It was nearly three weeks ago that the Scottish National Party (SNP) was described as being in a "tremendous mess" by an interim chief executive.
And that was before police arrested the party's former chief executive Peter Murrell over allegations of financial irregularities.
Officers carried out a search of the home he shares with his wife, former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon. The police also showed up at the party's headquarters.
The newly elected leader of the SNP Hamza Yousaf said this news was "challenging" and that it had been a "difficult day".
However it seems things will continue to get steadily worse for the Scottish nationalists.
At issue in the financial investigation is over £600,000 raised through crowdfunding in 2017 and ringfenced to campaign for another independence campaign. The allegation is that the money was used for other day to day expenses.
There is also a loan of over £100,000 given by Mr Murrell to the party because of a cash flow problem.
These matters were known when Ms Sturgeon suddenly announced her resignation as leader on 15 February.
But she denied that the financial probe was a factor in her decision instead talking about the brutality of modern political life and her desire to live less in the public eye.
Then there was another setback for the party when her husband Mr Murrell resigned on 19 March in a row over membership numbers.
The SNP had officially denied newspaper reports that it had lost 30,000 members since 2021 only to have to admit this as fact some days later.
First of all the party’s head of communications Murray Foote, who had issued the first emphatic denial, resigned saying he had been given wrong information.
Mr Foote is regarded as a popular and respected figure in the Scottish political world and this caused a lot of disquiet.
Then Mr Murell accepted responsibility and also resigned.
If the election of a new leader was meant to turn over a new leaf it has led to its own problems.
Mr Yousaf was seen as Ms Sturgeon’s heir and won very narrowly over the more conservative Kate Forbes.
The hope was that the closeness of the result would force the progressive and conservative wings of the party to work together and come to some agreement on the issues that divide them.
There is the question of Climate Change policy but in particular whether to challenge the Westminster veto on Scotland’s Gender Recognition law which allows self identification for transgender people.
Ms Forbes who was backed by nearly half the party membership is opposed to a legal challenging against the gender recognition veto and does not want net zero targets to effect jobs.
However soon after the leadership election it was announced that Ms Forbes was leaving the Scottish government as she was not being allowed to continue as Secretary of Finance.
Divided party
So Mr Yousaf is left with a divided party, an embittered Conservative wing and an association with Ms Sturgeon.
Up to the time of the leadership election, support for the SNP was holding up in opinion polls and the expected bounce for the Labour party in Scotland as a result of the successive controversies had failed to materialise.
But the SNP has lost its leader, its chief executive, its head of communications and secretary of finance in under two months.
And it will be interesting to see how the party’s public support bears up in the face of an arrest and police investigation.
It is clear that the mess is not going to be cleared up anytime soon.
