Sturgeon scandal

THERE are several dozen people in Edinburgh who have a personal interest in the latest row to hit Holyrood.

When Nicola Sturgeon wrote a letter to a judge on behalf of her constituent Abdul Rauf, she was standing up for a man who a decade and a half ago stole money from 44 local people.

He did so from a position of trust, using his position in a Tollcross Post Office to forge signatures on almost 800 benefit claims. He was found guilty of fraud worth 60,000 and sentenced to four years in prison.

It's not just those 44 victims of Rauf, or any of the thousands of customers whose money he handled, who will now wonder how he deserved the support of Scotland's Deputy First Minister.

Ms Sturgeon has been attacked from all sides for her letter to the court which asked that the convicted fraudster not be jailed after he admitted another 80,000 in benefit fraud – and rightly so.

The SNP has worked hard to justify the health secretary's intervention – a spin campaign co-ordinated by civil servants paid by taxpayers to work for the government, not MSPs.

But the defence has been unconvincing and relies on a very woolly interpretation of the ministerial code of conduct. The important part, skipped by Alex Salmond in his own robust defence of his deputy, says ministers must use their own judgement when deciding whether or not it is appropriate to intervene on behalf of a constituent.

And the previously sure-footed Ms Sturgeon's judgement must be called into question by her defence of Rauf.

Labour's calls for the Deputy First Minister's resignation were premature, though a further revelation – especially anything which links Rauf to the SNP – would surely force it.

But even without such a killer blow, this affair is the most obvious sign yet that Mr Salmond's government has lost its sureness of touch, and that its honeymoon is well and truly over.

Last week, the News doubted any serious damage would be caused by the lame "Piegate" cash-for-access row. But, together with Mr Salmond's own appeals for clemency on behalf of an illegal immigrant facing drug charges, that makes a hat-trick of gaffes.

These mistakes surely contributed to Labour overtaking the SNP in the latest polls last week. And they support the old political maxim that governments – at Holyrood as well as Westminster – are like horses in a stable: the longer they are in, the higher the piles of manure that gather around them.