I’M going to begin with good news because there’s not much of it around at the minute. Nicola Sturgeon began FMQs yesterday by revealing that more than 1.5 million people in Scotland have now received their first dose of the Covid vaccine.

That amounts to nearly exactly one-third of the adult population and includes virtually all of the JCVI’s top four clinical priority groups. Shall we just bask in that for a second?

I think we should. Make a cup of tea and imagine Scotland is experiencing the hottest summer on record and you’re at a reasonably-priced beer garden sitting less than two metres away from your nearest and dearest.

Your glass of wine is perfectly chilled and you don’t bother squirting antibacterial gel on your hands because life is sweet and germs aren’t so scary anymore.

That was nice. Now back to real life. On the eve of Alex Salmond’s appearance before the committee tasked with investigating the mishandling of complaints made against him, questions to the FM were understandably focused on that. In recent weeks Ruth Davidson has returned time and again to the issue and yesterday was no different. She began by quoting Nicola Sturgeon saying “I have nothing to hide on this, nothing whatsoever.”

“That’s what Nicola Sturgeon said on the Alex Salmond crisis that is engulfing her government and this parliament. So if she has nothing to hide can I ask the First Minister if she will publish her evidence to James Hamilton QC over multiple ministerial code breaches?”

“I have no difficulty with my evidence to James Hamilton being published but of course, James Hamilton is currently considering that and I think – out of courtesy to him – it is firstly a matter for him as to when he wants to publish it.”

WATCH: Fired up Nicola Sturgeon rips into Ruth Davidson over Lords peerage

Davidson then asked the First Minister about the redacted sections of Alex Salmond’s evidence, stating that it had been widely published elsewhere and didn’t risk identifying complainers.

“What is it about those two sentences of evidence that is so damaging they should be censored? Or is it just that they are damaging to the First Minister?”

Nicola Sturgeon said the fact that Davidson had just stood up and recounted that evidence demonstrates that “all Alex Salmond’s complaints about me are in the public domain, they have been widely reported and I would fully expect to be fully questioned in detail about all of those allegations when I appear in front of the committee.”

She went on to say that anybody who suggests prosecution decisions or decisions that the Crown Office takes in terms of upholding court orders are politically influenced are “signing up to a dangerous and quite deluded conspiracy theory” that risks undermining the integrity of Scotland’s independent justice system.

Ruth Davidson said the First Minister was “deflecting” and that this issue was not only tarnishing the First Minister’s reputation, but also “damaging the institutions that it is her responsibility to uphold”.

“Ruth Davidson wants to lecture the rest of us about democratic integrity, but that’s the same Ruth Davidson who is about to depart this democratic institution, dodge an election, take a seat in the unelected House of Lords where she will pursue a political career at the taxpayer’s expense but never have to ask voters for their permission ever again.

“I don’t think Ruth Davidson is in the position to lecture anyone about democracy.”