It’s a pity that both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon can’t lose

Henry Kissinger’s sardonic appraisal of the Iran-Iraq War is increasingly applicable to the war between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon: it is a shame they can’t both lose. Disinterested observers, however, are under no obligation to pick a team. It is wholly possible neither protagonist has offered a convincing version of events. Treating Salmond’s claims sceptically imposes no requirement to swallow Sturgeon’s and, indeed, vice versa.

Salmond’s allegations are so extraordinary they risk seeming incredible. It is one thing to allege that senior officials within the SNP – including but not limited to Peter Murrell, the party’s chief executive and Nicola Sturgeon’s husband – wished to destroy Salmond’s reputation. It is also one thing to allege that the Scottish government and civil service were also determined to do him in. And it is still a further thing to allege that the Crown Office – and perhaps in time Police Scotland, too – were also happy to see Salmond imprisoned on the flimsiest of grounds.