Politics as Usual

I leaned forward in my chair and smiled at the interviewer "What I'm saying, is that the courts completely cleared him of any wrongdoing"

The interviewer was a smaller man than me, I could easily outwit him. He piped up a rebuttal "But that's not exactly true, in the courtroom, his defence lawyer said, and I quote "While my client has behaved poorly towards some of the female staffers, it is not a crime to be creepy"

I leaned back smiling as I'd outmanoeuvred him "That was clearly just a courtroom tactic, the important thing is that the court declared him innocent, demonstrating that the events never happened."

He looked quizzically at me "Didn't the jury return a 'Not proven' verdict. Not exactly a glowing declaration of innocence"

"Of course it was" I bellowed "There's a long history in Scot's Law of jury's using the 'Not Proven' verdict to quash unjust and baseless accusations where they deem the court to not have jurisdiction on a matter" I gave a broad grin, showing my teeth and stared down the little interviewer.

"I'm not really sure that's how it works..." I interrupted him "Of course it is! These baseless claims against the greatest statesman our country has ever produced are simply that, baseless. And the courts showed that. It's a deep state conspiracy against my friend and I am going to get to the bottom of this." I stood up from my chair and raised my arms in the air "We will find those who have conspired and fabricated these false claims and we will shine a light on them. And when we do, when we dismantle this conspiracy, people like you will have to stand up and apologise for the baseless, baseless things you've written about him."

The little journalist opened and closed his mouth a few times before clearly responding to something in his earpiece "Well thank you Mr. Richards for your time and your colourful opinion" He turns to the camera "We'll be brining you more updates and reactions as the former First Minister is narrowly acquitted on multiple charges of sexual assault and vows to 'bring down' those who dared speak out against him"

I march angrily out of the studio. This biased media, trying to twist the truth were part of the problem and that little journalist was probably being fed lines from some central location where they were fabricating and twisting the story to suit the narrative of some narrow minded interest group who were probably in the pay of the other side. I smile and shake hands with a studio exec on autopilot and thank him for having me on. He mentions that they'd like to have me back on next week for more commentary and I agree and promise that my people will call his people. He says something about 'representing diverse voices' and I inwardly cringe. What is it with these executives and their desire to let cranks and crazies on TV? They should only put on experienced pundits like myself. Men who have spent years commenting accurately on issues. Men that people trust.

I stepped into my waiting car and let the driver take me on to my next TV studio and my next show. The driver was a good bloke. Al Ja Something or the other. Did a good job, worked hard. Kind of boy you wanted to see more of. I warned him this would be a long one so he should take lunch if he liked once I'd been dropped off. Always serves to look after a good driver.

I pulled out my phone and fired off a few quick Tweets

"This media obsession with 'diverse' voices is coming at the expense of expertise and knowledge"

"Sad to see the Beeb selling out and entertaining these BASELESS lies about @FormerFM"

"Anyone know whose behind these BASELESS attacks on @FormerFM. I'll pay well for a good scoop. DMs open"

Slipping my phone back into my pocket, I stepped out of the car off to the next show.

It was later that evening after a successful day. I was pretty tired and emotionally wrecked. Sprawled out on my couch at home, I tapped out an order of takeaway and scrolled social media. The problem with having such a high following is that you were forced to spend hours sifting through dross for that diamond in the rough. I'd tried restricting my tweets for a while, but then you missed out on taking the pulse of the people. I needed to understand what people were thinking. And the best way to do that was to gauge how people were responding to tweets.