One of the basic rules taught to trainee reporters is not to comment on live criminal cases, especially if someone has been charged. The beaks will throw the book at you, and they regularly do.

But apart from the regular insertion of “released without charge” or “no decision has been made,” all bets seem to be off on Operation Branchform as the Crown Office is, shall we say, weighing up the evidence carefully before deciding whether to prosecute Peter Murrell, the semi-estranged ─ their domestic arrangements are unclear ─ husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Murrell has been charged by police with alleged embezzlement following their investigation into the SNP’s finances.

When even the soon-to-retire Lord President Lord Carloway and the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates Roddy Dunlop are making any kind of public utterance on the four-year saga, and the delay since the police finished their investigation last August, then it’s hardly surprising there is a growing suspicion that the only court in which the allegations will be tested is that of public opinion.

Ms Sturgeon, arrested, interviewed by police and released without charge, certainly seems to be putting the whole business of camper vans and investigation tents on the lawn behind her, with a surprise appearance in Holyrood this week, and more interview opportunities and engagements at literary events that at which you can shake a publishers’ advance.

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