How have the new SNP MPs been getting on?

Of all the weird things politicians have done over the years, Alex Salmond’s decision to book a flight under the name of Star Trek captain James T Kirk comes somewhere near the top.

It is an odd thing to do, with the former First Minister almost refused entry to the flight – on the basis that his name is not really James T Kirk. Claiming he uses aliases on a regular basis for safety reasons, Salmond said: “I just wanted BA to ‘Beam me up, Scotty’.”

Certainly he seems to have been enjoying himself since quitting as FM and returning to Westminster and, security concerns or not, maybe he just wanted a change. More than anyone else in the SNP intake, Salmond will have known what to expect.

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Chris Law stands in contrast. In fact upon his election to Westminster, he did the opposite to Salmond – pledging to maintain his identity.

The six foot six, heavily bearded Dundee MP had attracted plenty of attention during the General Election campaign for his predilection for three-piece tweed suits – with the UK media seemingly shocked by the fact he was, not just running for Dundee West, but billed as the favourite to win. Since getting elected he has continued to wear them.

Salmond is an exception among the new SNP MPs. For most of them everything is still new, with the cohort forced to adapt quickly to the peculiar, and at times archaic, protocols that cloak Westminster.

Probably the biggest shock was the realisation that MPs do not clap – something that SNP MPs have confessed to finding genuinely bewildering. But then most people would find that bewildering.

Meanwhile, it is not just Law that has found the dress code problematic, with both Martin Docherty and Carol Monaghan admitting they have earned rebukes from doorkeepers after arriving for votes while wearing trainers.

The problem, members say, is that votes happen with little warning, while most of the Nationalists are based at the other side of Portcullis House from the chamber, forcing them to sprint. The current record is apparently somewhere around five minutes.

Meanwhile, the sight of new MPs taking selfies in the chamber also raised a few eyebrows.

For Angus Robertson, the SNP leader in Westminster, the challenge was how to organise the new intake while making sure they stayed out of trouble.

Speaking to Holyrood shortly after the election, the MP for Moray described himself as “shell-shocked” by the scale of the intake.

The more experienced members have been trying to help with questions and advice where they can, but there have still been issues – not least, the prolonged fallout over seating.

The whole thing centred around the SNP’s placement in the House, amid claims they had taken Labour MP Dennis Skinner’s space. The SNP claimed it was entitled to the bench as the third party in the Commons. Labour claimed the SNP was attempting to provoke needless conflict. The whole thing was probably about more than just seating and things escalated quickly.

It was also around this time that Angus MacNeil hid in the toilet. The exact details are still unknown – probably only MacNeil and the cubicle will ever know the full story – but reports suggested that the MP had walked into the wrong lobby during a vote on the EU referendum, after becoming distracted while chatting to other members.

Realising that he was at risk of voting with the Tories, MacNeil felt he only had one course of action available. He locked himself in the toilet.

As Angela Eagle put it: “The SNP’s grand plan to shake up Westminster appears to be going rapidly down the pan.”

When Robertson had said he wanted to see “the entire SNP group be part of a team effort that brings together all of the talents,” he had probably not been expecting this.

But, apart from the ridiculous, it has not all been plain sailing for the party, particularly following reports in the Sunday Times alleging that Michelle Thomson – then business spokesperson – had been involved in property deals which took advantage of vulnerable families.

The week after, it emerged that her solicitor, Chris Hales, had been struck off and found guilty of professional misconduct by a Law Society tribunal in 2014, after carrying out 13 property deals, all of which involved Thomson or the property venture M&F Property Solutions.

The Discipline Tribunal ruling says: “The Tribunal consider that the features of these transactions were such that the Respondent [Hales] must have been aware that there was a possibility that he was facilitating mortgage fraud, whether or not this actually occurred.”

The ruling adds that the “central role” of Michelle Thomson and M&F Property Solutions “should have set alarm bells ringing”.

Within two days of the story breaking, Michelle Thomson had withdrawn from the party whip, while denying having acted outside the law.

Police Scotland confirmed it was investigating the property deals, while – after a week of intense scrutiny – the Law Society confirmed it sent a ‘suspicious activity report’ to the UK-wide Serious and Organised Crime Agency regarding Hales’ behaviour back in October 2011.

Nicola Sturgeon was forced to respond to the allegations in FMQs and the episode did not look good for a party that prides itself on being different.

And yet, for all the SNP rhetoric of being Westminster outsiders, many of the new members have looked surprisingly at home in the chamber.

It is fair to say Mhairi Black had already been subjected to an unusual amount of scrutiny before she had even opened her mouth in Westminster. Once she did, the attention only intensified.

Elected at 20, she became the youngest MP since 1667 and her arrival was met with a combination of patronising media reports and surprise, along with a few fairly depressing tabloid attempts to dig up embarrassing or inflammatory statements on social media from years before.

She made her speech on 14 July. Within a week it had been viewed more than ten million times.

It was the line ‘I am the only 20-year-old in the whole of the UK that the Chancellor is prepared to help with housing’ that drew the most attention, but there was a powerful thread running through the whole thing.

Talking directly to Labour, she said: “I, like so many SNP members, come from a traditional socialist Labour family and I have never been quiet in my assertion that I feel it is the Labour Party that left me, not the other way about. The SNP did not triumph on a wave on nationalism; in fact, nationalism has nothing to do with what has happened in Scotland. We triumphed on a wave of hope.”

The Labour benches may not agree with the ‘Labour left me’ line, but – judging from the message coming from voters’ doorsteps – it resonates with quite a few Scots.

Certainly Tommy Sheppard will have known what Black was talking about, having been a Labour member for 25 years, before leaving in 2003. In some ways, Sheppard is a walking, talking example of how the SNP has taken Labour support in the last few years.

Sheppard’s speech seemed to surprise people. While urging the Tories to hold back from austerity plans, the new MP for Edinburgh East also used his speech to try and build some bridges.

Speaking without notes, he said: “Mr Speaker, you gave us a gentle rebuke yesterday for the applause that we gave in this chamber and we take that with good grace. We know, of course, that it is not traditional practice in the chamber, but we did not know just how unacceptable it might be found. We will try to refrain from doing it again. It will take us time to learn the processes at work here; it will take us time to get our feet under the table.”

Sheppard’s speech was an early suggestion that the SNP would play the game in Westminster – something that may have surprised commentators, who expected the party to turn up and obstruct the Westminster process as much as possible.

But then, as Salmond’s Start Trek alias so clearly proved, appearances can be deceptive.