David Maddox: The Scottish X Files

It did not take the conspiracy theorists long to pop up when it emerged that the marked voter register for the Glenrothes by-election had mysteriously disappeared from Sheriff's Court in Kirkcaldy, as can be seen from the comments after today's piece in the Scotsman.
Perhaps we should call in Scully and Mulder (pictured top right) from the X Files to see if Gordon Brown has made a secret pact with aliens to get them to cast an extra 7,000 votes and then spirit away the register just to keep the Union intact. But let us not pretend that conspiracy theories are limited to the fevered imaginations of cybernats.
Labour at the moment believe that there is a conspiracy going on currently to sway voters in another election. I speak, of course, of the fascinating twists and turns in the campaign that is the election for the new Rector of Edinburgh University.
The three candidates are George Galloway, the Scottish exile, former Big Brother cat and some time Respect MP for Bethnal Green in London; Lord George Foulkes, Baron of Cumnock, MSP for the Lothians, former minister and First Lord of the Twittery; and Ian McWhirter columnist and commentater on Scottish politics who has promised to visit the Scottish Parliament on occasions.
The two latter candidates are believed to be the frontrunners. Lord George is Labour's candidate and the non-party political Mr McWhirter has been backed by the Tories, SNP, Greens and Lib Dems.
The election is coming to its climax with staff and students due to vote online on Wednesday February 12 and Thursday February 13.
But, Lord Foulkes' campaign team have cried foul over a prominant article about him which appeared in a West coast weekly publication (The Sunday Herald) claiming that he had been referred by ana anonymous academic to the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Jim Dyer for having a consultancy arrangement with the law firm Eversheds.
MSPs cannot have consultancies, but Lords can, and Lord Foulkes has always claimed that his arrangement was only connected to his work in the Lords.
What the article failed to mention was that the same complaint had been made last year by an SNP student activist (Andrew Harlick) and Lord Foulkes was cleared in quick time by Mr Dyer because there was no evidence against him. Lord Foulkes has claimed that the Sunday publication knew this before printing the article, but chose not to mention it. Added to that apparently he has not been referred because the referal was done by e-mail, which technically makes it inadmissable. But these complaints can be put down to editorial judgement and technicalities.
The article was then rewritten as the front page piece in the student paper by a student called Liz Rawlings. On the face of it nothing wrong with that considering it was the best Edinburgh University story around at the moment.
But here is where the conspiracy clicks in, the puff of smoke over the grassy knoll, the mysterious Fiat speeding away from the mangled car wreck in the Paris tunnel: The Sunday publication is the same one that Mr McWhirter writes a column for and Ms Rawlings has a picture of her with SNP leader and First Minister Alex Salmond taken in his office in the Scottish Parliament on the front page of her Facebook (she's the one on the left in the picture).
Perhaps not surprisingly, Lord Foulkes's campaign team spot a conspiracy to undermine their candidate's chances and have made allegations of dirty tricks.

Like all good conspiracy theories it has a ring of truth to it and circumstantial evidence. But why would anybody go to such lengths to decide the result of a Rectoral election? Maybe it was those darn tricksy aliens again.