A Testing Day for Alexander the Grate

Wendy goes into the Scottish Parliamentary chamber for First Minister's Questions today, and no one would want to be in her place.

Not even, say, Andy Kerr; or Iain Gray; or any other of the Labour leadership hopefuls who finally offered her their (public) full support on Monday.

Support which, to be frank, had been signally lacking from Wendy's MSP colleagues as she became more deeply embedded in the manure over the past 10 days.

Brian Taylor has already indicated that the ludicrously named 'Team Wendy' (how 90's is that?) has an internal mole who is feeding the press with all sorts of goodies.

Someone has it in for Wendy, according to Brian, and given the fraternal record of our pink colleagues, should we be surprised?

Team Wendy (ah God, it's catching) comprises Alexander the Grate herself, Charlie Gordon (now cut well and truly adrift by his loyal leader in the face of a potential visit from the polis), David (dead in the water) Whitton, Tom McCabe, Jackie Baillie, and Pauline McNeill, all of whom rely on Wendy for patronage.
So, no moles there, probably.
Time to look further afield, I think, and the question "Who has most to gain from Wendy's demise?" is key to the answer here.

Who'd be Wendy?
She can't resign, because that'll bring down Harriet Harman and Peter Hain, and maybe even GBrown himself.
If she stays, she's terminally damaged goods and can't lay a glove on Salmond and the government.
And she's getting heat from her wee bro Dougie, who relies on Gordon's patronage for his ministerial position.

How is Salmond going to deal with this?
On balance, he'll probably stick a light veneer of concern over the schadenfreude, and satisfy himself with thinly disguised contempt.
Nothing too damaging, mind.
The last thing he needs is Wendy as a martyr.