by christian wright

That thoroughly disreputable marginal wordsmith and Herald hack, Paul Hutcheon, laughingly titled the the Herald’s “Investigations Editor”  has launched yet another fact-free gratuitous assault on the person of Michelle Thomson in Sunday’s Herald.

Let’s have a look at Mr Hutcheon’s narrative:

SHE is the controversial MP whose curious property deals have provided the SNP with a never-ending run of bad headlines.

Note the language, steering well clear of any possible legal trouble yet injecting enough innuendo to traduce. No mention from Hutcheon that along with the BBC’s Gary Robertson, he has been a major source of those headlines, long on accusation but noticeably short on fact. Like Robertson, Hutcheon is not one to allow the process of official investigation to take its course before pillorying a lady.

Thomson had been ready to appear at the glitzy Scottish Business Awards this month – at which George Clooney is the A-list speaker – but she has now been uninvited over fears her attendance would tarnish the event.

One SNP source joked: “Not even Clooney in ER could resuscitate Michelle Thomson’s political career.”

Ha, ha, ha! A real knee-slapper. “One SNP source joked …”. Here we see the cognitive reach of this dolt. Who was that source Paul? Your granny? A wee ginger dug? You’re not even a competent bullshitter, are you?

However, she was soon caught up in a scandal over her involvement in a series of “back-to-back” property deals involving multiple sales of the same home being pushed through on one day.

Really? And your evidence of her wrongdoing, where is it Paul? Or do you mean there were charges against another and you sought to blacken Thomson’s name . . . just because you could? All Hutcheon has done in article after article is recruit baseless innuendo and invective in the service of character assassination.

Truth is, If you were to place Paul next to a waste of space, I wouldn’t be able to tell one from the other.