Testing our tolerance

FAMILIES crave certainty amid the coronavirus crisis – but it is a commodity in short supply.

Take the example of top government medic Professor Jason Leitch, and his advice to self-isolating students.

Speaking on the BBC on Wednesday night, he said they could go home to their parents without breaking the law.

Then came a screeching U-turn yesterday, when he admitted – on Twitter of all places – that he had got it wrong.

Many students now face the bleak prospect of missing out on Christmas and other treasured family get-togethers at home.

It is a shambles at an intensely worrying time – and it is a mess that has caused needless anxiety.

No one doubts that the Covid restrictions are driven by an entirely legitimate aim – to contain the virus.

But the net result is that children face the possibility of being excluded from the family home by law.

It is such a horrifying scenario that these rules – a product of ham-fisted decisionmaking – are likely to be flouted.

Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs yesterday: ‘Talking about things such as students not being allowed to go home for Christmas is not helping anybody.’

Nor, frankly, is the shifting position of Professor Leitch as he spreads unnecessary confusion. But it is a serious question, and one that hundreds of parents – and their children – will be asking in the weeks ahead.

These avoidable blunders risk testing public tolerance beyond its limits.