Day after day Michael Matheson dominates the news agenda, and day after day the SNP seeks to shrug off the affair.

But the matter simply will not go away, as our Letters Pages continue to demonstrate.

Read a selection of those letters here 👈

Today one of our readers argues that the party machine is now under unprecedented strain, and that something will have to give.

Jane Lax of Aberlour writes:

"The SNP apparatchik has entered new territory for them and they just don’t know how to deal with it. Never before have SNP politicians been “hounded” by the media wanting answers. Nicola Sturgeon, when her house was searched, was able to go to ground until it suited her to make an appearance. Michael Matheson doesn’t have that luxury. He would like us to believe that he is fully focused on his brief, the minor matter of the nation’s health service.

When you become the story, when you are not able to do your job any more because of some other matter, it is time to go. The SNP PR machine has for so long been able to call the shots. The Scottish media seem to have woken up and are holding them to account. Humza Yousaf is a weak leader who seems incapable of reading the room and realising that Mr Matheson’s resignation/sacking is inevitable. The longer it goes on, the more it will show that Mr Yousaf is not leadership material.

Michael Matheson lied to the electorate, his colleagues in Holyrood and the media. He needs to go.”