First Minister’s Questions was unusually colourful.
And not just because of MSPs ties, which ranged across the chamber in a glorious party-political Technicolor.
Bright red hues on the right, dark blue on the left. There was even a green garment, somewhere in the middle, near the back.
Fergus Ewing, sporting a rather natty, stained-glass number, bucked the trend.
But there was no doubt, the war paint is on – there’s an election coming.
Indeed, it was not just the attire that was bright. The debate was too.
Kezia Dugdale, steering the charge for Labour, was surprisingly buoyant for a leader whose party, by all accounts, faces near-annihilation in just a few weeks.
Her argument began subtly, but soon developed into a scathing attack that simultaneously placed a major chasm – perhaps literally – between her party and the SNP.
Labour’s commitment to ban fracking is unlikely to be a major vote winner – although it is clearly a hot issue in some places, particularly the central belt.
But Ms Dugdale used the new pledge to try and build a narrative of a First Minister who cannot be trusted to keep her word.
Council tax reform – or lack thereof – was the starting gun for the claims, which then quickly evolved into questions over whether or not Ms Sturgeon would commit to ban fracking.
A moratorium is not a ban and the usually surefooted First Minister was left somewhat undermined after her own energy minister – the aforementioned, brightly tied Mr Ewing – had moments earlier contradicted her.
That her language was more venomous – Ms Dugdale no longer “carped” from the sidelines, she “whined” – was a sure sign the First Minister was on the ropes.
The epitome of the slightly shaky performance came when Ms Sturgeon fluffed a question from her own backbencher, mixing up her scripted answers to a planted query.
In a day when everyone had made such an effort, it was not a good look.