‘We don’t have the luxury of abstaining,’ says FM
In her second week as head of the Scottish Tories in Holyrood following her gap year away to, er, the Scottish Parliament, the motor that had propelled Ruth Davidson to the lofty position of the last hope of anti-boris Johnson Conservatives continued to merely judder into gear.
The issue of care homes receiving patients with positive tests for Covid-19, revealed thanks to a Sunday Post investigation, had been requested from the menu by both Davidson and Scottish
Labour leader Richard Leonard.
Initial questions on the government’s knowledge of the discharges were swerved by the First Minister, who claimed not only was it not the government’s job to know whether it had happened, but that the all powerful Covid-19 guidance was there to absolve them of responsibility.
Instead of moving on, Davidson, much like her own party did in reinstating her as leader in Holyrood, stuck with what she knew and attempted to force an announcement on the longpromised care home inquiry.
With confidence far above the strength of the
question, she highlighted the “inconsistency” and contradiction in allowing the police to push ahead with investigations while expecting the Scottish Parliament to sit and wait for the First Minister to decide when such an inquiry into the government’s own actions should happen.
Unclear as to whether she had been inspired by her own party’s internal drama, Davidson said: “It is precisely because we don’t know how far we are into this pandemic and we don’t know when or if it will end, but we need to know to better fight it in future.”
In response, the First
Minister summoned the might of her ‘why should we listen to you, you won’t be here next year’ attack.
Her answers, which had previously dripped with the same subtext, brought the issue front and centre.
“I know Ruth Davidson is planning to leave democratic politics,” began the First Minister, “but she has been in this Parliament for surely long enough to understand the separation of powers”.
Highlighting a Tory abstention on regulations for Aberdeen, Sturgeon stuck the boot in.
“We don’t have the luxury of abstaining, we are leading the country through a pandemic,” said the First Minister, clipping the ear of her opposite number.
Then, with the image of Davidson in ermine forefront of her mind – a polaroid photo version of which would be the perfect gift for Sturgeon’s pandemic scrapbook – the First Minister finished the job.
“I will continue to discharge my responsibility as First Minister to the best of my ability” she said, as Davidson shook her head.
“And of course, unlike certain other people, I will be held accountable by the electorate for that.”
Becoming an unelected Lord is rarely good PR for an opposition leader after all.