Don’t get baited
People who should know better are arguing over cosplay nats and a ‘unionist troll’, notes Kevan Christie
You know it’s time to get back into the office when some of the most prominent journalists in Scotland feel the need to defend themselves against a Twitter user with 481 followers and a profile that read: Brexiteer, anti SNP, member of the loyal orders, black belt karate, Israel, Rangers, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yip, dear readers, I came back from a lovely ten days off and two trips to Costa Del Portobello to witness my profession finally don the water skis and jump the shark like Fonzie in the 1977 Happy Days episode, Hollywood Part 3.
Alexander Jardine, aka Sandy Jardine like the late Rangers football legend, described as a “unionist troll account” by one newspaper, certainly touched a raw nerve when he claimed Nicola Sturgeon vets the questions before her daily coronavirus briefings.
Journos, some of whom are veterans of over 100 First Minister’s briefings, took umbrage, Stalybridge, and the Forth Road Bridge as they fell over themselves to respond to these remarks.
How dare he suggest our Glorious Leader gets to see the same questions on face masks and social distancing that have been asked daily now for more than three months and counting in advance?
Jardine, who averages about five likes per post on his chosen specialist subject of conspiracy theories involving George Soros, revelled in his 15 minutes of infamy as those of us who are spending way too long on Twitter rather than meeting real humans snapped at the bait.
“Why don’t you... just switch off your computer and go and do something less boring instead?”
It used to be roasters like children “should be seen and not heard” but social media has given them a clown mobile for their views to be expressed from behind the sanctuary of a keyboard.
Suddenly, everyone is paying attention to the social media equiva