“Scotland is to reduce the time for self-isolation from ten to seven days, bringing it into line with the rest of the UK.” I gasped and wondered whether I needed to adjust the TV. But no, finally, after all the carefully manufactured differentiations, the relentless spinning of a “land apart” narrative and the packaging of Sturgeon as the caring mother of the nation against those heartless, cavalier Tooarries in London, we have something closer to the UK wide response to the pandemic promised back in March 2020.
When the history of Covid is written, the decision to legislate through the Health Act – which devolves power and responsibilities to the Home Nations – rather than through the Emergency Powers Act, which reserves major civil contingencies to Westminster, will be seen as a strategic error and perhaps the cause of a lasting fissure in the Union.
As I have written in before, if we had had the same arrangements during the Battle of Britain we would have had the Prime Minister in London calling on us to fight them on the beaches and the First Minister in Edinburgh (perhaps the former SNP leader and wannabe Quisling Arthur Donaldson?) banning people from going to beaches at all. We have all been confused and disinclined to believe politicians as a result of the mixed messages.
Historians will, in time, be able to make judgements based on a full UK wide Covid Inquiry, which will capture the lessons learned. But there is already hard evidence to support the thesis that Scottish Covid death statistics have never justified Sturgeon’s tighter approach, which has had a big impact on the Scottish economy as well as on national wellbeing. Despite the New Year crackdown in Scotland and relatively normal festivities in England, there are currently more cases north of the border. But, for a time, partly persuaded by a broadcast media that seemed determined to portray Sturgeon’s approach as statesmanlike in comparison to Boris Johnson’s, many people bought the lie that Scotland was dealing with Covid more effectively than England.
For Sturgeon, the timing of the pandemic could not have been better. The Holyrood election in May 2021, coming on the back of scandal after scandal and her own near impeachment following the Salmond trial, could have been catastrophic. But Covid allowed her to campaign on a reputation of competence and – again with the media’s apparent connivance – a free party political broadcast every afternoon, where journalists were carefully vetted and not allowed supplementary questions, unlike the Whitehall press conferences.
But Sturgeon woke up with a Hogmanay headache. Despite all the advantages that Covid has given her, polls show support for separation from the UK declining. And within the independence movement there are an increasing number of Scots distancing themselves from the SNP, either through dislike of a narcissistic leader or distaste at the scandals which have struck the Party’s hierarchy.
For the moment Sturgeon seems intent on doubling down on differentiation with an authoritarian approach to mask wearing, possibly by copying the French policy of making mask wearing outside compulsory, and by going further on vaccine passports. Even while the evidence points towards relaxing restrictions.
Please keep us Scots in your thoughts.
