As British ambassador to Uzbekistan his lack of diplomacy led to him being ousted amid false allegations that he offered visas for sex, drank to excess and drove an embassy car down a flight of steps.

Now the Scottish diplomat Craig Murray, who was sacked four years ago after condemning human rights abuses in the former Soviet republic, has turned his attention to his home city of Edinburgh, in a scathing attack on the Festival Fringe.

His accusation of philistinism follows lukewarm reviews of his girlfriend Nadira Alieva’s one-woman show, The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer, and claims that he is exploiting the 26-year-old Uzbek nightclub performer. He left his wife and two children to pursue his relationship with her.

In a stinging blog on his website, Murray, 49, rector of Dundee university, whose family come from South Queensferry, condemned the lack of “serious artistic intent” on the Fringe.

“This is my home town. As a young man I saw Steven Berkoff play Hamlet in a college gym and Brian Blessed play Macbeth in a church hall,” he said. “With more than 2,000 fringe shows, we are deluged by purveyors of highly derivative stand-up comedy of mostly mediocre quality. At night the Fringe venues are anti-intellectual, as drunks roam around and belch laughter to ‘observation comedy’ about when your relationship is established enough to let your partner see the skid marks in your pants,” he said.

“Bill Clinton famously described the Hay Festival as ‘The Woodstock of the Mind’. Edinburgh is becoming its Ibiza.” He added: “The abundance of silly review sheets, giving five-star ratings to appalling amateurish shows by their friends in the incestuous world of fringe theatre, is a minor annoyance. Much more annoying is the almost complete absence on the fringe of any endeavour of serious artistic intent.”

Murray, who denied he had exploited Alieva, also accused fringe festival organisers of failing to adequately promote The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer and criticised the decision to give it an afternoon slot.

The show, which was co-written by Murray and tells Alieva’s story, has averaged audiences of just 50 people since it began its run at the Gilded Balloon last month.

One newspaper reviewer dismissed the production as a “missed opportunity”, and The List, which gave it a 3/5 rating, said: “Belly dancing, spanking, stripping and politics are the intriguing ingredients of this rags-to-riches tale . . . intercut with voiceovers in which Murray tells his side of the story as well as salacious details of their relationship (apparently he likes a bit of slap and tickle).”

Another journalist described the show as sad, adding: “There is Nadira saying she wants to expose the fate of women and she’s being exploited by her husband who admits he is no pillar of moral rectitude.”

Last week Janey Godley, a Scottish comedian who won this year’s Funny Women Fringe Award for a one-woman show, Domestic Godley, accused Murray of snobbery. “It’s typical of anyone who has been involved in politics to assume that comedy is at the bottom of the food chain of all entertainment,” she said.

“If her show was any good more people would go and see it, and it wouldn’t need any promotion.”

A spokesman for the Festival Fringe denied that the event had been dumbed down and dismissed Murray’s claim that it had failed to properly promote his girlfriend.

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