Shredded, the thumping great book on Royal Bank of Scotland by Sunday Herald compadre Ian Fraser, was formally launched in Edinburgh last week at a do attended by the cream of Scotland's hack pack as well as some of the book's sources and assorted maverick financiers.

Those who imagined that Fred Goodwin might jump out of a cake in Friday the 13th costume came away disappointed.

Journalists are a rivalrous race, and not always quick to compliment their fellows, but one attendee gave three reasons for being there: 1: Fraser's unflinching post-mortem on the RBS debacle has "redeemed the Scottish press's tarnished reputation" (ie, none of the hack pack raised the alarm about what Fred was doing when he was doing it). 2: He has performed a public service, as no-one without his obsessive energy and head for arcane financial detail could have. 3: The book is a great inspiration to would-be young investigative journalists.

The first of these points is controversial - there are a handful journalists who did blow whistles, it's just that no-one was listening.

The best that can be said is that the scale of the general disgrace means that it can never happen again. Right?

All's well that ends well for Scottish Water's Kirriemuir outfall pipeline, which, as we reported more than a year ago, languished for many months in a half-finished state to the bemusement of local landowners. The pipeline is now done and dusted, without extra spending of public money.

We may never know why, given that they "undertake hundreds of infrastructure projects across Scotland ever year", Scottish Water's planners started to lay their giant pipe before sorting out the legal niceties along the route.