Alex Salmond was First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014 - he was replaced by his deputy (Nicola Sturgeon) when the Scottish independence referendum was lost.

The scale (pardon the pun) of mutual loathing which has developed over the last 2 years far eclipses the recent Boris Johnson/Dominic Cummings fallout, and when the distractions of Brexit and Covid-19 are over it will be interesting to see if Ms Sturgeon is forced to resign.

In 2018 the Scottish government set up a retrospective complaints process which attempted to charge Mr Salmond on 2 counts of inappropriate behaviour towards female civil servants (the process was deemed "tainted with bias" and "unlawful" when Mr Salmond challenged it in the courts). The head of the Scottish Civil Service privately texted "we have lost the battle but we will win the war" and Mr Salmond was was eventually charged by the police alleging 13 sexual offences (mostly relatively trivial, but including one charge of attempted rape). After a jury trial (involving a female judge and a majority of women jurors) Mr Salmond was cleared on all the charges.

The matter is currently being investigated by a parliamentary committee, and the evidence so far suggests that Ms Sturgeon had a much greater involvement in the original investigation than she previously admitted. Both Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond are due to give evidence to the parliamentary committee in the next few weeks, so it will be interesting to find out if Mr Salmond has forgiven his former protege for her attempt to put him in jail for a few years!!