HEALTH is devolved – but at the end of the day, Westminster has a lot of power over our ability to control Covid-19.
Who has control over borders? Westminster. Who has control over borrowing powers? Westminster. Whose reluctance to enter lockdown way back in March had serious consequences for the UK as a whole? Westminster. Whose news dominates the UK-wide media agenda? Yep, that’ll be Westminster again.
The Scottish Government has won praise for its handling of the coronavirus crisis – that’s clear in the polls. But without the UK Government demonstrating it wants to effectively defeat this pandemic, sometimes it can feel a bit like pissing in the wind.
South of the Border, Test and Trace is falling apart. People are having to forge Scottish postcodes just to book a test, if they even can. New lockdowns are soon coming into place in the north of England.
READ MORE: Coronavirus Scotland LIVE: 10pm curfew 'not ruled out' as England set for new rule
Coronavirus cases across the UK are increasing and it’s inevitable that they will soon be found in the older population, just like what happened in Spain, and there will be a big increase in people falling seriously ill and dying. And people will act, once again, like there’s nothing that could have been done.
The Daily Mail’s UK edition today shows the simple splash: “Boris: We’ve failed”. It then reads: “The Mail warned of looming test crisis five months ago. Now humiliatingly, PM admits: Ministers still can’t deliver”.
The story focuses on the Prime Minister admitting that Covid-19 testing shortages are happening in England as the crisis there spreads to schools, 999 services and A&E units.
As we have established – this has serious consequences for what happens in Scotland. But it seems the Scottish readers of the Daily Mail should not be concerned.
Because in the Scottish edition, the headline complains: “1.1m Scots trapped in limbo by lockdown”.
The newspaper writes that these people are stuck in limbo because they’re on furlough or working from home.
Firstly, the fact that 400,000 people are on furlough is exactly why the scheme must be extended – like it has been in Spain, France and Germany.
As for working from home? We would argue that for many people that’s a preferential set-up to travelling to an office on public transport surrounded by strangers, then working in a shared environment while Covid-19 cases continue to increase.
This moaning and groaning because Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t think it’s safe for people to be hot-desking in a poorly ventilated office building is ridiculous – safety has to come first. As we can clearly see, this virus is accelerating. Plus even having the opportunity to work from home is a privilege not everyone has the luxury of!
We have to pay attention to what’s happening in Westminster if we want to be informed about this pandemic. The office thing really pales in comparison to the UK Government losing control of the crisis again.
These two editions prove that it’s ridiculous to be constantly told that Westminster is in charge of Scotland, then warned that everything that happens here is Nicola Sturgeon’s fault.
The shape of the Union allows Westminster to shirk responsibility whenever it wants, and the mainstream media is only too happy to play along with the game.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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