A LIBDEM MSP has used his Holyrood speech to take shots at The National.

Alex Cole-Hamilton accused Nicola Sturgeon of playing to the hardcore of the Yes movement and that public interest in independence was “on the wane”.

He said that this was evidenced by the lack of a presence in the public gallery and press area.

He said: “I fear that Jackson Carlaw is right: that this afternoon we have been playing only to the hardcore element in the Yes movement. Each of them dutifully tuned in to Parliament TV and occasionally looking up from the crossword on the back of The National.

Sturgeon he said, had only held today’s meeting to please her “over-agitated base”.

Then, without mentioning he went on a rant about our publication.

“Because Presiding Officer, there is a point every few months when the launch of a new fact-checking service that doesn’t check any facts or the 10,000 dinner conversations that The National are asking people to have – not at my house they won’t.”

Speaking of facts, Cole-Hamilton was last year accused of smearing young SNP activists when he posted a tweet claiming he “overheard” them saying they couldn’t be bothered canvassing and that they should "just mark them all as SNP and head back the office".

It turned out that the young SNP activists were, in fact, not in Lerwick that day.

READ MORE: Alex Cole-Hamilton under fire for 'awful smear' of SNP youth activists

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