She is a funnywoman who is no stranger to the worst of online abuse.

Janey Godley - a repeated and vocal protestor against Donald Trump - has long been targeted on Twitter, including by elements of Rangers support.

On Wednesday, something odd happened. Some fans of the Ibrox club bombarded her with identical tweets asking if she would protest against the emir of Qatar.

The Herald:

A screen grab of Ms Godley's timeline

The Middle Eastern ruler, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is currently in the UK on an official visit. This week stories emerged that actors were being offered cash to protest against him in London.

His country is in a tense diplomatic and military stand-off with its Gulf neighbours, including Saudi Arabia. This confrontation has intensified in recent weeks as Qatar looks at buying Russian air defences.

The Herald asked some of the Rangers fans tweeting at Ms Godley why they were raising Middle Eastern politics. They suggested they were attacking what they saw as Ms Godley's hypocrisy for protesting against Mr Trump but not other world leaders.

None of the accounts, most of which were anonymous, appeared to have shown any previous interest in Gulf politics before.

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Janey Godley

The London Times journalist Hugo Rifkind also questioned supporters on Twitter about why they were raising the issue. One responded that it was simply an attempt to get Ms Godley to block them and not part of an orchestrated campaign.

Mr Rifkind responded: "So it may genuinely just be a bunch of stooges, with no idea what they're doing. The internet is very odd sometimes."

A fringe group of Rangers fans, those with staunch unionist views, have been baiting Ms Godley, an independence supporter, online for some time, despite the fact she was brought up supporting the club.

She told The Herald she did not believe the latest obscure references to Qatar were "sinister". 

Ms Godley added: "I don’t mind being trolled but I resent the threats and open calls to spit on me etc. I defend their freedom of speech if you stop them from calling me names, you stop me from calling Trump a c*** - so I don’t agree, but defend their freedom of speech."