Unionist parties want to shift battle away from the ballot box

THE developments surrounding the Peter Murrell case have not just become a matter of legal scrutiny, they have become a political lighting rod.

For many in Scotland’s independence movement, that has been the reaction of London-based parties such as Labour and the Conservatives, which is less than neutral oversight.

What otherwise would have been a matter for the courts and investigators has become a symbol of something larger: the nature of political power, scrutiny and fairness in modern Scot