Details, details: What do the latest revelations on predecessor mean for embattled First Minister?
Nicola Sturgeon is renowned as a details person. She has been known to micro-manage to such a degree that she’s ruffled more than a few ministerial feathers.
Which is why it has always struck a peculiar note that she "forgot" a meeting with Alex Salmond’s former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein in her parliamentary office on March 29, 2018, at which it is claimed the allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr Salmond were discussed.
Time and again she has told
Parliament that she was only made aware of the situation, and the government investigation, during a meeting at her home on April 2, four days later, and from the mouth of Mr Salmond himself.
She has also rejected his claims that she offered to intervene on his behalf, to press for mediation as he threatened going to court.
Today she is due in front of the Holyrood committee inquiry into how the Scottish government managed to botch its investigation so badly that a judicial review saw Mr Salmond win more than £500,000.
Without doubt she will have prepared to within an inch of her life, every question anticipated, every answer rehearsed. She has, she’s said, been relishing the moment.
Last night’s revelations mean that preparation may well have been for nought as newly-released letters appear to have undermined her defence before she has even uttered a word.
Kevin Pringle, a former head ofsnppress,andduncanhamilton, a former SNP MSP and Mr Salmond’s counsel, have both corroborated his claims the March 29 meeting was not fleeting, but pre-arranged, that there had been a leak of one of the complainant’s names to Mr Aberdein even before that date by a senior government official, and that Ms Sturgeon did offer to help Mr Salmond at the April 2 meeting at her home.
No longer then is this a hesaid-she said scenario. There were witnesses to events.
Last week she said the reputations of Scotland’s institutions should not be “sacrificed on the altar of the ego of one man”.
It is entirely possible Ms Sturgeon’s whole political career could be the ultimate sacrifice. The stakes for her have never been higher.
Joggers should wear a face covering when running past others, experts have said.
But they should "run freely" when they are in wide open spaces, they added.
Scientists said there can be a "danger" for pedestrians when a "puffing, panting" jogger runs past them.
Trish Greenhalgh, professor in primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford, told Good Morning Britain: "There is no doubt the virus is in the air, there is no doubt that you can catch it if you inhale, and that someone else has exhaled.
"The exercising jogger the puffing and panting jogger - you can feel their breath come and you can sometimes
actually feel yourself inhale it, so there's no doubt that there is a danger there.
"Forty per cent of Covid cases happen by catching it from people who have no symptoms. So you're jogging along, you think you're fine, and then the next day you develop symptoms of Covid, but you've actually breathed that Covid onto someone perhaps you know, an old lady walking a dog or something like that."
Devi Sridhar, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, added that people should wear masks in busy areas but when not surrounded by people they could "take off your mask and run freely".
"It really depends how close they are and how heavily they're breathing," she said. "This can spread through the air and so it is important that runners should try to be attentive because the sidewalks are there for pedestrians in busy areas and high streets.
"Out in the park, take off your mask and run freely.”