Get us out of the slow lane, First Minister

AFTER the optimistic outlook of Boris Johnson’s lockdown exit plan, hopes were high of a return to relative normality within months. But Nicola Sturgeon’s blueprint was far gloomier – eschewing exact dates in favour of flexible milestones.

The stay at home requirement will be in place until at least April 5 – and it will be another nine weeks until the reintroduction of the ‘tier’ system.

Key lockdown curbs such as the ban on travel to other council areas will remain in place indefinitely. And, worst of all, children will be the biggest losers once again.

The First Minister has said repeatedly that getting pupils back to school was her top priority. But for secondary school students it is likely to be close to another two months before they are back behind their desks.

In England, all pupils will return on March 8 – creating a cross-Border disparity that can only fuel concern about the effect on attainment.

Official figures yesterday showed that unemployment among school-leavers is on the rise, a situation that can only worsen if Covid restrictions remain in place.

Working from home will remain the norm, meaning offices will continue to lie empty – with further profound repercussions for town and city centres.

And it will be the end of April before a ‘graduated opening up of economic and social activity’ is sanctioned – at a ‘pace that is safe given epidemiological conditions’.

In reality, this was the sketchiest of route maps, offering limited prospect of early economic recovery – and leaving us lagging far behind England.

The government document explaining the plan states that we are ‘likely to have to live with Covid as a permanent feature’.

It ‘will not have been eradicated, and we will always have to be vigilant because of the risk of new variants, or further outbreaks’.

Vigilance is wise, but this is a plan that risks holding us back – despite the rapid rollout of the vaccine.

Science must come first, but lockdown has laid waste to the economy and put our children’s futures at risk.

The SNP Government strategy, as threadbare as it appears, is a bundle of pessimistic predictions that fails to provide any certainty about the weeks and months ahead.

Our vaccination programme in the UK is the envy of the world – yet there is precious little indication of an end to this purgatory on the horizon.

The First Minister must do better than this – and redouble her efforts to get us out of the slow lane on the road back to some semblance of our normal lives.