Confirmed: Alex Salmond will not be appearing at the Holyrood inquiry tomorrow. Talks with his lawyers continue

SP spokeswoman says Alex Salmond has been contacted "to make clear that he can speak freely in committee about all of his contact with Nicola Sturgeon and his views on her actions". However parliament position remains that his submission to the Hamilton inquiry can't be published

Peter Murrell is giving evidence to the inquiry right now, but obvs it's been somewhat overshadowed by whether or not Alex Salmond will appear at all - expect MSPs will have a bit of a crisis meeting about this once the SNP chief has logged off...

The key question for the committee is whether they can publish Alex Salmond's submission to the ministerial code investigation - and it's not entirely in their hands, with the parliamentary authorities (effectively the SPCB & in-house legal team) heavily involved in the decision

The concern from parly chiefs is that there are *parts* of that submission they wouldn't want to publish - but now it's been put up in full online in various places, they can't just redact it because folk could easily cross-reference elsewhere and see what's been cut out

The question for Alex Salmond is whether he wants to be questioned by a panel of his political rivals - under oath, on a sensitive subject - or whether he can achieve his goals via a something like a press conference. A smaller stage than Holyrood, but an easier one to navigate

(the answer to this might depend on what Alex Salmond's ultimate goal is - if he just wants to have his say, a press conference would suit the task. But if he truly wants to bring down Nicola Sturgeon and her govt, then he might have a better shot from inside the inquiry room...)

He may also conclude that the Hamilton investigation could be the more impactful in terms of the future fate of the first minister, by dint of its independence and the fact its final verdict will be comparatively straightforward - was parliament misled, and was the code broken?

The two positions are closely interlinked; Alex Salmond declining to appear could easily spell the end of the committee as a serious force, with resignations entirely possible. Equally, he isn't likely to appear unless he considers the inquiry a serious force...

There's been lots of talk of MSPs considering resigning - question for them, if they can't get Alex Salmond to give evidence, is whether they can make a bigger splash with a split-decision, heavily caveated, but still Official committee report, or by blowing the whole thing up

Ultimately we may look back and conclude that the inquiry was boxed into a legal cage from the outset - there are key elements inextricably linked to the criminal trial, and which simply can't be explored publicly because of that - but the next few days really are make or break