THE darkness has descended. Poor old George Galloway had only just finished laying out his picnic on Wednesday afternoon when along came a rain cloud to wash it all away.

I hope he at least had his hat on.

“A certain kind of Scotsman is seldom confused with a ray of sunshine,” he grumbled, presumably in between munching on a soggy sandwich and lapping up some spilled milk. “There is nothing so vile, so vituperatively vicious as the cyber-Nat.”

READ MORE: George Galloway's latest wild indyref claim is 'utterly rubbish'

Ah, the cyber-Nat, so quick to leap into action at the slightest provocation. Permanently poised to pounce on any tweet that offends them and fire back with false claims, anger and abuse. The kind of keyboard warriors who respond to polite questioning of their claims with vituperative retorts like: “You will never stop me speaking about Scotland. Now f**k off.”

Wait ... hold on a second ... it appears George Galloway must have been hacked by exactly such a poisonous individual – how else to explain the fact that the above comeback was posted to his own Twitter account?

The same imposter must have swapped out his original profile picture, and rather unfairly uploaded one that makes the former MP for Glasgow Hillhead look like Freddy Krueger burning in Hell.

Of course, there was a reason why Galloway set Twitter ablaze this week. The former MP for Bethnal Green and Bow has, it seems, has been pressing glasses up against walls and listening behind doors, because he seems to be the only person in the country to have caught wind of the “heavy rumour” that the SNP have done a deal with the Tory government, offering to abstain in the vote on the Brexit bill “in exchange for indyref2”.

In a dramatic plot twist, the SNP have dismissed this claim as “utterly rubbish”. In other words, no-one should be buying Galloway’s mince.

Who would have believed that the current MP for nowhere wasn’t the most reliable source for information about behind-the-scenes wrangling at Westminster? Who’d ever have imagined this washed-up loudmouth was more interested in getting his allegedly gorgeous face in the papers than adding anything of value to the Brexit debate?

Some might argue he’s already contributed more than his fair share, given he’s taken the trouble to speak out for both Leave and Remain.

In 2014, when asked whether independence might be the best way to safeguard Scotland’s place in the EU in light of threat of a referendum on membership, he stated: “I’m confident about the outcome of that referendum, and I’ll be campaigning to remain in the European Union, as anyone with any brain cells will also be doing.”

By his own logic, it would appear Galloway mislaid quite a few neurons between that thundering assertion and spring 2016, when he came out firmly (and, of course, very loudly) in favour of a Leave vote.

But let’s not lower ourselves to Galloway’s level by suggesting anyone with a different view – or open to changing their position – is mentally deficient. Let’s also allow for the possibly that he changed his tune due to new information and changing circumstances, something a Man Of Principle™ should always be open to doing.

Galloway has claimed he joined the ranks of the Brexiteers because of how the EU treated Greece in response to its financial crisis. But curiously, in March 2016 a Guardian reporter encountered someone bearing a strong resemblance to the future MP for Outer Space standing under a London bridge booming that the “Euro project, always doomed in my opinion, has turned into a disaster waiting to happen”.

If this was indeed Galloway, and not a Freddy Krueger Twitter handle terrifyingly made flesh, it’s odd that he was so supportive of that “doomed project” when he thought that assuming such a position might secure a few more No votes from Scots who were keen to protect their status as EU citizens. It’s almost as though he was willing to say whatever it took to ... no, that can’t be right. A Man of Principle™ would never be so cynical.

And perhaps when he later evoked the spirit of Margaret Thatcher by telling Talk Radio listeners “you U-turn if you want to, I am not for turning”, what he actually meant was “I’m already very dizzy, and after spending a lifetime gazing at myself in the mirror I’m quite sure this is my best angle”.

But never mind all of that spinning and twisting – the most important thing to note is that if you support independence and disagree with Galloway about anything, you’re a vile and vituperatively vicious cyber-Nat who should “f**ck off”.

Oh, and also that “few Scots would want to leave a Corbyn-led Britain”. I expect few Scots would want to leave a Britain led by a beneficent unicorn that burps gold coins, but I’m not sure why that’s relevant to anything right now. The last two polls put Labour four percentage points behind the Tories – a quite extraordinary achievement given we have a punchline for a Prime Minister and an entire pantomime cast waiting in the wings for her to elbow-dance head-first off the stage into the orchestra pit.

Reflecting on the experience of hundreds of folk suggesting his “heavy rumour” was patent nonsense, Galloway poetically observed: “This darkness I saw again yesterday. No more.”

No more shameless trolling of independence supporters? Now there’s a principled stance we can all get behind.