian school is a secondary modern in Vienna.

For most of its existence, Holyrood has been a spending parliament.

Findlay's message is that spending is only a virtue if it produces the intended results and is only possible if the economy grows enough to provide the necessary revenue.

He wants the government's wallet to be tighter so everyone else's can be fuller.

That's not an easy argument to make and making it honestly will require the Tories to stop calling for unfunded spending commitments.

You can't challenge the consensus and play its game at the same time.