Although the conclusion of the uncontested SNP leadership campaign yesterday marked the coronation of John Swinney as the new party leader, and next first minister of Scotland, his predecessor Humza Yousaf actually remained first minister until today.
Yousaf, first minister for just over a year, held his final cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning following which - as the rules of Holyrood dictate - he signed his formal letter of resignation to King Charles.
The acceptance of which by the head of state marks the exact moment at which he ceases to be the first minister.
When that is accomplished Scotland technically has no first minister, but this is not a situation which will last long as MSPs are expected to vote on Tuesday afternoon to accept Swinney as the new first minister.
Barring a last-minute unforeseen upset, Swinney will be elected as first minister with the support of the Scottish Greens, and will then lead a minority SNP government.
READ MORE: John Swinney to be Scotland's next first minister after Holyrood vote
The vote is scheduled to take place at 3 pm, and most of the opposition parties are likely to nominate their preferred candidate, each of whom will be called in alphabetical order to address the Chamber for up to five minutes.
Only Swinney has any chance of garnering sufficient votes to be elected as first minister, and if all goes well he will be elected as first minister by teatime.
After winning the vote in Holyrood he will then attend the Court of Session to swear the oath of office, upon the completion of which formality he officially becomes Scotland's first minister.
The debate and vote will, as has become traditional, be marked by ill-tempered bad behaviour from a Scottish Tory contingent which has become significantly more boorish since Douglas Ross ousted Jackson Carlaw in a coup de prat, and by Anas Sarwar and his resting sneer face.
But all that is just so much theatrics for all that it's likely to generate a soundbite or two which will be eagerly seized upon by an anti-independence Scottish media which has just been deprived of the bitterly contested SNP leadership campaign that it had been looking forward to with such obvious relish.
Attention will then switch to the announcement of Swinney's new cabinet.
Great heed will be paid to the post offered to former finance secretary Kate Forbes, Swinney's putative leadership rival, and flag bearer of the right of the party.
The two held meetings after Humza Yousaf stepped down following which Forbes put out a statement in which she spoke of the constructive and productive nature of the talks, praising her erstwhile rival, and announcing that she would be supporting Swinney as SNP leader and first minister.
For his part, Swinney sang Forbes' praises during the speech at which he officially launched his leadership bid and vowed to give her a prominent role in his new government.
There is speculation that Forbes will be offered either the post of finance secretary or deputy first minister when the new cabinet posts are announced.
The anti-independence parties are of course making their ritual calls that the new first minister abandon the 'distraction' of pursuing Scottish independence.
However, the question of independence is not a 'distraction' in Scottish politics it is the central and defining issue of Scottish politics.
Independence is not a distraction from tackling poverty, climate change, the housing crisis, the ageing workforce or all the myriad of other issues which affect Scotland.
Independence is the key to unlocking the powers required to deal with them effectively and to find lasting solutions.
READ MORE: Tearful Humza Yousaf calls out 'daily' racism in final leader speech
The real distraction is pretending that the issue of independence must not be addressed, that's like saying a patient needs to take a paracetamol while ignoring a ruptured artery.
The truth is that the root cause of most of Scotland's economic, demographic, and political challenges is generations of Westminster misrule and until that is addressed nothing of substance will ever change.
Independence is an issue which is not going to go away no matter how much the Labour, Conservative, and Lib Dem parties wish it would.
The irony is that the power is entirely with the anti-independence parties to make the Scottish constitutional issue go away, they could do so by removing their election-denying undemocratic block on a second independence referendum.
But of course, we all know why they're not going to do that, and it's because they know that there is a very high chance that they could lose.
It is abundantly clear by now that the Labour, Conservative, and Lib Dem parties will only respect the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland as expressed through the ballot box when the people give them the result that they want.
So naturally they accepted the no vote in the 2014 independence referendum but found various ruses and excuses to explain away the result of the 2021 Scottish Parliamentary election which was fought on the central issue of a second independence referendum, and which produced a Scottish Parliament with its largest ever pro-independence majority.
It is to the lasting shame of the anti-independence media in Scotland that it not merely allowed the election denial of the Better Together parties to pass without serious challenge, but it actively colluded in enabling it.
However, the immediate challenge facing the new first minister will be to unite the SNP and to bring some stability to his party after a torrid and at time, upsetting year.
Swinney is perhaps the best-placed SNP politician to achieve that.
His task is to bring together the different factions within the SNP and to refocus the party on its core purpose, persuading the people of Scotland of the vital importance of Scottish independence and putting forward a plausible route to achieve it.
It will not be an easy task, and time is rapidly running out with a Westminster general election expected within the next few months and a resurgently and far more overtly right-wing British nationalist Labour party snapping at the SNP's heels, but with Swinney, the SNP is in a safe pair of hands.
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