Why I’m joining my fellow MSPs in endorsing Tom Tugendhat for leader

An odd thing happened Friday morning, I was sent a press release that wasn’t incredibly boring. Not least, because it was about me.

Coming from Tom Tugendhat’s campaign team, it announced he’d secured endorsements from two more MSPs, Brian Whittle and Alexander Brown, which, by some stroke of luck, is my name.

However, something was off about it. I may not be the foremost expert on Holyrood, what with being the Westminster Correspondent, but I am at least fairly sure there is not an MSP called Alexander Brown. I’m even more certain that I’m not an MSP, unless Finsbury Park, where I live, isn’t actually London after all, and my name has been drawn out of a hat in some sort of Goblet of Fire scenario. Finally, I haven’t endorsed a candidate for Tory leader, because I’m a journalist and it wouldn’t help them anyway.

Obviously this was simply a lapse from whoever wrote the release, perhaps from our interview which you can read in Sunday’s edition, and one immediately corrected to Alexander Stewart, but that hasn’t stopped the BBC from writing about it. No really. The actual BBC wrote a story about this, entitled “The Tory leadership hopeful backed by an MSP who doesn't exist”, which is very funny, if prompting some existential questions about identity.

This tells us several things. Firstly, bloody hell it’s quiet. Friday morning, political recess, important to file on a mistake corrected within 30 minutes. But also, more importantly, it tells us that there is nothing too trivial for a column. Got a name wrong? 500 words. Started a conversation and got lost in thought? Time for some analysis.

On the plus side, it has got me wondering how I’d fare as an MSP, with the obvious answer being very badly. Firstly, I don’t know the rest of the group *that* well, and the ones I do, such as Douglas Ross, are not the most popular right now. Is chilling out with big Doug going to help me make friends and rise to First Minister? Probably not.

Then there’s my policy platform, which I’m fairly sure would be at odds with the bulk of my Conservative colleagues. I’d ban the privately educated from performing at the fringe, put sparkling water taps in every city, and legislate to have Rangers relegated. I think some of this would prove popular, but perhaps not enough to hold my seat.

Finally, there’s the matter of the endorsement itself. Do I back Tommy T? Obviously not, but that doesn’t mean he’s without merit. In my four years at The Scotsman, I’ve been repeatedly promised interviews by every leader of the Conservative party that lasted longer than a lettuce, but none came to fruition. Scottish papers have repeatedly been ignored or sidelined in favour of yet another soft sit down with the Daily Mail or Daily Telegraph.

Mr Tugendhat has made the effort and put himself before scrutiny, something I would urge all of his colleagues to do so, resetting relations not just with Holyrood, but the Scottish Press. So it’s no endorsement from me, but as Mr Tugendhat previously filed for The Scotsman before he was an MP, I certainly won’t stand in his way.