Scottish activists will make their mark at the next election with a campaign to stamp a green footprint across the country’s politics.

Environmentalists are urging Scots to vote with their feet – by sending their own footprint, in green ink, to candidates in the May elections.

The John Muir Trust is among Scottish environment charities bidding to raise the green agenda at election time. The trust, which campaigns for the protection of the wild environment, has added its voice to the everyone group, which includes the Ramblers’ Association in Scotland, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Mountaineering Council of Scotland and several other groups.

I'm Voting With My Feet template (left)

They are asking voters to download a footprint template, paint their foot green and leave their impression on the sheet. This should, of course, be done on recycled paper.

The idea then is to create the biggest collection of green footprints the world has ever seen (how many green footprint collections has the world seen so far? – Ed) and put pressure on would be MSPs to listen to the environmental lobby.

Quite how groups such as the John Muir Trust and Mountaineering Council of Scotland can sleep in the same bed as Friends of the Earth Scotland while still maintaining their vehement opposition to the many alternative energy schemes proposed for Scotland, ie windfarms, remains to be seen. It’s a subject of heated debate (which may exacerbate global warming) this month in a certain well-known Glasgow-based magazine devoted to the outdoors, whose editor has a beard and whose first name is the same as Tory Dave’s surname.

This dilemma is hinted at in the objectives of the everyone group, which concern climate change, loss of wildlife and habitats, destruction of landscape, pollution of seas and health and wellbeing. Not always easily reconciled, we think.

Still, it’s all good fun, with a serious message, and a chance for lovers of green ink to search their dark cupboards and unscrew the magic potion once more.

Details are on the everyone website and from the John Muir Trust.