Focus on virus f ight

THE utter recklessness of Nicola Sturgeon’s latest bid to split apart the UK in a time of acute crisis is impossible to overstate.

In the midst of a deadly pandemic that has caused economic carnage and cost thousands of Scots their lives, the SNP is agitating for more constitutional turmoil.

After months of assuring us that battling Covid was her priority, the mask has slipped – and the First Minister will this weekend confirm her true objective.

Miss Sturgeon will open her party’s conference by declaring that independence is ‘in clear sight’ – and claiming that she has ‘never been more certain’ it will happen.

This rhetoric may placate her restive support base, but it reflects the skewed priorities of an administration that refuses to acknowledge reality.

The economy is on life support, propped up by stratospheric taxpayer subsidy which helped businesses to cling to survival.

In an independent Scotland, furlough would have been a pipe dream – and yet the SNP wants us to believe that now is the time for another divisive independence poll.

Meanwhile, delegates will also discuss a call for a four-day week, another indication that the party has failed to grasp the scale of the Covid calamity.

It’s an unworkable plan at a time when all effort should be focused on rebuilding the shattered economy, not reducing the working week.

The SNP should concentrate on the fight against Covid – and drop its fixation with destroying the Union.