Calderwood: The First Minister’s judgment is now the story

Catherine Calderwood’s position in clearly untenable and Nicola Sturgeon is failing to act, argues Brian Monteith

The Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic is now in utter disarray. It was a grave misjudgment that the Chief Medical Officer, Catherine Calderwood, went with her family for an overnight stay at her second home in Fife when members of the public have been told by her to stay at home. As if that was not bad enough (and believe me, for reasons I am about to explain it was very stupid indeed) she has then admitted she has actually made two such trips since the lockdown began.

One is left to wonder if Calderwood would have spent the coming Easter weekend there too if the Sun had not published the photographic evidence that called out her obdurate hypocrisy.

Yet the problem of Calderwood’s behaviour is itself outdone by the refusal of Scotland’s First Minister to dismiss her. Calderwood is in post as a medical adviser; while communication skills and an understanding of how people might view public health are required, it is her understanding of medical science that matters. The same cannot be said of the First Minister, knowing how the public will think and behave should be a core skill – yet she has failed to recognise how damaging the episode is and summarily dismiss her.

This is not the first time the First Minister has shown weakness and misjudgment when presented with evidence of wrongdoing. She allowed her Finance Secretary, Derek Mackay, to resign rather than be fired in disgrace after he was shown to have repeatedly texted a 16-year-old in a manner that would have been considered grooming if the boy had been a year younger. Such misjudgments are now making her a liability to her own government, her own party and by extension the cause of independence.

I care for none of these causes but maintaining public respect and confidence for the rules required to manage and defeat the Covid-19 pandemic I do care about – but first Calderwood and then Sturgeon have made Scottish public health a laughing stock.

The reasons why Calderwood should be fired are plain and simple.

The message being broadcast by Calderwood and Sturgeon is that members of the public should not be making any unnecessary journeys outside of their homes – with carefully defined exceptions for purchasing food, working where it is not possible to do so from home, taking up to an hour’s daily exercise and administering healthcare – all with the specific intention of preventing the spread of the virus that saves the NHS from facing impossible burdens that would lead to greater loss of life.

By her actions Calderwood has put the NHS at risk and therefore threatened the Scottish public’s health. That is an untenable position for Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer.

By contradicting the message, Calderwood also sends a signal there is one rule for the public and another more relaxed rule, or indeed no rule at all, for our rulers. By her hypocrisy Calderwood has made the lifesaving messaging a joke in the eye of the public. That is an untenable position for a public advocate of the Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

If the message is that by making unnecessary travel the virus can be spread and people’s lives will be put at risk it must be adhered to by those that give out that message. If the public is told breaking the social distancing rules can lead to heavy fines then those promoting that message must be liable to the same