I’ll let you into a little secret – I quite like a lot of my fellow MPs.

And I don’t just mean those from my own party. Naturally they’re all lovely. I mean that I like MPs from across the political spectrum.

As a journalist, in my pre-politics life, it was essential to have a wide and varied contacts book, and to this day I find it hard to be tribal.

I’m old friends with Keir Starmer, for instance, and I’ve known Michael Gove since university. I disagree with him about pretty much everything – but, privately, he’s a kind and engaging man.

People are sometimes surprised to discover that MPs get on. They’re so used to watching the brouhaha of the Westminster chamber that they can’t imagine its members behaving more normally when they leave.

One of the most useful areas where MPs do have to establish cross-party relationships and co-operate is on the Select Committees.

This is where mostly backbench MPs get to grill ministers and influence legislation. But, unlike the other parties, the SNP allows its frontbenchers to sit on committees too, and I’m delighted to have joined the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

I was on the DCMS Committee from 2015 to 2017 and I was surprised – as a new MP (and the sole SNP member) – to discover how much I could get done based largely on having good working relationships with my Tory and Labour colleagues.

It was my proposal, for instance, which led to the requirement that the BBC publish its presenters’ pay.

I thought it would show some absurdly inflated salaries, and a huge gender pay gap. And so it proved.

The BBC management was embarrassed by the revelations, and has struggled to placate many of its ill-treated female staff ever since.

I also discovered – through an anonymous whistleblower – that the prime minister had appointed the new BBC chair at a private meeting, without civil servants present, and with no open competition as required.

I cross-examined the appointee, using the evidence I’d been sent, and she resigned some weeks later.

My colleagues, across party lines, even supported my proposal for a separate Scottish Six O’Clock News on BBC 1 – something I’d still like to see, given how successful The Nine has been on the new BBC Scotland channel.

In my time on the committee, we investigated homophobia in sport, drug use in cycling, and corruption at Fifa.

I pressed for parity for Gaelic broadcasting, arguing it should receive the same funding as Welsh.

And I highlighted the government’s furtive plans to privatise Channel 4, something we managed to halt.

The new Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee begins its work in March. Let me know if there’s something you think we should be working on.