A Week in Parliament

As time progresses, more analysis is undertaken of the Covid-19 outbreak and what steps could have been taken to manage it better. This is the best way to learn how best to handle any future pandemics. However, it is also too early to draw any definitive conclusions. Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon keeps getting told to put constitutional matters on hold, but unionist politicians see Covid-19 as a way of attacking her and in their minds undermining the case for independence.

Take for example Labour’s new Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray. He used his very first question at the dispatch box to attack the Scottish Government. He also made a couple of false accusations based around the international Nike conference that was held in Edinburgh. It is clear there was a move to pin much of the cause of the pandemic within Scotland and the UK on this conference because some people later tested positive. However, it transpires that contact tracing was done on the cases which tested positive. Therefore, people deemed to have spent sufficient time with infected persons were contacted and asked to self-isolate. The correct process.

Ian Murray also referred to a BBC report that suggests if Scotland went into lockdown two weeks earlier that 2000 deaths could be prevented. That may be true. What Ian Murray and other Scottish politicians peddling these stories fail to highlight is that Scotland cannot do its own lockdown strategy itself. It is even more bizarre when just a few weeks back, the Scottish Labour Leader, Richard Leonard was arguing Scotland shouldn’t be different from the rest of the UK when coming out of lockdown! He argued that you cannot have different restrictions in North Berwick from Berwick.

There are many considerations for Scotland to do its own lockdown ahead of the rest of the UK. Take border control at airports and ferry ports. This is controlled by the UK Government. Scotland cannot implement its own travel restrictions and testing regime as New Zealand did, effectively shutting off any international travel. We do not control cross border traffic with England and so a lockdown in Scotland alone would be difficult to implement on a legal basis. Scotland does not have the borrowing powers to create its own furlough or business support scheme. Employment law and the powers to legally instruct closures of businesses rests at Westminster. These factors illustrates Scotland couldn’t implement its own individual solution the way independent countries can. It always has to be within the context of a UK solution.

If you truly believe that Scotland is always better within the UK than being an independent country then these are parameters you accept. However, I find it annoying that politicians who talk up the benefits of remaining within the UK always find ways to argue what the Scottish Government should be doing, but actually cannot because they don’t have the powers to do so. Maybe I should be grateful for them showing the limitations Scotland has in policy formulation and implementation?