Every speaker was heard in respectful silence, but then councillors debating a report into the handling of allegations of sexual harassment against one of their number was never going to one for the usual political argy-bargy.

Except that Thursday’s meeting of the City of Edinburgh council and the painful discussion about the findings of former Scottish Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion into the way with which complaints about ex-council leader Cammy Day were dealt, was unquestionably against a political background of bitter rivalry, whatever claims to the contrary were made.

But that did not mean Cllr Day had no case to answer, that complaints against him were fabricated, that Cllr Day’s alleged behaviour fell below the standard expected of a civic figurehead, or that safeguards for complainants do not need to be improved. Like the charges against the late Alex Salmond, it is entirely possible for allegations to have some substance - why else did Mr Salmond admit to being “no angel” who indulged in “sleepy cuddles” in his bedroom with a female colleague who was not Mrs Salmond - and for there to be a political conspiracy at the same time? One does not necessarily exclude or indeed excuse the other, especially when a personal weakness becomes a political opportunity.

But the debate on the Dunion Report split very much along those lines, with the SNP and Greens in denial that politics had played any part in how the allegations came to light, when each one of them........

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