We dodged a bullet today

It's fair to say I'm a touch ambivalent about today's developments.  The demonisation of Alex Salmond has been part of an inexplicably reckless pattern of behaviour from the SNP leadership in recent weeks and months, and the big downside of Hamilton's adjuducation is that it will lead them to feel vindicated and to double down on their factional actions and rhetoric.  That is not in the interests of unity within the movement.  However the alternative, if Hamilton had ruled the other way, simply doesn't bear thinking about.  Earlier today I reported on a poll that suggested Yes might be moving back into the lead after the dip of recent weeks - well, that would have been straight back out of the window if Nicola Sturgeon had been ruled to have breached the ministerial code.  At least now we have a credible chance of winning a pro-independence majority in May, and perhaps even an overall SNP majority.

At the start of the year, Stuart Campbell had a meltdown because I said I was bemused by his apparent belief that he was going to bring down the wildly popular First Minister.  I can't deny there have been one or two moments since then when I wondered if he might just be proved right - but what I could never understand was his certainty that Ms Sturgeon's resignation was inevitable.  That always looked like wishful thinking on his part, and so it has proved.  He's tacitly admitting that tonight by saying (and I paraphrase) "I only didn't see this coming because I didn't consider the possibility that Hamilton might turn out to be an idiot". I think the pretence has now gone - not only does he no longer want independence if he can't get rid of Nicola Sturgeon, he's now actively urging Scots to emigrate to other countries.  Who knows where this remarkable political journey may end.  Will the Wings site end up endorsing Labour and/or the Tories? Could a seat in the House of Lords as Lord Campbell of Bath be on the cards? I'm being semi-facetious, but he's already travelled a long, long way, and sadly some of his readers have been taken along for the ride.