A Week in Parliament

One Year On

Astonishingly, it is now a year since my last general election. If this parliament follows suit like the previous ones, then this means I am already halfway through my term! Hopefully not, but the past year has flown in. Clearly, covid-19 has been the story of 2020. In parliamentary terms, nothing much has happened. Jonson’s “oven-ready deal” certainly wasn’t oven-ready nor appetising to the EU. embarrassingly, the Tories now argue the “oven-ready deal” in fact referred to the withdrawal agreement which was subsequently signed with the EU - this is of course nonsense. They also seem to want to forget that the then International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, had said that a free trade deal with the EU would the “easiest in human history”. By the time this column goes to print a deal may have been signed. But if so, it will be flimsy, rotten and certainly not easy. So many deadlines have come and gone. There has been so much bluff and bluster and time wasted that borders on the criminal. And if the Tories lead us to a No Deal scenario, that really will be criminal.

Opinion Polls

Another political story of the year has been that support for independence appears to have been buoyed by the chaos of Westminster. 15 opinion polls in a row have seen independence as the most popular option. I am well aware that opinion polls only show a trend at the time of the questions being asked. Outcomes are never known until votes were counted. However, what is clear is that many more people are thinking about independence and that Scotland would be better served as an independent country. With regards, a referendum, the Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace let his guard down and spoke about the next one – which shows that despite what they say, the Tories believe another one is inevitable. Hopefully, as Douglas Ross has acknowledged many also believe a referendum will be lost.

Covid Restrictions

While moving into Tier 3 is better than Tier 4, it is clear there are many restrictions on us, notably the hospitality trade with pubs still closed unless they do food and alcohol prohibited even with meals. For a big step forward to normality, we need to be in Tier 2. However, I am concerned that the cases in East Ayrshire are going the wrong way. Rates are still better than when we went into Tier 4, but there have been recent increases. It is starker when the infection rates in the rest of Scotland are reducing. At the time of writing, East Ayrshire has the third-worst infection rate in Scotland, and North Ayrshire marginally worse with the second highest. I feel like a broken record, but the only way things will improve if we can all stick to the regulations and guidance.

Vaccine

At least the rollout of the first approved vaccine gives hope of getting covid under control and is a huge positive step forward. What a relief and hopefully the gamechanger we expect.