THERE is no point in shutting down a society and an economy for three months only to open it back up without even improving the situation. That is the case in England.
This virus can be eradicated from a territory. Small countries like Isle of Man and Faroes have done it fine. Scotland is not a small country and only irresponsible people like Jack McConnell would base Scotland’s whole PR campaign on claiming it was. McConnell now wants schools to go back to functioning normally but without saying what needs to be done to get there.
READ MORE: Former FM Jack McConnell welcomes re-opening of Scottish schools
Scotland is an average-sized country comparable to New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. New Zealand have as good as eradicated the disease, Australia made good progress, and Ireland have done better than us by any metric. Even much larger countries like Vietnam and South Korea have been able to get society back to near normal. Any outbreak there is localised and headline news and can be controlled.
According to Worldometers, the seven-day moving average of deaths in the UK on March 23 at lockdown was 42. It peaked at 940 and is now 130. New cases were 739 at lockdown, and are now 1205 a day. Crisis has been averted, but England is not even back to where it was at the start of lockdown, nothing has been improved.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson takes dig at Nicola Sturgeon over lockdown plans
Scotland has a much better story, looking at gov.scot figures. 145 daily cases at lockdown, now down to 14 daily new cases. That’s progress.
We know what is needed to eradicate the virus. The First Minister is now using the word. We need to stay at home, test test test and trace and isolate and only allow very limited number of people from outside Scotland into the country. There’s deadlines here. We want the schools to go back in August and the UK Government will end job support schemes in October.
Scotland now needs to make a policy of eradication. Close the border with England. Yes it’s not nice, yes it’s not easy to contemplate. But it is needed with England being so reckless and giving up attempts to control the virus. The Scottish Parliament has powers of health and powers to impose road blocks. Make flights from abroad really quarantined, keep people in local hotels so they cannot leave. There should not be protests with gatherings, this needs strong centrally led government control.
We have seen New Zealand and others do it, we have seen them make mistakes, we know what needs to be done. Scotland needs to do it and do it now.
Jonathan Riddell
Gorebridge
IN the event of a second wave of Covid-19 in England, the Scottish Government has a major problem – policing the Border. If the police in Scotland can enforce a five-mile travel limit within Scotland, why not impose the same laws to incoming non-essential vehicles?
CalMac unilaterally chose to carry only islanders and essential traffic, so why not apply the same criteria on the Border?
Of course, enacting Scotland’s devolved health powers to stop an influx of tourists across our Border would be political dynamite. Near the end of April this year, on the Andrew Marr Show, Nicola Sturgeon having said she did not have powers to close the Border went on to say, “if – and it is an if – the UK Government took decisions that I thought were premature in terms of coming out of the lockdown, then clearly I would want to make sure Scotland did what I judged was best to protect the population.”
The question remains, exactly what did she have in mind? Scientists have said these new relaxation measures by the UK Government could trigger a new spike of infections in England, so if that happens, will the Scottish Government show some spirit and act to stop the considerable risk of tourists bringing the virus north?
Mike Herd
Highland
SWEDEN and Finland, two Nordic countries sharing a border, have approached the Covid-19 epidemic rather differently. While Finland have taken strict measures to fight the virus, the Swedish authorities have been a lot more permissive. As a result, the Swedish Covid-19 death toll per million people is 510 while the equivalent for Finland is 60.
Had Scotland chosen independence in 2014 and now possessed the powers of a sovereign state, I believe your situation would be quite similar to that of Finland. Swedish professor Björn Olsen said in a recent interview that, with reference to the Covid-19 approach, Finland is like Sweden run by adults. The statement made me instantly think about the Scottish and UK governments. It’s time to dissolve the Union.
Markus Mattila
Kaarina
RICHARD Leonard says that the Scottish Government had the power to impose “something approximating lockdown” (SNP hit back at ‘fool’ Leonard over lockdown, June 22). Perhaps he can go over again, for the benefit of all of us who didn’t hear him explain, what it was that he wanted the Scottish Government to do when he asked in Holyrood for this to be put in place back in January or February.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
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