Vaccine is giving us all a chance
It was a rare delight last week to visit the vaccination centre in Clydebank to get my second dose of the AstraZeneca Covid- 19 vaccine.
The Renfrewshire vaccination rate is now sitting at nearly 75 per cent of adults given the first dose and over 40 per cent having had both doses.
For a vaccine that less than a year ago simply did not exist, that is an incredible feat and shows how quickly and powerfully our National Health Service can ramp up work on what is the biggest public health programme in our country’s history.
Over the coming months everyone will receive their two doses and be fully vaccinated.
That doesn’t mean we will all have 100 per cent protection – no vaccine is capable of that.
But it will mean that the vast majority of us will be protected against infection, and even those who do catch the virus will suffer less serious symptoms and be far less likely to be admitted to hospital.
The higher the take-up of the vaccine, the better the chances for everyone in beating this deadly disease, so when you have the chance, make sure you get along to your appointment and get the jag.
As the SNP’s Transport Spokesperson at Westminster I’ve spent time recently looking over the newly published Williams Report on the future of this island’s railways – or rather, the WilliamsShapps Report as it became after the Minister got his hands and name on it.
Despite the name, the new Great British Rail outlined in the report will be nothing of the sort.
Thankfully, ScotRail will remain Holyrood’s responsibility and will come back into public ownership next year as planned by the Scottish Government.
Yet the UK Government can’t bring itself to shift its grip a single inch.
They will still control track and infrastructure rather than transferring it to Scotland, where the crazy division between trains and track could finally be ended.
It is once again evidence of a mentality that simply cannot let go an inch, even where all the evidence and experience show further devolution is in everyone’s interests – passengers, staff, and the industry as a whole.
This Westminster control freakery is being repeated when it comes to protecting workers’ rights.
As regular readers will know, I’ve been hammering the government on the subject of fire and rehire tactics for the best part of a year now.
Despite my two bills in parliament and umpteen warm words from UK Ministers, it’s clear that they don’t want to lift a finger to protect workers from bully boy bosses, especially the absence of any pledge of action in the Queen’s Speech.
But the SNP were elected last month on a manifesto promising action on fire and rehire and to ban it by law if the Scottish Parliament gets the powers to do it. So that’s what should happen.
Boris Johnson and his chums might not think workers are worth protecting, but the Scottish Government does, and that by simply amending a few sentences in the Scotland Act, the UK Government can restore power to Holyrood to act not just on fire and rehire, but to protect and beef up workers’ rights across the board.
The Tories might be hell-bent on a race to the bottom that will no doubt enrich their network of cronies and supporters – and cut living standards for millions of households across the country – but that is no reason for Scotland to be dragged down with them.
As a country our model must be the more advanced and more wealthy nations of Europe, not the American-led dystopia Westminster is taking us to against our will.
The time is coming when we won’t have to ask for powers to be devolved to us.
I’m very much looking forward to it.