I WAS going to use a few hundred words to summarise just how woeful FMQs was, but it would be quicker to just tell you that the highlight was a discussion between Alex Cole-Hamilton and the First Minister about human excrement.

Last week I (somewhat optimistically it seems) declared that the First Minister was finally getting into his stride at FMQs.

This week he took a long moonwalk backwards.

Douglas Ross began by accusing former transport minister Jenny Gilruth of breaking the ministerial code.

He asked Humza Yousaf about accusations that Gilruth delayed rail works in her constituency to protect local services over the Christmas period, despite being warned that a delay would cost more and cause more disruption to rail passengers when it eventually went ahead.

The part of the ministerial code that Ross was insistent Gilruth had fallen foul of was the rule that ministers must not use their position to influence matters relating to their own constituency.

It couldn’t have been easy for the First Minister to respond to accusations about his colleague – especially when that colleague is one of his ministers and sitting directly behind him – but the question surely wasn’t unexpected.

Ahead of FMQS, the First Minister is always prepped by staff on any news reports relating to the SNP. Yet Yousaf gave off the nervous energy of a pupil getting ready to sit their higher history exam without having done any revision beforehand.

His answers were peppered with that infuriating verbal tick that politicians often use.

He kept telling us: "What I WOULD say to Douglas Ross…" without actually going on to say much of any use.

Against Nicola Sturgeon, Douglas Ross was middling, if not a mediocre performer at FMQs. Against Humza Yousaf, his decidedly average examination skills are proving effective.

So as well as fraud probes and campervans, the SNP now need to add ‘making Ross look good’ to their list of troubles.

The First Minister said that "if there are any accusations of the ministerial code being broken then of course they will be appropriately investigated" before going on to say that he doesn’t believe "the way Ross characterised that accusation to be correct at all."

He jumped from promising to investigate to concluding the investigation, saying that Jenny Gilruth took the action she did "for the correct reasons – certainly from the investigation that I have done this morning."

He went on to say that what he "WOULD say" to Ross is that the Scottish Government has "invested in the rail network and every decision we make has been to the benefit of the entire railway network including passengers up and down the country."

At various points throughout the exchanges between the First Minister and Scottish Tory leader, Jenny Gilruth could be seen shouting over at Douglas Ross.

I’m not at all surprised she wanted to speak for herself, given Humza Yousaf did such a dreadful job of speaking on her behalf.