Not a great day
Winners and losers. There will be one of each when MSPs for one day for failing to declare, timeously, donations to her leadership campaign.
The winner will be Ms Alexander. It looks as though MSPs will vote, by a majority, to release her from the sanction recommended by the standards committee.
I doubt if this victory will delight her over much, given that she has already resigned from the leadership of her party.
The loser? Parliament itself. The debate this morning was ill-tempered, occasionally ill-mannered. The speeches were, frequently, ill-considered. Several were read.
They were read badly. It would have served the nation better had they not been read at all.
In advance of the debate, as MSPs were gathering, there was nervous mumbling. One wag wondered aloud whether the presiding officer would don a black cap at the end of proceedings.
Another suggested to the few watching journalists that we resembled tricoteuses.
Partisan nature
The atmosphere seemed to afflict Keith Brown, the convener of the committee - although he was also somewhat breathless owing, he said, to congestion on the Forth Bridge delaying his arrival.
To be fair, Mr Brown read the charge sheet as dispassionately as possible. He set out the case in some detail.
Matters subsequently deteriorated. I exempt Patrick Harvie and Margo Macdonald. Both lamented the partisan nature of the debate and the manner of reaching the conclusions.
Each urged revision of the parliament's systems to clarify what, precisely, merited registration. Their speeches were good and commendably brief.
On reflection, I wonder whether Christina McKelvie and Dave Thompson will feel entirely satisfied with their contributions.
Ms McKelvie delivered her criticisms in a relentless monotone, without even acknowledging, let alone accepting interventions.
Mr Thompson, by contrast, allowed himself to become hugely exercised, with little palpable cause, scattering accusations against other members. He did himself no favours. I suspect he knows that.
Too shrill?
It is perhaps no accident that the more measured contributions came from those who have served in parliament for some time: Brian Adam, Robert Brown.
Then we come to the Labour contributions. Those were mostly, with notable exceptions, cogent and concise. However, I wonder if, on reflection, they will ponder two things.
Did they allow themselves to become rather too shrill in seeking to intervene on rivals, in posing points of order? Might there not also have been a note of contrition regarding other aspects of this whole affair?
For there lies the core. Strictly, MSPs are voting tonight on whether Ms Alexander should have listed donations to her campaign team - on the register of members' interests.
No more, no less. Nothing to do with the donations themselves, their substance or origin.
Some will acknowledge Ms Alexander was advised by parliamentary clerks that she did not need to register these donations.
But some will be influenced by a feeling that the wider affair is less than salutory: that the voting public just don't like the feel of it.
Blunt address
Hugh O'Donnell, who is about to depart the standards committee, said as much, bluntly, in his summation address. He said folk didn't like the notion of donations which were deliberately pitched at a certain level to avoid disclosure.
That, to stress again, is not the issue before MSPs tonight. But it will be tangentially influential - and that is perhaps understandable.
There are other issues. Should parliament bolster its own standards committee by endorsing its findings?
That line, I feel, will influence many who will feel that serving on that committtee is tough enough without second guessing its deliberations.
Against that, others - mostly Labour, but also Jamie McGrigor - argued that the committee had, uniquely, divided on its findings, that those findings were flawed and partisan, that they must be overturned.
That, I guess, will happen. Labour will vote to support Ms Alexander. Most Nationalists will vote with the committee, for suspension - although Christine Grahame declared in the debate she would abstain.
I believe the preponderance of Tories and, probably, LibDems will vote against suspension or abstain.
Not a great day for parliament. Still, perhaps future leadership campaigns will think thrice before soliciting donations.
Perhaps too they will check their provenance a little more thoroughly.
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A quick update for you - MSPs have voted against the proposed sanction by 70 to 49. There were two abstentions.
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