A senior Lib Dem MSP has claimed that any opposition politician who challenges the SNP Government is immediately "monstered" on social media by its supporters.
Alex Cole-Hamilton said he had now been the subject of six complaints to the police and electoral authorities since he won the Edinburgh Western seat at the 2016 election, only to be cleared each time.
The Lib Dems' health spokesman at Holyrood blames SNP supporters for making the complaints and claims it's a deliberate tactic with the aim of silencing dissenting voices such as his.
Cole-Hamilton claimed this was now the life any opposition politician could expect in Scotland.
"Beat the SNP in a Holyrood election and that victory comes with an office in parliament and a great big target on your back," he wrote in The Scotsman.
"For all their power, they sure do worry about the opposition.
"Since I defied the odds and won Edinburgh Western from the SNP in 2016, I’ve faced: two police complaints and a full police investigation; two Electoral Commission complaints and a full Electoral Commission investigation; two Standards Commission complaints and now an investigation – all at the behest of the SNP or their followers.
He continued: "The allegations levelled against me in every case were dismissed as being utterly vexatious.
"Any opposition politician who challenges the governing party, or their leader in any way these days, is immediately monstered on social media and can expect at least a venomous byline in their pet paper, The National.
"If you score a few direct hits, they’ll find a way to shop you to a higher authority and that can tie you up practically and psychologically for months.
"These tactics may be designed to put me off or slow me down, but the reverse is true.
"If I’m such a target for the SNP, then I must be doing something right."
A spokesman for the SNP said: "Alex Cole-Hamilton is quick to demand robust scrutiny of his political opponents but appears much less keen when his own decisions and behaviours are subject to the same exacting standards.
"The SNP contest every seat in Scotland with the intention to win, and in the face of rising support for independence, it sounds like Alex Cole-Hamilton is already panicking about his prospects of winning next May."
