Anyone who has ever endured the pain of divorce will spare a thought for Nicola Sturgeon and her husband, Peter Murrell as they announced the end of their marriage.

Of course, it really is no-one else’s business but theirs. Some of those now exulting in the break-up would crumble if they were subject to a similar level of scrutiny were they to find themselves in the same situation.

Moreover, much of this has tipped into luridness with a nasty undercurrent of online homophobia due to Ms Sturgeon’s long friendship with the novelist, Val McDermid.

The intensity of the speculation surrounding Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell’s break-up and the deeply unpleasant nature of it amounts to outright bullying – to the point of humiliation. It’s of a type experienced by several mainly female SNP politicians and employees in recent years.

Read more by Kevin McKenna

Last weekend, Ms Sturgeon displayed a lamentable lapse in judgment by choosing once more to slander and defame her predecessor, Alex Salmond barely six weeks after his sudden death, accusing him of bullying behaviour.

Continuing to throw dirt at a man who is unable to defend himself is cowardly and sleekit. It must also have been extremely distressing for Mr Salmond’s grieving widow, Moira, who was forced to issue a public statement beseeching her husband’s detractors to cease and desist. In her darkest hours Moira Salmond has conducted herself with a degree of dignity, honour and class lamentably absent in the behaviour of Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney.

Mr Swinney, one of many whose careers owe everything to Alex Salmond, endorsed Ms Sturgeon’s accusations in the most chicken-hearted and feeble way. He said........

© Herald Scotland